My return to chess, 1 year on

Its been a year exactly since I took up chess again properly! 

Started learning chess when I was about 6, and joined my primary school chess club at around 9 or 10. Was never 'taught' as such, just played against my dad who taught me the rules, I learnt just by playing. I remember being pretty good for my age, the only game I remember losing (although I'm sure there were others!) was in a school tournament in last year of primary school where I blundered in a big way, lost queen or rook or something, was even more upset later when I was told my opponent was the county champion at the time! Then I just stopped playing when I began high school. I probably played the odd game with my dad, but that was it.

Fast forward some 17 years or so and I decided I'd like to get back playing. Joined up on here, with fond memories of stuffing people and started a few games just to get a feel. 

I was God awful, no matter what moves I did in the beginning, my opponent had a better response. Later in the game, I'd come back, but by then I'd be down in material, in a poor position, and struggle to a win or draw if I was lucky. So I wasn't as good as I remember being!

The problem, I found, is that nearly everyone I played knew the usual d4, e4 openings and how to play against them, whereas I didn't have a clue.

"You need to study! Learn all the common openings! Tactics, tactics, tactics!" were all the replies. I didn't have time for study, and certainly didn't want to buy friggin books or pay for a chess coach (I'm that tight I haven't even bought a premium membership on here!). I knew my mid game technique wasn't bad, my end game was OK, but my opening knowledge sucked. Literally, I couldn't tell you the first 3 moves of a queens gambit, kings pawn opening or scandanavian, let alone what the differences were (still can't tbh  ). But the worst bit was playing as black, as a kid I despised playing as black, and spent any time practising as white so I knew even less about opening moves as black! It was frustrating, despite all the ridiculous opening moves and blunders I knew I was better than what I was doing.

At this point, you're probably looking at my rating and figuring that I must know something about the game.

As white, I struggled to play on with e4 or d4, and as black I tried giving this sicilian defense a try. I got a better rating, winning most games as black against much stronger rated opponents, but still hardly any wins as white against weaker players. I asked a question, how come I'm better as black (and noting that I use the sicilian defense to good effect, but haven't a clue as white) and got this response....

Ghostofmarcozy, I thank you. I spent a good while researching and reading up on the English opening, hours and and hours. It was sound, much less popular than e4 or d4 and my opponents seemed much less prepared. I began beating players much easier again, finding my position stronger for the mid game. However, as I got better (around 1700), I found I had problems as black playing people used to playing against the sicilian - they new what I was going to move before I did. I then found a more obscure opening, 1. g6. A mirrored g3 move I'd often play as white on move 2. so it felt familiar. I read up on the modern defence (thank you Nigel Davies!) and a load of variations, it went against a lot of opening principles but it seemed natural. I loved the passiveness of it, allowing white to attack and fit my game perfectly. Nearly every game I've played over the last 6 months has featured the english opening or the modern, and both have lead to some very interesting games.

I'm now looking in to the Benko as white, and might look at other minor openings as black, can't ever imagine myself using the typical openings!

So in a year, I've managed to achieve a 2000 rating, which i beyond what I had hoped, but I suppose I still don't 'feel' like a 2000 player. Although I remembered a lot of the mid game stuff from a kid, and things like strategy, I had to take a bit of a short cut, and specialise in just one or two openings. I still couldn't play the common openings now with confidence, and I'm not as good as my Dad at teaching the game (I let the wife play on live chess but you can lead a horse to water....)

I now think I'm ready to join a local chess club and to improve, and continue to play on here.

Who knows, I might even get a premium membership...

Congratulations on breaking 2000! How much time do you spend per time and how do you divide it up? Do you only study openings? What do you think is the best way to study openings? (I love Kasparov's annotated games from A Revolution in the Opening)

1) How much time

Depends how many games I have going. I love playing on the analysis board, and can spend anything up to 3 hours over 1 move. I suppose 2 to 3 hours a day on average over the last 6 months, mainly on here planning my next move.

2) Do you study

I don't study openings (studying really doesn't interest me), other than the couple of weeks looking on internet articles and playing with the analysis board when deciding to try out the English opening and the modern, that was out of neccessity though! I like looking over the odd game when I have a spare 10 minutes.

I do like the daily puzzle and tactics games though (when I remember!)

3) Best way to study openings

Can't really advise you on that, different for different people. I like looking on random peoples profiles who play the same openings as me (its definitely worth joining a couple of groups where they play the same openings you enjoy) and then looking through their games and picking up ideas. I've never read a chess book (I'm not a big reader!) but do like looking at the odd article on the internet, or posts on the forums containing games.

Congrats!

Funny, everyone tells me my opening skills are my worst part of my game, too!

Impressive - and a fascinating story!

Very ineresting notes on your return-to-chess experience. I'm sure thousands of chessplayers have experienced this in one way or another. I myself started playing on chess.com about 18 months ago after 30 years of inactivity! And I feelt (and still feel!) that my weaknesses are the same as yours, particularly openings. But we try to learn - and judging from our games, limited number of openings does not have to translate into boring games!

Cheers for the comments.

I think, sturlastef, that in chess stuff like pattern recognition that covers stuff like tactics is automatic if you've had previous experience, no matter how long ago it was. A bit like the riding a bike metaphor, but with openings its just so specific, and to achieve the optimum result the best players must know the best 8 to 12 (probably more) moves of any opening they choose and play them in a certain order. Thats the sort of thing I struggle with as I never had it in the first place. 

I find playing the English opening helps me develop my attacking and pressing game, while playing the modern or a variation helps develop my defensive and planning abilities.

I´m sure it does. Keep up the good work!