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Where to Begin?

This may seem to be an age old question, but I invite our audience to answer the recent questions I have been posed:
What are your guiding principles for a good chess opening?
Should a beginner stick to following the general accepted opening moves in common openings like the Ruy Lopez or Sicilian for example?

3 comments:

  1. I guess so, but depends from the time he/she has for the study. I think that Ruy Lopez and Sicilian are to large to go into, because of many possible variations. I prefer something smaller. Personaly I avoid e4 altogether sticking to d4 and on 1.e4 I answer 1...c6. It is much simpler.
    I think that beginners should look over many games of great masters from different openings and then chose what they feel is right for them. Any opening in the hand of masters is good opening. But to become a master requires definitly much effort, and time. I know, I did not become one. But there is always tomorrow. Yet it is not that important. We all can play great chess, at least in our eyes, with good sacrificess, and we can always improve.
    So take any opening and have a grat game.
    Marijan

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  2. I feel one should stick to just two comfortable repertoire to begin. one for white and one for black.

    1. eg. for white 1.e4 and write down one continuation for white for all possible continuations for black say upto move 10 or 12. This may not be that difficult can take up a maximum of 15 days(2 hrs a day) to completely write down and understand the principles.

    2. similary in the black repertoire, one continuation for black for all possible white moves.

    3. once comfortable at this, then slight deviations and experimentations can be interesting.

    I have with stored in a software called bookup, the first two of the above mentioned points. The software also helps me train on the openings I have entered.

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  3. As a chessplayer with an aversion to studying, I've found that I've settled upon openings that I am most comfortable with. When I first started going to a chess club 20 years ago, I didn't even know openings had names, but nevertheless I was playing book lines. So my advice to beginners is to just follow good opening logic and fundementals (control center, develop pieces, castle early). Play as much as possible, don't worry about book lines, and eventually you will be playing one or two openings that fit your style of play.

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