changing up my openings, your input appreciated!

Hi everyone,

It's been my habit the past few years to switch up my openings so that I keep exposing myself to different positions and pawn structures. I think it's helped my game long term and also more confidence playing against whatever my opponents throw at me. I hope that later down the road when I get to the level where I need to sit down and make an opening repertoire I'll have a better idea what openings I will want to study in depth. So anyway, I'd like suggestions for my new set of openings to work with. Right now I am working with openings that follow opening principles closely and that are usually more tactical, open games may be the term used. For black I am planning to work with the Sicilian against e4, but everything else is wide open. For white I'd like to try a d4 opening but I understand them to be less tactical and more positional generally so perhaps an e4 opening is better fit. Ok, looking forward to everyone's suggestions!

Hi learning2mate,

here is a opening repertoire which I also play sometimes. Its some work but when you learn the lines you will have a better understanding of those structures.

White:

D4: Against D5: I would recommend you the queensgambit(c4) because its such an instructive opening, that makes lot of fun to play and there are many ways how you can change between some lines to irritate your opponent.

Against Nf6: The trompovsky(Bg5). Not many players know it at your level and its nice to build up slow attacks.

Black:

Against E4:

- your suggestion the Sicilian. I would recommend you the Najdorf(a6) because lots of strong GM,s play it and its a very dynamic opening. I have done a blog post about it, you should check it out to learn some nice lines.Play

Against d4: The kingsindian: I am playing this opening my whole life and its really the opening with the best winning chance for black. There are so many attacking ideas and it makes so much fun to play it, I think everybody should at least try it out.

You are a member of my Coaching Group(IYC), so I can offer you to Show you the lines I know and play with the Analysis Board in live chess. There you can ask me questions and I can Show you some detailed plans and lines. Cheers and contact me, Till :)

Thanks for the input. I played the KID a few years back, but I didn't care for its hypermodern feel and theory heavy aspect. I'd prefer openings that mostly stick to opening principles because at my level I'm still working on using and understanding them effectively (and knowing when they can be broken). I like the queens gambit suggestion, I just finished with the kings gambit so it'd be fitting to switch to the queens gambit. Trompvsky looks interesting enough, so I'll bite that too. I remember reviewing a game with the tarrasch, I think it was kasparov v Karpov which Karpov won and I liked the tarrasch feel, reminded me of the French with a more freedom feel. I think that also has an IQP which I need to learn, so ok, tarrasch defense sounds good. As for the Sicilian, I was suggested by a CM when discussing openings to try the taminov (sp?) Variation because it more closely follows opening principles, lesser theory and active piece play, so I'm going to try that one. Appreciate the suggestions, anyone feel free to suggest more as I'll be switching up openings again in a few months. For now I have white d4 with queens gambit or Trompvsky, and black taminov Sicilian against e4, tarrasch against d4 and hmm, what against c4/Nf3? Guess that's still open!

Steve Giddens wrote a book on improving your opening play. He's a respected author; the book a bit mediocre, but that's a different subject.

Anyway he seemed, from my skim read, to advocate on the side of not radically changing your opening. The reason has to do with gaining a nice range of opening theory, but not enough depth. That lack of depth is then felt throughout all phases of the game. Makes sense to me.

He does say that if a change is needed to add some variety, then the new line should be a fairly close relative to the regular opening (similar pawn structure and themes). Adding the Sicilian Kan to a Taimanov repetoire, for example, or a Bogo-Indian to a QID. Those are examples only.

But I'm only repeating the written words of some English IM (I think he is). I happen to agree with him, but that is irrelevant. :)

Thanks and I understand the reasoning for sticking to a set of openings, but at my level I find that unnecessary as games aren't decided in the openings but in the middle and endgame. Sure higher up I'll plan to have a select opening repertoire that I know very well but I'm a ways off still.

Yeah I've played e4 e5 before, and I'm just introducing myself to different openings and ideas, nothing long term yet. I'm well aware that the Sicilian is theory heavy in general and more painful to learn but I need to take it on eventually!

The Sicilian is not an opening you can expect much out of if you're just looking to try it out for a short period of time. It is a very complex system with many traps and nuances that take time to learn. Most variations have entire books written about them that are intended only to ground you in the main thematic ideas of the variation and provide the main lines. Then there are the books devoted to one particular variation within a variation.

I've played the Sicilian exclusively during the on and off  period of my chess play since I took it up about 15 years ago. I still feel at times like I've only scratched the surface of the two similar variations of it that I play.

Here is an overview of some of the major systems and what you face on the black side:

1. The Dragon. This is an extremely double-edged sword. Its main enemy is the Yugoslav attack. White only needs to know about 8 moves of concrete theory and from there the attack almost plays itself. Black, to survive, has to play extremely accurately or he is simply dead. One missed tempo is enough for the Yugoslav attack to crash through and crush black.

