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Considering switching openings?


  • 13 months ago · Quote · #1

    Heidrich

    My chess teachers/coaches are strongly against me switching openings but i honestly really dont like my caro kann anymore. It is solid, equalizes, gives me an advantage in the endgame. but i just feel like the positions arent my style and rather boring. Im really big on studying chess. I love to study chess. I want to switch to the sicilian because there is an endless world of posibbilitys to study in the sicilian and the idea of it sounds so fun. Keep in mind i only want ONE response to white playing e4. It has to be sicilian or caro kann. Also keep in mind my rating is somewhere between 1300-1500 in real life. Please offer your opinions. 

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #2

    transpo

    Other than stating that, "...I'm really big on studying chess...", you really don't state what your goals in chess in conjunction with your teachers/coaches are. 

    If your goals are to become a master (2200+) rating you will be playing in at least one local over the board chess tournament/month for a total of 72 games/year.  What you will find is that if you win in both of your first two rounds you will have to have a good drawing weapon against the strongest players in your section in the 3rd and/or 4th round.  By drawing in those rounds if you have you will still be in contention to win the tournament or tie for 1st or 2nd.  

    Your teachers/coaches want you to keep the CaroKann in your opening repertoire because it is a solid drawing weapon as Black.

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #3

    Heidrich

    I jsut want to be better then the average club players. I just want to steadily improve and i feel like switching to the sicilian will help because there is more to study. I love studying chess. I have two teachers one positional guy 1700 and  a tactical sacraficial aggressive guy a 2100. They both say just stick to my caro kann bu ti honestly dont like it that much. 

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #4

    transpo

    So I take it that you play very little tournament chess or very little, and don't intend to.

    If that is the case then by all means switch to the Sicilian, but be prepared for volumes of theory and tons of memorization.  When I was alot more active in tournament play the Sicilian was part of my opening repertoire.  as part of the process of becoming an expert in this opening I had to study a particularly tricky variation of the Sicilian Najdorf called the Poisoned Pawn.  Because this particular variation is ridled with tactics I had to memorize 400 subvariations of the Poisoned Pawn which today I know cold.

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #5

    zxb995511

    Old habbits die hard. If you make the switch you will be back...eventually. 

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #6

    Heidrich

    i am only 16 years old. i have one more tournament next week and then school ends until next year

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #7

    ChristianSoldier007

    e5 all the way

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #8

    ChristianSoldier007

    you speak of e5 as if it's a "beginners opening". Its highly respected and one of the most commonly played openings at all levels.

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #9

    Morris_W3

    Heidrich wrote:

    I jsut want to be better then the average club players. I just want to steadily improve and i feel like switching to the sicilian will help because there is more to study. I love studying chess. I have two teachers one positional guy 1700 and  a tactical sacraficial aggressive guy a 2100. They both say just stick to my caro kann bu ti honestly dont like it that much. 

    I don't want to take away from anything your coaches have told you, especially since I'm what most would call an "average" player.  I've been playing for about 50yrs, self-taught (I didn't even know there was such a thing as a coach for a long time), studied countless books, played OTB and computers, but I realized (for me) that learning one or two openings that you're comfortable with, suits your style/personality and learning them very well will probably get you where you want to go.  It can drive you absoutley bonkers if you let it.

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #10

    DrSpudnik

    The French is waaaay easier to learn and much simpler to play.

    And it drives the 1. e4 gang crazy. I know. I'm one of them too.

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #11

    finalunpurez

    caro kann is really good. U shouldnt switch imo. 

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #12

    guesso

    play whatever you want, have fun

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #13

    pellik

    Heidrich wrote:

    I jsut want to be better then the average club players. I just want to steadily improve and i feel like switching to the sicilian will help because there is more to study. I love studying chess. I have two teachers one positional guy 1700 and  a tactical sacraficial aggressive guy a 2100. They both say just stick to my caro kann bu ti honestly dont like it that much. 

    There isn't enough endgame or middlegame theory for you to study? You need more? The extent of opening knowledge that you need at your level to win consistently is far less then the amount you need to play the Sicilian.

    Anyway, (almost) regardless of what opening you play one of the major themes in chess is knowing how and when to open the position so that you can rapidly attack. The more experience you have in open positions the easier it will be for you to grok what's going on behind the scenes in the sicilian lines you are trying to learn, and the less work there will be for you to improve overall. 

