problems in learning Black openings

Whenever I open a chess book the diagrams are always showing the board as if the reader is playing white i.e. the white pieces are at the bottom of the board - this makes it difficult (for me) to learn openings/defences from the view point of black. My play with white is reasonable (having played approx 1,000 games with white) but I hardly ever played black. Does anyone know of any online resource I can use where the board is set up with black at the bottom so I can learn how to counter the main opening lines?

Originally posted by clearlight
Whenever I open a chess book the diagrams are always showing the board as if the reader is playing white i.e. the white pieces are at the bottom of the board - this makes it difficult (for me) to learn openings/defences from the view point of black. My play with white is reasonable (having played approx 1,000 games with white) but I hardly ever played bla ...[text shortened]... e board is set up with black at the bottom so I can learn how to counter the main opening lines?

Almost all decent chess software (including offline, standalone programs) will allow you to flip the board so that Black is on the bottom of the screen. For example, this online one:

http://www.shredderchess.com/online-chess/online-databases/opening-database.html

Originally posted by clearlight
Whenever I open a chess book the diagrams are always showing the board as if the reader is playing white i.e. the white pieces are at the bottom of the board - this makes it difficult (for me) to learn openings/defences from the view point of black. My play with white is reasonable (having played approx 1,000 games with white) but I hardly ever played bla ...[text shortened]... e board is set up with black at the bottom so I can learn how to counter the main opening lines?

there should be a command like "flip board" somewhere in "view" tab in all chess software. in chessbase family products, the shortcut is ctrl + f.

Does anyone know of any online tutorials for opnings/defences for black?

Originally posted by clearlight
Does anyone know of any online tutorials for opnings/defences for black?

google the website of "exeter chess club," that was a very good one as far as I can remember.

Turn the book upside down to look at it from black's point of view.
If it is software, turn the monitor upside down or stand on your head. LOL Just kidding about that.

There should be a flip board option as noted by other posters.

If worse comes to worse, actually SET UP a real board and play through the variations. I think that's the best method anyway.

Here's the Exeter page:

http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/openings.html

The stuff on the English is really interesting so I'm guessing the rest of it will be too.

I'm teaching myself the Leningrad Dutch at the moment. I use a board if I need to play through anything, though I guess that's personal preference.

What worked for me was just playing as many games as possible using that Defence and being prepared to lose loads. If you're playing correspondence games you can always consult www.chesslive.de. That has a flip board option.

One of my favorite repertoire books is Opening Systems for Competitive Chess Players by John Hall. The diagrams are all in pairs: left diagram from White's perspective, right diagram from Black's perspective.

Here's the proposed repertoire:

White: Torre Attack (1 d4 2 Nf3 3 Bg5)

Hall only provides analysis for lines beginning with 1...Nf6 or 1...d5. So, if you want to know how to play against the Dutch (1...f5) or the Benoni (1...c5) or other relatively rare replies by Black, you have to look elsewhere.

Black:

vs 1 e4: Caro-Kann Defense (The main line recommended is 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nd7.)

vs. 1 d4, 1 c4, 1 Nf3: Tartakower Defense (...d5 ...e6 ...Nf6 ...Be7 ...O-O ...b6.)

Hall doesn't provide a defensive scheme against rare openings like 1 f4, 1 b3, etc.

The book uses the "complete annotated games" approach.