Double Fianchetto Domination - Lemos Deep Dive #1
GM Damian Lemos
Since entering the computer age, chess openings theory has exploded, with razor sharp novelties
and tricky ideas being routinely “cooked” and sprung upon the unwary club player.
How do you deal with this? You surely can’t memorize everything.
In Double Fianchetto Domination, GM Damian Lemos offers a refreshing break from rote-
memorization, with a unique ideas-based opening system, favored by the likes of Vladimir
Kramnik, Lev Aronian and many other elite GMs.
This is your complete repertoire for white based on powerfully fianchettoing both bishops and
then, regardless of how black responds, using GM Lemos’ reliable strategy for gaining an
advantage and playing for a win.
Armed with this system, you have a reliable, non-theoretical opening that’s simple enough to
learn in a weekend, yet powerful enough to crush grandmasters.
The course is divided into 12 parts:
Chapter 1: Black plays an early …c5: Kramnik-Caruana
Chapter 2: Challenging Black’s …d5: Fressinet-Maze
Chapter 3: Dealing with …e5: Fressinet-Hjornevik
Chapter 4: Breaking up Black’s center: Kramnik-Ghasi
Chapter 5: Dominating without Queens: Gajewski-Frick
Chapter 6: Gaining space and controlling the board: Granda Zuniga-Giri
Chapter 7: Attacking on the Kingside: Polugaevsky-Planinec
Chapter 8: Sacrifices on Black’s King position: Damljanovic-Mukhametov
Chapter 9: The Kingside pawn storm: Artemiev-Krutko
Chapter 10: Domination of the d-file: Wei Yi-Wan Yunguo
Chapter 11: Attacking on the long diagonal: Le Quang Liem-Kasimdzhanov
Chapter 12: Passed pawns beat pieces: Malakhov-Hansen
Chapter 1. Black plays an early …c5: Kramnik-Caruana
(Black tries …c5, …d6, …g6/Bg7 plan)
1. GM Lemos outlines the basic ideas of the opening system and emphasizes
that the system requires no memorization, just familiarity with a few plans
and basic strategic concepts. He then proceeds to analyze Kramnik-Caruana.
2. White must play b3 before black plays …g6 to avoid problems on the long
diagonal.
3. Kramnik plays the important, but thematic move 9.h3 preventing …Bg4
(attempting to undermine white’s center, particularly the d4 square).
4. With 13. Qe2 , white has completed development and will have a serious
edge after the subsequent centralization of his rooks,
5. 19.c5 is a typical advance to break up the black pawns and put pressure on
the queenside.
6. Black collapses under the pressure and plays 22…e5?! (missing Kramnik’s
24.Ne4! shot).
Chapter 2. Challenging Black’s …d5: Fressinet-Maze
(Black tries …d5, …c6, …g6/Bg7, …Bg4 plan)
1. White adopts a flexible “triangle” system with pawns on b3, c4 and d3)
2. Black plays10…Re8 (planning 11…e5) and white responds with the
important 11.Ne5!, stopping 11…e5
3. Black makes a strategic error with 13…a4 (expecting 14.b4) and misses the
idea of 14.Rb1! which takes control of the soon-to-be-opened b-file.
4. After 22.h3 (an important prophylactic idea which stops tactical ideas
involving …Nf4/…Qg4+) white already has a few clear advantages. He has
two central pawns which are soon to become mobile, his rooks exert strong
pressure on the queenside and his king is slightly safer.
5. Black plays 22…b5 creating a new weakness on c6, thinking it is
counterbalanced by the white weakness on a3. This turns out to be incorrect.
6. White uses his extra central pawn advantage (via 23.e4!, 24.d4 and 25.Rd3)
to achieve central domination.
7. White converts his central advantage into an attack on the king with 28.e5!
and soon transitions into a won ending.
Chapter 3. Dealing with …e5: Fressinet-Hjornevik
(Black tries King’s Indian Setup with …Nbd7, …e5, …c6, …Qc7)
1. Black plays a rather passive defensive setup and soon makes the weakening
move 11…b5 which creates a target on the queenside.
2. White immediately goes to work on the queenside with 12.c4, 14.b4! and
16.c5 gaining a big space advantage.
3. With 19.Rd6 and 20.Na5, black is completely paralyzed on the queenside and
on the d-file.
