Building an Opening Repetoire

I was just wondering the best way to start to build an opening repetoire. I know one or two, but just haven't quite found an effective way of learning and remembring openings. Thanks in advance.

Look up and try out a million different ones until you some you like. In the beginning you generally want to decide:

1)Which move are you going to start with as white? e4? d4? c4? Nf3? f4? b4? g4? Nc3? Pick one and stick with it, once you decide on one dont change it every month...I suggest 1.e4 to start.

2)What to play against 1.e4? 1...e5? French? Caro Kann? Sicilian? Pirc?

3)What to play against 1.d4? QGD? QGA? Slav? KID? Grunfeld?

The first and most important thing is look consider what type of middle game positions you like, for example open vs. closed. I think it's important for beginners to play a lot open games because there are more tactics involved. So I would base my opening rep around 1.e4 e5.

You need to learn a bunch. I'd say the more the better. Not like tedious line memorization. Just like the basic ideas of the opening and what your supposed to be aiming for with it. Then play it a couple times. See if you like the play and if you really like it keep it. If your not digging it to much move onto the next one.

You should also see what sort of play you like more. Some people like myself prefer play that's a little sharper so I play sharper openings. Some people prefer more calm postions so they play calmer openings.

all what said by the colleagues is great, but just let me tell u the advice of yasser seirawan, start by the following 3 openings...they r all coming from the same strategy so u dont have to memorise much

1. king's indian attack as white  1.Nf3

2. pirc defence in front of 1.e4   1....d6

3. king's indian defence against any other white move other than 1.e4   1...Nf6

you dont realy need to know more than 3 or 4 openings for black and white, from there just use basic chess princaples such as pqwn structure and space and from there improvise most of the moves that are in the hundreds of openings

For most beginners by the way, I suggest playing e4 as white and 1...e5 as black against e4. Look over some Paul Morphy games for inspiration and some nice attacking lines.

the nice thing about seirawans openings there is that when you get the hang of it and decides to play like a man with 1.e4 openings and if your opponent play some crazy obscure line or simply something you dont feel prepared for you just transpose back to the kings indian attack:) its also recommended by the great chesstrainer dvoretsky if i remember right

there is a book called 'how to build your chess opening reportoire' by Steve Giddins. I heard its quite good (got 4.5/5 on Amazon), but never read it.

katalyst has the right idea here in my opinion.  Personally just from playing a lot I've learned what all the right moves are for most openings though I still don't know what 99% of the openings are called.

by the way dont let anyone fool you with catalan is for people who dont like tactics. if black takes the cpawn you get some incredible complicated tactical positions where white a pawn less must play with enourmous energy to create a win or just to not lose:)

This is one of the biggest issues I currently face.. Any suggestions on this repetoire- Ruy lopez and king's indian attack as white; slav defense, Nimzo as black?

sachint, thats definately a start - have you decided on what you are playing against 1.e4 as black (forgive me if you mean 1...Nc6 (Nimzowitsch Defense) instead of Nimzo - Indian)?

 its an excellent book...a must read before building ur repertoire

There are a variety of attitudes towards learning and remembering an opening. In one of his books about an opening, GM Nigel Davies wrote (2005), "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."

One can find some specific suggestions, along with discussion of issues related to repertoire choice in the book, Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014).

http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html

Even if you do not like his specific recommendations, they might at least give you a feeling as to what you would like to try next. Opening selection is surprisingly complicated and nobody can realistically do it for you. "You find your path by walking it", seems to be very appropriate here.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627000253/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen49.pdf

There is some overlap in subject matter between the Giddins book and the Tamburro book, but I think the Tamburro book is aimed more at players near the beginner level. Tamburro used a fair amount of space to talk about opening principles and gave more detail on a limited number of specific repertoire suggestions.

u guys do see that this thread is 7 years old? :D

and it's coming back to life!  

I am a loyal king's gambit player with an occasional Ruy Lopez to change it up.  Only recently have I started playing with the Colle, but only on other sites and on chess with friends to get a feel for the opening.  Its okay so far.  Against a sicilian player, I switch between open and closed sicilian, not sure yet which I prefer.  I like the open games but it seems more of my opponents at my rating are less familiar playing against the closed sicilian.

With black I play sicilian vs e4, favoring the dragon, but occasionally using another.  I have started playing around with the french too, but still not real successfully yet.  Against d4, I like king's indian defense and sometimes nimzo-indian.

My strongest understanding of opening theory is in the dragon and king's gambit, but I'm working to improve my repertoire.  

Just play the Hnerf Attack.