Not All Booked Up

In this day and age, it gets progressively harder to get better at chess if you do not 'book up'. When I mean 'book up', I mean learning not just your major opening lines but also knowing them well enough to know the nuances, strategies and plans that comes with the opening.

'Seasoned' opponents knows how to find every nook and cranny to exploit every new nuance in your opening in an attempt to gain an advantage if you do not know your openings back to front.

I'm still learning the King's Indian Defence, and admit that I've got a long way to go before I can truly say that it is part of my repertoire.

How do people learn new openings?

I cannot say for others, but I've always been interested in mainline opening knowledge.

So when and how did I start playing the KID then?

I can't pinpoint the exact moment which this took place (idea of learning another opening) but it's probably around like 2 months ago. At that time, the Nimzo-Indian/QID was part of my original repertoire but I felt that I needed to understand how to handle the dark squares of the royal game. In addition, I wanted to learn how to handle dynamic positions. I felt the KID 'seemed' like a good defense that gave plenty of scope for attacking ideas.

That was what got me started on the KID.

When I first started to learn this opening, I was very intimidated by the amount of theory of this opening.

I've only started examining the main Classical lines with e5, Nc6, Nd7 and thought it was very strange to lock up the center position. Fortunately or rather, unfortunately, the Bayonet Attack does not hold the same terror it did (which originally forced Kasparov to give up the KID) once Black players knew how to equalise.

I've yet to fully understand the nuances of this defence, really. I'm currently reading through Gallagher's Starting Out: The King's Indian by Everyman but the progress has been slow and painful. I keep losing to Steven despite numerous tries against it. Oh well.... that only shows I've not fully understood how to play it yet.

I still have not decided what to play against 1. e4 but of late, I've been looking at 1. e5 as a solid response and am looking to play the Ruy Lopez as Black if given the chance.

I'm not a good move memorizer so anything beyond like 6 or 7 moves and I start to lose my way and tend to go out of book.

So how do you acquire your opening knowledge/repertoire?

The Openings You Dread

As a player who is taking up the King's Indian Defence vs 1. d4, I was surprised to learn from chess forums that some 1. d4 White players really dislike the typical KID player.

After some digging, I found that it is because a typical KID player is one who plays not for the material of the pieces but plays for the initiative, which usually results in unclear, dynamic play and sometimes absolute chaos can result on the board if White chooses to take on Black tic for tac.

What of Kramnik's infamous Bayonet Attack? Sadly, that line has gone out of fashion as Black players started to devise counter-plans to achieve equality (partly in due to the modern 7.... Na6 variation), taking the whole sting out of a queenside attack.

I know at my club, some 1. d4 players absolutely dread the Nimzo-Indian Defence because the darn thing is so hard to crack and right from the 3rd move, Black is threatening to unbalance the game with 4... Bxc3. If you throw in the Rubinstein, the Saemisch, the Leningrad, Romanishin then suddenly the Nimzo-Indian starts to look really really daunting.

As for 1. e4 players, some players dread the French Defence, it's rock solid and allows Black a transition to the middlegame. White sometimes play the f4 variation to stifle Black and attempt to put Black out of his misery but there's still plenty of play on both sides. The Winawer and the MacCutcheon variations offer Black plenty of counter play as well.

How about the Najdorf Sicilian? Bucket loads of theory and play is governed by move memorisation that it's downright scary.

Using computers for openings is next to impossible. A dated study done by Chessbase shows that computers are strange beasts when it comes to openings (hence the need for opening books) - see inset.

What openings do I dread? Well.... none at the moment. I play all kinds of openings so I'm not that disturbed by the different types of opening play.

Do you have an opening that you absolutely hate facing?

Setec Astronomy

In the 1992 hacker movie, Sneakers, Martin Bishop (played by Robert Redford) finally realises that the name "Setec Astronomy" does not actually mean anything. It is in fact, an anagram for the phrase,"Too Many Secrets".

And this brings me to my topic for today. Greg, in an earlier post, mentioned how chess players tend to guard their opening repertoire secrets very tightly, holding things very close to their chest.

Do you openly show people your opening repertoire or do you guard your many many opening secrets (too many secrets?) tightly?

For example, in social blitz games in the club, do you or do you not divulge your opening repertoire?

Me? I play a wide variety of openings, Sicilian, Ruy Lopez, Philidor, French, Scandinavian etc. so I'm not too bothered if someone learns about it. In fact, I'm too low down on the pecking order for players to be concerned about it.

Some higher rated players get more and more secretive (that's to be expected) about their opening repertoire and rarely give away their game. That's because if future opponents learn about their repertoire, the latter can quickly look up a database to find the best continuation to play to achieve even the minimum advantage.

How then do these players guard and train their opening repertoire, if not over the board?