4. Black tries to free himself and win material with 21…Nxc5!? only to realize,
after the dust clears, that he is tied up even worse than before.
5. White displays highly instructive technique to convert his winning position.
Chapter 4. Breaking up Black’s center: Kramnik-Ghasi
(Black tries King’s Indian Setup with …Nbd7 and quick …Nh5, …f5 plan)
1. White adopts the same “triangle” setup as game 2, but with his knight on c3
instead of d2.
2. Black goes for a sharp, yet dubious attacking plan with 8…Nh5 and 9…f5. This
is dubious because black seeks an attack before completing his development.
3. White takes necessary precautions with 10.e3 (controls f4 while also
allowing the queen to eye the h5 knight, in case of …g5) and 11.Nd2 (opens
the g2 bishop and gives the option of an f4 advance by white).
4. White begins the standard plan of queenside attack with 12.b4 and 13.b5,
weakening the black queenside. He follows up with 15.Qa4! and 16.Qa6 -
black finds himself on the defensive before his attack gets off the ground.
5. White plays natural developing moves and black (who had to scramble to
complete development and still has terribly uncoordinated knights) struggles
to hold on.
6. White wins a pawn with a simple 21.Nxd5! tactic and converts easily.
Chapter 5. Dominating without Queens: Gajewski-Frick
(Black tries…c5, …d5, …Qd6 & …e5 plan)
1. Black creates a huge center and the position becomes reminiscent of a King’s
Indian defense (in reverse). In contrast to a regular King’s Indian, white has
the extra tempo from moving first, so has time to fianchetto on the queenside
as well.
2. White chooses to strike at the black center (essential) with the standard 9.e4
and black’s “impressive” center quickly breaks apart.
3. After 12.Raxd1, an instructive moment is reached. The d5 square is weak for
black and the d4 square is weak for white. The difference being that white
can guard the d4 square with his c-pawn, but black cannot defend the d5
square.
4. With this in mind, white plays the maneuver 13.Nh4-f5-e3-d5 (reaching the
weak d5 square), and plays 18.c3 to prevent black from doing similar.
5. White trades his “bad” bishop with the 19.Bf3-g4 idea.
6. Black plays the inaccuracy 24…b5?! (24…b6 is better), missing white’s
sneaky idea of 25.Bc8! Gajewski went on to win with nice technique.
Chapter 6. Gaining space and controlling the board: Granda Zuniga-Giri
(Black tries double fianchetto & hedgehog setup)
1. Black fianchettoes both his bishops too and adopts the so-called hedgehog
system.
2. White plays a standard maneuver with 17.Ne1 with the idea of transferring
his knight to e3 (to get a tighter grip over d5) after 17…Bxg2 18.Nxg2 and
soon Ne3.
3. Black improves his knight with the very sophisticated maneuver 22…Nh7
(with the idea of …Ng5-e6), but this idea also has the downside of losing
some control over d5.
4. White plays 27.e3 and again (similar to note 3 on the previous game) we see
white controls his own d4 square, while black cannot really kick the knight
out of d5 (even if he got to play …e6, this would weaken his d6 pawn).
5. With 29.h4, white begins to improve all of his pawns on the kingside and this
has the effect of not only cramping black’s pawns, but also taking squares
away from his knights.
6. White’s only weakness is the pawn on b3, which is easy to defend.
7. White plays 42.a5! and follows with great technique to win a nice endgame.
Chapter 7. Attacking on the Kingside: Polugaevsky-Planinec
(Black tries classical Slav setup with …d5, …c6, …Bf5, …e6)
1. White uses a key idea 9.Qe1 which supports an e4 push, clears d1 for the a1
rook and perhaps gives an idea of a Qc3 battery to be used later.
2. Black begins to waste time with aimless knight maneuvers (15…Ne8,
16…Nd6 and 19…Nc8?!) .
3. White exploits this time-wasting and begins a kingside pawn storm with
15.f4 and 19.g4.
4. White plays a crushing pawn sacrifice with 21.g5! which soon breaks though.
Chapter 8. Sacrifices on Black’s King position: Damljanovic-Mukhametov
(Black tries …d5, …c6, …Bg4, …Nd7, …e5 plan)
1. White plays the cautious moves 10.h3 and 11.a3 gaining control of more
squares on his side of the board, while keeping black’s pieces out.
