St. George Defense
A first move that looks like a mouse-slip. It carries one of the most famous scalps in chess, the reigning World Champion's.
In 1980 at the European Team Championship in Skara, Tony Miles answered Anatoly Karpov's 1.e4 with 1...a6. Miles won. Karpov was the reigning World Champion; Miles was playing a move most coaches would circle in red ink. That single game did more for 1...a6 than a century of analysis could have, and the St. George has lived off the story, fairly, ever since.
The move itself isn't a joke, just an extreme flank strategy. Black intends ...b5 and ...Bb7 to hit e4 from the side and grab queenside space while White builds a big center. Think of it as a cousin of Owen's Defense with more queenside ambition: the bishop gets its long diagonal, and the b5 pawn keeps White's pieces off c4. The bet is that White's broad center becomes a target rather than a strength.
The catch is that Black concedes the center for real, and White gets every developing move for free. If White stays calm, the extra space is genuine and lasting: occupy, develop, don't overextend. The St. George player accepts all of this and heads for a middlegame that feels strange to one side only.
White should do the obvious thing well: take the whole center with d4, develop naturally, and refuse to be provoked. The one care point is the queenside: after ...b5, don't let ...b4 harass a knight on c3 for free, and a well-timed a4 asks the b5 pawn a hard question. There's no need to refute anything; a solid center plus a lead in development is the refutation on most days.
Black wants ...b5 and ...Bb7 quickly, pressure against e4 down the long diagonal, then ...e6, ...c5 and ...Nf6 to chip at the center White was invited to build. The dream is White's center advancing until it cracks so that Black's flexible position is aimed at the wreckage. It takes patience and real comfort with less space. The St. George is a counterpuncher's opening, and you have to enjoy defending a little to love it.
At club level (1600-2000 on Lichess), only 0.2% of 1.e4 games see 1...a6, but the database still holds about 3.4 million of them. White's main answers are the principled 2.d4, which takes 47.1% of games and scores 53% for White, and 2.Nf3 at 29.1% and 51%. 2.Bc4 is a distant third with 7.7%, also 51%. The sober message for Black: the big-center approach both dominates and scores, so know your setup against 2.d4 cold. That's nearly half your games.
Tony Miles — Beat reigning World Champion Anatoly Karpov with 1...a6 at Skara 1980, the game that made the opening famous.
- Family
- St. George Defense
- Category
- Semi-Open
- First move
- 1.e4
- ECO
- B00
- Line
- 1. e4 a6