@yorugua: Maybe he defines a blunder as hanging a piece? I know that's how I once defined it, until I realized that it's much more than that...
openig preparation where to start
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I will divulge one secret to you: 2 Ke2! Develops your king for rapid endgame victory.
@ivandh: That comment is getting old really fast. Are you going to keep repeating it over and over? What a useless waste.
@Pikachulord6:I agree, he probably is. all the more reason to be focusing on other areas of his game instead of building an opening repertoire with super-secret pet variations ;)
yorugua wrote:
@ivandh: That comment is getting old really fast. Are you going to keep repeating it over and over? What a useless waste.
Yes I am, because I don't give a damn, but thanks for wasting your time!
@yorugua: True, but if that kind of stuff is interesting to him, maybe he should actually try to create this opening repertoire? If nothing else, he will find out that novelties are not easy to come up with and are even more difficult to utilize in games (you'd have to prepare a LOT and actually know what you're doing to even be able to use one effectively).
Personally, I learned the opening like this: Play 1.e4. Then, develop your pieces logically. Castle. Enjoy the rest of the game! Until about a year ago (about a few months before joining chess.com), I didn't know anything about any opening. I remember thinking that it was "elitist" when other people would say "That's a Sicilian Defense". Who were these show-offs anyway? Now I know...because I'm one of them. :D
sorry about that a better way of revising my question is how should I go about opening preparation.
The first question is: do you lose many games as a result of losing a piece to a two-move tactic, or just leaving it unguarded? Or because you overlooked a mate threat?
If a substantial portion of your losses are due to this, you need to work on tactics above everything else. Learn the basic principles of development and use them to play the opening, that's all you need until you stop dropping pieces.
In fact, once you have improved your tactics, the next thing to learn is the simple endings. Your pet opening lines are worthless if you keep getting snookered in pawn endings.
thats just it I don't blunder alot at all I probaly make one blunder every 7 or so games if I get to cocky from a winning streak the only time I blunder more than average (probably all the time) is when I play below a time control of 30 minutes.
As for the endgame Thats actually one of my strong points in the game I can't count how many times I've drawn or even won in lost endings and if I'm the one winning I almost (about 80% of the time) win the ending.
OK, now it just got ridiculous, if you are a 1300-1400 USCF rated player and you are telling me that you blunder once every 7 games it means that either you are delusional or that your coach is not looking hard enough at your games.
You should be working on your tactics and endgames, besides making sure you know the main strategic concepts to help you formulate adequate plans. On another notes, a pet system created by a player when he was 1400 is not any good, trust me, you should be playing open games at this point to improve your general understanding of the game. When you go up a couple of classes work on building a repertoire.
When you get there, there is a pretty good book by Giddins that talks about how to choose an opening repertoire that fits your style. Since I am no GM, I'll just tell you about my repertoire so you get a sense of the reasoning behind it:
1) I play 1.e4 with white, the reason is that I am much more comfortable in open / semi-open games than in closed positions. I play mostly main lines against black's main options:
a) 2.Nf3 and 3.d4 against the Sicilian (I know you won't get this comment, but before someone out there points it out, of course I don't play 3.d4 against 2...a6 ;) )
b) 3.Nc3 against the French going into main line Winawer or 4.e5 against the Classical
c) 3.Nc3 against the Caro, again, main line stuff in all variations
d) Main line against the Ruy Lopez with the h3 anti-Marshall to avoid the Marshall Attack
e) Austrian Attack against the Pirc with a similar set-up against the Modern, though it really depends on move order here
f) 2.e5, 3.d4, 4.Nf3 against the Alekhine
g) Main line against the Scandinavian
2) With Black I play the Grunfeld against d4 (again, looking for open positions if possible) going into all the main lines
3) Against 1.e4 I play the Najdorf and against the Anti-Sicilians I play the lines that are more complex (such as 2...Nf6 against the Alapin)
4) Against 1.c4 it depends on my mood, I may go for a Symmetrical English, sometimes I may allow the Maroczy Bind, but if I am in the mood for trying hard to open the position, I play Anti-Grunfeld lines with c6 and d5.
Anyway, that's my repertoire in a nutshell.