Play the Rockin’ Rat PGN Only Chessable Feb 25, 2025

Hit Back on Move 2 with the English Rat

What’s in a name? In the case of the Rat opening… a lot! The Rat is resourceful, tough to catch and it can survive in a surprising number of environments. It’s the perfect name for this creative system, which promises you a real fight.

The repertoire starts after the moves 1.d4 d6. The move 2.e4 would transpose to the Pirc, which the author has already covered in Play the Power Pirc.

The Rat in all its glory

The advantage of this move order is you avoid the most critical variations of the King’s Indian and steer the game towards positions you’ll be better equipped to handle than your opponent.

In short – you’ll only be playing the King’s Indian against 2.Nf3.

What exactly does this move order avoid?

❌The Saemisch variation with 5.f3
❌The Averbakh variation with 5.Be2/6.Be3
❌The Makogonov variation with 5.h3/6.Be3
❌The Four Pawns Attack with 5.f4
❌The Seirawan System with 5. Bd3
❌The Hungarian System with 5. Nge2
❌The h4 System with 5.Be2/6.h4
❌The Trompowsky Attack with 2.Bg5
❌The Torre Attack with 2.Nf3/3.Bg5

If you’ve ever dabbled in the King’s Indian, you’ll know that most of these systems are quite serious and require real homework – so it’s an impressive feat to take them out of consideration entirely.

If you end up in a King’s Indian, it’ll be a 2.Nf3 variation, which takes a lot of the sting out of White’s attack. You’ll get excellent counterplay and learn how to put pressure on White with no fear.