Opening Repertoires and Opening Selection

by Brian Wood (LaPorte, IN)
Are most beginning players traditionally so lazy they typically only play openings that very easy to memorize without much opening prep? I see players ranging from 1450 and below playing either childish openings without any real thought put into them or they crank out the first 8 moves or so of the Colle or London System without so much as looking at the board.

It seems everyone is opting to either openly endorse studying tactics and/or strategies or endgames at first but no real merit is put into developing opening repertoires.

Is there anything inherently wrong with developing some opening systems or understanding some opening lines for advanced beginners or lower rated intermediate players?

BrianWood (ICC)

———Admin——————-
Hi Brian,

there is nothing wrong with studying some solid and good opening systems in depth. Just get some books about your favorite openings and try to understand the ideas behind the various lines. Learn how the game will evolve from the opening stage right into the middlegame and which plans you should follow.

Chess Openings are very important
You definately need good opening skills or you drift into a bad position right from the start and you most likely lose later on because of this.

If you get an inferior game right from the beginning due to insufficient opening knowledge then your chances of winning that game are very much reduced because your position is already ruined and it is very hard and almost impossible to recover, unless your opponent is a weaker player than you.

On the other hand sometimes you quickly can get a winning position when you know your opening better than your opponent does.

However, when you wish to learn openings then choose mainline openings and don’t waste your time on inferior opening systems.

“Mainlines are good Lines”

Just look what is played at top level chess, for example in World Chess Championships.