Tag Archives: chess openings

Spice Up Your Chess Openings! – II

Bonuses!, University, , , ,

Highly acclaimed writer and chess player IGM Karel Van der Weide shares opening secrets in no less than 6 high level opening lectures.

A must have for players that are looking for new ideas
and seek to improve their opening play!

Approximate playing time: 120 minutes!

Contents:

1. The Sicilian Kan with 6. Qe2 – d6

2. The Sicilian Kan with 6. Qe2 – Bd6

3. Benoni Pawn Storm with f2-f4 and Bf1-b5+

4. The Sicilian with 3.Bb5+ and a later o-o

5. The Sicilian with 3.Bb5+ and a later Nb1-c3

6. The Sicilian Rauzer with a7-a6

Video format: .WMV (6x)

All corresponding PGN-files included.

Download your free bonus here!

Openings #1: How To Slay The Dragon (1)

Openings, University, , ,

Once upon a time there was a chess trainer creating a series of opening videos with the intent to sell them as digital packages. But somewhere down the line he realized that he would much rather share them with his Better Your Chess University members…

This is the first video of a series on how to beat the Sicilian Dragon. It focuses on the so-called Lewenfish variation.

May it inspire you!

How To Build A Chess Opening Repertoire – Part III: How To Live With It

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In the previous articles How To Build A Chess Opening Repertoire – Part I: Getting The Lay Of The Land and How To Build A Chess Opening Repertoire – Part II: Your Style, I discussed the importance of having a chess opening repertoire and the issue of playing style. This should give you enough information to compose your own chess opening repertoire. In this article I want to give some tips and pointers on how to relate to your chess opening repertoire. They involve mastering a certain mindset and the avoidance of some dangers.

Tip 1: Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan!

Having a chess opening repertoire involves a lot of discipline. You have to make important decisions about the different systems you want to play and once you have done that, you have to elaborate on them. This elaboration is a life time thing, so don’t bother getting it right the first time. Grandmasters are constantly adjusting and expanding their repertoire. The main thing here is that you actually start playing and maintaining your repertoire.

Tip 2: You Will Get The Best Results By Sticking To Your Repertoire. So, STICK TO IT!

What’s the use of a chess opening repertoire if you don’t play it? Or if you play it briefly and then make a switch? If you don’t play your repertoire, you will never learn to properly understand an opening or get some useful practical experience with it. Also you will not benefit from the fact that you know it.

My suggestion is that you play a certain repertoire for at least a year. Then, if you simply have become too curious or feel drawn to other openings, make a switch. But at least you will be carrying something worthwhile with you throughout the rest of your chess career.

Of course, you can also overdo it. This (over)identification with your opening(lines) may lead to bad results, especially if you don’t try to learn from earlier opening mishaps and fix your repertoire. Don’t lose this kind of reflective flexibility!

On my local chess club we have several players playing the same repertoire over and over again. I suppose that’s fine, because the Benoni f.i. is a decent enough opening, also when you play it for the 384th time. But if you keep repeating the same dodgy sidelines in which you got some serious beatings, then you have to fix it and look for different paths.

Another very important note here: Don’t blame losses on the opening! Your loss is normally caused by you mishandling the tactics or strategy of a position. Be mature about this. So, don’t go switching to another opening repertoire just because you had some bad results in a certain system. Rather, analyze the game and try to find out what the relation is between your loss and the opening (if there is any at all) and then improve on your opening play.

When fixing your opening repertoire, don’t make any unnecessary concessions. The fear of sharp lines f.i. could make you lose the objective edge, just learn these sharp lines, practice them and play them!

If you somehow don’t feel at ease in the positions that arise from the opening from a more general point of view, that is a different matter, it is more style related. For that I refer you back to How To Build A Chess Opening Repertoire – Part II: Your Style.

Tip 3: Focus First On Understanding The Openings, Not On Memorizing The Moves

Understanding an opening is a goal that is much more realistically achieved than the memorization of its lines. Understanding is a better help when you find yourself on unknown territory because you can base your choice of move on basic principles of play, and those of the opening. Don’t forget: You may be able to out-memorize your opponent, but it’s impossible to out-memorize a chess game! There will always be a moment when you are on your own!

