What do you do to study your openings? I've learned what little opening knowledge I know through playing a line, realizing It's not that good, and then trying something new. lately I've been using databases to survive the openings and establish a solid position but, even when I play my favorite line of the French defense, I realize my knowledge runs out right when the game gets complicated and am left to work out what to do (in blitz games, cc I can work it out easily enough).
So, my question to you all is this, What do you do to study openings, do you memorize lines and then when your knowledge runs out just play chess, do you try to gain experience in a line and just try to learn what the main ideas are, do you use a book to guide you? Any help is greatly appreciated as this will go a long way towards improving my game, thanks.
hmmm....may i recommend not using the french!!! that may help you....ive said it before wikipedia is a cool place to study openings....when i do it i just look at the best possible moves and try to figure out why and see what kind of common moves and traps that go along with it....never like the french d. though...
Originally posted by hammster211. Main thing is to decide what openings suit your style. Do you go for quiet closed games or open "wild" tactical games?
What do you do to study your openings? I've learned what little opening knowledge I know through playing a line, realizing It's not that good, and then trying something new. lately I've been using databases to survive the openings and establish a solid position but, even when I play my favorite line of the French defense, I realize my knowledge runs out r ...[text shortened]... Any help is greatly appreciated as this will go a long way towards improving my game, thanks.
2. Once you clear on the sort of games you like you need to develop an opening repetoire on those openings. Don't waste time on a lot of openings you will never play and try and find lines that are more likely to force your opponent in the direction you require.
3. So for example I like open tactical games so as white my choice is always 1. e4 (OK sometimes I play 1. g4) so now I do not need to worry about whites lines in more than 50% of openings (so forget about them). My opponent usually replies 1. ... e5, 1. ... c5, 1. ... e6 or 1 ... c6 (in that order). Alternate responses are rare.
So to: -
1. ... e5 I play 2. f4 (Kings Gambit) and study this to perfection;
1. ... c5 and I play 2. d4 ... cd, 3. c3 (Morra Gambit);
1. ... e6 and I play 2. d4 ... d5, 3. e5 (French Advance);
1. ... c6 and I play 2. d4 ... d5, 3. ed ... cd, 4. c4 (Panov Attack).
All these lines give open attacking play so blacks choices are limited.
4. Now come the hard bit. Once you have decided you want to play this style you need to play it so as to learn. Lots of games.
5. Get a good specialist book on your opening choices (I have books on all the above). Read it to understand the general principles. For example in the Kings Gambit whites attack down the open f file and pressure on f7 is a key feature. In the Morra white has a lot of space and the open c, d and e files are important as is the possibility of e5, a peice sacrifice on b5 and a Knight sacrifice on d5. These motifs often only come into play if black makes a mistake but you need to understand the rationale behind the opening so that when your opponent deviates you know what you need to be looking for.
[I don't use databases as these are great for giving statistics but don't explain the reasoning behind moves. Consequently when your opponent deviates you don't know what to do. When it is clear to me that my opponent is using a database and I am not confortable about the choosen line I will carefully choose a point to make an inferior (but not dreadful) move just to take him out of his comfort zone - blunders usually quickly follow. Use databases to give you pointer only when you reach the end of your book but don't follow them as you can easily follow them into a losing position - rather ensure you understand the position and then play to your strengths.]
6. Play the opening again and again with your books at your side. Reading the lines and following them carefully but not blindly. Always play them out a couple of moves ahead on the analysis board to ensure you know where the game is going, like it and understand the resultant position. If you do not like the line choose a different line and if you like where you are now but don't like where the book line goes choose your moment to deviate from the book.
7. Annotate your book with lines to avoid or favored out of book moves that work for you.
8. If you don't get the required results perhaps you need to try a different opening. The opening is not right if you cannot get a plus score of about 55% against opponents of your strength.
9. Persevere and you will improve.
10. Do the same with your black openings although as white is in the driving seat this is harder. For example when white plays 1. e4 I always respond 1. ... e5. So I don't need to learn the Sicilian from the black side but white still has loads of options. The most common continuation is 2. f3 ... c6 but then you have to face 3. Bb5 (the most common), 3. d4 (gaining in popularity), 3. Bc4 (the most usual for lower graded players), 3. Nc3, etc. Against 3. Bb5 I will play 3. Nf6 and try for a Ruy Lopez Open but I always have to consider the Exchange (BXc6) that you cannot avoid so it is harder to force the pace and you need to learn more lines but it is still possible.
Finally if you really want to get your opponent quickly out of his comfort zone play an opening like the Grob (1. g4) or Borg (1. g5) and get out of the book quickly. But these are not for the faint hearted nor playable if you are not reasonably tactically sound.
in the beginning you get the idea...play some games..see where you have problems, and you can analyze your games to see what was the correct move in a specific place and where you went wrong...And anyway, by doing so, game by game you will know at least one move deeper in a line in your opening...
i practice them in cc games because u can use DBs...
If your chess level is good enough you do not have to memorize all the lines...For example I played in a real tournament against a player that I know that will use tarrasch defence against me, and I tried to learn the main line, but around move 8 I forgot and deviated(to another line which I found later it is playable but it was not the main line) and of course, the opponent was also confused when I was out of the main line(because he was knowing best main line too 🙂) ) and he went on with some wrong plan and lost...
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I have bought some of the chessbase CD's wich I think has done a god job in making me more comfortable in the opeining. I feel I learn a lot more this way than reading chessbooks as the CD's are funner and make me pay more attenition to what's important more than just trying to learn variations wich I probably won't remember anyway. Aagaards CD's are great, particulary the one on the queens indian. If you rather like books I'd recomend "Play d4!" and "Play the queens gambit" Positional studies (how to place the pices) and tactics are also very important. Some people seem to think that you have to study the endgame a lot but i've never felt this has helped my play.😕
And don't forget. The one who knows how to play an opening well is the one who knows how to play the middlegame arising from that opening.
Thanks for the replies. I'm not 100% set on my repitor but am discovering quickly what I like and what suits me. I have most of my main ideas and lines down, the problem I still face is when the games gets extremlly tactical. When there are 5 different but solid moves that can be made, should I really spend the time loking at what I can do to counter each move, Or spend my time studying something else? I guess what I'm trying to say is, how deep should my opening repitor be?
Originally posted by hammster21hey, I couldnt help but notice your post, I'm actually in the same position as you, what do i do for the opening? I have a OTB chess tournament tomorrow, I'll post some games up and you guys can try and correct me. Look out for it. As for the opening, yes how to study it can be quite tricky, it seems to me you can fall into the trap of memorising stuff easily, which is NOT what you want.
Thanks for the replies. I'm not 100% set on my repitor but am discovering quickly what I like and what suits me. I have most of my main ideas and lines down, the problem I still face is when the games gets extremlly tactical. When there are 5 different but solid moves that can be made, should I really spend the time loking at what I can do to counter each ...[text shortened]... ying something else? I guess what I'm trying to say is, how deep should my opening repitor be?
Should a good player really narrow it down to only a handful of openings? I know there's more to keep up with, but I really enjoy the occasional variety when I play different openings.
Edit -- I would think this would be especially true in CC where I could go and spend a minute/hour/day/week looking through interesting/various lines. However, I will agree with you if you are talking about OTB or bltz chess.