Looking for a clean slate

Hello all,

Sorry if this is kind of long, I will put a tl;dr at the end.

I have played chess informally all my life (I'm 27 if that matters) and just started really learning the game in the past year. I am attempting to break bad habits and form good ones based on sound positional play.

I feel I can become a really good player in time and I want to go through the process of getting there. I am not the type of person who cares a lot about my rating or win percentage. I want to become great at the game on a fundamental level and feel comfortable playing against any opponent.

To cut to the chase: I am looking to start 2019 with an entirely new opening repertoire to study and learn. My thinking is that if I start from scratch with new openings I won't be biased by my old habits as much. If this thinking is flawed I'm open to that feedback as well.

My criteria is this:

I want to have every common situation covered. My thinking is at least if I have a opening move for white with a conceptual plan and a response for black against e4 d4 Nf3 and c4 then I can have the most consistency possible.

On that note of consistency I would like each opening to have some similar concepts so that I can have some sense of familiarity with the kinds of positions I see across different games

I do not want to simply memorize lines. I want to become familiar with ideas and goals of an opening so that when my opponent does something screwy on move 9 it doesn't throw off my whole game plan. I don't know if this is necessarily relevant information but if some openings lend themselves more to a lot of memorization I might want to look in another direction.

This is not to say that I don't want hard openings to play. I am not looking to win the most games possible next month, I am looking to grow as a chess player. So for example if the Slav defense would be a great choice but is very challenging to find success with without a ton of experience I am comitted to taking the time to gain that experience and grow as a player.

Finally, I do not want to play the English or French openings. I have played both of these extensively and this is mainly where I feel I have a lot of bad habits that need to be broken.

tl;dr: I am looking for openings that share concepts and are viable being played at the highest possible level.

Thanks in advance!

Thanks, you've solved all my problems.

I didn't respond at first as I thought this would get loads of responses. Disclaimer: not all of these are lines that I play, I'm just recommending what I believe would be best suited for you.

You don't like the French or English - hence my guess is you want something that takes a firm hold on the centre, so no hypermodern stuff like the KID or Grunfeld. Against 1.d4 the Queen's Gambit Declined is a good classical option you can go for, and against 1.e4 the Petroff is what I recommend. As white, as you're looking for a clean slate you should go for 1.e4, which is the furthest away from 1.c4. Again you want to play good classical setups - the Italian Game and Open Sicilian are what to play.

Thanks for the reply! I'm really open to just about anything I just wanted to stay away from the english and french because I have played them a lot before I really committed to improving as a player. 

I think playing more classical makes a lot of sense but starting 1.e4 as white makes me nervous. I have heard that e4 can lead to a lot of very aggressive positions. 

It's a bit of a myth to be honest. I play both 1.e4 and 1.d4 and I find that there isn't really a meaningful difference in terms of how sharp the game is. However, given that you don't want sharp positions I would scrap my recommendation of the Open Sicilian, instead going for an Anti-Sicilian like the Alapin. If you want to play 1.d4 instead, it's hard to go wrong with 1.d4 2.c4 3.Nf3, for example: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bf4, which was played in the World Championship (via a different move order). Against 1.d4 there are a couple of very sharp setups - the Dutch Defense and the King's Indian Defense. You'll want to devote some time to studying against these setups

Cool, thank you!

Yeah I think once I get better I would like to incorporate more calculated risk and "sharpness" into my game, but at the moment my focus is on playing tight and making few mistakes even if it means winning less. Thanks for the great recommendations, I will definitely look into those systems.

Opening Principles:

1. Control the center squares – d4-e4-d5-e5
2. Develop your minor pieces toward the center – piece activity is the key
3. Castle
4. Connect your rooks

Tactics...tactics...tactics...

The objective of development is about improving the value of your pieces by increasing the importance of their roles. Well-developed pieces have more fire-power than undeveloped pieces and they do more in helping you gain control.

Now we will look at 5 practical things you can do to help you achieve your development objective.

They are:

1. Give priority to your least active pieces.

• Which piece needs to be developed (which piece is the least active)
• Where should it go (where can its role be maximized)

2. Exchange your least active pieces for your opponent’s active pieces.
3. Restrict the development of your opponent’s pieces.
4. Neutralize your opponent’s best piece.
5. Secure strong squares for your pieces.

