Reti's Opening - Part 1

Teamleague 39 is scheduled to begin in early June which gives me about 6 weeks to gain complete mastery of four new opening systems...

This post, which introduces Reti's Opening, is largely a "paraphrasing" (no, really, not plagiarism!) of the chapter "My System of Opening" from Reti's "Masters of the Chessboard".

The hypermodern school's approach to the opening is sometimes summarised along the lines of holding back the centre pawns and controlling the centre with pieces from the sides. It is a mistake however, to think that hypermodernism objects to occupying the centre with pawns; the real point is to plan for the occupation at a time when those pawns will not become fixed targets for attack.

Reti states that in order for White to maintain an advantage, Black must not be allowed to bring about a closed position by placing interlocked, strong-pointed pawns in the centre, without disadvantage to his control in territory. Reti's system therefore is to first restrain ... e5 by 1. Nf3, and then to target the d5 square using c4 and Bg2.

Reti's Opening - Basic Position
Black has followed Lasker's system of defense

This for our purposes can be considered the 'basic position' in the Reti Opening at the successful completion of the first phase of White's plan, illustrating the function of White's minor pieces. Nf3 and Bb2 restrain ... e5 while c4, Bg2, and Nc3 target the strong-pointed d5 square. The next phase of White's plan is to prepare and push through e4.

As we are interested in ideas rather than variations, I wont give the specific move order to arrive at this position, but along the way, Reti notes the following:

1. After ... c6, b3 is neccessary to protect the QBP - we'll look at the tactical justification of the psuedo-gambit c4 in the next post.
2. The Queen's pawn should go to d4 if Black plays ... e6 confining the Queen's Bishop before playing ... Bf5 (or ... Bg4); at d3 it is reinforcing e4 against the combined force of ... d5, ... Nf6, and ... Bf5.
3. Reti prefers ... Be7 to ... Bd6 for Black; on d6 it blocks the d-file should it become opened.
4. h3 is a preparation for e4, precluding ... Bg4 as a response.