here is a good site
it tells you the name of the opening you are playig
How do you guys study your openings?
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I'm not actually sure of any sites that give you a comprehensive overview of whatever opening you want to study, but I'll explain to you how I go about learning openings, using a couple of online resources as examples, but also referring to the use of books, etc.
First off, you want to learn the basic moves and plans of the opening you want to play. The best way to do this is to get a beginning book (such as the Starting Out series) on that opening, but if you don't want to do that, there is a lot of really basic information on Wikipedia about openings that you could use as an absolute starting point if you need to. I would recommend looking both at the page for whatever opening you desire, as well as the page on pawn structures, which outlines the basic plans for different pawn structures - you could just look up the most common structures on there if you want to keep it free.
So at this point, you'll have a few moves memorized and some basic knowledge of the strategy for your opening. Next, I would advise that you look at some games (ideally annotated) in your desired opening. I think that, for this (and you may not agree), it is desireable to look both at games at the highest level (GM vs GM) and at a high vs low level (such as a GM vs a nobody at a simul provided that the GM is playing the side of the opening you want to play) to get a feel for the positions that this opening will get you into. You can look at a lot of games online, or use something like Chessbase Light (also free) for this. The reason I recommend looking at GM vs weaker player games is because it lets you see what to do if your plan is unimpeded by your opponent - it shows the strategic goals of your opening in a really clear way so you know what to aim for even if you will rarely encounter such a situation in your actual games (though you might, depending on your strength). The most important features to look at when you are going over these games are the squares that your opening is aiming to control in the center, basic tactical motifs in the opening, important pawn breaks associated with the opening, and typical piece placement.
Once you have an idea (and it need not be comprehensive) of those things with regards to your opening, I would recommend that you dive right in and attempt to play the opening in blitz. I generally start by playing against a computer (I use Fritz 12, but you could easily find a free engine to do this against) because the computer will generally stick to the main lines of the opening and exploit your mistakes more ruthlessly than a random player online. Once you've played some games, have the computer analyze them to see when you went "out of book". From there, use a database to check what players at the highest level played in that situation and make a note of it. After having gotten a grasp for the main lines, and the plans associated with them (and you can also do this as you're learning main lines for fun), play lots of blitz against human players. This will allow you to sharpen your offensive tools with the opening by learning to punish mistakes that your opponents may make, since when playing against a strong computer, you won't likely get the chance to exploit mistakes, since the computer at full strength won't likely make any. So basically, you can use the computer to shore up weaknesses in your position, while using human players to learn how to exploit weaknesses in an opponent's.
Once you've gotten a good "feel" for the opening, you can play slower games with it - either live or correspondence, depending on whether or not you'd rather practice under pressure or give deeper thought to the strategic themes of the position.
So, that's it - my recommended method for studying openings. It should be noted that this method is for learning openings that are more based on ideas than memorization - you wouldn't necessarily want to use this to learn the Najdorf, for example! Sorry if this was a little wordy - I figured I'd try to be as comprehensive as possible about this method. Of course, this is just a method that I use - it might not work for you, but it's worth a shot.
Out of curiosity, what openings were you looking to play?
I like to watch lessons on youtube. I think they're good for understanding the basic ideas and objectives of an opening and the reasons behind certain moves.
itsabank wrote:
I'm not actually sure of any sites that give you a comprehensive overview of whatever opening you want to study, but I'll explain to you how I go about learning openings, using a couple of online resources as examples, but also referring to the use of books, etc.
First off, you want to learn the basic moves and plans of the opening you want to play. The best way to do this is to get a beginning book (such as the Starting Out series) on that opening, but if you don't want to do that, there is a lot of really basic information on Wikipedia about openings that you could use as an absolute starting point if you need to. I would recommend looking both at the page for whatever opening you desire, as well as the page on pawn structures, which outlines the basic plans for different pawn structures - you could just look up the most common structures on there if you want to keep it free.
So at this point, you'll have a few moves memorized and some basic knowledge of the strategy for your opening. Next, I would advise that you look at some games (ideally annotated) in your desired opening. I think that, for this (and you may not agree), it is desireable to look both at games at the highest level (GM vs GM) and at a high vs low level (such as a GM vs a nobody at a simul provided that the GM is playing the side of the opening you want to play) to get a feel for the positions that this opening will get you into. You can look at a lot of games online, or use something like Chessbase Light (also free) for this. The reason I recommend looking at GM vs weaker player games is because it lets you see what to do if your plan is unimpeded by your opponent - it shows the strategic goals of your opening in a really clear way so you know what to aim for even if you will rarely encounter such a situation in your actual games (though you might, depending on your strength). The most important features to look at when you are going over these games are the squares that your opening is aiming to control in the center, basic tactical motifs in the opening, important pawn breaks associated with the opening, and typical piece placement.