2. The Najdorf. Features some very, very sharp lines where you absolutely must be a competent tactician or you are simply dog food for any white player who knows the theory of his chosen line against the Najdorf. White has several to choose from. Black needs to be well versed in all of them. It is such a double-edged opening, theory rich opening that general ideas and some theory is not going to be enough against any decent open Sicilian player (who faces the Najdorf often enough that you are not going to suprise or intimidate him).

3. The Accelerated Dragon. This is a different animal entirely. Black plays Nc6 (or g6 in the hyper-accelerated dragon) with the aim of playing d7-d5 in one move and thereby avoiding the Yugoslav Attack. But instead he gets to face, quite frequently, the Maroczy Bind. Not sharp like the Dragon and Najdorf but very strategic. Black needs some positional ability and patience to find counterplay against the bind.

4. The Sicilian 4 Knights. One of the quietest Sicilian lines, and the most drawish. Black gets to avoid the razorsharp kingside attacks so common in other Sicilian lines, but in return is saddled (in the main line) with a weak IQP and a difficult position to play, unless you're a natural at handling very positional lines.

5. The Sveshnikov. Up there with the Najdorf for complexity and sharpness of play. Black voluntarily accepts a backward d pawn on an open file in returm for active counterplay where he has play on both sides of the board. In a reversal of most Sicilians, it is black who tends to get active play on the kingside, and white plays instead on the queenside.

6. The Taimanov. This variation can involve black having to weather a very strong attack on the kingside while seeking counterplay on the queenside (a common theme in the majority of Sicilians). Its not as sharp as the Najdorf or Dragon, but much sharper than the 4 Knights or Accelerated Dragon. Theory is much lighter than in the Najdorf, but you have to be able to defend a violent kingside attack while counterattacking on the queenside, and understand be able to handle the quieter, more positional lines white can elect to play for.

There are many other systems within the Sicilians, but they tend to be close relatives of one of the above systems. The Sveshnikov and Kalashnikov, or Taimanov and Kan, for example.

White also can avoid the Open Sicilian and your pet line entirely, and select instead from one of the many Anti-Sicilian lines that are out there. Like the different branches within the Sicilian, the anti-Sicilians feature very diverse ideas and each has its own theory that goes with it. The black player has to be comfortable in lines as radically different as the closed Sicilian and the Alapin are to each other.

So you have been warned as to what to expect ;)

Understood, as I said before I'm more interested in trying different pawn structures and set ups and dipping my feet into various openings to get some idea of what I could expect if and when I eventually settle down into a set opening repertoire.

In almost all openings, after 6-10 moves, the position assumes 1 of 6 characteristic pawn structures.  Learning how to play those 6 pawn structures from both the White and Black side will go a long way to improving your rating.

I agree with the first comment, except that I would not recommend Najdorf, it's too much theory. You'll end up plyaing Kramnik's game with some novelty instead of YOUR game

I am online now dude :)

I'm not concerned with playing it well, I've never played any opening well, I just like variety and expose myself to different positions. Even if I'm terrible at Sicilian openings it'll be a great experience for my chess. Already had several interesting games with it, mostly getting burned :)

Tarrasch is fun, the isolated pawn is great to experience and figure out how best to manage. I've had fun with the queens gambit too although I somehow failed to find the right plan when my opponent accepted and then tried to keep the pawn and was successful at it. Appreciate other opening suggestions for my next set by the way.

I highly recommend the Rossolimo Sicilian for White.  This opening will really help you understand how to play in closed positions.  Trade off your LSB early, play d3 (notice you've gotten rid of what would become a bad Bishop!) play h3 to prevent counterplay, castle, develop your DSB to e3, your other Knight to c3, and try to maneouver the Knight to h2 to prepare the f2-f4 push. 

Thanks for the suggestion, when I go back to e4 I will look at that for when I face Sicilian.

I've been looking at the Taimanov and Kan lately for Black. It's very flexible and it seems to be very effective against sub-2000 players, since a lot of standard setups don't work as well against these systems. For instance, the popular English Attack formation with 6.Be3 is very awkward against the Kan. The Kan move order is very flexible and I tend to tranpose to the Taimanov against the solid Be2 systems to create more tension. The transposition to the 6.Be2 Taimanov mainline occurs after natural moves for White and the main continuation (9.Na4) is hardly obvious if you don't know the theory. Transpositions to the Scheveningen are also an interesting possibility. This path takes some study, but you don't have memorize as much sharp theory as you would in the Najdorf. Another good point in favor of the Kan is that you learn about Scheveningen structures, so this can be a useful transition to learning sharper Sicilians like the Scheveningen or Najdorf.

When nothing helps play F3, Kh2, its a nice sacrificial opening, called the "Game Gambit" .

Joke... ;) But I wouldnt recommend you to play the Queensgambit with both colours because then it is always harder to find a line with white against what you play with black. So maybe the Tschigorin or the Slav/Semislav?

Play the french winaver, and because most of your opponents will have no idea what to do you will end up squeezing the hell out of your opponents until they resign.