training against non-standard opening moves

Hi everybody :)

I'm doing a lot of training to learn book lines, and when an opponent plays some obviously inferior move I try to take a long, long think (in correspondence chess) and find a way to punish the inaccuracy (of course in some cases I'm just wrong to think the move inferior and may well end up getting smashed, but that's a different story).

However, I'm looking for some training material that helps in this area. It's useless to spend hours learning "book" lines and then get only a tiny advantage when an opponent deviates from these lines (which often happens unless I invest unreasonably much time thinking about the next move)... By the way, I enjoy watching video tutorials and using training software, but I can't stand reading chess books (which is probably why I don't see much detailed analysis when I study).

[I'm generally quite a slow player, and in live chess I often get anxious in the opening under the clock's pressure and play mediocre moves]

For example, the chess software that I have seen will train you in opening lines by playing a book line against you... If you play a move that is "incorrect", i.e., not the one in the book, the software just tells you that you got it wrong. What I'd like is a training tool that also plays "wrong" moves against you, and rates your response (maybe even _explaining_ a little, or is that crazy to ask for?). 

Any suggestions would be most welcome :D

Cheers!

{A}

Chess openings wizard (COW), chess opening trainer (COT), or chess position trainer (CPT)...all 3 have a training mode where you can plug in the lines you want to train (either import the PGN or manually enter the moves), the computer moves and you have to move whatever candidate move(s) in that line or else the computer just makes you keep trying.  SCID I heard also has something like this. ChessBase and Chess Assistant I know nothing about.

What you really want/need is to study positional chess (aka the middlegame).  Without positional understanding, all you can train is tactics. And most of the time (like 9-times-out-of-10) your opponent's first non-book move will have no clear tactical refutation. Assuming you have some advantage is a mistake. Without positional chess concepts you have no way of knowing if you have an advantage or what your advantage might be. In practical terms you have no advantage at all.   You have nothing to do but play chess as best you know how.

Chess mentor and chess.com videos have some excellent middlegame lessons, and good master instruction on openings will get into middlegame ideas... but the best material I know for this stuff is still books -- Ludek Pachman's Modern Chess Strategy, and Jeremy Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess.  I'm working on Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess Workbook at the moment and finding it very instructive.

Or you could copy GM responses without having to think so much, because that is what other @$$#01e$ are doing to beat you, and just get COW, CPT, or COT.  The choice is simple...advice from someone roughly 500 lower or 500 higher than you.  Either way, it is close to 500.