Another point: In chess it’s about the understanding of positions, not the remembrance of opening names. It does not help you to know that this or that opening is called such and so. It makes it easier to talk about it and discuss with other players as it’s all part of the jargon, but this kind of knowledge will not help you to play better chess! So even though it may look impressive if someone knows all the names of the chess openings and their side lines, it does not reveal anything about his playing strength!

Tip 4: Try Bouwmeesters Method

Speaking of memorization I would suggest that you try out Bouwmeesters method of studying an opening. But you have to promise me that you will give precedence to understanding the opening 😉

In his book “Chess as a profession” Bouwmeester suggests a regime for memorizing your opening. Considering f.i. that your program consists of 16 parts, you can study and repeat it using the following schedule (1,5 – 2 hrs per day):

1 1st day
2 1 2nd day
3 2 3rd day
4 3 1 4th day
5 4 2 5th day
6 5 3 6th day
7 6 4 7th day
8 7 5 1 8th day
9 8 6 2 9th day
10 9 7 3 10th day
11 10 8 4 11th day
12 11 9 5 12th day
13 12 10 6 13th day
14 13 11 7 14th day
15 14 12 8 15th day
16 15 13 9 1 16th day
1 16 14 10 2 17th day
2 1 15 11 3 18th day
3 2 16 12 4 19th day
4 3 1 13 5 20th day
5 4 2 14 6 21st day
6 5 3 15 7 22nd day
7 6 4 1 8 23rd day

He writes his book for professionals, so keep in mind that you may want to adjust this to fit your possibilities.

Tip 5: Create And Keep Organized Collections Of Games Played With Your Chess Opening Repertoire

Creating a collection of games played with your chess opening repertoire, builds your referential materials and eases your task to maintain your repertoire. It is nice and useful to see how strong players handle the opening and how you are handling the opening over time! Of course you have analyzed each and every game before they find there way to the collection 😉

Tip 6: Pick Model Players!

Model players can be your opening coaches and can be of great inspirational value! If you are playing the 6.Be3 line against the Najdorf f.i., then it makes sense to pick Anand as your model player for this particular line! Look up his games, analyze them and add them to your collections.

Tip 7: Practice Openings In Blitz Or Rapid And Then Analyze Immediately

I’m not a big favorite of blitz chess, certainly not when it comes to improving our chess. But if used with care and diligence blitz does have it’s merits. You can use games with shorter time controls (for this I prefer rapid) as practice sessions for your openings. Just try them out, gather some practical experience and analyze what has been going on. This method can quite quickly show you want you don’t know or understand yet. Be moderate with your play rate! Don’t play 100 blitz games first. No, just play 4 or so and then analyze!

Tip 8: Never Lose Track Of The Relative Importance Of Openings

One of the dangers of “being in love” with chess opening and your repertoire is a lack of general chess understanding. Keep improving your general chess understanding also! Openings are important, but they are not everything.

What’s Next?

Well, we have come to the end of a three part article series. I have enjoyed doing this one and have received lots and lots of feedback on them so far!

If you have not done so already, consider enrolling into the Better Your Chess University. If you do, you can claim “Spice Up Your Openings” by IGM Karel van der Weide as one of your free bonuses!

Good luck with your chess opening repertoire!

Waldemar,
Tipping you off

Spice Up Your Chess Openings!

Bonuses!, University, , , ,

Highly acclaimed writer and chess player IGM Karel Van der Weide shares opening secrets in no less than 8 high level opening lectures.

A must have for players that are looking for new ideas
and seek to improve their opening play!

Approximate playing time: 160 minutes!

Contents:

1. The Pirc Austrian Attack with 5…0-0

2. The Pirc Austrian Attack with 5…c5

3. Kings Indian Panno Variation

4. Kings Indian Main Line with Na6

5. The Scotch game with 4…Bc5

6. The Scotch game with 4…Nf6

7. The Anti-Gruenfeld with 4.Qa4+

8. The Anti-Gruenfeld with 4.cxd5

Video format: .WMV (8x)

All corresponding PGN-files included.

Continue reading Spice Up Your Chess Openings! →

How To Build A Chess Opening Repertoire – Part II: Your Style

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A little while ago I started discussing the subject of building a chess opening repertoire in How To Build A Chess Opening Repertoire – Part I: Getting The Lay Of The Land. I discussed which considerations play a role in building your chess opening repertoire and gave some advice. If you have not yet read it, I strongly suggest you do that first. In this second part, I want to discuss the issue of your style, your experiences with certain openings and how your style relates to certain openings. Next I will do some suggestions.