2. White repeats the idea from the previous game with 12.Qe1, in this case the
idea is to clear d1 for his a1 rook.
3. White plays 13. Nh4 and 14.Ndf3, transferring knights toward the kingside
for a raid on the black king.
4. Black plays the dubious 20…a5?! which is intended as a temporary pawn
sacrifice. White feigns defending it, to draw black’s pieces and force him to
use resources to win it back.
5. While black is busy regaining his pawn, white uses the distraction to launch a
winning attack on the black king.
Chapter 9. The Kingside pawn storm: Artemiev-Krutko
(Black tries …g6, …Bg7, …a5?!-a4 plan)
1. Black launches a premature pawn attack with 4…a5 and 5…a4.
2. Black’s 18…Nd7 allows white to exchange the dark-squared bishops with
19.Bxg7, a strategic concession from black since it weakens his king as well
as the dark squares on the kingside.
3. With 30.f4!, white begins a kingside attack with the aim of exploiting the
weaknesses mentioned in note 2.
4. With 34.g4 and 36.g5 white begins to push black off the board.
5. With 38.Qc3! white’s attack on the kingside dark squares becomes decisive.
White quickly breaks through with a direct attack.
Chapter 10. Domination of the d-file: Wei Yi-Wan Yunguo
(Black tries a sharp line with …Nf6, …g6, …Bg7, …d6, …e5, 7.dxe5, Ng4!?)
1. Black plays 6…e5 and 7…Ng4 and, although tactical possibilities are in the
air, the queens are quickly exchanged.
2. Although it may appear that the position is even (due to the material balance
and symmetrical pawn structure), white is actually better due to his monster
bishop on g2 compared to the poor piece on c8. Black solving this with …c6
will just weaken the d6 square and white will jump in and dominate this
square quickly with Nc4.
3. Black tries to deal with the monster g2 bishop via 15…Rb8 (getting off the
h1-a8 diagonal) and 16…e4 (blocking the diagonal).
4. White uses this time to transform/add to his advantage with complete
domination of the d-file (17.Rd4 and 18.Rhd1 leaves white in a strategically
winning position).
5. Black defends very well, but in the end, can’t hold the inferior ending.
Chapter 11. Attacking on the long diagonal: Le Quang Liem-Kasimdzhanov
(Black tries light-squared bishop exchange with …c5, …d6, …Bf5, …Qd7 & Bh3)
1. White uses a well-known method to preserve his valuable light-squared
bishop (10.Re1 and 11.Bh1), thus keeping his king safe and keeping options
open on the h1-a8 diagonal.
2. White plays the correct 12.d4! (the correct response to a direct attack on the
kingside is often a strike in the center).
3. Black plays 14…h5 (continuing his crude attacking idea) and white strikes in
the center again with 15.f4 (be careful playing this move as it slightly
weakens the king on the g1-a7 diagonal).
4. White feels some pressure around his king (due to his 15.f4 move) and
decides to exchange some pieces (to ease the pressure) by playing 17.Bg2.
5. Black plays 17…Qd8! with the idea of 18…Qb6+, again highlighting the
weakness of 15.f4.
6. White is alert and plays 18.Na4! preventing 18…Qb6 and aiming to swap the
dark-squared bishops. A multipurpose move.
7. After the pieces are exchanged by force, white retains his space advantage
and begins to push black’s knights back.
8. Again, after the exchange of dark-squared bishops, black’s king is slightly
unsafe and white exploits this to win an exchange with 27.exd6 and 28.Ne7+.
Chapter 12. Passed pawns beat pieces: Malakhov-Hansen
(Black tries …g6, …Bg7, …c6, …d5, …Bg4xf3 plan)
1. Black plays 8…Bxf3 which cedes white the bishop pair and promises good
chances for an advantage.
2. Black tries a creative attacking idea with 14…Ne4, triggering a forcing
sequence culminating in 18…Re3 (with the dual threats of …Rxc3 and
Rxg3+).
3. White plays the coolheaded moves 19.Qxc6! and 20.e3, halting all of black’s
aggressive intentions.
4. White forces the queens off with 21.Qh1!, entering an ending with
unstoppable white pawns rushing down the board.
