Modern Defense
also known as: Robatsch Defense · 1...g6
1. e4 g6
Named after
Called "Modern" for its 1960s vogue; continental literature says Robatsch Defense, for Austrian grandmaster (and botanist) Karl Robatsch (1928–2000).
Origin
Scattered 19th-century sightings; made a coherent system in the 1950s–60s by Robatsch and the English trio Keene, Botterill and Suttles-influenced experimenters.
The story
The Modern out-hypermoderns the hypermoderns: Black plays 1...g6 and 2...Bg7 against ANYTHING, refusing even the Pirc's early ...Nf6, conceding the whole center on the theory that White's pawns will advance until they become weaknesses. It is less an opening than a worldview — provocation as strategy — and its literature (Keene and Botterill's 1972 book made the name stick) reads like a manifesto. Forever on respectability's border, it remains the choice of players who want the game on their terms: original positions by move five, theory optional.
Why it matters
Maximum flexibility, maximum provocation: transposes into Pircs, King's Indians and Sicilians or stays defiantly itself. The ultimate test of whether understanding really can beat preparation.
Notable games
- Robatsch's Olympiad games
- Suttles and Keene's 1960s–70s experiments