Do Openings Really Not Matter?
Hey Impressive Chessers!
You’ve heard it all before,
“Don’t study openings, just develop your pieces, control the center and get your King safe by castling it to a safe side” - A ton of content creating titled players
Just ask GM Ben Finegold:
“…Openings are irrelevant just learn how to play chess well. Play in the center, develop your pieces. Stop hanging all of your pieces, stop losing on time, learn basic end games…”
And I totally agree! If you do this, you will no doubt…
…Stay impressive!
NM Craig C.
linktr.ee/ChessToImpress
In this blog, I’m going to first show you examples of why you should study openings, even as a sub 2000 rated player. I will also teach you how to study the opening in a way that will help you in all parts of your chess.
1. Critical Lines/Diffusing Traps
-Question 2 (Q2) -Puzzle #1 -Question 3 (Q3) -Puzzle #2
3. How to Study the Opening like a Master
1. Critical Lines/Diffusing Traps
I’m sure a lot of us can remember falling for this trap:
If Black is just following general opening principles they would just continue to lose game after game with 5...Nxd5? So I'd definitely recommend that you study your openings critical lines such as 4. Ng5!? against the Two Knights. Continue on for another reason to study your openings.
Take Me Back to the Table of Contents
Compare these two opening 4 moves:
To see how this game continued:
To see how this game continued:
I think these examples show that if you were to only follow general opening principles, you could get yourself in hot water pretty fast. At the very least these positions are not what you're looking for out of the opening and it's definitely not setting you up for future success.
Take Me Back to the Table of Contents
3. How to Study the Opening like a Master
Okay, okay, I know I just disagreed with people that said not to study openings, and I still do, but they do have a point. A big reason so many people say not to study openings is that some u2000 players take studying openings to a crazy level. They memorize reams and reams of theory without understanding the reason for the moves. Also some players are guilty of blaming their losses on the openings that they play and they constantly switch openings, especially after a painful loss. A lot of the times the opening didn't factor into the loss but what is reason when you're reeling?
10 Things That Will Stunt Your Chess Growth
Okay, so how should we study openings like a master then? --By going over full games! I like to play a few blitz games and then pick which game had the most interesting opening or one where I didn't feel as comfortable as I would've liked. Once you've picked the game to go over, head over to one of the most under-utilized features on chess.com: www.chess.com/explorer. Here you can find tons of masters games and even set it to your own games, to see what you play as White or Black and your scores against different openings and defenses.
One day, I was doing this and I had a game that started:
So luckily, I decided to look at GM games from this position to see where I went wrong and what the typical plans are to counter my opponent's moves. Well there weren't any, because 9. Ndb5 is a bad move.
I had committed the cardinal sin of only memorizing moves instead of understanding why the moves are being played! And as often happens, it's incredibly hard to purely memorize moves rather than understanding and telling yourself a story about why you're playing each opening move. Now I've corrected myself and even have a "model game" to go over:
The reason you want to study openings in this way is that you are also getting to see how a master plays your opening and the middle game that comes from it and possibly even an endgame that comes from your opening. You are getting better at all phases of chess!
Take Me Back to the Table of Contents
So, do openings really not matter if you are under a 2000 rating? It’s true that you should focus on increasing your visualization skills, recognizing and meeting threats, and getting a good endgame knowledge base. But it's much easier to play a middlegame and/or an endgame, when you've played a decent opening. And also studying openings the right way will help your entire game.
The key is balance. Don’t memorize blindly, understand the plans behind the moves. Don’t study only the first ten moves, follow complete games to see how your opening choices impact the middlegame and endgame. And don’t switch openings impulsively after every loss, stick with a repertoire and refine it over time.
When studied properly, openings are not just about survival; they’re about setting yourself up for success in every phase of the game. If you play a good opening, that you feel comfortable with, and have seen a few games where masters have handled your opening, your middlegames and beyond will surely be impressive! And you will no doubt...
…Stay impressive!
NM Craig C.
linktr.ee/ChessToImpress
Disclaimer: I realize that the people advising others to "not study openings" are doing so a little "tongue-in-cheek"; especially GM Finegold. I hope this blogs clears up what is productive opening study and what is the opening study that they are advising against.
Please comment your answers to Q1-4 in the comments
Answers coming by the end of the week unless someone comments all the correct answers sooner.
