Developing an Opening Repertoire
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why dont see my post"super opening",u learnt more
The Sicilian is not a good choice for a beginner. The Spanish Game is okay, but the Italian for a beginner is probably better.
Playing as white, pick out simple openings that don't require much thought. The exchange variations of most semi-open games (1.e4 and black plays something other than e5) are good. The Spanish game isn't too bad, but there are a lot of variations. The Italian has fewer variations, and is easier to play. The King's Indian Attack and Colle System are openings that don't require theory, but rather understanding of patterns and basic play.
As black, go away from the Sicilian, which is very complex. Simpler openings such as the Center-Counter, Italian Game, Queen's Gambit Accepted would be the way to play.
I suggest playing the open games (e4.e5) as much as possible as these are most classically minded and logical openings.
ericmittens wrote: I suggest playing the open games (e4.e5) as much as possible as these are most classically minded and logical openings.
Agreed.In my opinion 1.e4 e5 is the best start for beginners.
Arturo_Campos wrote Anyway I have heard from some good players that the best way to improve in chess is studying endgames.
Beginners often spend too much time memorizing opening moves without an understanding of opening fundamentals. The beginner will become easily confused when his or her opponent varies from memorized lines. Therefore, beginners are well advised to initially avoid memorizing opening moves. "Openings teach you openings. Endgames teach you chess!" (Gerzadowicz).
Mar 12, 2008
0
#7
I wholeheartedly agree that e4 e5 is the way to begin. However, if you're playing online with strangers, you end up playing againsts alot of Sicilian and French that way. I actually abandoned e4 for this reason. The better I got, the more Sicilian as white I had to play, which I really don't enjoy.
Learn opening principles first and then live opening principles. Meaning, you have to be able to play a solid (even stodgy) opening all the way until development is complete, every time, before you start worrying about specific lines.
I stopped playing e4 for exactly the same reasons. (I took up the english) Now as I start playing in over-the-board tourneys I'm slowly starting to realize the need to learn the theory necessary to play e4. Aggressiveness is important.
Mar 12, 2008
0
#9
Gentlemen,
Thank you for all your advice. This is all very good stuff. Just to let you know, I normally open e4 e5. The difficulty is that I've read all the "principles" about opening chess (mobilize your pieces, don't move a piece twice, blah blah), and the odd thing that I've discovered is that if I just play with principles in mind but no specific opening strategy as such, I win much more often than when I try to experiment with, say, the Ruy Lopez or the Sicilian. I've been surprised that my recent study of chess openings has hurt my game rather than helped it.
A few points:
1) I like Paintbucket's advice that I study simpler openings. Frankly, I didn't realize that the beginner could get swallowed alive studying and playing the Sicilian. I'll now aim to study one simply open for white (perhaps the Italian) and one simple opening for black.
2) I don't want to give anyone the impression that I'm looking for some easy formula to memorize supposedly invincible moves. Orejano is dead-on with his advice and his quotation. I want to understand openings and play them effectively, not just merely memorize them. However, I should start somewhere and perhaps Paintbucket's suggestions would be a good place to begin.
3) Like Senor Campos, I've heard that endgame study is the best way to improve chess. Perhaps I should think more about that.
Thanks for all your help. Any more advice is welcome and deeply appreciated.
Developing an opening repitoire is a tough task. Whatever way you go about doing it i wish you the best of luck. Dont underestimate just playing regularly though. When i started to develop an opening repitoire i simply played many many blitz games and began to recognise that some opening positions kept occuring. I took note of these frequent positions and would then look up the moves in NCO to find out if i was playing the opening correct. After a while i would be able to go one or two moves further into an opening and if a position kept occuring after that i would look it up again. Okay, to say that thats all i done is a lie but i did and still do that at times and has proved helpful. Try to avoid opening books that simply provide many variations without explaining the moves (yes i did mention NCO but i use it aswel as other books) so try find an opening book that provides the main ideas of the opening too and that focuses on what sort of advantages/disadvantages you will have going into the middlegame. To be honest, simply playing games and going through master games will help your opening play. Its a tough task but if you like chess alot its not a problem 
good luck,
Graeme
As a beginner, as you stated you were, play open games. 1.e4 is about right and from there there are many to choose from. There's a lot of play in the Italian Game and it should be in your list. What you should not do is pick one and learn extensively. You should only put a lot of work in the opening when your general play picks up, especially the endgame and middle game (mostly tactics).
But you do need to learn a couple of general openings...
Pick up 4 or 5 as White (even three is fine if you think that's too much), learn the first four or five moves, and some variations, and most importantly the idea of the opening. You can then base your plans from there.
As for Black you should have one defense for e4 and one for d4.
To get a feel for it, play out games which feature your openings. Keep playing your chosen openings. After a game, always analyse your games. You look at where you start getting into trouble. That's when you try to find improvements and look up a database of games or ask somewhere in the forum where you went wrong. Also take note of the tactics and traps that keep occuring in your opening.
When you get used to it, feel free to try out a couple of other variations in the opening.
I find this site very useful for beginner's learning the opening. It also suggests openings suitable for the different grades of players. Good luck!
I'm surprised no one else has mentioned this, so...
