Jeremy's Chess Ascent · White Repertoire · Book I
A field manual in chess and character.
Written for you, and with you, by Dad.
A letter before we begin
Jeremy,
You have played for three years now, and you have real gift; I have watched it grow across a hundred games. But gift is only the raw ore. What we are mining for in these pages is not a bag of tricks to win the next game. It is the man sitting behind the pieces: patient, honest, brave, able to think clearly when the position and his own heart are both shouting at him.
Chess just happens to be the finest training ground I know for all of that. Every move is a decision you cannot take back, made under pressure, with the truth revealed a few moves later. There is no hiding on a chessboard, and there is no hiding from yourself. That is exactly why I love it for you.
We begin your White repertoire with the Italian Game because it is honest chess. It sets no cheap traps you would have to unlearn later; it rewards the player who understands over the player who merely memorises. It is good enough to serve you at 1000 and good enough to serve grandmasters at 2700. Learn it properly and it is a friend for life.
Here is my one promise and my one demand. My promise: I have written every page as if I am sitting beside you, because in every way that matters, I am. My demand: plans beat memory. You will never pass a chapter by reciting moves. You pass it when you can tell me, in your own words, what the position wants.
So let us begin. And do not rush.
Whatever the board asks of you, rule your spirit first, and the right move will follow.
Dad
How to train with this book
This is a course, not a story to read once. Work it the same way each time and it will change how you play within a month.
Set up every diagram on a real board before you read a word about it. Your hands learn what your eyes alone will forget.
Cover the explanation. Say what you think the position wants. Only then uncover the text and check yourself. Being wrong on purpose is how you learn fastest.
Explain both sides' plans in full sentences, as if teaching me. If you cannot say it, you do not yet know it.
Close the manual and answer the “Prove it” box at the end of each theme from memory. No peeking. That is the only test that counts.
Wherever you see a gold Training Ground box, we step off the board for a moment. Those short notes are the lessons I care about most, because the man I am raising matters more to me than the rating I am coaching. Read them slowly.
Chapter 01 · Identity
Before a single plan, understand the soul of the opening. Everything you learn afterwards hangs on this.
With 3.Bc4 you place your bishop on its finest diagonal, aiming at f7. You are not trying to win a piece there today; you are claiming the diagonal that keeps Black honest for the whole game. From here the Italian becomes one long, patient argument about a single square: d4.
You spend the opening preparing the break d3-d4 under perfect conditions. Black spends it trying to free his game with ...d5. Almost everything either side does is really about helping one of those two breaks and stopping the other. Hold that idea and you will never be lost in the Italian, even in a position you have never seen.
Chapter 02 · Core routes
These are maps, not scripts. Learn the point of each road, and you can drive it even when your opponent takes an exit you have never seen.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d3 Nf6 5.O-O d6 6.c3 O-O 7.Re1
Your home road. Build the house quietly: d3, c3, castle, Re1, then send the sleeping knight Nb1-d2-f1-g3 and prepare d4. You will play this more than any other line, so you will know it best.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3
If Black develops the knight before the bishop, do not change your character: 4.d3 keeps the same calm structure and usually transposes back to Road 1. The sharp 4.Ng5 exists, but treat it as an optional weapon to study later, never your reflex. Calm understanding beats a half-learned attack.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4
When you want a direct fight, strike in the centre at once. The position opens, so development becomes urgent and calculation matters. Meet the check 6...Bb4+ calmly with 7.Bd2 or the sharper 7.Nc3, finish developing, and use the open lines. Only take this road when you are ready to calculate.
Chapter 03 · Theme · Self-control
Prepare d4. Build every piece behind it. Do not strike until it is truly ready.
This is the position your Italian is built to reach, and it is where most boys your age quietly lose the game before a single piece is traded. Your hand will itch to charge. Do not. The strongest players are not the ones who strike first; they are the ones who can wait when waiting is hard, improving one more piece while the impatient player lunges and misses.
