I have seen advice around that beginners study the opening to much. So, I
have intentionally put more weight on studying tactics and the endgame. My
rating has gone up to 1500, and I think I am loosing games because of not
knowing the opening.

A friend recommended Nunn's Chess Openings. I purchased it, but it seems to
be a bit monotonous. I don't have any friends my level in chess nearby to
study with. Does anybody have any ideas how to make it more interesting?

Matthew

On Tue, 1 Jun 2004 09:59:59 -0400, "Matthew"
wrote:

I have seen advice around that beginners study the opening to much. So, I
have intentionally put more weight on studying tactics and the endgame. My
rating has gone up to 1500, and I think I am loosing games because of not
knowing the opening.

A friend recommended Nunn's Chess Openings. I purchased it, but it seems to
be a bit monotonous. I don't have any friends my level in chess nearby to
study with. Does anybody have any ideas how to make it more interesting?

Matthew

Matthew,

Nunn's Chess Openings (along with ECO and MCO) is intended as a
refere3nce book on the openings. What I do is to go over every game I
play and look at how the opening progressed.

When I am the first to deviate from book I try to understand what the
difference is between the usual book move(s) and the one I played so
that if I ever reach the position again I'll understand what moves are
book and more importantly why those moves are better than others.

When my opponent deviates from book first I take several actions:
1) look over the analysis of the moves that are book (in order to
understand) whether my opponents move was inferior and why.
2) analyze the game until the transition to the middlegame to check if
I understood how to get advantage after opponents move.

As far as learning a new opening variation I adopt the approach that
Steve Lopez favors in his series of articles called "Learning a New
Opening" in the Chessbase Technical Notes on-line column that he wrote
some years ago. [The articles are availabe at www.chessbase.com and
www.chessbaseusa.com.] Lopez incorporates studying some books into
learning a new opening, but mainly uses a chess playing program and a
chess database program with a large (several million games) database.
Lopez talks about using Fritz and Chessbase 8 in his examples, but
with some adaptation you could use crafty and scid, both of which are
available for free. Check the articles out.

Good Luck

Mike Ogush

Hey Matthew,

I've built some software that makes it relatively easy to learn openings.
There's a free trial version at www.bookup.com For me, designing one's own
opening improvements is what makes it interesting.

Mike Leahy
"The Database Man!"
www.bookup.com

"Matthew" wrote in message
news
I have seen advice around that beginners study the opening to much. So, I
have intentionally put more weight on studying tactics and the endgame.
My
rating has gone up to 1500, and I think I am loosing games because of not
knowing the opening.

A friend recommended Nunn's Chess Openings. I purchased it, but it seems
to
be a bit monotonous. I don't have any friends my level in chess nearby to
study with. Does anybody have any ideas how to make it more interesting?

Matthew

"Matthew" wrote in message
news
I have seen advice around that beginners study the opening to much. So, I
have intentionally put more weight on studying tactics and the endgame.
My
rating has gone up to 1500, and I think I am loosing games because of not
knowing the opening.

A friend recommended Nunn's Chess Openings. I purchased it, but it seems
to
be a bit monotonous. I don't have any friends my level in chess nearby to
study with. Does anybody have any ideas how to make it more interesting?

Matthew

learning openings is not fun, but you have to do it.
1. choose the openings you like and make them your focus
2. try to understand the typical positions that arise from your chosen
openings
3. don't play into positions where you don't understand what is going on.

Simon

In article , Simon Fitzpatrick wrote:

What about the idea that I've seen suggested in places, that for
(relative) beginners, you should learn just a couple of lines, especially
lines that are easier to force? I.e. learn one defense each against
e4 and d4, and try to play a forcing line of d4 as white, etc. This of
course is at the sub-1600 or so level.


"Matthew" wrote in message
news
I have seen advice around that beginners study the opening to much. So, I
have intentionally put more weight on studying tactics and the endgame.
My
rating has gone up to 1500, and I think I am loosing games because of not
knowing the opening.

A friend recommended Nunn's Chess Openings. I purchased it, but it seems
to
be a bit monotonous. I don't have any friends my level in chess nearby to
study with. Does anybody have any ideas how to make it more interesting?

Matthew

learning openings is not fun, but you have to do it.
1. choose the openings you like and make them your focus
2. try to understand the typical positions that arise from your chosen
openings
3. don't play into positions where you don't understand what is going on.

Simon




--

"Matthew" wrote in message ...
I have seen advice around that beginners study the opening to much. So, I
have intentionally put more weight on studying tactics and the endgame. My
rating has gone up to 1500, and I think I am loosing games because of not
knowing the opening.

A friend recommended Nunn's Chess Openings. I purchased it, but it seems to
be a bit monotonous. I don't have any friends my level in chess nearby to
study with. Does anybody have any ideas how to make it more interesting?

Matthew

I've got three recommendations on openings:
1. "The 1000 Best Short Games of Chess", by Irving Chernev will give
you examples of a slew of traps in your favorite opening(s)

2. It's a good idea to understand the concepts behind opening moves.
Robert Bellin has some excellent books which explain ideas behind
various openings, and he gives opening plans. I'm aware of three
books he's written:
a. "Mastering the Modern Benoni and the Benko Gambit",
b. "Mastering the King's Indian Defence", and
c. "Mastering the Spanish".

My final recommendation is
3. "Pawn Structure In Chess", by Andrew Soltis. As the title
indicates, the book addresses the pawn structures of various openings,
and their strategic implications.
- A . McIntire

For a method of study, I much prefer to simply play over annotated
grandmaster games. I can do that for hours on end. Studying a chess reference
book, such as Nunn, puts me to sleep in ten minutes.

Haas