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.
