Originally posted by Timothy2005If it's OTB, play it. Then compare your moves to the book moves after the game.
Simple question. What do you think is the best way to study an opening?
If you're playing the opening here (on RHP) you can follow along with variations in the book and make the same moves. The key is understanding *why* those moves are being played.
A master strength acquaintance once told me to pick an opening and look it up in a good database. Call up 100 or so games and play through them rapidly to get a feel for where the peices belong, then get into understanding the why's of the moves. He said this helps because, once you see how the games progressed, understanding the why's of opening moves becomes a bit easier. I haven't tried it yet, but I thought I'd throw it out there for some of the stronger players to comment on.
Brian
Originally posted by BLReidI find this helps with pattern recognition. You might notice that black puts it's knight on d7 rather than c6 most often. This triggers you to ask why. When you work it out (takes some time and it actually might be obvious) you can then either not make that mistake yourself or take advantage when an opponent makes it.
A master strength acquaintance once told me to pick an opening and look it up in a good database. Call up 100 or so games and play through them rapidly to get a feel for where the peices belong, then get into understanding the why's of the moves. He said this helps because, once you see how the games progressed, understanding the why's of opening moves beco ...[text shortened]... , but I thought I'd throw it out there for some of the stronger players to comment on.
Brian
Plus spending the time to work out why a particular move is the right one helps your overall understanding of the opening.