Forget boring chess! This Black Lion Defense is so CRAZY it just might work! ♟️ (Yes, we're serious. Kind of.)

 

Uncage the Ferocious Black Lion

 An Untamed Opening to Devour Your Opponents!

"It's just a flesh wound." 
 Launching into the ferocious Black Lion with reckless abandon!

Are you a brave soul seeking to unleash controlled chaos upon the bowling green battlefield? What could be more delightfully eccentric than trotting out one's knightly steeds and fierce lion of a bishop to give the old white king a jolly good thrashing?

It all starts with a spot of Philidor here, a Hanham there, "And finally, a wafer-thin mint." - A delicate surprise amidst the unholy Black Lion chaos!  makes a roaring sound The game is afoot as the swarthy lion pawns stampede forth - e5, h6, maybe even g5 if you're feeling particularly rambunctious!

This unruly beast of an opening, favored by that madcap Englishman Simon Williams, is a snarling variation of the Philidor - promising unbridled fun and abundantly ludicrous winning chances. Once summoned, the ferocious Black Lion will tear down your foe's pathetic central pretensions with gnashing pawn jaws!

The goal? *leans in conspiratorially* "I think it was 'Blessed are the cheesemakers.'" Close, but the true goal is to utterly dominate the opposition's king! All the while our dusky warriors constrict the pale center and plot a devastating kingside assault!

 Make no mistake, this isavan garde stuff, challenging the very orthodoxies of that Philistine 1. e4!

 "It's a Mr. Death or something. He's come about the Reaping?" - Nay, 'tis merely the Black Lion coming to collect White's tattered kingside!

But embrace the madness, I say! Unleash the Black Lion and fight for your right to hurl mighty Rockettes at the white king's castle! For he who dares, wins!

But where, you ask, does one study the ancient rites to conjure this untamed opening horror? raises eyebrows mischievously Why, on that new-fangled "internet" contraption of course! This modernist realm is simply teeming with devilish resources to educate you lot of scoundrels on the finer points of the Black Lion.

From pawn structure to piece choreography, you'll find it all - from the brilliantly eccentric musings of chess chappies to free video lessons illuminating every delicious stroke. They'll have you swashbuckling like Blackadder in no time!

And as you master these unholy Black Lion gambits, seeking sustenance between skirmishes, you can even learn to bake a jolly good biscuit to dunk in your Earl Grey. Because what is a chess opening without proper British nourishment, eh? Tally-ho and full steam ahead! The Lion awaits...

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Books & Courses

Chessable

Short & Savage: Black Lion Beatdown - A free soul-shredding course to turn your feeble pawn pushes into a furious onslaught of checkmating carnage! 24 utterly dizzying lines to batter your opponents into bug-eyed submission, "He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy!" - Truer words were never spoken about the anarchic Black Lion defense Grand master in a mind-melting 1-hour video dalliance!

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Black Lion Articles 

Black Lion Defense The Damned Guide (Only for the Utterly Craven)  - You want the full skinny on summoning this apex predator ? This ain't no skim milk exposé. It's a delicious, twisting descent into the sordid history, perverse theories, and shockingly unnatural variations of the Black Lion. The mad strategy, the step-by-step defiling of human decency - it's all here, straight from the blackest recesses. You got the stomach for it ?

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LiChess Studies

Delightfully cheeky studies from our LiChess confederates

The Black Lion Unchained - A 4-Act Descent into Madness (114 Minds Permanently Shattered) - Come one, come all and witness the unraveling of lucid chess thought! This multi-chaptered psychological horror plumbs the debauched depths of the Philidor's unruly cousin through a series of agonizing game transcripts.Ba-dum-bum, the positions get darker...ba-dum-bum, the tragic inevitability sets in...until at last, your feeble psyche is rent asunder by the Black Lion's feral savagery! Outstanding fun for the whole family.

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Games Databases

Those archived game repositories are sure to corrupt all who dare peruse them. 3,000 damning examples of why humanity's chances are simply dreadful, dahlings! The utter madness!

365Chess.com

• Philidor Defense: Lion Variation - 724 Puzzles
• Philidor Defense: Hanham Variation- 457 Puzzles

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Video Lessons

The wondrous age of the "video lesson" has at last bequeathed us mere mortals with a veritable circus parade of pedantic ponderings on the Black Lion!

Mayhem Most Unorthodox - Launching a Savage Mating Attack by Way of the Ferocious Black Beast - 52 Min - GM Max Illingworth - An audacious foray into the Philidor's unruliest avenue - the Black Lion! Brave the slings and arrows of alternative move orders like the Antoshin to embolden your inner Falstaff.

"Beware the Jaws that Nibble - A Salacious Trudge Down the Rabbit Hole of the Hanham Perversion"! - 24 Min - Hanging Pawns -The serpentine path toward glorious savagery continues! Master the treacherous transpositional tricks and seminal gambits of this devious sub-line. Hanham, you scoundrel!

