Chess Opening Flashcards

Does anybody make flashcards for their iPhone or other mobile device to learn openings?  If so, what procedures are required to do so?  Thanks.

David

how would it help you learn openings?

You can have an opening position on oneside and the answer (the move you've decided to play) on the back.

i could recommend an app called chess openings lite, which is the free version. it has a quiz mode asking which move is most popular from a certain position, though you cant select openings.

Part of what I think Flashcards can help with is showing a postion say 5-8 moves into the game and the outlining plans for both sides on the back.

I have tried making some to use on Flashcard Deluxe v.3.3  They work well, but take quite a bit of time to complete.

I will try to post a tutorial of sorts in the next couple of days for those that want to give it a shot.

Programs/websites you will need (or one similar)"

A Chess Diagram Editor that can save as PGN or Gif

http://www.apronus.com/chess/wbeditor.php 

A spreadsheet to imput moves/variations/questions/pgn files

I use Excel

Flashcards Deluxe v3.3 for iphone works well for me

http://orangeorapple.com/Flashcards/Default.aspx

Once you have these you are ready to go.

Below are the instructions for making cards.  Seems like a lot of steps but once you try it, you will see that the most time is done entering lines into a spreadsheet.  Hope this helps some of you.  It has helped me greatly.

1. In excel you will need minimum 2 columns (3 if you want to show a diagram) named: Text 1  Text 2  Picture 1

Under Text 1 input your opening moves for that variation, question regarding planning or move order (whatever you want to learn).

Under Text 2 input your answer

Under Picture 1 copy the diagram name you made exactly as you saved it with .gif at the end

2. Making the diagram: Go to your chess diagram editor, make your position and save it to your desktop

Ex) French advanced1.gif   Add .gif to the end, that seems to be required for flashcards deluxe to read it correctly.  Copy this name under Picture 1.

3. Select and copy all rows and columns include text 1 through picture 1.

4. Now, go to the flashcards deluxe webiste and select make falshcards.

5. type in a name you can remember as this is how you will download your cards onto your iphone later. Ex) frenchadv

6. Paste the copied cells from your spreadsheet.  Note: don't worry about format, it will look odd but it is fine.

7. Clcik make flashcards. 

8. Once complete, select upload pictures

9. Browse your desktop (I suggest making a folder for chess openings that you place all spreadsheets and pics into for ease of access) and select your position.  It should match what you have written under picture 1.

10. Complete the upload and you should be ready to upload your cards.  If you get an error, chances are you didn't have .gif after the picture name.

11. Open you iphone flashcards app; press the + sign to add cards.  Select Private deck. Type in your name "frenchadv".  then download your cards.

Then enjoy learning from flashcards.

If you are already quite an experienced player, then learning the openings in a serious way like this can be useful.

My recommendation for those ranked 1500 and under: Stick with studying tactics, and save openings for later.

Don't know how great this is for a mobile device, but it is quite good for an online resource:

http://www.eudesign.com/chessops/ch-clear.htm

I'm 1830 USCF. Maybe it's not as helpful for lower rated players, but since most players own more opening books than anything at least this can provide structure to learning their opening. This method can be used for endgames, tactics that occur in ones own games, or pawn structures too. I have mainly used it to learn planning based on Silman's imbalances out of the opening into the middle game. Masters can use it for straight memorization. Lots of possibilities.

The eurodesign site can also be used to save a position you want to remember as a gif file to your computer for later reference.

You know, there's nothing better to learn openings, then to understand the theory behind certain structures, it's why pawn structure can be very important.

But, If you want 2 books just covering openings of which I have here (and are quite good although one is very analytical) 

I recommend reading Catastrophe in the Opening (By James Plaskett) [Less Analytical, it's currently quite a nice read, very practical applications, good instructive games] and (although it's biased towards only explaining e4 theory for white, although it covers d4 for black) if you can find a copy The Chess Advantages in Black and White (by Larry Kauffman) [Very Analytical, not as friendly, but good solid book]

*Edit*

A third, although extremely brief suggestion would be the Complete Book of Chess Strategy (By Jeremy Silman) it covers a lot of openings briefly, but it has the clear, simple theory for every one [Very Brief for most however 1-2 pages, it also touches on other subjects like passed pawns bla bla bla etc.

Could anyone following this post their flash card sets to http://quizlet.com/

It's a good website to share flashcards. I'm particularly looking for with diagrams .there are also a couple sets on that already

There is a flashcard platform especially for chess openings with an interactive chess board. You can check it here: https://flashchess.github.io/flashcard 

Chess opening flashcards produced specifically for Anki with the spaced repetition.

Anki has a mobile app for both iOS and Android. 

chess opening flashcards

Thanks, you know the word desktop version of AnkI?