Best way to study a repertoire?

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IMKeto

I will the story i post here repeatedly.  There was this young man that all the local masters said would be a Master by the time he turns 13.  He was 10 at the time.  So what happened?  He fell in love with openings.  He suddenly became "aggressive" and "tactical".  And when he lost it was the same excuse: "I forgot my theory" "I mixed up my opening theory"  When what happened was that he dropped a piece.  He finally quit playing as an 1800 player.  A lot of potential down the drain.

TortoiseAvenger
IMBacon wrote:

I will the story i post here repeatedly.  There was this young man that all the local masters said would be a Master by the time he turns 13.  He was 10 at the time.  So what happened?  He fell in love with openings.  He suddenly became "aggressive" and "tactical".  And when he lost it was the same excuse: "I forgot my theory" "I mixed up my opening theory"  When what happened was that he dropped a piece.  He finally quit playing as an 1800 player.  A lot of potential down the drain.

Now this is a helpful perspective. Thank you happy.png.

TortoiseAvenger

Thank you to those who were constructive and helpful. Special thanks to those who pointed out, constructively, that it might be too soon to worry about such things, and presumably care about a beginner's overall path. As for those who were less constructive, after researching several posts by others, that seems to happen a lot on here. Seems sad to me. I have many thoughts and feelings, most of them equally unproductive, so I'll toss them in the toilet where they belong.

nklristic

By the way, you have diamond membership. Make sure to take advantage of the video library, because that is the main advantage of diamond membership over other membership types. 

brianchesscake

Forget what anyone says. It's important to have at least a basic understanding of openings, not in terms of memorizing moves, but knowing what the general ideas are in a variation, what are some ways to get an advantage in the midgame and avoid your opponent's threats, or launch a counterattack, or get a sense for piece play dynamics (e.g. trading off your "bad bishop" for his "good knight"), or aim for a specific pawn structure that might be beneficial for you in the endgame. Think of it this way - if you and an opponent have a similar rating, but one of you has a better idea of how to play the opening that's on the board, chances are he or she will get a better game. And against stronger players having the confidence that you are sort of familiar with some openings will give you somewhat of an even playing field. Far too many players walk into opening traps or just get a permanent weakness after the first few moves (and then suffer against most good players who will make you fight to just get a draw!).

Openings aren't the silver bullet to improving your overall chess skills, but they can definitely help guide your progress.

nklristic

He will do that by studying games in the openings he chooses (after getting the hang of basic stuff), as I've mentioned in my post.

llama47
brianchesscake wrote:

Forget what anyone says. It's important to have at least a basic understanding of openings, not in terms of memorizing moves, but knowing what the general ideas are in a variation

IMO that comes later, after you have some experience and have studied strategy. A new player can't make use of these things yet.