I can gather only a few possible solutions.

The Internet is probably one of them. Using an anonymous handle, players can play lots of online blitz games using their preferred opening repertoires, refining it, correcting errors etc.

The other alternative is to play it against a computer opponent. Fritz has a wonderful function called Opening Training that allows it to follow any opening book and will replay the moves it finds in the opening book. This is a great way to fine tune and remember your moves for your opening repertoire. The slight problem with Fritz is that it acts and thinks in a non-human way.

The last choice is to get a training partner whom you can trust. In fact, it's great to have a training partner. Both of you not only get to grips with each other's opening choice but it also helps you to prepare for that opening should you encounter it over the board.

Incidentally, if you're a geek, Sneakers is probably the best and last hacker movie to come out of Hollywood ie. a movie that actually does not insult the audience nor rely on any special effects to carry the movie. Of course, the scene of Mother (played by Dan Aykroyd) holding up an old 90s-style modem definitely shows how far the technological world has come since then. And no, Die Hard 4 does not count, it's just filler about a Mac geek and some guy standing on a flying aeroplane.

Chess Magazines And Opening Knowledge

Chess players are thoroughly spoilt these days with a variety of chess magazines.Informator, New In Chess, Chessbase.... lots and lots of chess material and a huge number of them devote their sections to opening novelties.

Truth be told, for a patzer like me, I don't need to know Kramnik's 21st novelty move in the Catalan or Vishy's 37th new move in the Ruy Lopez.

So why do chess openings seem to grasp our attention so much?

The Chinese have an idiom,"A good start means that you're halfway to success."

I apologise for sounding like a fortune cookie but I learnt a valuable lesson on Wednesday night in my loss.

I misplayed my opening. Instead of going with my tried and trusted response to 1.e4, I did something crazy and duly got whalloped. You can say, that after the 6th move, I spent the rest of the 40 odd moves trying to repair the damage, leading to more holes and weak squares appearing all over my position.

In short, the game was effectively over in 6 moves.

Anyway, back to chess magazines. If you're looking to improve your opening knowledge, I'm giving a quick run-through some of the major ones (I apologise for leaving out TWIC - The Week In Chess) - they would be more than sufficient for the average club player.

Chess Informator/Informant. I got my hands on a very very old Informator (borrowed it from someone) and I was scared off my pants by the amount of knowledge that was present in there. This isn't some Uncle Bob's home cooked analysis, you're looking at heavy duty opening theory and annotations (Informator uses the well-known method of using symbols in their annotations so there's no words in their explanations). If you are thinking of making chess a career, this probably belongs to your must-have library. For the amateur (below 2000), I give this a miss.

Chessbase Magazine. I acquired a dated Chessbase Magazine 121 and found it was wonderful. Chessbase magazine tackles the chess theme in a slightly different way. The DVD format is of a huge help - you get Chess done - the multimedia way, you get a nice array of multimedia videos and chessbase files to work through for some of the opening knowledge. However, I was a bit disappointed in that Chessbase sometimes inserts "fillers" (you know how it's like when you go to catch a movie, and the cinema operators try to show filler movies to grab your attention like "Coming soon to a theatre near you" when all you want is to get the actual movie to start?). It's a bit like that. However, what I was disappointed was that some of the videos were in German! Errr... ok. Okay, I know Muller speaks in his native tongue in his Endgame videos but really, Chessbase should cater for a more international audience and trying to stick in a few videos in German with no equivalent videos in English gives you that same feeling of having the rug pulled from under you and gives you the feeling of being left out. One of the problem I realise is that the opening knowledge is not one that is catered for beginners but rather for people who already have a pet opening repertoire and looking to explore other possibilities within their repertoire. So if you're looking to have a bit of fun where you can relax back and work through possible improvements in your opening repertoire and at the same time, catch up on recent chess events/competitions, then this DVD is for you.

New In Chess. I love this magazine. I am fortunate in that my local library occasionally purchases them. It's fairly lightweight and I find them to be fun to read! Think "chess for the masses ie. the non-super Grandmasters" and you'll know what I mean. It contains both serious and fairly lightweight columns, giving you a nice balance between the amateur and the more serious.

And finally, we come to one of my favourite websites on opening theory, Chesspublishing.com. They have a variety of subscriptions but I found the best value for this site for an amateur like me is probably the 3-for-2 subscription. For about AU$50 odd bucks a year, you get periodic updates on 3 of your favourite openings for the price of 2. This is more than sufficient for you to use in tournament play for players under a rating of 2000. They also have a forum for you to air your views, and you get to mingle with like-minded players.