The Most Deceiving Opening? The Black Lion Begets Mass Delirium! - 7 min - ChessGeek - Lure the poor pawns in with the guise of meek development, then --WHAM!-- unleash total anarchy upon their fragile, unsuspecting king! 

Philidor LION Variation for Black: Shocking the Bourgeoisie - 8 Min - An intensive in the finer points of regicidal pawn storming. Control those vital light squares and sow the sweetest seeds of checkmate dementia, you beasts!

Jedi Black Lion Guide - 13 Min - FM James Canty -The ancient secrets at last! Move orders most clandestine, positional rigors to separate lion from lamb, and the eldritch knowledge to avoid being a mere training cadaver. Use the farce, Luke!

Dirty Tricks (Mate the Louts with Ghastly Gambits) - 27 Min -No unsavory ruse too shameless in our quest for central domination! Scurrilous traps, vulgar baits and oustings most indecent await the poor pale king. Tally-ho, ruffians!

A Lion Gambit - 4 Min (Analysis of a GM game) - What's this? A meek pawn offering to the chess gods? "Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government." But outrageous gambits? Now you're talking! Marvel at one GM's perilous ploy.

3 Part Series

• Crush your opponent with this opening for black Pt 1 (BLACK LION) - 11 Min -
  You've been warned - this is no mere "pawn push" exercise for the altar boys. We're ripping off the kid gloves and indulging our darkest pawn propensities in a torrid display of checkmated perversity! Make Father Fiddlesticks proud.
  
  
• Descent into Delicious Depravity - A Cerebral Skullduggery Odyssey - 57 Min  -
  Forget the niceties as we delve into the deepest, most unmentionable recesses of the Black Lion's libido! An all-encompassing tour of the nooks, crannies and delightfully untoward back-alley tactics that'll have you questioning your earthly devotion. Checkmate dementia awaits!
  
  
• Three Masters, One Scratching Post - A Showcase of Regicidal Indecencies (Part 3) Full games analyze - 48 Min - Three grandmasters in their full snarling glory! Savor the ripened madness of these immortal asphyxiations captured for posterity.
  
  

From Pawn Storm to Clergyman's Nightmare - Pawns Gone Wildest! - 13 Min - From pawn structure to piece choreography, you'll find it all - "This parrot is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker...This is an ex-parrot!" As will be your opponent's king if you master the Black Lion adequately!

Embrace Depravity in Five Soul-Crushing Levels - A Harrowing Descent from Intrigue to Utter Checkmate Dementia! - 23 Min - GM Simon Williams - The master himself, Williams, guides you through a veritable clown college curriculum of accelerants to stoke the fires of your embryonic mating attack. Five perverse stages of no return!

 NM Sean Lei

• Philidor Primer with a Twist - 10m An innocuous dalliance with traditional Philidor theory soon takes a dark turn as we delve into the untamed world of the Lion structures. Brace for maximum pawnage! 
  
  
• My "Precious" Addiction -18m Like Gollum clutching his precious ring, one enraptured analyst bares his utter obsession with this delirious opening through a tawdry showcase of games. Disturbing...yet fascinating.

Simon Williams - The Black Lion - An aggressive version of the Philidor Defense - 18 Min - GM Simon Williams - Williams emerges from his den to uncage an utterly undomesticated annihilation of the pristine Philidor! A vicious display of kingside violation.

Chess Stream #74 - Q&A in the Abyss - 57m
You asked for it, you sick degenerates! An uncensored cloister session with Williams at the puppet-master's reins, pulling strings toward new nadirs of depravity. 

The Only Defense is Full Psychic Surrender - 20m Concepts? Plans? In the Black Lion there is only unchained id and the single minded pursuit of checkmated ruination! Abandon all strategic thought, ye who enter here. "And finally, a wafer-thin mint." - A delicate surprise amidst the unholy Black Lion chaos! 

A Masterclass in Absolute Defilement -- 1.5 hrs The full unabridged director's cut! The blackest lips loosened to deliver a sordid encyclopedia of gambits, pawn storms and mating infractions. An unholy grail of checkmated indecencies.


How to Fight Against The Black Lion!! - 21 Min - IM Perunovic - A forensic examination of the grisly Black Lion autopsy photos - assessing just where it all went so horribly, horribly wrong.


Smithy's Opening Survey #2: Opening Thoughts from the Cuckoo's Nest  - 16 Min - SmityQ - One more addled soul unspools his fraying psyche to lay bare the beguiling, seductive principles underpinning this scourge. Curiouser and curiouser we descend!

 

Ah, behold the Black Lion Defense! Now, let's be honest, chaps – this opening is a lion, right? And what could possibly stand against a lion? Consider the Hippopotamus Defense – a lumbering mass wallowing in the muck. Does a hippo roar with regal authority? Hardly! Or take the Bird Opening – fluttering about like an agitated pigeon, dropping its strategic droppings hither and thither. A mere snack for our majestic lion! And what about the Orangutan Opening? A hairy, flailing buffoon swinging from tree to tree, entirely unaware of the lion's silent, lethal pounce. The Rat Defense? Please, it scurries in terror at the very sight of the lion's shadow! No, my dear chess aficionados, when you unleash the Black Lion, you're not just moving pieces; you're commanding a regal beast that devours all manner of lesser fauna, sending even the bravest openings scampering for the hills! Roar, my friends, roar with the might of a thousand checkmates!