The main reason most beginners come out of the opening behind or outright losing isn't because they don't understand opening theory. It's because they don't understand tactics. As a beginner, your first job after learning the basics (force, time, space, pawn structure) is to learn tactics, tactics, tactics. Live and breath it. Read a good tactics book, then spend as much time as you can here at the chess.com Tactical Trainer, or on emrald.net or buy a book of problems to work on... AND also study the endgame. The endgame is important both because it's important to understand how to prosecute the winning positions you work so hard for (and save the drawn ones) and because it really does teach you so much about chess. (Opposition, zugzwang in positions you're likely to see in real life, tactics in a simple, realistic setting, etc.) After your tactics are strong and you understand the endgames appropriate to your level (more on that later), some basic strategy is, I think, the most appropriate next area of study. (Seirawan's "Winning Chess Strategy", for example.) Only after understand these three basic areas (tactics, endings, strategy) and played many, many games are you really in a good position to really get anything out of studying openings. (One of the main reasons for studying openings after strategy is because you really need to understand strategy to understand the kind of middle game the opening you're studying is trying to achieve.)
And so, on to endgame study. I think that the best tool for studying the endgame theory that you need to know right now is "Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner To Master" by Jeremy Silman. If you tried to pick up something like Keres' "Practical Chess Endings" and tried to work all the way through it, you'd be completely overwhelmed studying things that you just won't be able to apply at your level. Unfortnately, no one told you which endgames to study, so you don't know any better. Silman's book is broken up by levels. You read up to the level of play you've achieved, then put it down and go play and study other stuff until you hit the level of the next section. A much better plan of action, in my book. :)
One of the reasons I may seem so... um... passionate(?) about this subject is because I fell into the same trap you did. I always came out of the opening losing, so I thought it was my opening theory that was week. To battle this I started studying openings that led to closed or semi-closed games (knowing my strategy was stronger than my tactics). Admittedly, it did improve my results since I could pretty much control the direction of the opening regardless of what my opponent wanted to do (the Colle and the Caro-Kahn, if you're wondering). But then I finally decided to work on the weakest part of my game, tactics. After rereading Seirawan's Winning Chess Tactics and doing at least a hundred problems a day on emrald.net for a couple of months, I found that I no longer feared the open games that had been giving me so much trouble in the past. I could just play good opening principles and come out of the opening even or ahead, without even giving a thought to what variation of what opening I was playing. Not only that, but now open games were fun! :) I do plan to get back to studying openings at some point, but I really wish someone would have told me earlier that it opening theory wasn't what my problem really was.
I hope this was, in some way, helpful to you. Good luck in your pursuits!
I think what he wanted to do was advice on developing his opening repertoire. Even beginners have to learn a few openings.
Eric Schiller's First Chess Openings by Cardoza Publishings is an excellent book that covers Bishop's opening for white and simplistic lines for black. The book itself is only 160 pages total and is written rather well, making for a enjoyable read. I have used the book in conjunction with tactics training to improve my game over the last five months and am pleased with the results.
What some do for an opening repertoire is simply try and adopt the openings of one of their favorite players. I used to try and play Fischer's openings even as a beginner. I soon realized though that the najdorf sicilian as black for me was far too complex/complicated with too much theory. I had to modify my repertoire to suit me, my strengths and weaknesses and the level of my play at the given time. As white you will need to choose which first move you are going to play and then you will have to learn the popular black defenses to your choice. As black you will need one or two good openings against 1e4 and also 1d4, the English 1c4 is also played regularly. My first repertoire was easy as I chose to play KID against any white opening other than 1e4 and had a main defense against 1e4.
Anatoly Karpov once said if you want to improve your game , study the endgame !
amrou wrote: Anatoly Karpov once said if you want to improve your game , study the endgame !
No point in studying the endgame if you cant get to the endgame!!...especially not a winning one. No matter what, every game has an opening phase so it is important to be able to get through it.
What do you folks think about the Caro-Kahn for a beginner. My old chess teacher started me playing that with black, but as I've done some reading, I think his whole position on teaching chess was perhaps a little backwards. Thoughts?
Mar 13, 2008
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#19
Zaccheus, there's a book by Bruce Pandolfini called The Winning Way: The How, What and Why of Opening Strategems. I think it might be just what you're looking for. It avoids using the classic labels like "Queen's Gambit", "English Opening," etc., and focuses instead on recognizing the opportunities and power imbalances that emerge within the first few moves. You end up with a solid grounding in openings, but never are you burdened with rote memorizations of moves whose purposes are unclear to you.
It's worth checking out.
Agree with nineofjoker. Eric Schiller's First Chess Openings by Cardoza Publishings was my first openings book. That is a great start.
I have an open question for the chess.com community: how does a beginner slowly develop a stable (and winnable!) opening repertoire?
I am a beginner and have been trying to advance my game by studying openings. Oddly enough, my playing has gotten worse (sometimes, much worse) whenever I try to implement openings, even when I understand the basic strategies behind the moves.
To be more concrete, I've focused on the Ruy Lopez for White and the Sicilian Defense for Black. Much to my surprise and frustration, I find that these classic openings usually leave me in a much worse mess than when I ignorantly concocted random--and rarely repeated--openings of my own.
What's going on? How does a beginner develop some solid openings?