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #14

    Sred

    If you want fun with imbalanced positions, play 1... c5 or even 1... g6 (so do I). If you want to improve and take your chess skills to the limit, listen to your coach.

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #15

    NachtWulf

    DrSpudnik wrote:

    The French is waaaay easier to learn and much simpler to play.

    And it drives the 1. e4 gang crazy. I know. I'm one of them too.

    If not Caro-Kann, learn French. I don't mean to sound offensive, but I don't think the Sicilian isn't for you yet. If you play 1. ...c5, that means you must learn how to deal with each of the anti-sicilians:

    Closed Sicilian, completely opposite in nature than the regular old sicilians

    c3 sicilians, which again, force the game into a completely different nature

    The Bb5 sicilians (which I play), which can range from deathly sharp in some variations, or very closed with positional play being a large deciding factor if white wishes to impose a Maroczy Bind.

    To narrow down the repetoire, the Hyper-Accelerated Dragon is probably the way to go. Still sharp, highly theoretical, but at least your opponents will probably have to study as much theory as you. Oh, and by the way, spend minimal time on theory even if you play it. A strong middlegame works best with it.

     

     

    French would be my main suggestion for the alternative because you should probably learn it if you play 1. e4 anyway, and more importantly, it's an exciting defense that can be played in many, many different styles! At our level, most folks spend very little preparation against the French and Caro-kann, which brings me to my final point...

    The best thing to do is to listen to your coaches. They have a reason for their suggestions, and are trying to make you a good player. I don't play the Caro-Kann myself, but honestly have very little preparation against it. I've won a grand total of two games with it here (as far as my memory serves) only because my opponents didn't seem to understand how to handle their pieces. Moreover, the Caro-Kann capitalizes on endgame mastery, which most folks at our level, including me, greatly lack. In other words, your chances of being better prepared with it than your opponents is quite high. Maybe this game will help inspire you:



  • 13 months ago · Quote · #16

    tigergutt

    transpo wrote:

    I had to study a particularly tricky variation of the Sicilian Najdorf called the Poisoned Pawn.  Because this particular variation is ridled with tactics I had to memorize 400 subvariations of the Poisoned Pawn which today I know cold.

    you know 400 variations of the poisoned pawn and have a tacticsrating of 1163? if you had put all that time you use on openings on tactics and endgames im sure you would be around 2100 here:)

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #17

    tigergutt

    instead of changing the caro kann you should consider simply playing another line in it. the caro kann is a very good opening which isnt drawish in any way.its very complicated positions where every piece is still left on the board. it can be played passive or agressive and is loved by players like topalov who always play for a win

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #18

    Sred

    tigergutt wrote:
    transpo wrote:

    I had to study a particularly tricky variation of the Sicilian Najdorf called the Poisoned Pawn.  Because this particular variation is ridled with tactics I had to memorize 400 subvariations of the Poisoned Pawn which today I know cold.

    you know 400 variations of the poisoned pawn and have a tacticsrating of 1163? if you had put all that time you use on openings on tactics and endgames im sure you would be around 2100 here:)

    But you realize that transpo used the tactics trainer exactly 3 times?

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #19

    tigergutt

    Sred wrote:
    tigergutt wrote:
    transpo wrote:

    I had to study a particularly tricky variation of the Sicilian Najdorf called the Poisoned Pawn.  Because this particular variation is ridled with tactics I had to memorize 400 subvariations of the Poisoned Pawn which today I know cold.

    you know 400 variations of the poisoned pawn and have a tacticsrating of 1163? if you had put all that time you use on openings on tactics and endgames im sure you would be around 2100 here:)

    But you realize that transpo used the tactics trainer exactly 3 times?

    yes he got two rights and one wrong

  • 13 months ago · Quote · #20

    Sred

    tigergutt wrote:
    Sred wrote:
    tigergutt wrote:
    transpo wrote:

    I had to study a particularly tricky variation of the Sicilian Najdorf called the Poisoned Pawn.  Because this particular variation is ridled with tactics I had to memorize 400 subvariations of the Poisoned Pawn which today I know cold.

    you know 400 variations of the poisoned pawn and have a tacticsrating of 1163? if you had put all that time you use on openings on tactics and endgames im sure you would be around 2100 here:)

    But you realize that transpo used the tactics trainer exactly 3 times?

    yes he got two rights and one wrong

    3 samples are just not statistically significant and don't tell us anything about his tactical skills.


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