The Other End of the Quill

When I play with the black pieces in chess, I tend to favour two particular defences. The first, and by far and away the most common, is my reply to 1.e4, which is d6, otherwise known as the Pirc Defence. The second is my reply to 1.d4, which is the Chigorin Defence (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6). The Chigorin is something of a niche defence, hearkening back to the Romantic period, and it doesn't see much use in the modern game. As such, it retains the capacity to really throw a white player off and get him ...