The Modern Defence begins 1.e4 g6 (ECO B06). Black fianchettoes the bishop on g7 at once and, as in the Pirc, concedes the centre to White in order to attack it later with pieces and the pawn breaks ...c5 or ...e5.
The opening is exceptionally flexible: Black puts off committing the pawn structure for a long time and adapts to whatever the opponent does. A weapon for people who like unusual, asymmetrical play.
Close cousin to the Pirc, the Modern asks for good positional instinct: having given up space, the point is not to let White squeeze you flat but to hit back at the centre at the right moment.
Set it up on the board, move the pieces around and copy the FEN - or open the full walkthrough of the opening in a separate article.
Drag a piece onto the board, or click a piece and then click the squares. The cross beside the pieces sweeps every piece of that colour off the board, and a single piece can be dragged off the edge.
The pieces will be arranged into the chosen pattern.
It is the mating side to move. Find mate in one.
Openings, endgame positions and breakthrough studies - the set-up appears on the board.
Build your own position in the board editor, read up on the rules of chess or run a tournament on your own positions in the free app.
The Vibe Chess app opens from a link and needs no installation. Setting up a tournament takes a minute: pick the system, set the date, the venue and the time control - the app handles the rest.
Sign up to the Vibe Chess bot on Telegram - it carries the schedule of meetups and chess events across the cities we run in.
