Despite the common advice to study pretty much everything else before studying openings, chess openings are arguably the hottest topic among chess players. Why is this so? Everybody seems to agree that opening preparation is important for high-level players (read: grandmasters) but still many beginners and intermediate players spend a great deal of time pondering over their opening choices. Accordingly, many chess bloggers write about their openings of choice (or reasons to avoid opening study). However, other players (see some of the questionnaire answers) seem to prefer to keep their opening repertoire secret.

So, why are chess openings such a heavily discussed topic? Are chess openings addictive? I never thought about the latter until I discovered that I am an example for a mild case of opening addiction. I never tried to memorize opening lines, that would be much to laborious. However, somehow my copy of MCO-14 found its way to the side of my bed and whenever I have a few minutes before falling asleep, I browse through it. For the people who never looked inside of an opening reference book: books like MCO-14 are far from exciting. Most of the pages contain table after table filled with variations of mostly mainline openings. So why do I browse through it all the time? Well, it is similar to the attraction of mail-order catalogs spamming my physical mailbox. Even though I will probably never play these openings myself, it gives me the feeling of empowerment - phrases like "gives active play and king-side attacking chances" make the reader hope that by adopting this opening everything will become better. Only too bad that actually successfully carrying out these plans requires a lot of work. Really a LOT. Not only that you have to learn the lines and ideas behind the openings, you also have to learn typical middlegame strategies and sometimes even typical endgame situations resulting from this opening choice.

Of course, most serious chess players know very well that memorizing a few variations does not give you a won game (Even though titles of chess opening books like "killer repertoire" are using just this subconscious urge to sell their products). Still, chess openings are THE conversation topic among chess players (just take a look at your Internet chess forum of choice and see which topics receive many responses). I believe there are two reasons for this: 1) All (classic) chess games start with the same position. Sure, we could talk about the beautiful endgame you played in your last game, but why should I invest brainpower in this? Let's talk about something we can both relate to! 2) It is simple to talk about openings. Simple? After all, even the most powerful computer chess engines that beat human grandmasters with the regularity only machines have rely on opening databases compiled by humans. Therefore, chess openings are no simple topic for sure. However, many conversations never make it beyond the "I play the French against 1. e4" and "the Sicilian is the best" stage and while many players may not know much about basic endgames, the "French" is a "household" name.

But all that does not solve my problem: Should I start playing one of these yummy openings I found while browsing through the opening menu? Or should I just stick with the moves I always play? For now, I moved my copy of MCO-14 to a less accessible location. May be this brings me relieve from my chess opening cravings.

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written by Temposchlucker, July 19, 2007

You use MCO-14 against insomnia?

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written by Atomic Patzer, July 20, 2007

Sciurus,

I recently got a ChessBase DVD on the Scandinavian Qd6 by Martin. Very Nice. I like this way of being introduced to an opening. I wouldn't replace my books with a DVD but it's an excellent supplement.

Just pick a tabiya that you like and give it a try. I did that last week in a quad and got the chance to play 3 new openings - Grand Prix, Tango, and Urusov's gambit. And I won all three. What Luck! You have try them out and see how they feel.

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written by Sciurus, July 20, 2007

Tempo:
I tried to use MCO-14 against insomnia but it did not work - I started to have too many dreams of playing aggressive sharp openings and becoming a great chess player The dreams were fun but the next day I am still losing games regardless if I know the opening or not

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written by Sciurus, July 20, 2007

Atomicpatzer:

Congrats on your winning streak!

I never tried the ChessBase DVDs - thanks for the suggestion - but I do have a DVD on the Colle-Zukertort and recently subscribed to chesslecture.com to watch their Scandinavian Qd6 videos. However, I ended up watching mostly endgame videos because I am currently more fascinated by that topic.

May be I will try to learn something different as Black against 1.e4. The Qd6 Scandinavian often leaves me with a pretty dense position, at least the way I am playing it. We will see.

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written by Trooper, July 20, 2007

I try to limit my openings to a couple. One or two that I am fairly good with, and some others that I throw in just to do something different. At my level, I'm unsure that memorizing a bunch of lines is going to help me any. I figure if I play solidly, it shouldn't matter. I don't expect to be at master level anytime soon.

On the other hand, I am into openings enough that my wife at least recognizes the name "King's Gambit", although she doesn't know what it is. =)

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written by Atomic Patzer, July 20, 2007

Sciurus,

I've been a member on chesslecture.com for about 6 months. Pretty good isn't it? I'm doing the same thing. I think it is worth the money.

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written by Sciurus, July 20, 2007

Trooper:

I agree that memorizing lines won't help much here. As you noticed from the way I lost my last game against you, tactics is the problem and not opening knowledge.

However, right now I am looking at openings not so much to learn variations but to understand the long-term strategies behind them. That way I get to know what to aim for IF I don't blunder

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written by Sciurus, July 20, 2007

Atomicpatzer:

Yes, I also like the videos there very much although there are also many high-quality free videos available on the Internet. But finding them takes too much time and chesslecture.com is a good one-stop source.

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