Prepare openings in 5 easy steps

Opening preparation is important for a tournament player because it gives him confidence, saves time on the clock and really makes a big difference in tournament results. There are some players who spend hours every day to learn opening lines and variations but they still don’t get satisfactory results in tournaments. Knowing ‘the book’ is not enough to win the game. Here are 5 simple steps to prepare openings:

1 Understand the opening

Try to understand common ideas and plans in the opening that you want to prepare. There are typical playing methods in all openings. Try to learn them from games annotated by masters. Search for games played in the opening that you want to prepare and study annotated games with comments in the openings. Get the books dedicated to particular openings. Read and understand ideas behind that opening. Learn how pieces of both the sides are developed, what type of pawn structure you get from that opening and common tactics that occur frequently. Do not hurry to learn so many variations by heart at this stage. Just try to learn the main variations and common plans in them.

2 Practice games

Try to play a lot of practice games, even blitz and semi serious games in that opening. You can try this in your local chess club and also online. Try to follow the playing methods and plans of that opening in your games. Analyze games with friends, opponents and coach without going deep into opening variations. At this stage you should try to understand how you could play better and after each practice session compare your moves with the book moves and study a few lines in that opening variation.

3 Study games

See a lot of games played by Grandmasters and strong players in that opening. Search for games from books and databases. Try to understand ideas deeper and also try to learn lines while studying games. This will help you gain better understanding of that opening. Study full games and do not skip moves after one side gets advantage in the opening. It is important to understand how a strong player plays that position after opening.

4 Learn lines

Now you can start learning opening lines from books and opening tree from a chess program. Try to remember ideas like “ This move is good if opponent develops his bishop on d7 but not so effective if he develops his bishop on b7” or “Black should play this if white moves his bishop to c4 but not if he keeps his bishop on f1.” Try to understand and remember key variations.

5 Keep learning

Keep learning and trying new ideas in the opening and update your knowledge by downloading and studying the latest games played in that opening. Try your own ideas in practice games and tournaments, analyze and find improvements, continue working.