Once you have an idea (and it need not be comprehensive) of those things with regards to your opening, I would recommend that you dive right in and attempt to play the opening in blitz. I generally start by playing against a computer (I use Fritz 12, but you could easily find a free engine to do this against) because the computer will generally stick to the main lines of the opening and exploit your mistakes more ruthlessly than a random player online. Once you've played some games, have the computer analyze them to see when you went "out of book". From there, use a database to check what players at the highest level played in that situation and make a note of it. After having gotten a grasp for the main lines, and the plans associated with them (and you can also do this as you're learning main lines for fun), play lots of blitz against human players. This will allow you to sharpen your offensive tools with the opening by learning to punish mistakes that your opponents may make, since when playing against a strong computer, you won't likely get the chance to exploit mistakes, since the computer at full strength won't likely make any. So basically, you can use the computer to shore up weaknesses in your position, while using human players to learn how to exploit weaknesses in an opponent's.
Once you've gotten a good "feel" for the opening, you can play slower games with it - either live or correspondence, depending on whether or not you'd rather practice under pressure or give deeper thought to the strategic themes of the position.
So, that's it - my recommended method for studying openings. It should be noted that this method is for learning openings that are more based on ideas than memorization - you wouldn't necessarily want to use this to learn the Najdorf, for example! Sorry if this was a little wordy - I figured I'd try to be as comprehensive as possible about this method. Of course, this is just a method that I use - it might not work for you, but it's worth a shot.
Out of curiosity, what openings were you looking to play?
Very nicely written! Thank you so much!
I wanted to learn more about how to play the queen's pawn opening and the sicilian defense (which I hear is more complex than most other openings).
The queen's pawn openings are good (though I'm more of an 1.e4 player myself), but keep in mind that you'll need to learn how to play against all of the various defenses that black can put up against 1.d4. If you're looking for a system that you can play against just about anything that uses 1.d4, especially if you're a relative beginner, I would recommend the Colle System, which is more about acheiving a certain setup and knowing the attacking themes of that setup than it is about memorizing moves or having different responses to everything that Black could play. Another system that is easy to learn and starts with 1.d4 is the London System, so you might want to look into that. Systems such as these are considered relatively harmless at the highest levels of chess, but they pack plenty of punch at lower levels.
As for the Sicilian, it definitely can be very complex and lead to crazy tactical games, but it really depends on which line you choose. For someone just learning the openings, I would recommend the Kan Variation. This line requires a lot less memorization than other lines, and is based more on understanding the ideas. The games aren't typically as sharp with this line as they are with the Dragon or Najdorf variations for example, but you also aren't going to be completely screwed if you make a small mistake, and if you decide later on that you want to play one of the more theoretical Sicilians, your experience with the Kan will still be useful practice with playing in a Sicilian structure.
You didn't mention which one you were looking at learning, or if you'd considered this, but you'll also need a defense against 1.d4, as well as other systems. For you, I would recommend learning the Queen's Gambit Declined. This is an easy-to-learn and useful system that could serve you well through all levels of chess, and can be used against anything but 1.e4.
Best of luck with developing your opening repertoire!
Aug 24, 2010
0
#7
I play the Colle system and here are the steps I followed to learn the opening basics in a few days.
1. Use Chess Mentor (here on chess.com) to play through the opening lessons (day one)
2. Play some practice games to see if I liked it (Day one/two)
3. Ordered a book (in this case, "Zuke'm" by Rudel on the Colle-Zukertort variation) (daye three)
4. Read my way through the book, playing games with it in hand to use its variation tree to learn how to navigate the move order for the first 10 moves based in black's differing responses (two weeks) (note: I lost probably 15 games straight to the computer trying to learn the ins and outs until finally pages 82-87 kicked the computer's butt when it played the exact line in the book with Rudel's variation for answering it)
5. Order another book (in this case, The Moment of Zuke by Rudel) to drill into the positional analysis (week three and onward)
6. Play more games, use Chess.com Computer Analysis after every game to see where I "blundered" and read back through sections of the first book as a check against the computer's opinion, played through the lessons in both books and the tactics trainers (week three)
7. Switch to the Chess.com Chess Videos section and watch the video series on Pawn Structure by IM Danny Rensch which are here http://www.chess.com/video/library.html?author=ACEChess (week three)
8. Reference back to the books and keep playing, try to learn the if/then thought process so I can get further into the lines and deviations without referencing the book
9. Watch ChessTV here on Chess.com (www.chess.com/tv) to watch how FM Elliott Liu analyzed a game outload for everyone while taking chat comments (surprisingly, hearing the voice and having the guy there live on the screen while we could chat with him really seemed to enhance my absorption of the material and was less distracting them I would have imagined)
10. I just ordered another book on 1. d4 openings by Palliser which covers systems related to the Colle because one of Black's defenses to the Colle-Zukertort is giving me heartburn
That about covers my first month here, picking an opening and riding it out. I've learned that I'm terrible at Blitz and Bullett and I've been sticking with mostly standard so I can work through the problems and focus on making the right moves and not feeling rushed.
That's what worked for me, I hope some of that is helpful.
Do you have any recommendable software programs or any good sites that allow you to view/study/memorize your openings?