Deciding style of play

Hi all

I'm trying to decide what style of chess player I am and decide what openings I should then look at. At the moment its terrible and very inconsistant. Open 1.e4 with centre game as the main weapon looking at a kingside onslaught with f4. Also played KGD, Kopec against the sicillian. To counter that I have played games where I've closed it down ala stonewall and manouvered my way to win's/losses. Also played 1.a3 ala Basman with mixed results. As black tend to play QGD badly and Rubinstein french Badly

I'm wanting to spend more time on study and become a better player but struggling to decide what style I play in, thus finding it difficult on what openings to concentrate on. My fave player in Nigel Short and like the imbalanced openings he plays.

Any constructive advice would be greatly appreciated

Hi Rob,

Consider that 'What opening to play?' may be the wrong question. May I suggest a 3 fold study:

1) The elements of strategy (control of the center, open files, passed pawn, weak squares, etc) which helps bring about:

2) The elements of tactics (pins, forks, decoy, deflection, clearance, etc) which leads to material gain or:

3) Mating patterns (See 'Art of Attack in Chess' Vukovic)

Being familiar with your openings is better than playing move by move, but how deep do you need to know an opening at our level? I think the answer is 'not very much'. I try to get my pieces out, keep an eye on the center, castle, and still be in a playable position at move 20. Good luck.

Best, Steve

Originally posted by rob39
Hi all

I'm trying to decide what style of chess player I am and decide what openings I should then look at. At the moment its terrible and very inconsistant. Open 1.e4 with centre game as the main weapon looking at a kingside onslaught with f4. Also played KGD, Kopec against the sicillian. To counter that I have played games where I've closed it down ala st ...[text shortened]... d like the imbalanced openings he plays.

Any constructive advice would be greatly appreciated

I think Monty is right.
Studying openings is ok , until your opponent doesn't follow the book lines so you then need to know how to take advantage.
Identifying weaknesses in your opponents position and avoiding them in your own in the early game is more important than following an opening religiously because that's what the book says.

Originally posted by rob39
Hi all

I'm trying to decide what style of chess player I am and decide what openings I should then look at. At the moment its terrible and very inconsistant. Open 1.e4 with centre game as the main weapon looking at a kingside onslaught with f4. Also played KGD, Kopec against the sicillian. To counter that I have played games where I've closed it down ala st ...[text shortened]... d like the imbalanced openings he plays.

Any constructive advice would be greatly appreciated

Well, let's look at some of your games and see how you handle openings.

Game 10005139

Here you're playing the black pieces, and the game starts...



Was it your intention to allow Qxg7, or did you not see it?

From what I remember I did not expect 6. Qxg7 6.Nf3 is more common, though playing 6......Nxd4 aiming for Nxc2+ and taking the rook on h1

My question is why not try to save the rook by playing Qxd4 instead of Nxd4.

At least now you know why you can't depend on the Knight taking c2 in hopes of getting the rook.

Originally posted by rob39
From what I remember I did not expect 6. Qxg7 6.Nf3 is more common, though playing 6......Nxd4 aiming for Nxc2+ and taking the rook on h1

Yes, but if white takes your h8 Rook, he's threatening to grab the Ng8 next move, whereas your N on a1 is just trapped in there. You both pick up a Rook, but white gets all the perks after the trade, while you just get additional difficulties.

Beware of those sorts of 'trades'!

Originally posted by rob39
Hi all

I'm trying to decide what style of chess player I am and decide what openings I should then look at. At the moment its terrible and very inconsistant. Open 1.e4 with centre game as the main weapon looking at a kingside onslaught with f4. Also played KGD, Kopec against the sicillian. To counter that I have played games where I've closed it down ala st ...[text shortened]... d like the imbalanced openings he plays.

Any constructive advice would be greatly appreciated

Fred Reinfeld in his book "Why You Lose at Chess" devotes an entire chapter to "You have no idea what kind of chess player you are." Others might scoff at this fundamental book, but for me it was a game changer. 🙂

Don't worry about style. Just worry about making good moves.

I think we need to know 3 or 4 openings. There are openings for tactical players like 1.e4 e4.... and there are dull and slow openings like the caro khan for players that like positional game.
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Even style could be the speed of a player: there are people that just take seconds to make a move and other players need even weeks to make the move....

Originally posted by hunterknox
Don't worry about style. Just worry about making good moves.

I think avoiding bad moves is more important. It isn't the good moves that cause you to lose, it is your bad moves.