Welcome to the Reti Course. I am GM Lukasz Jarmula and I will be your guide to the basics of this opening. The Reti Opening, named after the great early 20th century player Richard Reti, is characterised by opening the game with Nf3 and following it up with a kingside fianchetto, and a short castle. Later development frequently includes c4 and the queenside fianchetto. In my view, the opening has two major advantages on the intermediate level: 1. It is less common than the popular 1.e4 and 1.d4 moves, meaning that our opponents will be less experienced and knowledgeable about it. 2. It offers a very solid and reliable scheme of development that safeguards the king and develops the pieces harmoniously almost no matter what, making it much less susceptible to unpleasant surprises and unfortunate opening losses. At the same time, the somewhat repetitive scheme of development does not really compromise the quality of our opening play, and we still find ourselves fighting for an advantage in a plenty of lines.
Play knight to f3.