How to build an opening repertoire

2011-11-30T04:37:00.001-08:00

Every tournament player should havea sound opening repertoire. He has to decide what to play from either(white/black) side and prepare a line against each of opponent’s replies.

Example:

A player decides to play 1 e4from white side. To plan a repertoire from white side he will have to considerall possible replies to 1 e4 that his opponent can play from black side.Against 1 e4 the opponent has following main replies:

1 … e5 the Open Game

1 … c5 Sicilian Defence

1 … e6 French Defence

1 … c6 Caro Kann Defence

1 … d5 Scandinavian Defence

1 … Nf6 Alekhine Defence

1 … d6 Pirc Defence

1 … g6 Modern Defence

These are the most popular waysto meet 1 e4.

He will have to choose a lineagainst each of the above systems. If he decides to play the main line againstSicilian for example, he will have to prepare a line against each of black’schoices like Scheveningen, Dragon, Pelikan, Najdorf, Taimanov, etc. becauseblack can play any one of these variations against him. If he decides to playEnglish Attack against Scheveningen, he will have to prepare against each ofblack’s set ups against English Attack.

From black side, he will have toprepare a line against the most popular first moves 1 e4 and 1 d4. If hedecides to play French Defence against 1 e4 for example, he will have to preparelines against all the variations that white can play against French Defence. Inaddition to this he will have to prepare against less popular first moves like1 c4, 1 Nf3 and also against sidelines like 1 f4, 1 b4, 1 b3, etc.

How to choose lines

It is completely your choice.Normally choice of openings will be based on:

1 Your playing style: Are you comfortable in closed positions? Doyou like to take risk to get attacking chances? Would you mind sacrificingmaterial while conducting attack? Are you good in endgame? The answers to thesequestions will help you choose openings. Normally a player should chooseopenings that suit his playing style.

2 How much time you can devote: Some openings are highlyfashionable while others are not so popular. Some of them require exact moveorders and memorizing of variations while a few others can be played byapplying your chess understanding. You don’t need to memorize lengthyvariations. If you know the typical playing methods and plans in such openings,you can face any tough opponent. For openings like Sicilian Dragon and King’sIndian you will have to spend a lot of time on opening preparation. These linesdemand exact move orders. Sometimes you play theory until move 30. You need toupdate your knowledge frequently and continuously.

Another important decision iswhether to play main lines or sidelines.

Popular lines are played by topGrandmasters and normally take time to prepare and involve too much of theory.They are popular because they give good results at that level. Normally youwill get different types of positions with so many variations in theseopenings. They take time to prepare but give you good results even at a higherlevel.

Less popular lines (sidelines)have a surprise value and you don’t need to spend hours learning complicatedvariations. But if you play the same sidelines always, most of your opponentswill know what you are going to play. You will find it boring if you play thesame type of position every time. Sometimes sidelines can be a good choice atschool level and also at club level. If you choose good sidelines that are notunsound traps, you can try them even against senior players. There are someGrandmasters who always play sidelines, even at the highest Grandmaster level.So they can’t be bad.

As you become a stronger player,you can widen your repertoire by learning more than one line against each ofopponent’s choices.

Your coach can actually help youin choosing and preparing openings.

Prepare openings in 5 easy steps

2011-10-09T07:15:00.000-07:00

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

1 Understand the opening

Try to understand common ideasand plans in the opening that you want to prepare. There are typical playingmethods 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 studyannotated games with comments in the openings. Get the books dedicated toparticular openings. Read and understand ideas behind that opening. Learn howpieces of both the sides are developed, what type of pawn structure you getfrom that opening and common tactics that occur frequently. Do not hurry tolearn so many variations by heart at this stage. Just try to learn the mainvariations and common plans in them.

2 Practice games

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

3 Study games

See a lot of games played byGrandmasters and strong players in that opening. Search for games from books anddatabases. Try to understand ideas deeper and also try to learn lines whilestudying 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 theopening. It is important to understand how a strong player plays that position afteropening.

4 Learn lines

Now you can start learningopening lines from books and opening tree from a chess program. Try to rememberideas like “ This move is good if opponent develops his bishop on d7 but not soeffective if he develops his bishop on b7” or “Black should play this if whitemoves his bishop to c4 but not if he keeps his bishop on f1.” Try to understandand remember key variations.

5 Keep learning

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

Chess Trainer

How to build an opening repertoire

Prepare openings in 5 easy steps