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A Beginner's Garden of Chess Openings (2002)

dwheeler.com

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Re: A Beginner's Garden of Chess Openings (2002)

#51

Post by BurningFrog »

metroholografix wrote: post #5

Below 1700 or so, openings are mostly a waste of time and tactics rule the day. Learning the basic opening principles and two basic opening moves that you keep playing (one for white, one for black) and focusing on tactics [1][2] is in my experience the fastest way to advance. After 1700 or so, specific openings can be studied. I suggest playing d4 instead of e4 as white (avoids dealing with the Sicilian) and as blac…

Agreed on the main point. Wasting time on memorizing openings instead of playing chess is probably the most common rookie mistake.

Though I do well avoiding Sicilian by playing Alapin (e4 c5 c3).

Re: A Beginner's Garden of Chess Openings (2002)

#52

Post by dwheeler »

postingpals wrote: post #21

I'm gonna go against what others are saying here... learn openings if you're a low rated player. They not only give you tactics against players who don't prepare against them, but you also never have to feel lost in the first 12 or so moves. You can just study 1 or 2 lines for a start, it's really not hard especially with computers.

I'm the author of the referenced article. I agree, even low-rated players should learn at least a few moves of a few openings. I think trying to learn 12 moves is too much for a beginning player, but knowing a few moves is helpful because it helps you avoid some easy blunders.

Re: A Beginner's Garden of Chess Openings (2002)

#53

Post by georgiecasey »

SoSoRoCoCo wrote: post #32
metroholografix wrote: post #5

Below 1700 or so, openings are mostly a waste of time and tactics rule the day. Learning the basic opening principles and two basic opening moves that you keep playing (one for white, one for black) and focusing on tactics [1][2] is in my experience the fastest way to advance. After 1700 or so, specific openings can be studied. I suggest playing d4 instead of e4 as white (avoids dealing with the Sicilian) and as blac…

The problem with tactics training is that there is always a "best answer" because they have been picked to have a best answer. What got me playing over 1700 (lichess rating grin ) were two things: 1) deepening my mental checklist: 1) am i being attacked, 2) are there unprotected pieces, 3) am I about to be forked/pinned, 4) can I fork/pin my opponent ... and increase how far down you can BFS this without getting a he…

> What got me playing over 1700 (lichess rating grin) were two things:

On what time limit? I'm ~1700 on Rapid but ~1400 on Blitz. I find you need to play a lot of games to get good at quick time limits.

Re: A Beginner's Garden of Chess Openings (2002)

#54

Post by [deleted] »

yodsanklai wrote: post #48
metroholografix wrote: post #5

Below 1700 or so, openings are mostly a waste of time and tactics rule the day. Learning the basic opening principles and two basic opening moves that you keep playing (one for white, one for black) and focusing on tactics [1][2] is in my experience the fastest way to advance. After 1700 or so, specific openings can be studied. I suggest playing d4 instead of e4 as white (avoids dealing with the Sicilian) and as blac…

> Below 1700 or so, openings are mostly a waste of time Why? I'm not at that level but I'm sure it can't hurt. I'm not talking about spending hours studying openings, but simply being able to name things is helpful. That way you can pick new ideas along the way, memorize past mistakes more easily, communicate with other players. And it doesn't take much time to know the first few moves of the most common openings.

[deleted]

Re: A Beginner's Garden of Chess Openings (2002)

#55

Post by georgiecasey »

SoSoRoCoCo wrote: post #32
metroholografix wrote: post #5

Below 1700 or so, openings are mostly a waste of time and tactics rule the day. Learning the basic opening principles and two basic opening moves that you keep playing (one for white, one for black) and focusing on tactics [1][2] is in my experience the fastest way to advance. After 1700 or so, specific openings can be studied. I suggest playing d4 instead of e4 as white (avoids dealing with the Sicilian) and as blac…

The problem with tactics training is that there is always a "best answer" because they have been picked to have a best answer. What got me playing over 1700 (lichess rating grin ) were two things: 1) deepening my mental checklist: 1) am i being attacked, 2) are there unprotected pieces, 3) am I about to be forked/pinned, 4) can I fork/pin my opponent ... and increase how far down you can BFS this without getting a he…

> 2) playing with an analysis engine like stockfish.

so... cheating?

Re: A Beginner's Garden of Chess Openings (2002)

#56

Post by Nemerie »

cactus2093 wrote: post #26
kwertyops wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tactics trainers: https://lichess.org/training/ https://chesstempo.com/chess-tactics/ https://www.chess.com/puzzles

I'm curious if anyone has advice on how to interpret the ratings in the tactics trainers. Should they map roughly to your in-game rating? I'm pretty new to chess and still pretty bad (just under 1000 online, I make a lot of blunders and/or fall for opponents' tactics) but my rating is 1750 on the tactics trainer. I would imagine at some point the tactics are not the bottleneck and I should be working on something els…

> Should they map roughly to your in-game rating?

For a typical player, the chess.com puzzles rating is at least 500 points higher than the blitz rating on this site.

I think tactics shouldn't be on focus only for very strong players, such as FMs or IMs, but you definitely don't need to choose one instead of another. It's fine to learn some tactics, then some strategy, then some endgames, isn't it?

Re: A Beginner's Garden of Chess Openings (2002)

#57

Post by toolslive »

idealism wrote: post #18
metroholografix wrote: post #5

Below 1700 or so, openings are mostly a waste of time and tactics rule the day. Learning the basic opening principles and two basic opening moves that you keep playing (one for white, one for black) and focusing on tactics [1][2] is in my experience the fastest way to advance. After 1700 or so, specific openings can be studied. I suggest playing d4 instead of e4 as white (avoids dealing with the Sicilian) and as blac…

I understand what you're saying and agree, although I may suggest that 1700 number come down a bit to maybe 1200. I'm around the 1000-1200 range (just picked it up again recently) and I'd say most of my peers on Chess.com around that range have definitely studied openings and present sneaky traps consistently in the first ~5-15 moves. Playing as black for me is the real driving force for me to study openings because…

I'm at 2250 on Lichess, and I consider openings a waste of time. Ok, I confess I wasted a lot of time on them in the past, and my rating was rather constant for years and years, until I started tactics via the woodpecker method. It's hard work, but definitely worth it. (quite a few of the easier exercises are opening tactics)

https://www.amazon.com/Woodpecker-Method-Axel-Smith-Tikkanen...

Re: A Beginner's Garden of Chess Openings (2002)

#58

Post by BurningFrog »

TameAntelope wrote: post #12
metroholografix wrote: post #5

Below 1700 or so, openings are mostly a waste of time and tactics rule the day. Learning the basic opening principles and two basic opening moves that you keep playing (one for white, one for black) and focusing on tactics [1][2] is in my experience the fastest way to advance. After 1700 or so, specific openings can be studied. I suggest playing d4 instead of e4 as white (avoids dealing with the Sicilian) and as blac…

To add to this, the advice I've been given as a new/low rating chess player is to study endgames, if you must study something specific.

I like Bobby Fisher's approach to teaching beginners:

Study mating.

Chess is not about how you start but how you end.

Re: A Beginner's Garden of Chess Openings (2002)

#60

Post by superhuzza »

nrs26 wrote: post #46
uberdru wrote: post #42

I will never forgive Netflix for letting the Scholar's Mate out of the bag. You should learn that from a parent, aunt, or uncle. It is an initiation.

I agree! How did Netflix do this? Was this in Queen's Gambit?

Yes, in this scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw2eQDS6rC0

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