Your Experience Sofar

If you are reading this it could be that you have no opening repertoire at all or you have “some sort” of an opening repertoire. In either case you would like to improve the situation and start making that “set of agreements with yourself” that I spoke of in How To Build A Chess Opening Repertoire – Part I: Getting The Lay Of The Land. Your previous experience with certain openings can be a useful indicator for building your repertoire. If you have taken notes of your games and created a history of them in a database for instance, I suggest you go through them and analyze your overall results with all the different openings you have played so far. This exercise should provide you with some statistics as to what openings you played the most and which ones you had success with or not. Try to figure out if you liked playing certain openings or not and why that was. This is a big indicator for your preferred playing style! Also try to figure out in what measure the opening played an important role in the outcome of the game.

Different Styles

The previous exercise has probably given you some pointers as to what positions you like to play or not. If the exercise does not suggest differently, then it makes sense to build on the openings you already play (if they are decent that is), start calling them “My repertoire” and try to deepen you knowledge and understanding of them. If for some reason the exercise does not provide you with a clear picture, or if you would like some pointers for your playing style, then it makes sense to start looking for style indicators. Below I will list a number of different style indicators. Your preferences most likely refer to one or more of the terms below:

1.    visionary
2.    detailed
3.    positional
4.    tactical
5.    calculation
6.    feeling
7.    concrete
8.    intuition
9.    defensive
10.    attacking
11.    counter-attacking
12.    waiting
13.    initiative
14.    open
15.    closed
16.    contact
17.    maneuvering
18.    (big) center
19.    guerilla
20.    dynamics
21.    statics
22.    single plan
23.    multi plan

These terms refer to one of two:
1.    the way in you which you like to approach chess
2.    the specifics of a chess position

It makes sense now to place them in a table and describe them in more detail while simultaneously matching them to certain example openings.

Style Indicator Description Example Openings
Visionary You like to play with a plan in mind, have a good feeling for the position and keep the future (possible endings) in mind. You normally have trouble with realizing your plans and or reaping tactical fruits from your strategies. n.a.
Detailed You are good in dealing with any ad hoc and tactical situations. You have trouble playing with a plan in mind and find it therefore difficult to create situations with chances. n.a.
Positional You have a good feeling for the position and like to play for small advantages. You tend to have a good feel for the endgame and prefer clear positions. You tend to be somewhat weak at calculation and analysis. 1.d4
Tactical You have good analytical abilities and can calculate well. You have good board awareness and a good eye for the direct and indirect interaction of pieces (attack and defense). You tend to be somewhat weak at planning and strategy. 1.e4
Intuitive You like to trust to your intuition like little voices or pieces that are “talking to you” and play moves that come to your mind. n.a.
Concrete You like to dive in and have a more result oriented approach to the position. You look for candidate moves, try to analyze them to the best of your ability, compare the outcomes and play the move you think is best, while at the same time not putting to much value in well known bits of chess wisdom or dogma’s. n.a.
Defensive You like to dig in, be strategically solid and sit and wait. Steinitz defense, French defense, Caro-Kann defense, Queen’s gambit and Slav defenses, Queen’s Indian, Hedgehog positions, Dutch Stonewall
Attacking You like to optimize the activity of your pieces, go for your opponents king, often at the cost of a positional concession. In the 1.e4 complex normally all the mainstream theory variations, several gambits
Counterattacking You allow for strong imbalances giving your opponent ample chances for the attack while simultaneously laying the foundations for yours. The Sicilian, Pirc, Dutch defense, King’s Indian, Benoni
Waiting You don’t mind handing over the initiative to your opponent and defending against threats. You like to occasionally grab the extra pawn, poisonous or not… Closed Ruy Lopez, Poisoned pawn Variation from the Sicilian Najdorf.
Initiative You like to create threats, experience the initiative and occasionally sacrifice material to get it. Most main lines for White and several gambits
Open The type of position in which the armies are very much in contact with each other and where so-called “range pieces” (rook, bishop and queen) have considerable activity. Normally bishops are stronger than knights. Concrete calculation and tactics are more important than intuition, planning and strategy. Most 1.e4 e5 openings except Closed Ruy Lopez
Closed The type of position in which the armies are not very much in contact with each other and where so-called “range pieces” (rook, bishop and queen) have less activity. Normally knights are stronger than bishops. Intuition, planning and strategy are more important than concrete calculation and tactics. If there are tactics they tend to be more hidden and based on (psuedo) sacrifices breaking the pawn chains. Most 1.d4 d5 openings
Contact Play is fast and direct. This refers to an open type of position (viz. above). Most 1.e4 e5 openings except Closed Ruy Lopez
Maneuvering Play is slower and less direct. This refers to a closed type of position (viz. above) Maneuvering often involves longer term planning, f.i. the transfer of a knight to a strong square, the transfer of the king to a safe zone or the buildup of pieces in a certain area of the board before opening up attacking lines. Closed positions such as the closed Ruy Lopez, main line King’s Indian or the Czech Benoni. Also the advance variations of the Caro-Kann and the French.
(Big) center A position in which a player is occupying the center with two, three or four pawns. White is playing:
– the four pawns against the King’s Indian
– against the Grunfeld,
– against the Pirc
– against the Hedgehog or has a Maroczy bind
Guerilla A position in which a player is not occupying the center with pawns but prefers to control it with pieces and attack it. Black is playing:
– The Nimzo-Indian
– The Grunfeld
– The Pirc
– The Accelerated Dragon White is playing:
– The English
Dynamics The type of position where pawn structures are not rigid and where the option of different pawn pushes or captures can lead to different structures. These positions often involve unsolved tensions. White has a pawn duo on e4 and f4 versus black pawns on d6 and e6 in Sicilian type positions or such tensions with pawns blocks on c4 and d4 versus c5 and d5 etc.
Statics The type of position where pawn structures are rigid and where there are few or no reasonable pawn pushes. These positions have no unsolved tensions and tend to be clear. Normally it is easier to come up with a plan for these positions. Karlsbader structure from the Queen’s Gambit suggesting a minority attack. In the double pawn duo position from the Sicilian White has played e4-e5 d6xe5 and f4xe5 etc. The position has become much more static.
Multi plan Positions where several reasonable plans are available. Again the aforementioned Sicilian type positions and other positions with several pawn tensions.
Single plan Positions where there is normally one clear cut plan. Majority versus majority positions as in the Benoni f.i. Black normally creates a free pawn on the queen side.