Watch patience pay. A natural continuation, White improving for five straight moves before striking:
For five moves you did not attack; you improved. Only then, with every piece breathing toward the centre, does the pawn go to d4. That is a prepared break: not a lunge, but a door swinging open after you have quietly stacked every piece behind it.
Patience is not doing nothing, Jeremy. It is doing the quiet, useful thing while everyone expects the loud one. On the board it looks like Nf1-g3 when your hand is begging for h4-h5. In life it looks exactly the same.
Learn it here, where a wasted lunge costs only a pawn, so that you own it out there, where it costs far more.
CLOSE THE MANUAL. SAY YOUR ANSWERS OUT LOUD.
Chapter 04 · Theme · Diligence
When you do not know what to play, you almost always do. Find the piece doing the least, and give it a better life.
Look at the knight on b1. It is your least useful piece: it defends nothing important and attacks nothing at all. So it becomes your next job. The route Nb1-d2-f1-g3 is three quiet moves of pure improvement; by the end the knight eyes f5 and h5 and supports d4. Nothing flashy happened. You just refused to leave a piece asleep.
This is the deepest habit in positional chess, and the simplest: every move, ask which of your pieces is doing the least, and fix it. Two companions to the rule: be willing to trade your worst piece for his best, and never fall in love with a piece that is failing you. Loyalty is a virtue in people, not in bad bishops.
Mastery is not one heroic move. It is the unglamorous habit of improving the weakest thing, again and again, when no one is watching and nothing looks urgent.
“Do you see a man skilful in his work? He will stand before kings.” The man who learns to patiently better his worst piece is learning to patiently better himself.
Proverbs 22:29
FROM THE 7.Re1 POSITION, WITHOUT NOTES.
Chapter 05 · Theme · Discernment
His freeing break will come. When it does, do not answer by reflex; answer with the move that leaves your pieces the most active.
When Black lands ...d5, three doors open, and each changes the game:
| Reply | What it does | Choose it when |
|---|---|---|
| Capture exd5 | Opens the centre and the e-file. After ...Nxd5 or ...Qxd5, you play against his pieces with Re1, Nbd2 and often a4. | Your pieces come to life faster than his after the exchange. |
| Advance e5 | Closes the centre and gains space, kicking the f6-knight. You commit to a slower, space-based plan. | The push comes with tempo and his knight has no comfortable square. |
| Maintain hold the tension | Keep both pawns and improve a piece, making him resolve the tension first. | Waiting improves your position more than his; patience compounds. |
There is no single right answer written in a book; there is only the right answer in this position. So calculate the recapture sequence, picture where your pieces stand three moves later under each choice, and pick the one where you, not he, come out humming. Never react by habit.
Most mistakes at the board are not calculation errors. They are habit errors: playing the move that feels normal instead of the move that is right, here, now.
“The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.” Learn to pause and weigh before you commit, in chess and in every choice that matters.
Proverbs 14:15
SET UP THE DIAGRAM. NO ENGINE.
Chapter 06 · Theme · Readiness
The moment the central pawns come off, the rules change: activity is suddenly worth more than gold, and a sleeping piece a disaster.
While the centre is closed, a slow manoeuvre is fine; you have time. The instant it opens, time becomes the currency, and three rules bite. Rooks belong on the files that just opened, the e-file and soon the c- or d-file. Bishops want to look straight through the centre. And above all: do not push a wing pawn while a rook or bishop still sleeps. The player who finishes developing first usually wins before the attack begins.
So when the pawns come off, resist the urge to throw h4-h5 at his king. Activate first: both rooks on their best files, bishops aimed, and let the position hand you the attack rather than forcing one.
Haste in an open position and haste in life fail the same way: you commit before you are ready, and the gap shows. Preparation is not slower; it is what makes the fast finish possible.
“The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” Get ready first. Then move with everything you have.
Proverbs 21:5
FROM THE OPEN-CENTRE DIAGRAM.
