Does it make sense to have more than one opening per opponent's response in your repertoire

Sort:
Avatar of pdve

I'm kind of having a slump today and I feel that I am repeating ideas too much and losing games out of boredom. Maybe I should change my repertoire and mix things around a bit. Has anyone else faced this situation. What got your inspiration back?

Avatar of Preggo_Basashi
pdve wrote:

I'm kind of having a slump today and I feel that I am repeating ideas too much

I'd guess most players can relate, I know I can.

 

 

pdve wrote:

Maybe I should change my repertoire and mix things around a bit.

Yeah, that's a great idea, you'll also broaden your knowledge of chess, which tends to be useful in ways we don't expect.

 

 

pdve wrote:

Has anyone else faced this situation. What got your inspiration back?

Another thing you can do is use chessgames.com to find, lets say 5 recent GM games from your opening.

Then get 5 games from the 60s, 70s, 80s from that opening too.

Then 5 from even earlier if possible.
15 games total.

 

Play through all the games at 5 or 10 minutes per game and you're likely to get new ideas for the opening you currently play.

Avatar of pdve
Preggo_Basashi wrote:
pdve wrote:

I'm kind of having a slump today and I feel that I am repeating ideas too much

I'd guess most players can relate, I know I can.

 

 

pdve wrote:

Maybe I should change my repertoire and mix things around a bit.

Yeah, that's a great idea, you'll also broaden your knowledge of chess, which tends to be useful in ways we don't expect.

 

 

pdve wrote:

Has anyone else faced this situation. What got your inspiration back?

Another thing you can do is use chessgames.com to find, lets say 5 recent GM games from your opening.

Then get 5 games from the 60s, 70s, 80s from that opening too.

Then 5 from even earlier if possible.
15 games total.

 

Play through all the games at 5 or 10 minutes per game and you're likely to get new ideas for the opening you currently play.

Thanks @Preggo, I'll try and follow this advice.

 

Well you know what. I was following GM Daniel King's videos and his thoughts and ideas on the openings. He is a great teacher. Makes chess seem easy as A,B,C. Now next I thought why not get a white repertoire all under one umbrella. So I bought GM Viktor Bologan's DVD on the Reti. Damn. I can't follow one thing. He makes obscure moves and suddenly concludes, 'White has a significant edge', or 'this is definitely better for white'. I can't understand one thing. I would ask for a refund from Chessbase but I don't think that's possible.

Avatar of Preggo_Basashi

If you've read a strategy book, then you know the elements of, well... of strategy.

 

After that you can play over GM games and try to understand the general strategy. Not in depth GM stuff, just general ideas. Like which side of the board did white seek play on (kingside, center, queenside)? How? (pawn break or piece play?) What were the main pawn breaks? Then same questions for black.

 

If I wanted to learn the Reti, first thing I'd do is take 50 games from around the 1950s, and then 50 of the most recent Reti GM games I could get on chessgames.com. I'd do about 5 or 10 a day (at 5 or 10 minutes per game) and make brief notes like that. Also write down any maneuvers you see coming up often that surprise you... like maybe suddenly black is playing g5 after 0-0 and it seems totally strange to you.

 

After that when some GM on a DVD says "white is better here" on move 10, it will make a lot more sense happy.png

Avatar of pdve

Cool. I'll do this. Btw, I also have chessbase and the megabase from 2014.