WHAT ARE THE TOP 5 OPENINGS?
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Bednarek
Jul 8, 2015
0
#1
[COMMENT DELETED]
Sicilian Defense, Scandinavian Defense, there are lots of openings, CaroKann, English, etc.
At your level you should probably focus more on tactics and endgame and less in the opening :P
Ruy Lopez,Queen's gambit declined,Sicilian defense,Nimzo-Indian defense,English opening.
Ruy Lopez, King's gambit, italian game, Sicilian defence, and London system are probably the best ones for you
Jul 8, 2015
0
#9
In response to the OP:
At your level, you shouldn't be studying openings. Endgames, Tactics, Endgames, Strategy, Endgames, Opening Concepts, and Endgames are what you should be studying.
When you reach about 1500, Ruy Lopez and Queen's Gambit Declined, playing BOTH from BOTH SIDES.
When you reach about 1800, worry about the other openings and determining which best fits your style of play.
Jul 8, 2015
0
#10
The only thing I don't understand is chess strategy and how it differs from tactics.
Chess.com offers brilliant Chess Mentor Lessons for Strategy. They're free too. I'm currently taking Silman's The Roots of Positional Play.
Jul 8, 2015
0
#12
Bednarek wrote:
The only thing I don't understand is chess strategy and how it differs from tactics.
Long story short, tactics are nothing more than forced sequences of moves. A move wins a pawn because movement of that pawn instead leads to a Knight fork of the two Rooks. That's tactics.
Strategy is the overall long term plan. For example, if the center is blocked (i.e. WP's on c3, d4, e5, Black pawns on c4, d5, e6), a common "strategy", or "long term plan" is to attack on the side in which your pawns point. So White should attack Kingside, Black should attack Queenside, even if White castled Kingside (common in the Advance French) and Black castled Queenside (common in the 6.a3 c4 variation).
Strategy combines long term plans along with positional play. For example, are your opponent's doubled pawns weak or strong? In an endgame, they are likely weak, but in a middlegame, they may be very strong and control key squares, like maybe d5 and d6. Geometry and Pattern Recognition are also part of strategy. For example, if Black has an isolated Queen's pawn on d5, and White's Knight is on c3, that pawn can very easily be weak, but if White's Knight is on d2, just look at the scenario - the isolated pawn is hard to reach by the Knight with where it is, and the Knight can't move to its most natural squares from d2, namely c4 and e4. The isolated pawn is not weak. In addition to doubled pawns and isolated pawns, you also have backwards pawns, Weak Squares (like the square in front of the backwards pawn), color complexes, battles over a critical square (even if nothing currently occupies that square), etc.
I agree that a lower level you shouldn't be worried about openings but you shouldn't be ignorant of them. Knowing 5 mainline moves of whatever opening peeks your interest will help. Not much but enough for you to play them and for you to be used to them so that you can correctly pay attention to tactics and endgames.
Try to find out which types of position you prefer: open or closed, more tactical or more positional, then try to find a way during opening to steer the game into a position you feel comfortable with.
I reckon Larsens Attack
Jul 16, 2015
0
#17
50M30N3 wrote:
I reckon Larsens Attack
And this is why I say don't be studying openings at your level. Patzers like this one, rated under 1000, don't even know what Larsen's Opening is, or why the moves played are bad.
Larsen's Opening is 1.b3. It's close relative, the Nimzovich Attack, is 1.Nf3 followed by 2.b3 in order to avoid 1...e5.
Flicking in 1.e4 e5 and only then 2.b3 is a patzer move and clearly White has no idea what he's doing. For starters, if Black does want to play 2...Bc5, and get the Bishop out of the pawn chain, he can, and answer 3.Bb2 with 3...d6. After 1.e4 e5, White should play 2.Nf3, hitting the e-pawn immediately (not that White is going to actually take it in most lines, but the concept is there).
After 1.b3, if Black plays 1...e5 (the main line), and White plays 2.Bb2, Black must cover e5 immediately. He doesn't have time for luxury moves like 2...Bc5.
If Black plays 2...d6, he's hemmed in his Bishop.
After the main line, 2...Nc6, White can play 3.e3, intending 4.Bb5, and after 3...d5 (might as well take what White will give you, the center!) 4.Bb5 Bd6 (again, to cover e5) 5.f4 Qh4+ (To weaken White's Kingside first) 6.g3 Qe7 7.Nf3 f6 8.fxe5 fxe5 9.Bxc6+ bxc6 10.Nxe5 Nf6! 11.Nxc6 Qe4 12.O-O, the position is dead equal as Black has a line of play that either gives him a massive attack and probably mate if White tries to hold on to everything, and if not, he will have to give you the exchange and you end up with a Rook for piece and 2 pawns, and White's King is airy.
Now I intentionally didn't put those moves on a board. Why? Making the point that most people below 2000 can't visualize that line I just gave in their head, and if they don't know the lines, and can't visualize that deep, they aren't going to play the right moves anyway, and if you are studying opening lines instead of opening concepts, you'll be just as lost as your opponent is because you'll have no clue what to do next because you just went around memorizing a bunch of moves rather than understanding the proper concepts at the start of the game!
Bednarek wrote:
To be good at chess you need to have good openings. I am just wondering what openings are considered the best and have either a strong attack or defense. Any suggestions?
At your level openings are the last thing you need to be putting study time into. Your study time would be much better spent learning the opening principles, tactics, and endgames.
Sodium opening!