Don’t help your opponent develop.

There are 2 common mistakes whereby you will simply be helping your opponent to develop:

1. Making a weak threat that can easily be blocked
2. Making an exchange that helps your opponent to develop a piece

Pre Move Checklist:

1. Make sure all your pieces are safe.
2. Look for forcing moves: Checks, captures, threats. You want to look at ALL forcing moves (even the bad ones) as this will force you look at, and see the entire board.
3. If there are no forcing moves, you then want to remove any of your opponent’s pieces from your side of the board.
4. If your opponent doesn’t have any of his pieces on your side of the board, then you want to improve the position of your least active piece.
5. After each move by your opponent, ask yourself: "What is my opponent trying to do?"

Hey @IMBacon, thanks for the helpful advice!

Glad to help.  And to actually address your question.   Openings are the last  thing you should be spending time on.  Learning openings at your level is a waste.  Your games are won, and lost because of blunders, and tactics.  But obviously the choice is yours.

Opening theory does not matter if one side is tactically better than the other. (Strategy, positions and planning does not matter if one side is tactically better than the other). But, if both sides are evenly matched, then openings might be the game changer. So, everyone needs openings because you are often playing against someone who is tactically of same calibre as you. Of course, players at all levels can improve much faster if they become tactically more proficient. But this feat is easier said than done. It is quite easy to miss tactics in a real game. The biggest problem for beginners is that they can constantly drop pieces. This is due to lack of good board vision. So, beginners can improve much faster if they concentrate on board vision (and not drop pieces) during the game. Again, this is easier said than done. Board vision can only be developed through experience and practice.

Coming to openings, they are definitely important for the beginners. But the openings important for beginners are not the same ones that are played or analyzed at higher levels. The openings played or analyzed at higher levels are fairly harmless at beginner level(below 1200). Below 1200, opening traps and gambits are the critical ones. Following is a list (from common to rare):

1) scholars mate

2) damiano defence

3) blackburne schilling Gambit

4) Jerome Gambit

5) scotch Gambit

6) fried liver attack

7) Danish or goring gambit

8) legal mate(philidor)

9)Kings Gambit

10) Evans gambit

11) fishing pole trap

12) Lewis Gambit - urosov gambit

13) morphy-max Lange attack

14) ponziani

15) Albin counter gambit

Beginners have to learn to deal with the above traps or Gambits. Openings without direct traps or Gambits are pretty harmless at beginner level. One thing that beginners should avoid is getting caught in realms and realms of opening theory. So, beginners should avoid theoretical openings like Queens Gambit or Spanish or even Sicilian. King side fianchetto is also better avoided(but it is quite okay). 

In absence of any traps or gambits, follow opening principles:

1) play e4 or d4 or both

2) develop your king side minor pieces

3) castle short

4) look out for blunders from your opponent like dropping his piece

5) practice simple tactics & mates.

Yes, I have heard this advice a lot and maybe I wasn't clear that tactics and board vision are 100% my focus at the moment. I am studying tactics and various concepts of good chess outside of opening theory. What I'm looking for is what openings I can use as a canvas to practice these concepts on if that makes sense.

What openings can lead to consistent positions to practice pattern recognition? That's more how I'm thinking. I don't even care if the opening is necessarily "good" in terms of being successful. I want an opening so I can not focus on studying openings and focus on studying the important stuff at my level of development.

You want openings which are rich in tactical opportunities? Play e4 as white and as black Sicilian and Gruenfeld.

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

This is some profound advice. Anyone else take this approach? I would be interested to hear more.

Yes I follow this advice. I focus on openings that don't require any forcing lines or complex imbalances, so it's really about the pawn structure rather than specific lines. An example of this is the Stonewall Dutch - understanding what to do in the c6-d5-e6-f5 pawn structure is more important than knowing specific lines 20 moves deep. Certainly I'm far from an expert, but I do certainly save time compared to people who are reading countless opening books on the Sicilian Dragon yet are bewildered if someone takes them out of book.

Great, thanks to everyone who responded for all the advice and guidance. This has given me a much better idea of how I can change my approach to aid in my development.

find someone who is chessable?