Game Videos w/ Analysis

A smorgasbord of delectable ingenuities and ignominious debacles, all funneled through the warped prism of the Black Lion! From brash amateur bunglings to polished grandmaster immolations, no botched mate or stroke of tactical genius shall be left unturned.

Playlist

The Black Lion Opening - 70 Video playlist - Maurice Bishop - Personal games and Lessons - The goal? *leans in conspiratorially* "I think it was 'Blessed are the cheesemakers.'" Close, but the true goal is to utterly dominate the opposition's king!

• The Black Lion Defense is FUN! Subscriber Game Analysis 2x03 - 11 Min - Chess Giant 
• A Brutal Tactic Against the Philidor Defense: Hanham, Lion Variation - 4 min - Jozarov's Chess Channel
• Standard Chess #193: IM Bartholomew vs. vperboy (Philidor Defense) - 39 Min - In the Hanham Philidor (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nbd7) Black develops quietly in hopes of later counteracting White's central advantage. Here Black experiences problems after 12.Nf5 Bf8 13.Bg5, and blitzing out his moves does not help him find a viable defense!

Kingscrusher (Blitz Games)

• Philidor: Improved Hanham variation (B07) #1981 vs ChessIPO1 (1990) - 10 Min - kingscrusher
• #2067 - Philidor: Improved Hanham variation - 8 Min
• #238 vs. gile (2424) - Philidor: Improved Hanham(C26) - 10 min
• #780 vs supereagles (2163) - Philidor: Improved Hanham (B07) - 8 Min
• #2567 - White vs FM kunifax in Philidor: Improved Hanham - 5 Min
• #3230 - Black vs GM Bones in Philidor: Hanham, Schlechter- 10 Min
• #2721 - White vs IM Lotus-Eater in Philidor: Improved Hanham   - 11 Min
• #2332 - White vs GM Rahmaninov in Philidor: Improved Hanham - 10 Min
  
  

GM Simon Williams (Black Lion Games)

And here we have the pièce de résistance - a true master class in feral savagery from chess's most unabashed Black Lion champion!

What unholy examples of anarchic checkmating dementia and barely-legal regicidal filth await in Grandmaster Williams' deliriously unrepentant video archive? Care to join me in an utterly indecent plummet down the rabbit hole, dear friends? I guarantee you shall emerge from the ordeal permanently addled...if you possess the fortitude for such madness!

Ahem, do proceed with a stiff upper lip and the knowledge that no bawdy tactic or pawn storm is too scandalous for the English psyche. Shan't be a ghastly lark, what?

• Longer Chess Games #52 The Black Lion Bites! - 30 Min
• Longer Games #11 Climbing the 2500 mountain... The Black Lion!
• Longer Chess Games #40 Climbing the 2500 mountain - The Black Lion in Action - 33 min
• GM Chess Analysis #60 Lupulescu vs Williams. The Black Lion vs a 2600+ GM - 31 Min
• GM Analysis #14: Looking for an aggressive Opening to learn? Enter the Black Lion! - 27 Min
  
  
  

The Unholy Black Lion Manifesto 

 A Profane Checklist of Unmentionable Delights

• An Ungodly Divergence From the Philidor's Path: This ferocious sub-line scorns all propriety, transforming the placid Philidor into a supreme tool of White's mortification!
  
  
• Anarchic Bedlam Unchained: No more meek defenses - we weaponize the center and mobilize for a full-frontal pawn storm assault to violate their royal sanctuary!
  
  
• An Intricate Mating Ritual Most Obscene: Knights issued forth first, that dusky bishop lasciviously stroked to d7, and soon suffocating pawn thrusts unleashing mayhem - e5, h6, g5 and other profane choreographies!

The Vulgar Advantages:

• Central Plans Outraged and Made to Bend the Knee!
• Infinite Tactical and Strategic Degeneracies to Indulge!
• A True Hell spawned Provocateur to Unhinge their Psyche!

The Damnable Sacrifices:

• An Understanding of Fiendish Positional Concepts Required!
• Woe To Those Lacking Salacious Analytical Zeal and Resources!
• The Novice's Mind Simply Unprepared for Such Middle-Game Savagery!

For Only the Stoutest Degenerates:

• A Scandalous Joy Ride for the Strategically Unrepentant!
• Utter Beginners May Yet Summon Its Blasphemous Power!
• No Pale Opening Defense Left Unmolested!

Let this profane checklist be a Guidestone for all those brave enough to embrace the full anatomical horrors of the Black Lion! Revel in the unadulterated depravity as king after king is ritualistically sodomized upon your demented altar! Who's ready to have their very soul compromised? 

(Approved by Rodents of Unusual Size)

 So, go forth, dear reader, and conquer with the Black Lion! And remember: the roar may be fearsome, but the checkmate is always worth the madness! 🦁♟️