Ok, so we have done that! The table is not meant to be exhaustive by the way. You can probably think of more style indicators pointers and matching openings. Also some of the pointers are closely related such as visionary, positional and intuitive on the one hand and detailed, tactical and concrete on the other.

What’s important to note here is that ideally you strive for a mixture of these styles, because we all need them from time to time to handle different chess positions. Positional games hopefully lead to a build up where you have to use tactics to reap the fruits of your earlier play. And likewise if you are good at tactics you need some strategical skills to bring about favorable positions. This brings us at a funny point however.

All the big guns have plenty of both strategical and tactical skills, right? Yes, I suppose they do! And yet, we can still clearly point out any differences in style. Kasparov is (was) the great attacker, calculator and proponent of concrete play. His great nemesis Anatoly is (was) pretty much the opposite namely the visionary, positional and intuitive player.

So there seems to be a point where standard and basic chess skill cross a border and shift into style. And beyond this point you can really try and incorporate your style into your own chess games. This is the area where preference and avoidance emerge. It is after all possible to prefer or avoid certain moves and lines without doing harm to the basic objective value of your position. I suppose that’s what makes our game also so enjoyable!

For instance Kasparov might choose to play 6.Bg5 in a Najdorf, Karpov may prefer 6.Be2 etc. without doing any objective harm to their position. It is just that they prefer the positions that arise from these respective moves. Bg5 normally leads to sharp and concrete play, whereas 6.Be2 tends to lead to a quieter game. What both players were trying to do, was getting into positions where they could optimize their chances to make use of their strong points and diminish those of the opponent.

And why do you think Anand beat Kramnik in Bonn 2008? Because Anand managed to bring about dynamic, imbalanced and tactical positions, and Kramnik wasn’t up to the task at some moments. Do you remember the 5th game for instance? Kramnik was relying on the better endgame, but the position was more concrete than that and all of a sudden he was surprised by Anand’s tactical 34…Pe3!, which immediately won the game. He simply had not treated the position with enough concreteness whereas Anand had  calculated this trick several moves earlier.

