A Big Clamp repertoire with 1.e4 followed by d3 is set forth in De Witte Leeuw (The White Lion) by Leo Jansen and Jerry van Rekom, the amateur authors of the interesting Black Lion (on 1.d6 leading to the Philidor). You know an idea is deeply entrenched when even amateur players are invited to develop a repertoire based on its principles.
You can see a nice games collection at Chessgames to get a feel for the rest. Nigel Davies (who had recommended the Big Clamp via 1.e4 c5 2.d3 in " Strangling the Sicilian with 2.d3!") picks up on 2.Na3 in " 1.e4 for the Creative Attacker" which sets forth a very interesting Big Clamp inspired repertoire that includes Glek's Four Knights with g3, the McDonnell - Labourdonnais Attack (1.e4 e6 2.f4), and 2.f4 vs the Pirc. That legacy continues today, most visibly in the intriguing 1.e4 c5 2.Na3 line in the Sicilian, which Stefan Bücker connects directly to the Big Clamp concept in his article " A Knight on the Edge, Part One" and Part Two. In some ways, The Big Clamp represents a rediscovery of Philidor's legacy, as I suggested in my piece on The Philidor Clamp. Not surprisingly, Morphy greatly disapproved of this line, writing, "If there is anything to be regretted in connection with the combats between these illustrious players, it is the pertinacity with which McDonnell persisted in adopting, in two of the debuts which most frequently occur, a line of play radically bad." He continues: "The move of, or still better,, are those now generally recognized as the best" (quoted in Utterberg, p. According to Utterberg, this line was called the "Philidor Variation" because it followed analysis by Philidor. One of the most common ways to pursue the Big Clamp today is the Grand Prix Attack (1.e4 c5 2.f4) which McDonnell first employed with success in game five of the first match. I was intrigued enough by the 19th Century origins of the strategy that I picked up Cary Utterberg's wonderful book De la Bourdonnais versus McDonnell, 1834: The Eighty-Five Games of Their Six Chess Matches, with Excerpts from Additional Games Against Other Opponents (McFarland 2005) which made me recognize how Philidor's pawn strategy influenced play up until the Romantic era of Anderssen and Morphy, when the focus of theory turned to tempi and made pawns mere objects of sacrifice to blast open lines for piece play. My 100-game collection includes most of the games given by Day along with some of my own supplements showing the 19th Century origins of the clamp theme and some of its continued influence. In researching this post, I discovered that Day's 32-page pamphlet can also be viewed and downloaded at Scribd (see The Big Clamp: An Anti-Sicilian System). Those interested in getting a copy can purchase the 82 volumes of Modern Chess Theory edited by Raymond Keene from Hardinge Simpole, or search out Day's rare little volume titled The Big Clamp: An Anti-Sicilian System (The Chess Player 1984) which reproduces those two articles with two additional games Day played in 1983. I first read about "The Big Clamp" in Modern Chess Theory where it was published as "Sicilian - The Big Clamp" (3:5-6, pp. Of course, it is not possible to find new lines everywhere, but whenever possible, GM Dhopade made sure he includes some fresh suggestions and recommendations.I have assembled a games collection at titled The Big Clamp to help me study IM Lawrence Day's " Big Clamp" strategy. While writing this repertoire and analyzing the lines in it, one of the author's main intentions was to recommend lines that are relatively fresh and has been tried in a few games rather than suggesting lines that have been played in hundreds and thousands of games and given in many books written on repertoires against the English opening.īy learning some new and rarely played lines, we also carry an element of surprise.
Also, as you will witness, symmetrical English is a solid reply to 1.c4. It is catching up with moves like 1.d4 and 1.e4.1.c4 also provides many opportunities to transpose to other openings in 1.d4, for example, the Catalan Defence.īy playing the Symmetrical English starting with 1.c5 in response to 1.c4, we cut many of White's options to transpose to 1.d4 openings. 1.c4 has gained a lot of popularity these days. Welcome to the Symmetrical English Repertoire Against 1.c4.
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