A Better Way to Study Chess Opening Traps/Blunders

Hi friends

Inspired by the series Catastrophes & Tactics in the Chess Opening by Carsten Hansen, I figured out a better way to study this topic because it saves tons of $$$. And of course, it is a more practical way to learn trap as well as opening for low rated players like me.

Tools: Chess.com Gold membership, Chessbase, or SCID with free PGN from http://pgnmentor.com/files.html

I would say go for Chess.com Gold membership, c'mon only $30 a year or less than $2 a month

With Chess.com Gold membership, I first go to explorer to set up the opening that I want to learn. Then, I view all games related to that opening. Then, I sort the games in the order of fewest moves -> most moves. Then, I can either download the pgn or view it online. Well, if you have Chessbase, you can also create a collection of training annotation, which is even more convenient.

As Hansen selected his game, I suggest the miniatures to be no more than 15 moves to emphasize the blunders in the opening, rather than a wrong plan in the middle game. And, make sure the game is not a draw! You want to learn from winning or losing games. Also, make sure the game ended with a check or checkmate. It is hard for low rated players to see the "___is clearly better" or "___ is clearly winning" . So, I believe we will get the most out of this study when we study games with check or checkmate.

Love to hear from you all