Chapter 07 · Tactics · Vigilance
Strategy chooses the plan; tactics make sure you are still on the board to enjoy it. One habit protects everything else you have learned.
Four questions, twenty seconds, most of your future losses prevented. The blunder shield is boring, and that is the point: brilliance is optional, but this is not.
Checks, captures and threats for both sides. Loose pieces and overloaded defenders around the centre. A pawn break that suddenly opens your bishop or rook. A shot against an uncastled king. A move-order trick that punishes lazy, automatic development.
The shield only works if you are honest with yourself: if you truly look for his best reply, not the reply you are hoping for. A man who checks his own move for danger is learning not to fool himself, which is the beginning of every kind of integrity. “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely.” (Proverbs 10:9)
Chapter 08 · Staying home
A sideline is only a surprise if you do not know its purpose. Name his idea, make the simple move, and bring the game back to the structure you understand.
These are the four ways a well-taught player still throws away an Italian. Learn to see each one coming before your hand moves.
The temptation. Your bishop points at f7 all game, so the hand reaches for Bxf7+ hoping for a storm.
Why it fails. 6.Bxf7+ Rxf7 and you have given a bishop for a single pawn. The king had already castled, so there is no knight leap and no follow-up. You are simply a piece for a pawn down, with nothing to show for it.
The command: a sacrifice is a calculation, never a mood. Count the return, to the last move, before you give even a pawn.
The temptation. You want to attack, so you throw h4-h5 at his king.
Why it fails. Look at the three highlighted squares: your rook on a1, knight on b1 and bishop on c1 have not moved. You are attacking with a third of your pieces while the rest watch. A calm defender just develops, and your lunge runs out of men.
The command: finish developing before you storm. A real attack is the whole army arriving together.
The temptation. You learned Nb1-d2-f1-g3, so you play it every game without looking up.
Why it fails. The manoeuvre is a tool, not a ritual. Here, with Black passive, d4 may already be the best move on the board. Play Nf1 by reflex and you waste the very moment the break was waiting for.
The command: recheck d4 every single move. Play the plan, not the habit.
The temptation. A lazy waiting move like 6.h3 that does nothing about the centre.
Why it fails. 6...d5! frees his whole game in a single move. His pieces breathe, and you gained nothing for the tempo you spent. His entire opening wanted that break, and you gift-wrapped it.
The command: guard the d5 square with every quiet move. Never grant the freeing break without a price.
As a 1.e4 player you must have a calm, confident answer to every reply, not a memorised trap. For each: name his idea, make the simple move, and steer the game back to a structure you own. Play these with command, not caution.
His idea. With 1...c5 he refuses your centre and hopes to drag you into his sharp, well-studied theory.
Your route. 2.c3, preparing 3.d4 to build the very centre he tried to deny you. After 2...d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4, or 2...Nf6 3.e5, you reach an open game on your terms.
The command: refuse his fight; build your own centre and play the chess you understand.
His idea. 1...e6 heads for a solid pawn chain; he wants to strike your centre with ...d5 and pin your knight with ...Bb4.
Your route. 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2, the Tarrasch. You sidestep the ...Bb4 pin and keep your structure flexible, aiming for a timely e5 or a calm exchange in the centre.
The command: keep the centre solid, deny him the pin, and develop with a plan.
His idea. 1...c6 is a rock-solid road to ...d5 that, unlike the French, does not shut in his light-squared bishop; he plans to free it on f5.
Your route. 2.d4 d5 3.e5, the Advance. You grab space and shut the c8-bishop in before it escapes. Watch for ...Bf5 and the ...c5 break; answer with c3, Be2 and calm development.
The command: take the space, then make him prove his solidity is not just passivity.
His idea. 1...d5 trades the centre pawns at once and brings his queen out early to dodge your main lines.
Your route. 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3, hitting the queen with a free tempo (the arrow). Follow with d4, Bd2 or Bc4, and castle; you are simply developing with an extra move in hand.
The command: chase the queen, build the centre, and enjoy the head start she handed you.