Now you might argue that it was an ordinary blunder to go for the trade-off into the endgame and that normally Kramnik would have seen in coming – basic chess skill, right? – but that’s also my point. The earlier play had forced Kramnik to solve concrete problems. He could not use any of his dogma’s or strive for a small and clear advantage. It is very conceivable that that cost him considerable time, effort and psychological energy. From that point of view it seems understandable that he would crack up and allow the trade-down resulting in 34…Ne3! Let me say one more thing about this match. Go try and figure out in what style Kramnik won their 10th game! Need I say more?

Ok, it is nice to look at the great players, but the idea is that you try this with your own repertoire. What style oriented decisions can you make? Well, preferably those that bring about positions in which you can put your strong points to work! Let me be your gimmy pig.

My Style And Repertoire

You have probably noticed that the style indicators come in pairs. Let me describe my style by indicating in which direction the scale of the balance tips for each pair. I will indicate my preferences in bold:

visionary – detailed
positional – tactical
calculation – feeling
concrete – intuition
defensive – attacking – counterattacking
waiting – initiative
open – closed
contact – maneuvering
(big) center – guerilla
dynamics – statics
single plan – multi plan

My (global) repertoire is as follows:
I play 1.d4 to try and reach strategical positions in which I can be guided by my intuition. I tend to choose clearer lines over complicated ones.
Against 1.e4 my defense of choice is the counterattacking Sicilian. I don’t like to be passive and always want to have some plans of my own… I often play the Accelerated Dragon, because I know it quite well and have build up some experience with it. It also has some nice ambush-like features to it and fits in with my style.
Against 1.d4 I like to play the King’s Indian. It normally leads to clear cut chain pawn plans and closed maneuvering positions or otherwise static positions (f.i. the exchange variations with d4xe5) that I know pretty well and have a lot of experience with. It also fits in with the notion of counter attack.

Suggested Steps

Well, we have come to end of part II of this article. I hope you bring the following elements together:
1.    Do the “Previous Experience” exercise
2.    Match the style indicators with the result of that exercise to figure out your playing style or let the style indicators suggest your playing style by reading through the descriptions and asking yourself: “Is this me?”
3.    Compose or adjust your opening repertoire by choosing openings that match your style indicators. I have given some example openings in the overview. If you have questions on how to classify a certain opening feel free to contact me.

In the third and last part of this article I will discuss the issue of how to relate to your opening repertoire. In the mean while, leave your comments if you like.

Cheers,

Waldemar
Styling

How To Build A Chess Opening Repertoire – Part I: Getting The Lay Of The Land

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Are you struggling to define a good opening repertoire for yourself?
Then continue reading.

Probably one of the most discussed topics in chess is that of having a good, solid, attacking, defensive, broad, specialized, surprising or otherwise useful opening repertoire. I must admit it has always been a challenge for me to construct an opening repertoire. In the process I have gathered a lot of knowledge and experience on the subject, so in the article below I will share my views with you and give you advice on how to build a decent opening repertoire.

8 reasons why every chess player should have a decent opening repertoire

It is important for a number of reasons to have a decent opening repertoire. So let’s begin with the end in mind. I have listed eight of them, it is possible to think of more.

  1. With White: To reach an opening advantage and put the pressure on your opponent
  2. With Black: To reach a playable middle game position
  3. To know what to play
  4. To deepen your play
  5. To be able to play faster
  6. To feel at ease
  7. To punish your opponents mistakes more often
  8. To know which tabya to study (typical middle game positions, pawn structures, endgames and tactics that arise from certain openings)

Making choices regarding your opening repertoire should take these considerations into account.

What does it mean to have a chess opening repertoire?

Having an opening repertoire means more than just deciding to go 1.d4 or 1.e4 on the first move or deciding to counter 1.e4 with for instance 1…c5 – The Sicilian Defense. Ideally what constitutes an opening repertoire is:

“A set of agreements with yourself based on prior relevant research and corresponding decisions regarding the systems, defenses, lines and moves you would like to play during the first phase of a chess game.”

Of course it doesn’t stop there. This set of agreements with yourself needs to be evaluated, checked and undergo maintenance if necessary. Also it demands a certain attitude from you, the chess player.

Ok, enough introduction, let’s get our hands dirty. Ideally your opening repertoire is a happy merger of two things: you and decent chess. But what about you and what about decent chess?

