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How to study opening books?
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In a 2006 GM John Nunn book, in connection with opening study, it is stated that, if a "book contains illustrative games, it is worth playing these over first", and the reader was also advised, "To begin with, only study the main lines - that will cope with 90% of your games, and you can easily fill in the unusual lines later."
"... 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)
In one of his books about an opening, GM Nigel Davies wrote (2005), "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."
https://www.chess.com/article/view/3-ways-to-learn-new-openings
Thanks for the advice kindaspongey!
If you have got a database (or can use an online source like on this site), it may even be a good idea to flick through a larger number of games relatively quickly, not pausing for deeper analysis. The point of this is to just absorb patterns quickly by repetition.
kindaspongey wrote:
"To begin with, only study the main lines - that will cope with 90% of your games, and you can easily fill in the unusual lines later."
This bit of advice is probably more applicable at higher levels of play where main lines are the norm. At lower levels it's the unusual lines that seem to occur more frequently.
Yes . Go Over Games and Main Lines First
Use opening books on specific openings or repertoires so that you understand the reasons behind the openings. For example, the openings with an early Bc4 aim at a kingside attack. The Sicilian Defense opens the c-file for Black and aims at a queenside attack. It's NOT necessary to memorize reams of opening trees for most club-level players. The openings should be used along with the ideas from books like Nimzowitsch's My System or Soltis's How to Reassess Your Chess: control the center squares, reinforce your pieces, avoid pins, make moves that threaten, etc.
General surveys like v.d.Sterren's Fundamental Chess Openings or even the old Reuben Fine's The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings are great places to find opening you feel comfortable with. Books like MCO or Nunn's Chess Openings are NOT for understanding the openings: they useful for exploring where branches in the opening tree can lead: often their summaries (equal game, etc.) are there to tell you that you won't get into trouble going along that branch. Analysis with programs like Scid vs PC, Lucas Chess, Arena, or pay-for programs make you familiar with where the opening might go.
You want a repertoire so that you know how to proceed toward a playable middle game if, for example, you play 1 e4 and your opponent responds ...e5, ...c5, ...e6, ...Nf6.
I used to think I needed to memorize reams of opening moves until I invited a chess master to give a talk to the high school chess team I coached. He said the purpose of the opening was simply to get him to a playable middle game and that focusing on middlegame strategy and tactics and endgame techniques was where we wanted to concentrate. I coached the team to multiple county championships and 3rd, 4th, 5th in state in 3 consecutive years. We spent less time worrying about openings than most other teams. We often played openings like the Bishop's Opening 1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 because not many players know it well and it got us to the middle game where our better preparation on tactics paid off.
I usually just go trough the games first and then create PGN files with all the analysis and theory that the author gives.
Altho you should not blindly copy it, try to annotate the theory and also look for improvements. Authors are not perfect and theory changes.
HAVE A GOOD YEAR EVERYONE.
Arcteon wrote:
kindaspongey wrote:
"To begin with, only study the main lines - that will cope with 90% of your games, and you can easily fill in the unusual lines later."
This bit of advice is probably more applicable at higher levels of play where main lines are the norm. At lower levels it's the unusual lines that seem to occur more frequently.
I wonder if this somewhat depends on how one thinks of the length of the line. Even at a low level, after 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3, how often does one get 2...Nc6 ?
German_MagnusCarlsen wrote:
I recently purchased Larry Kaufman's complete repertoire book because I was in search of a reliable opening repertoire that I could use in my tournament play. However, I am currently not really sure how to use the book effectively. He provides a lot of analysis (sub variations and more sub variations) on his recommendations, so I don't no how to summarize it into variations that I can realistically learn and study. Hence, I would appreciate some advice regarding how to approach repertoire books. How do you study the opening using opening books?
This probably will not be good news, but I suspect that it is generally necessary to supplement repertoire books with books on the individual openings - books that have more space for sample games and explanations of ideas.
You can look up games in the databases bud.
BronsteinPawn wrote:
Altho you should not blindly copy it, try to annotate the theory and also look for improvements. Authors are not perfect and theory changes.
That is exactly what I have been trying to do. Thanks for the advice BronsteinPawn!
I found that book to be rubbish.
1) Very difficult to physically read as book does not stay open on a page so hard to ead and play. poorly laid out
2) He seems to have just used an engine to work out his repetoire, always looking for lines engines like. So unless you an engine it not much use.
A much better d4 repetoire book is by Watson A strategic opening repetoire for white.
One thing I will say about them is you do not need to follow all their choices. For Example Watsons book is d4 then c4, the Benoni he recommends the modern h3 but I like the knights tour variation so I just ignore that section
The Kaufman book was reviewed favorably.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140626221508/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen162.pdf
So was the Watson book.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627105428/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen161.pdf
However:
"Just because a book contains lots of information that you don’t know, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be extremely helpful in making you better at this point in your chess development." - Dan Heisman (2001)
Before investing in Watson, it might be a good idea to look at an online sample in order to try to get an idea about whether or not the book is right for you at this time.
http://www.gambitbooks.com/pdfs/A_Strategic_Chess_Opening_Repertoire_for_White.pdf
kindaspongey wrote:
The Kaufman book was reviewed favorably.
The other problem with Kaufman is it tries to cover White and Black so is lighter for white.
Reading Watsons book (have them both in front of me now) comes across as much better researched, and with more explanation. it seems meatier. Also the book itself is much nicer, and has at least Two or Three times as much info on every page
"Just because a book contains lots of information that you don’t know, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be extremely helpful in making you better at this point in your chess development." - Dan Heisman (2001)
Before investing in Watson, it might be a good idea to look at an online sample in order to try to get an idea about whether or not the book is right for you at this time.
http://www.gambitbooks.com/pdfs/A_Strategic_Chess_Opening_Repertoire_for_White.pdf
I recently purchased Larry Kaufman's complete repertoire book because I was in search of a reliable opening repertoire that I could use in my tournament play. However, I am currently not really sure how to use the book effectively. He provides a lot of analysis (sub variations and more sub variations) on his recommendations, so I don't no how to summarize it into variations that I can realistically learn and study. Hence, I would appreciate some advice regarding how to approach repertoire books. How do you study the opening using opening books?