One rule stands under all eight: do not try to punish an unusual move with a trick you have not calculated. Develop, challenge the centre, and bring the game home to the structure you know. That's not caution, but rather COMMAND.
Chapter 09 · Conversion
The Italian does not end when the queens come off. The same structures reappear in the endgame, so learn to see the ending while you are still in the middlegame.
Before you trade a pair of pieces, predict the endgame that remains. Ask which pawn could become weak, which majority could make a passed pawn, and which of your pieces would suddenly be good or bad once the board simplifies. A trade is not neutral; every exchange steers you toward a specific ending.
| Element | What to watch |
|---|---|
| Pawn structure | The broad d4-e4 duo is powerful but can become a target; an isolated d-pawn gives you activity now for a weakness later. Know which bargain you are making. |
| Minor pieces | Which bishop has a real diagonal? Which knight has an outpost like d5 or f5? Do not trade your best minor piece without a concrete reason. |
| Rooks | Behind passed pawns, on open files, or against his weakest pawn. Rook activity almost always beats passive defence. |
| The king | Once queens are off, march it to the centre. Recalculate every pawn race; the middlegame evaluation no longer applies. |
Chapter 10 · The work
Reading this once teaches you nothing lasting. Drilling it in stages makes it yours. Do not add new theory until the current stage passes its test.
| Stage | The work | You pass when |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Map | Reconstruct all three roads from memory; name both breaks and your worst piece in each. | You can explain them with the pages closed. |
| 2 · Spar | Play each key position twice at 20+10, once from each side. Analyse before the engine; label your first structural decision. | You reach the tabiya on your own and know the plan. |
| 3 · Compete | Play three 30+20 games in the Italian. Complete a game-analysis sheet for each; repair only the first real gap. | Your opening errors move later and later in the game. |
| Day 1 | Reconstruct the main road three times; say the purpose of every move aloud. |
| Day 2 | Study one model game slowly, no engine, pausing to guess before each move. |
| Day 3 | Play three positions from move 8 against a partner or the computer. |
| Day 4 | Make flashcards: both breaks, best piece, worst piece, one tactical theme. |
| Day 5 | Play one 30+20 game in the Italian and annotate it from memory afterwards. |
| Day 6 | Compare your notes with an engine or coach; repair exactly one line. |
| Day 7 | Take the knowledge check cold, then teach the opening to someone else. |
Chapter 11 · Prove you own it
Answer these cold and out loud before you check the key.
| Coach & parent answer key | |
|---|---|
| 1 | d4 (usually prepared by c3 and d3 first). |
| 2 | ...d5. |
| 3 | From f1 the knight reaches g3 (or e3) to eye f5 and h5 without blocking its own pieces or the c-pawn. |
| 4 | Capture (exd5), advance (e5), or maintain the tension. Choose by activity. |
| 5 | It gives a bishop for a single pawn with no forcing follow-up; the castled king is safe and the rook simply recaptures. |
| 6 | On the files that have opened: the e-file, and soon the c- or d-file. Activity first. |
| 7 | King safety, central stability, and that your own pieces are developed. Never storm while a piece sleeps. |
| 8 | The b1-knight; route Nb1-d2-f1-g3. |
A word before you close the book
You have reached the end of your first field manual, and if you have worked it honestly, you are already a better player than the boy who opened it. But I want you to hear the thing I care about most, now that the chess is done.
Every lesson in these pages had two faces. Prepare before you strike. Improve the weakest thing. Weigh the choice instead of reaching for the habit. Get ready before you move with all your strength. Check yourself honestly before you commit. Those are chess rules, yes; but read them again and you will see they are simply how a good man lives. That was never an accident. I taught you the board so I could teach you these.
So play boldly. Lose without excuses and win without pride. And whatever the position, on the board or off it, remember the very first thing I told you: rule your spirit first, and the right move will follow.
I am proud of you. I always will be, whatever the scoreboard says.
Dad