Having an opening repertoire is very important if you plan to take Chess seriously. I read in lots of forums that many players spend too much time worrying about their openings and should just focus on play the ‘best’ move in a given position. This is good advice to a certain extent but I think to make serious progress you must learn some theory and ideas behind certain openings.

If you don’t understand the basic plan of a certain opening this could lead to you having a bad position. This means that the defect is now in your position very early on in the game - as black you want to strive to become equal and as white you generally want to maintain an advantage – this is why I think studying openings IS important!

Choosing an opening as white

Of course all openings can lead to all types of positions but generally if you choose 1.e4 you will be playing a more tactical, open game. If you prefer a quiet positional game with less sharp tactics you might choose 1.d4, 1.nf3 or 1.c4. It is often said opening choice is down to style – if you like complex, open, tactical attacking games then play 1.e4 - if you want to build up your position slowly then coose the 1.d4/1.c4 route.

I shall be examining the openings I will be playing in the up and coming local league and congresses.