Considerations when building a chess opening repertoire

Let’s start with listing some of the basic considerations when building a chess opening repertoire:

  1. What is my playing style?
  2. What is my previous experience and what are my results?
  3. How much time do I have available to study?
  4. Should I play theory and main lines or not?
  5. Should I play to surprise or not?
  6. Am I playing for a specific result or not (win or draw)?
  7. Who is my opponent, should I be pragmatic?

OK, that was a nice exercise. Now what? To be able to decide on your opening repertoire it would seem you need to answer all of these questions. And ideally you would also like to know which questions are the most important so they can guide your decision making process step by step. In this case you would take a software-wizard-like approach where the answer to the first and most important consideration influences the options for the second one and so on, until you have the ultimate answer. But here comes the catch: building and maintaining your opening repertoire is very much a practical issue and it is virtually impossible to take all the above considerations into account and put them in some kind of expert system that will provide you with the perfect answer.

Cutting through the thicket, my opinion and advice for you

Let’s revisit the considerations listed above and see if we can split them into groups. I suggest the following labels: “You”, “Chess Considerations” and “The Circumstances”.

  • You
    • What is my playing style?
    • What is my previous experience and what are my results?
  • Chess Considerations
    • Should I play theory and main lines or not?
    • Should I play to surprise or not?
  • The Circumstances
    • How much time do I have available to study?
    • Am I playing for a specific result or not?
    • Who is my opponent, should I be pragmatic?

OK, that helps! Now allow me to share my opinion with you and give you advice which is based on the assumption that you want to optimize your chances to experience that winning feeling and also satisfaction about the way you went about it:

Forget about The Circumstances and focus on yourself and decent chess!

In my opinion it really does not matter how much time you have to study. As if a limited amount of time would suggest you would do better to build your repertoire around lesser known (surprise) systems that do not involve a lot of studying?! I don’t think that holds true. You will find that studying (dodgy) surprise systems or side lines can take up as much time as studying main theory, since after all the game is still played with the same 32 pieces on the same 64 squares. Believe me, I have been there. Besides, what is time? What is the difference between learning a surprise system in one month, and learning more theory oriented lines in two or three months time? Will you be playing chess after those months also? I sure hope so. So why not think long term, study for the years to come and have a strong and solid opening base?

Also it is well possible that studying main theory has statistically more practical value since your opponents will more often play these lines as well. And last but not least, certain (dodgy) systems or side lines may have surprise value, but what if the surprise has evaporated? Then statistically your chances of reaching an objectively better position or a playable middle game position will have deteriorated. The difference between += and = is significant! Of course, sometimes you will be able to surprise your opponent, force them to think for themselves and benefit from it. But in the end all you have at your disposal is the objective value of the position on the board, not some surprise value that has evaporated. This becomes more and more apparent if you improve and continue to play higher rated players, since they will see through your surprises, schemes and traps. To further stress this point let me refer to a game I played over a week ago. After 1.e4 my opponent played some kind of a side line of the Closed Sicilian against my 1…c5. I obtained an easy game and went on to win. After the game we had a short discussion:

“I thought your opening was rather tame”, I remarked.
“Yes, could be, but I wanted to play my own game”, my opponent answered.

Well, my opponent played his own game (by the way what does that mean?) and lost.
Therefore: Striving to have an edge is a vital element of playing stronger chess.

Of course it is important to try and figure out which systems are dodgy or not, and which ones give decent chances for an opening advantage or a playable middle game. I plan to discuss certain systems in How To Build A Chess Opening Repertoire – Part II. Some I am more critical about than others.

Also the question if you are playing for a specific result should preferably not lead to a change of your opening repertoire. In how many cases can we say that we definitely need a win or a draw? Maybe in that last tournament round where we could emerge victorious? Maybe once per year in our club competition? By the way, aren’t we chess lovers always playing for a win? And even then, I advise you to stick to your guns, since playing what you know combined with decent positions is what makes draws or wins games.

Also I advice you not to be influenced by the person of your opponent in the sense that you would deviate from your opening repertoire. Why build an opening repertoire only to deviate from it? You would miss out on probably another useful experience that could deepen your understanding of that very same repertoire. Just play your pet defense or prepare for his pet defense against your repertoire moves.

You

Having said that, all it boils down to is You!
In How To Build A Chess Opening Repertoire – Part II, I will further discuss the issues of previous experience and results and style. I will discuss in detail what different chess styles there are, which steps you can take to determine your own style and which opening systems fit your style.

Cheers,

Waldemar
Giving advice