I want to improve my chess but don't have the time, due to other
commitments, to spend hours pouring over books and past games so
I had an idea, based on a post someone in the top echelon placed a
few months ago, to learn one opening for White and gradually learn
the variations. This way I'll have a better chance of giving a stronger
game using this opening. I will enjoy my chess more as instead of
feeling I can become jack-of-all-openings and master of none I could
at least become a student of one.
I have been trying the Queen's Gambit lately and have enjoyed
limited success with it but have still fallen into a number of traps due
to inexperience and lack of appreciation of the strategy involved.
Does anybody have an idea of one that I could study, that is fairly
open and there is a good win/draw to loss ratio for. I know that part
of chess is the study of all the strategies but, as I stated before, I
wouldn't be able to commit to that so I would prefer to have one that
could pay good dividends as I got better at it.
Thanks for your help.
As white I prefer to always open with e4 (P-K4..for all the people still
in the stone age of descriptive notation).
Of course this can lead to lots of wild and different openings..Sicillian
defense, Philidor, Petroff, Caro-Kan, French..etc.
Bobby Fischer twice played a little known opening that Bent Larsen
perfected(well somewhat..the Spassky game not counting)..1.b3
I have played this from time to time and Chess Digest has a couple of
small books on it. It is a tactical opening.
And well...The KIA is always good I guess...because there is no way
for black to stop you from going into it.
Email me if ya have any more questions on what I just said
Schliemann@alloymail.com
Dave
Thanks for your comments.
I am totally open to any suggestions. You have given me few ideas
and I'll certainly take up your kind offer to email. Refering to my
reply to Cervenakovas, my understanding of opening terminology is
not very good although my appreciation of strategy is certainly better.
Is there a subsciption to chess magazine for instance that may be of
assistance?
I'll forward my other questions to you via email.
Europe Echecs is very good. But it's in French. It's the best (amateurs)
magazine I know. New in Chess is too highbrow. You need a lot of
chess insight. Master level, I suppose, or at least strong club player.
And in my native tongue, Dutch, there hardly exists anything worth
spending money on. Jan
I've been trying the queen's gambit with limited success too. As you
are, I'm new at this. It seems that for every good opening, there is
also a good counter strategy. The queens gambit can show your hand
to your opponent fairly quickly (at least the way I play it.) I tend to
leave my flanks exposed assaults. If we hid our intentions a little
better, I think our success rates might improve. Moving the queen
Bishop's pawn is the dead give away. Is there another good opening
from this early move? Sorry my post doesn't help, but you're not
alone.
It's nice to find someone else in this position with the similar ideas.
Maybe we could share our ideas and learn the strategies together? A
bit like being at school but I've always found that talking
strategy/tactics through with someone is always the best way to learn.
I'll challenge you to a few friendly games and we could work through a
few.
I understand what you are saying about the Queen Bishop's Pawn but
by playing it are you not also shortening the number of options your
opponent has in playing against you? I don't have enough knowledge
to answer this question but if control is what you are looking for in an
opening then I guess you want to somehow make your opponent play
the defense you want them to rather than one of their choosing.
Look forward to seeing you in a game.
Just some personal thoughts... It goes without saying that what one
has to learn in the first place, is the principles of the opening; the
centre, space, mobility, King safety, etc. Opening-study is a lifetime
job, keeping up with the latest novelties, trends, revivals of old
refuted variations. I have so many opening books that I don't see the
wood through the trees. I got completely lost! I therfore deceided to
take a fresh start recently. I bought three books by Eric Schiller:
1. Complete Defense to King Pawn Openings (based on Cara-Kann)
2. Complete Defense to Queen Pawn Openings (based on Tarrasch)
3. Hypermodern Opening Repertoire for White (based on the English
and the Réti).
For general opening learning I have the CD-ROM 'ABC of Chess
Openings' (ChessBase - Gary Gauthier). These keep you going for
quite some time. Schiller's books are not so very much based on
learning variations, veriations, but rather on pattern-recognition. Once
you master these is up to you, and strongly recommended to increase
your enjoyment of the game, to study some openings in more detail.
I, for instance, like to play, with Black, the Alekhine, the Scandinavian
and the Sicilian Accelerated Dragon against 1.e4. I never play 1.e4
myself as White. I stick to 1.d4 which demands enough knowledge
(which I don't have) of all the lines one can be faced with. But then
again, you can reduce the number of lines, to begin with, by playing
the Exchange Variation in the Queen's Gambit Declined. If Black goes
for one of the Indian Defences, you can concentrate on playing e.g.
the Trompowsky Attack (2.Bg5). I'm not ready yet for Schiller's book
for White, being so used to 1.d4. But I will in due time to bring more
variety in the positions I'm used to up to now... I hope this may
supply you with a hint or two, leading to progress in your games. But
don't forget tactics, strategy and last but not least, the endgame.
Interesting.
Thank you for your thoughts. I will have a look into some of the
sources you identified. They will be useful as a library to have.
Further on in your comments you mentioned about reducing the
number of lines the opponent has by playing particular moves. Is this
something you can control to that extent in an opening or does your
opponent still have a fairly free reign to play whatever defense they
want? What I mean is, can you force your opponent into playing a
particular line of defense?
I fully agree with your comments on pattern recognition. I think that
is crucial in an opening that you understand the position you are in.
My knowledge of opening terminology is fairly basic. I believe my
understandng is a little better but only through experience rather than
research. Is it of benefit to learn the opening in a similar way to how
you would learn, say, Historic events at school or is it better to aim for
understanding through appreciation of tactics and strategy?
Your final comments are spot on as there is no point in learning an
opening and then throwing it away in the rest of the game. I did so
against Capa in one of my games. I was very pleased at how the
opening worked out and then threw away the game on two consecutive
forks. In reverse, against dcpk I managed to capitalise on a mistake
from my opponent to go a piece up after the opening. I chose these
two as they were two of my stonger games. Further to my last
paragraph then is it better to concentrate on overall gameplay tactics,
strategy, endgame positions and then memorise the openings,
followed by research into a particular set of lines as time goes by, to
assist my progress?
Thanks for your help.
It's of no use learning hundreds of opening-lines, without
understanding the ideas behind them. That's for pros. One has to
start somewhere. So, studying general principles and a limited number
of openings is already quite something. Only after mastering this, you
can expand your knowledge of more openings. Which ones, depends
on your style of playing: open play, closed positions, attacking player
or defensive... Tha's your personal choice. Play positions you feel your
at home.
Of course, reducing your opponents opening lines is not limited to just
one or two moves at his/her disposal. Still, you are able to drastically
cut down on the opponents opening lines. Didn't I wrote to you that,
for instance in the Queen's Gambit Declined, you can choose the
Exchange Variation. I play the 'accelarated'. 1.d4/d5 - 2.c4/e6 -
3.cxd5... This leaves the opponent various moves but much less than
playing the QGD proper.
The same with (you) playing 1.e4. Balck plays 1.-/c5 and you're in the
Sicilian jungle. You can prevent that by playing 2.c3, thus excluding
hundreds of lines for Black. Cheerio.
The 2.c3 (Alapin) is actually a very good line. I have played it
numerous times and won a very pretty game against a FM at the NY
Open 1998 (if anyone wants to see that I will email it to you) with it.
I have started back playing open again...just to get my feel back for
sicillians...plus I have quite a few new books on it and they have
helped me tremendously.
Qood suggestion Cerv!
Dave