Reading this forum, it strikes me that I know next to nothing about openings, so I have a few
general questions.
How many openings do I need to learn, and how well (specifically to how many moves)
should I know them?
How do I know whether to offer/accept/refuse a gambit?
How much effort should I put into castling, and making sure the pawns on that side of the
board are in the right place?
How do I know when it's a good idea to bring the queen into the action?
Thanks in advance for any helpful answers.
Here's an answer, helpful or not.
There are a number of openings that are popular at tournament level
chess these days. Dave has the experience, and I'm sure can (and
will) provide any I'm missing. Here are some off the top of my head.
Openings you should/must know (or know how to deal with!):
If you (or your opponent) play e4:
Ruy Lopez,
Sicilian Defense,
Caro-Kann,
If you (or your opponent) play d4:
Queen's Gambit (Declined and Accepted)
The Indian games, especially:
King's Indian
Nimzo-Indian
Some that you should be familiar with:
for e4:
French Defense (not quite as popular as the above)
Italian Game (Guico Piano)
for d4:
The rest of the indians:
Queen's Indian, Gruenfeld, Modern Benoni, etc.
This seems like quite a task, and it is. Openings seem to be more
and more important as you progress in ranking. The highest ranking
GMs prepare specific opening variations sometimes up to the 20th
move (or higher) on the chance they may encounter it over the board
in their next match. (i.e. Kasparov, one of the best-prepared players
ever.)
I would suggest concentrating on two or maybe three white openings
for e4 and d4. In general, white decides the opening, black decides
the variation. As White, be prepared for a number of possibilities. As
black, it's easier (for me) to pick a favorite opening for e4 and d4 and
concentrate on it. You'll see me play the Ruy Lopez or King's Indian
quite consistently as Black. It saves me the trouble of learning the
black moves for the Sicilian, since I just don't play it much. Also, I
love playing the Reti as white, since I can sidestep a bunch of theory.
Or, I can plunge back into one of the more common 1.d4 openings if
I want. The point is that *I* get to decide the opening, and that gives
me an advantage.
What depth should you go to? Essentially, I would suggest learning an
opening until you are confident you can move into an equal (at least)
middlegame. If you find that you are constantly getting outplayed in
specific openings right from the beginning, you either need to learn
the opening a bit more, or figure out how you can avoid playing it.
This means, if you seem to be beaten often in the Sicilian by Black's
well-prepared lines, either learn them yourself or guide the game to
on a path *you* know.
If your opponent plays the Sicilian as black, he's expecting 2.Nf3. Try
the Alapin with 2.c3 and you're opponent may have to sit back and
downshift mental gears quite quickly! It may not technically be white's
best, but it'll save you the burden of learning so much theory. Playing
the best move at move 4 and then forgetting what to do later is much
worse than playing a less ambitious opening that you are more
familiar with.
The best thing you can do is splurge on an opening book like (ok,
Dave) Modern Chess Openings. Also, Seirawan's Winning Chess
Openings is less detailed, but much easier for the beginning-
intermediate player (ME!) to grasp. Play your games here with that as
a reference for the opening so you're sure you don't stray down the
wrong path. It can be fun to bash heads with a Dragoneer and get the
better of him, but you'll need the book if you hope to compete with
his memorization. Play your favorite openings with an opening book,
you'll learn them very fast. I personally don't see anything wrong with
using book for my games, but I wouldn't if you want to *prove* your
abilities rather than *improve* them. Otherwise, you're only proving
that you know how to read. I'd never play a tournament game with a
book in my hand, scout's honor!
I hope all this helped.
--Rein, who is all talk and no play. Unless you want to challenge me.
In that case, bring it on.
First off Rein..I am very flattered by all of the praise to my abilities
that you have given and I really appreciate it.
Your post is very well thought out and very good!
But...as you said I could...add a few things.
The first opening that any player should learn as white..in my opinion
and many GM's...is the King's Indian Attack...why? Beacuse black can
really not stop you from going into it and it gives a very solid position.
My star pupil tenebr8 has been kicking alot more ass due to adopting
it as white on my recomendation.
Against 1.e4 of course the sicillian is one of the best options and I am
very fluent in it as well as the Alapin 2.c3 (white and black)...but as
the nick suggests the Schliemann defense and the PCG are what I
really love to play. But they are really tactical and not good for
beginners. Actually not even good for me...I have made quite a few
swindles using those let me tell you!
Soltis has a book about using d6 to combat anything white can throw
at you...and although I have never read this one it seems like the
best solid plan for anyone. He is a very good writer and I own quite a
few of his books.
This is just my suggestion.
Dave
Thank you Rein and Dave, both your posts were to the point and very useful. I hadn't
thought of c3 for White and d6 for Black. I've heard of some of the openings you mention,
but I haven't learnt the detail.
At the moment I play my opening game in the same way as I do the middle game - I just
look at the board and make one move at a time - so even if I stumbled upon a good opening
I wouldn't be able to name it. I sometimes get away with this when my opponent makes a
blunder later or fails to take advantage of his position, but it's clearly not going to work
against the better players on this site.
Hopefully a small amount of knowledge of openings will improve my game (I'm too lazy to
learn a lot about openings). Of course, it won't mean anything unless I figure out how to win
the resulting middle game... Colin
I think Dave's idea in suggesting the King's Indian Attack, etc. is to
play the openings in a way that let's *you* dictate the course of
events. The King's Indian Attack is a good one, though not one of my
favorites (personal preference). You basically just put your pieces in
their spots and go from there. It's easy to learn, and once you're set
up, you end up in a middlegame with good chances.
I like Reti, since it transposes easily into all the Queen's pawn games
(which I know pretty well) or into the English openings as well. Also, I
enjoy the positions that come from the main lines of the Reti, and
most people aren't too familiar with it.
In my experience learning chess, I started with the middle game,
learning tactics, etc, then I started learning openings, then I started
learning end-games. Then I went back to the middlegame and
concentrated on how to go from the middle game into a winning
ending (rather than just trying to checkmate the opponent every
tome). Finally, I started studying the openings again. Specifically ,
how the openings lead into certain typical positions in the
middlegame. Now, I'm back to studying endings seriously. I'm not
sure why I said all that, but you might find it interesting.
--Rein
At the moment I'm at the first stage you mentioned - using tactics in the middle game. But
if I can't win material to the value of a knight or so, I usually foul up in the end game or
before because of poor positioning - and that's if I've somehow managed to cobble together a
bearable opening. I am starting to grasp the idea of concentrating firepower on a weak spot.
Thanks for your advice, I'm sure I'll learn these things in time - though in a few days my
brain will be busy learning Maths!
