First learn pawn structures, piece placement and plans + typical maneuvers, pawn sacrifices, etc. For this you need a book. After this, which will take you AT LEAST 6 months you do what you said above.
Thank you! So basically, my method works but only works well after I have learned basic understanding of the opening of my choice?
Exactly. Get a book on that opening, I recomment one of the series "starting out".
For example, I liked the book: starting out the Grunfeld. I did that book 6 times before moving to something else.
Do you recommend me to filter out low ELO games? More games mean more choices available. I think this helps me deal with rare responses from Black or from White. I think I would work with two set of games: mega database (all range of ELO) when I play from move 1 and elite games when the computer generates a random position from the database. What do you think?
… Basically, I downloaded a specific opening variation (i.e QGD exchange - 12000~ games) pgn from https://www.pgnmentor.com/files and created a "Playing Like A Grandmaster" training in Lucas chess. Then, I started at move 5, after 4.cxd5 exd5 or 4...Nxd5, and played up to move 15th, after I have already castled and developed all of my pieces. Then, I would start over with another game. Lucas Chess allowed me to do the entire thing in less than 1 minute. By doing this, I wish to interactively improve my opening play (not my opening understanding). After around 30 minutes (30-35 games), I noticed some patterns such as White often plays e3-Bd3-Nf3. So, I would then read the book to understand the reason behind that. Also, I can opt to select Black response so sometimes, I found out some really surprising responses from Black and learned how to deal with it.
Is it a good way to practice and to learn opening?
Not sure if I am understanding you correctly, but I do not think it is realistic to expect to learn much from ~30 minutes going over the opening phase of 30-35 games. I am unable to remember any authority advocating that a player attempt to improve opening play without attempting to improve opening understanding. Without understanding, it is going to be difficult to remember how to deal with responses from your opponent. Your pattern description seems to me to be too superficial to be of much use in an actual chess game where, for the most part, moves need to be arrived at by considering what is going on generally on the board. It seems to me that many have suggested opening study based on understanding and examination of complete games.
"... I feel that the main reasons to buy an opening book are to give a good overview of the opening, and to explain general plans and ideas. ..." - GM John Nunn (2006)
"... If the book contains illustrative games, it is worth playing these over first ..." - GM John Nunn (2006)
"... the average player only needs to know a limited amount about the openings he plays. Providing he understands the main aims of the opening, a few typical plans and a handful of basic variations, that is enough. ..." - FM Steve Giddins (2008)
"... For inexperienced players, I think the model that bases opening discussions on more or less complete games that are fully annotated, though with a main focus on the opening and early middlegame, is the ideal. ..." - FM Carsten Hansen (2010)
"... Everyman Chess has started a new series aimed at those who want to understand the basics of an opening, i.e., the not-yet-so-strong players. ... I imagine [there] will be a long series based on the premise of bringing the basic ideas of an opening to the reader through plenty of introductory text, game annotations, hints, plans and much more. ..." - FM Carsten Hansen (2002)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627055734/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen38.pdf
"The way I suggest you study this book is to play through the main games once, relatively quickly, and then start playing the variation in actual games. Playing an opening in real games is of vital importance - without this kind of live practice it is impossible to get a 'feel' for the kind of game it leads to. There is time enough later for involvement with the details, after playing your games it is good to look up the line." - GM Nigel Davies (2005)
"... Review each of your games, identifying opening (and other) mistakes with the goal of not repeatedly making the same mistake. ... It is especially critical not to continually fall into opening traps – or even lines that result in difficult positions ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2007)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627062646/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman81.pdf
Hello forks
This is a method that I did yesterday and I wonder if it is a good way to practice opening. Basically, I downloaded a specific opening variation (i.e QGD exchange - 12000~ games) pgn from https://www.pgnmentor.com/files and created a "Playing Like A Grandmaster" training in Lucas chess. Then, I started at move 5, after 4.cxd5 exd5 or 4...Nxd5, and played up to move 15th, after I have already castled and developed all of my pieces. Then, I would start over with another game. Lucas Chess allowed me to do the entire thing in less than 1 minute. By doing this, I wish to interactively improve my opening play (not my opening understanding). After around 30 minutes (30-35 games), I noticed some patterns such as White often plays e3-Bd3-Nf3. So, I would then read the book to understand the reason behind that. Also, I can opt to select Black response so sometimes, I found out some really surprising responses from Black and learned how to deal with it.
Is it a good way to practice and to learn opening?