Updated note: Lest it be misconstrued, I don't subscribe to any of these magazines on a regular basis. They were more for curiosity, rather than anything. In tournament play at patzer level, getting a few of those Starting Out books based on your favourite repertoire and maybe 2 more serious opening books is definitely more than enough for the typical club player. In the end, your opening repertoire is designed to ensure you don't suffer as I did. Tactics, strategies and endgame training should still be the mainstay of your chess training.

Playing With Energy

First off, I would like to thanks everyone for the input regarding the opening minefield in my previous post.

blunderprone in his comments rightly mentions this important idea,

"Target openings you can understand."

As Black, I feel it is Black's duty not to look for a draw but to fight for the initiative.

Warheit asked me what prompted me to choose this opening. I don't know. It was an opening I've always thought of learning and I think it suits my style more than anything. I seriously never gave it a thought.

vs 1. d4 usually I either play the Slav, Queen's Indian, Bogo-Indian, Nimzo-Indian
vs 1.e4 usually I play Ruy Lopez Archangelsk (if I can get the chance), French Winawer/MacCutcheon, Alekhine Defence and even the Petroff.

I like playing dynamically and energetically, grabbing the initiative and my style is suited more towards unbalanced play/structures - which is prompting me to give up some passive defences like the QID.

Incidentally, I played this opening last week in 4 quick games as Black against my brother-in-law (he's rated around 1850 in rapids) last week (he had won his game early so we were playing socially) and the score for this opening was +1-2=1 (and that's without move memorisation beyond the 5th move) - a fairly good result.

In certain lines, if White chooses a sharp line, the battle is of a highly tactical nature and that's where understanding how best to cope with the resulting pawn structure that usually arises is of utmost importance.

My game is tomorrow and I doubt I have the chance to play the opening. However, I might be tempted to give it a shot if my opponent plays it.

Sometimes I wish I can play one of these Magic: The Gathering cards (see left) in chess, my opponent might suddenly see the light and resign immediately!

Not that I mind, naturally.

Nah...... :)

Opening Minefield

Have you ever tried committing to memory a new opening repertoire?

I have been trying to learn one for the last 4 days and it has so far been a frustrating experience.

The opening theory is quite memory intensive with lots of sharp lines to say the least. But no matter how hard I try, I am finding it very difficult to remember certain theoretical lines and I messed up the move order.

This opening minefield I have to tiptoe through to learn it is incredible. Twenty years ago, the amount of theory I have to learn would have been considerably less and these days, I can't believe how much knowledge one has to acquire just to know the ins and outs of a particular chess opening and to not get caught out by opening traps.

I am also starting to show a bit of rustiness. Tonight, I logged on to FICS and promptly got my ass whipped in less than 10 moves ie. after 10 moves, my position was so dire that if this was an OTB game, I would've resigned!

I don't get it. Is my motivation lacking? Am I watching too many chess videos from the couch, eating Twisties and getting lazy?

Last week, my opponent didn't turn up and I got a bye - which was an absolute downer since I was all prepared to play chess. This week, I'm playing Black and I've not checked my schedule to see who I'm playing next. I've decided not to look because no matter what happens, I plan to go out with guns blazing.

Which brings me back to my choice of opening. That's the problem with playing sharp lines, you need to wade through the theory minefield because one misstep is instant disaster for either side.

The Morning After... and I Need A Good Black Repertoire

Funny, last night I went to bed after losing to Dennis and slept quite soundly.

And this morning after waking up and doing my normal routine, I wasn't even depressed. Sure I had pangs of regret that I blundered about the game last night but other than that, nothing.......

The better player won. Simple as that. And it's time to move on. Fritz also kindly let me in on where I went awry and how to grab the initiative out of the opening which would have given me good counterplay.

Was I angry? A little, at myself but I chose to tell myself that I blundered because of improper time management. Had I taken a bit more time and calculate, I would have given Dennis a run for the money. So I definitely need to manage my time better.

2 weeks from today, I am up to face an even tougher player, Arthur Hyunh (a 1800++ player) and I desperately need to prepare an opening repertoire.

My opening knowledge is terrible. I need to choose suitable repertoires more akin to my playing style.

I am an attacking player and love to attack. I have no problems sacrificing pawns to gain an intiative or to open lines if it means gaining a long-term advantage.

Any ideas for a good opening repertoire for Black geared towards a player who loves attacking and dynamic play, anyone?

The remaining list of players I need to play against are as follows:-

02 Apr 2008 - Bye
09 Apr 2008 - Black v Huynh, Arthur (1837)
16 Apr 2008 - White v Kuru, Argo (1716)
23 Apr 2008 - Black v Kitchen, Ray (1456)

Opening Theory

While nursing my cough+sore throat, which practically put me out for the last 4 days, I got very little time to study any chess material.

Yesterday, my neighbour gave me some green apples and I proceeded to make an apple strudel out of it and gave my neighbour some of it. My wife liked it.

