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Best way to learn an opening repertoire?
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There is, of course, no fast way. Everyone seems to have an opinion on the best way, including me, so here's is my best advice. First of all, forget about memorizing variations. If you try to do that, you will be at a loss when your opponent plays a move you didn't memorize. Even if your opponent cooperates and you get as far as you memorized, you won't know what to do next.
Focus instead on understanding the opening. The best way I know of to do this is to learn how to play the typical pawn structures that arise from the opening: what are the plans for each side? What are the typical tactical themes? What are the best squares for your pieces? This approach has two main benefits. First, this kind of study improves your understanding of positional play, which will help your overall game. Second, when you understand the pawn structures and are ready to start learning variations, you will better understand why certain moves are played and why pieces are developed to certain squares. This will help you in remembering variations.
https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-to-start-out-in-chess
"... For beginning players, [Discovering Chess Openings] will offer an opportunity to start out on the right foot and really get a feel for what is happening on the board. ..." - FM Carsten Hansen (2006)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf
Detailed suggestions are provided by Moret in his My-First-Chess-Opening-Repertoire-for-White book.
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9033.pdf
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/vincent-moret/
Opening Repertoire 1 e4 and Keep it Simple 1.e4 are somewhat similar sorts of book.
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7819.pdf
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9068.pdf
Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014) combines explanation of principles with starting opening suggestions. Of necessity, his opening descriptions are less detailed (than those of Moret) because he tried to offer choices to the reader and give some indication of how a player might choose what to try.
http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/openings-for-amateurs/
https://www.mongoosepress.com/catalog/excerpts/openings_amateurs.pdf
Once one has chosen openings, I think that there is wide agreement that the way to start is by playing over sample games. Some of us think that it can be useful to use books like First Steps: 1 e4 e5 and First Steps: Queen's Gambit
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7790.pdf
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7652.pdf
as sources of games with explanations intended for those just starting to learn about an opening. Be sure to try to use the openings in games in between sessions of learning. Most of the time, one faces a position with no knowledge of a specific move indicated in a book. One has to accept that as part of chess, and think of opening knowledge as a sometimes helpful aid. After a game, it makes sense to try to look up the moves in a book and see if it has some indication of how one might have played better in the opening. Many opening books are part explanation and part reference material. The reference material is included in the text with the idea that one mostly skips it on a first reading, and looks at an individual item when it applies to a game that one has just played. Resist the temptation to try to turn a book into a mass memorization project. There are many important subjects that one should not neglect because of too much time on opening study.
https://www.chess.com/article/view/learning-an-opening-to-memorize-or-understand
https://www.chess.com/article/view/3-ways-to-learn-new-openings
https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-to-understand-openings
"... Overall, I would advise most players to stick to a fairly limited range of openings, and not to worry about learning too much by heart. ..." - FM Steve Giddins (2008)
"... I feel that the main reasons to buy an opening book are to give a good overview of the opening, and to explain general plans and ideas. ..." - GM John Nunn (2006)
"... If the book contains illustrative games, it is worth playing these over first ..." - GM John Nunn (2006)
"... the average player only needs to know a limited amount about the openings he plays. Providing he understands the main aims of the opening, a few typical plans and a handful of basic variations, that is enough. ..." - FM Steve Giddins (2008)
"... Everyman Chess has started a new series aimed at those who want to understand the basics of an opening, i.e., the not-yet-so-strong players. ... I imagine [there] will be a long series based on the premise of bringing the basic ideas of an opening to the reader through plenty of introductory text, game annotations, hints, plans and much more. ..." - FM Carsten Hansen (2002)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627055734/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen38.pdf
"The way I suggest you study this book is to play through the main games once, relatively quickly, and then start playing the variation in actual games. Playing an opening in real games is of vital importance - without this kind of live practice it is impossible to get a 'feel' for the kind of game it leads to. There is time enough later for involvement with the details, after playing your games it is good to look up the line." - GM Nigel Davies (2005)
"... Review each of your games, identifying opening (and other) mistakes with the goal of not repeatedly making the same mistake. ... It is especially critical not to continually fall into opening traps – or even lines that result in difficult positions ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2007)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627062646/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman81.pdf
Dec 30, 2018
0
#5
OldPatzerMike wrote:
There is, of course, no fast way. Everyone seems to have an opinion on the best way, including me, so here's is my best advice. First of all, forget about memorizing variations. If you try to do that, you will be at a loss when your opponent plays a move you didn't memorize. Even if your opponent cooperates and you get as far as you memorized, you won't know what to do next.
Focus instead on understanding the opening. The best way I know of to do this is to learn how to play the typical pawn structures that arise from the opening: what are the plans for each side? What are the typical tactical themes? What are the best squares for your pieces? This approach has two main benefits. First, this kind of study improves your understanding of positional play, which will help your overall game. Second, when you understand the pawn structures and are ready to start learning variations, you will better understand why certain moves are played and why pieces are developed to certain squares. This will help you in remembering variations.
Great advice! A NM gave a talk to the very successful chess club I coached and the teens were stunned when, after asking him what openings he liked best, he answered, "I like any opening that gets me to a playable middlegame."
One reason that team was successful was that I taught them openings that tended to lead to specific types of middlegames. For example, the French Defense relies on an early ...c5 and pressure on the Queenside. The Bishop's Opening, which had been out of favor for 60 years when I taught it, often involves and early f4 before Nf3, castling O-O-O, then launching a Pawn Storm on the Kingside.
When I play the Caro-Kann and Slav, there are certain closed variations where I know I need to play ...c5 as early as possible if I hope to win.
So when you study the ideas behind the opening, look at where the opening tends to lead you!
What's the best and fastest way? Is it by reading a whole book? Or perhpas by watching super-GM games and analyzing the openings? Or maybe by studying through the computer moves?
thank you