The Opening Playbook: Less memorization, more understanding

In this post, I'll give you tips on learning openings and playing them better.

Improving your openings can get very tedious.

Have you ever tried books or courses only to feel more confused?

Or much worse...

Do you think you finally got it right, only to play games and forget everything in your 6th move?

This happens because you try to memorize lines instead of understanding the central idea & principles behind these moves.

There's a principle I teach my students in Premium Chess Coaching: Understand the opening's spirit (or essence).

You know? Each opening has its spirit or essence, central theme, concepts and tested ways of playing it, making it unique.

If you want to learn & master your opening, you must first understand that.

This might be kinda abstract, so let me give you an example.

At PCC, I teach the Scotch Gambit.

It's a sharp, well-respected gambit among elite players, putting you in sharp positions in the middle game. It's packed with sacrifice ideas against the enemy king.

And the best way to learn it is by understanding its essence.

The Essence of the Scotch Gambit can be resumed in these concepts:

• Quick Development (minor & major pieces) over everything.
• Every move responds to a higher principle, and it's based on the Activity or Coordination of your pieces.
• King safety is important, so always watch the enemy king and sacrifice around it.
• You want to keep your position active so you can attack. Trading a lot of material, especially the Queens, is usually not a good idea. 

Knowing this beforehand is helpful because it helps you to "filter" your moves. You will only make moves that respond to these 3 main concepts.

If you find yourself in a position that you don't remember or is new (most people deviate from the main theory anyway), then you want to remember these principles and choose moves that are aligned with the core essence of your opening.

Let me show you some examples in the Scotch Gambit.

Training position:

So, this is a typical situation when Black deviates from the main lines and, in the early opening, offers White a queen trade.

If you truly understand the spirit of the opening, you'll know that it is important to avoid the Q trades. Instead, you'll be sharp and aggressive.

(Let me know in the comments if you could solve this one)

It's a fact.

Doesn't matter how many opening courses or books you study.

• You'll find opponents that will deviate from the main theory
• 80% of your games will be unknown (especially if you are below 1400)
• In the end, you'll have better frameworks to filter moves and help you choose moves aligned to the core principle/essence/spirit of your opening. 

You wanna improve your openings and chess?

Rule: Less memorization and more understanding.

This message is not for everyone, but if all of these make sense, I think you might be a good fit for Premium Chess Coaching.

When I decided to open my program, I wanted to build a community and program that helps players who:

• Want to Understand chess principles deeply
• Want to Learn how to think better and apply that to their chess
• Want To improve, even if the learning process is hard initially.

And  avoid people who:

• Want to learn cheap tricks in the opening to win fast
• Are Lazy, they want to improve but are not willing to pay the price.
• Are not serious about improving at chess.

If you are in the first category, I hope this post's message and lesson make sense to you and are helpful.

Feel free to message me privately if you want to discuss your openings.

See you on the winning side

Coach Diego