The Modern Vienna Game: 1.E4 E5 2.Nc3

The Vienna set-up aims for very aggressive play, which often includes sacrifices. But White prefers to be on the safe side, without burning all the bridges and to try to justify his actions from the point of view of positional play as well. At first, he deploys his minor pieces to active positions, then he advances the thematic move f4, castles (usually on the kingside) and begins an attack only after all this. Despite the fact that the move 2.Nc3 has been played for more than a hundred years, there has not been defined a clear-cut scheme for playing this set-up. IM Sergei Soloviov and Grandmaster Roman Ovetchkin had to make decisions how to play with White practically from the first several moves.