If anyone wants this recipe, it's fairly straightforward:

4 green apples, cored, peeled, chopped into cubes.
2 sheets of puff pastry
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon of ground cinnammon
1 cup dried raisins (shredded)
1 egg whisked in 1 cup of milk

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
Line the baking tray with baking paper
Boil the apples till they are slightly soft and mix them in a large mixing bowl
Add sugar, raisins and cinnamon
Mix thoroughly
Line the baking paper with a sheet of puff pastry
Pour contents of mixing bowl into pastry
Raise the edges of pastry
Cover with the 2nd sheet of pastry and use water to seal the edges
Poke holes with a fork all over pastry to allow steam to escape
Brush top of pastry with egg/milk mixture
Bake for 35-45 minutes till pastry browns

Voila.

Okay so what has this got to do with chess?

While baking, I started thinking of the steps I did to make the apple strudel. It was easy, straightforward. I had a plan, an idea and a strategy (making optimal use of time - took me half an hour to prepare the ingredients before chucking the whole lot into the oven).

And then I got to thinking how opening chess theory is so similar. You have a plan, you form your core strategy around your plan and you proceed to follow it like A-B-C.

Unfortunately, chess theory is also a lot more complex. Certain openings like the Sicilian Najdorf or the Sveshnikov runs into tens of lines of theory just to get an opening edge or not fall into a losing position. It's scary but it makes you wonder why people play this opening.

Lest it be known, I have a limited memory capacity. Unlike GMs who have Terabytes of RAM hardwired to their brains, unfortunately, little me is running on 64 Kilobytes of RAM and can only accomodate a limited amount of information. That's why my pet lines tend to revolve around tactics and endgames rather than on opening theory.

I'd noticed with lower rated players (I'm only a 1450 rated player), opening theory quickly went out the window. Last week against a higher rated player, I was playing the first 6 moves out of memory and then my opening theory ran out and started playing on my own. I didn't realise that my subsequent play had gone into one of the major lines of that opening.

Seeing players like Topalov who have such a huge opening theory in their repertoire scares me. There's no way I can commit to memory such long sequences and variations of an opening to boot (not to mention the analysis that goes into it).

When I throw in endgame theory, suddenly my brain is yelling me to stop before it threatens to implode.

Do I play offbeat lines then? I don't. Suprisingly, I play a lot of major lines. The Caro-Kann, Sicilian, Pirc, French, Petroff, Ruy Lopez, KID, KIA, QID, NID, Slav, Semi-Slav, QGD, English, Catalan etc.

Why do I do that? I am trying to get accustomed to different pawn structures and different middlegame strategies. Despite my lack of opening theory, I usually "muddle" my way through the myriad of complications and try to grasp a better understanding of each opening and the strategy behind them. eg. playing the KID involves understanding dark-square strategy or how to handle the Carlsbad structure and Isolated Queen Pawns positions arising from the QGD. I noticed that by playing a variety of openings, I start to slowly understand how to handle different positions.

I feel this is extremely important as a chess player. Pawn structures and pawn formations are fluid and change all the time. As a result, it is important to understand different pawn formations and how to handle them should they change.

I don't win most of my games but it was sure fun to play them!

Misplaying The Opening

When playing any opening, it is very important that you know how to play your opening especially razor sharp openings where the the line between winning and losing is on a knife's edge. Opening traps are abundant and one slip is usually fatal (even an incorrect move order can be detrimental).

Take for example, this miniature game (I'm White) in the French defence.

1. e4 e6
2. d4 d5
3. Nd2 Nf6
4. e5 Nfd7
5. c3 c5
6. Bd3 Nc6
7. Ndf3 Be7
8. h4 O-O??

All is peaceful, yes? No..........

In this case, my opponent didn't know the French Tarrasch defence well enough and what follows was .....

9. Bxh7! Kxh7+
10. Ng5+

Now all variations after

10. .... Bxg5 11. hxg5+ Kg8 or Kg6 12. Qh5 and it's game over
10. .... Kg6 11. Qd3+ f5 12. exf6+ (en passant) Kxf6 13. Qf3+ and it's not even funny
10. .... Kg8 11. Qh5 Bxg5 12. hxg5 and White mates the French like what Kramnik probably does everyday

An Opening Trap

I played another blitz game (I should really give up blitz games, they're bad for my play) on FICS. This one involved a Ruy Lopez: Deferred Stenitz Var.

I am White and it is Black's turn. Can Black play 1....Bxe4?

Highlight the answer below (within the backets):

[No. 1... Bxe4 runs into the nasty Rook pin with Re1 followed by f3, winning the Bishop. Black might achieve some counterplay because of the open a7-e1 diagonal to the White King but it's still very much in the early stage and it is doubtful Black has sufficient compensation for a lost Bishop.]