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Understanding your opening for the average player begins with these ideas. Are you looking for a closed position or an open position? Do you know the advantages of each type?

Knowing what weaknesses and strengths exist in your chosen opening will help you come up with plans during the game.

I often hear players talking about style. Understanding whether you favor open positions vs. closed positions is just one component of style. One is not better than the other. Some player calculate better when there is more space on the board, others with more pieces or occupied spaces.

If you are a player that prefers open spaces and lots of attacking lanes, then you need to make sure you are playing openings that favor this style.

Players who like open spaces tend to play “e4″ or P-K4 openings. They may also consider some of the Indian systems or flank type openings.

Players who like closed positions tend to play “d4″ or P-Q4 openings.  Closed position players tend to maneuver more.  They will shift their pieces multiple times behind their own forces.  If you feel comfortable creating plans where you pieces stay on your side of the board for 10-15 moves then closed positions are for you.

Let’s talk about what happens if you choose the wrong opening.  Let’s pretend you are a positional player and don’t know it.  You have decided to play a popular opening like the Sicilian.  Most of the Sicilian lines are sharp, open attacking lines.  Keeping your pieces at home is a recipe for disaster in this opening.  You will rarely win a game.

If you find yourself constantly asking yourself what should I do now? You are probably playing the wrong style for the opening or the wrong opening for your style.

Players should look for openings that are intuitive.  How do you find openings that are intuitive?  By looking at others playing live.  Jump on the live chess site and watch some high rated players playing.  If you can predict what moves they make or what plans they implement, you might want to try similar openings.

Strong chess players are constantly reviewing other strong players games. They might not look at other games for the same reasons, but they will come away with similar ideas.

I encourage you to regularly look at Grandmaster games.  Some games will excite you others will not.  Either way you should make a note of what openings they are playing and how you feel about it.

If you feel like the French is boring. Make a note. “Note to self. The French is boring.” Feel free to add additional comments to the note. “I don’t like the French because white always ends up attacking the pawn chain.” or “They always end up trading down quickly.”

Making these type notes about openings and games will help you determine your style.

Once you know what opening really fits you, you can then move on to the most important training.  That is determining what ideas exist for your opening.

Play your opening religiously.  Keep notes.  You should be able to tell at what point you made a new move.

Let’s say you play 20 games with the white pieces. Every game your first 5 moves for both sides were identical. (this is a good start). On move six your opponents started doing different things.  Let’s say out of 20 games 5 opponents pushed a center pawn. or 5 games your opponent castled on move six.

You should keep notes on what the best move is from move six.  You can also keep notes that reflect how many games you win based on changes on move six.

The stronger you get, the more moves you will make consistently and correctly in the opening.

You should compare your first 10 moves with grandmaster games.  How many times did you make the exact moves that they made?  When you deviated did you loose the game?  At what point did your opponent deviate? Was there move a mistake?

In Part IV we will begin to analyze the specifics of one particular opening.  Feel free to leave a comment or message me on your opening preference.  I will try to choose an opening with the most requests.

I had not planned on making this a series, but I am still getting questions on what to do in various positions.  So let’s start at the top. We will cover general ideas that you can apply to any opening.

It has come to my attention that the casual player might not be aware that every opening has an objective.  These objectives can be as simple as to control a square, or as complex as attacking a pawn chain.

Whichever opening you choose, you need to be aware of what the objective is for that opening.  Beginners are taught to (A.) Activate their pieces, (B.) Be safe with their King and (C.) Centralize their pieces.  These are good opening principles to keep in mind. However, doing them while ignoring your opponents move will lead to problems and even advantages for your opponent.

Advance players keep the above principles in mind while they are optimizing their piece placement.  Sometimes your opponent will make a mistake, and if you are moving based on memorized sequences you will miss the mistake.

I often observe 1600-1800 rated players making moves without really understanding why they are making that move.  They are just making the move because they saw it in the book or saw a strong player make the same move in a similar position.

If you ever have the opportunity to observe Grandmaster play you will observe that they do not blitz through the opening or the first ten moves of the game.  These are the same people who write books on the same openings.  They are taking their time in these positions for a reason.  Sometimes you can win the game in the first 10 moves, but technique may make the game stretch for another 15-20 moves.

Serious chess. This post is not for the casual player.

I believe that if you have a favorite opening, you should know it inside and out.  For some people, this is how they get a favorite opening. By studying an opening so well that it becomes natural for them.

Lately, I have run across players who will make a declaration about what opening they like to play. Yet, when asked about specific variations or ideas, they shrug their shoulders.

Learning your opening and playing your opening go hand in hand.  I recommend for all players to learn the first ten moves of their opening solid. I recommend that you understand where your opponent will have the opportunity to go wrong in those first ten moves.  You should also explore openings that transpose into your position after ten moves.

Doing all of the above will make you a much strong player. It will also make it easier for you to learn your next opening.

Another explanation I often here from players is that … “Players on my level don’t make that move.”  You should always assume your opponent is going to play the strongest move.  However, if you are playing weaker players.  Spend a little time preparing solid answers against the most common weaker moves as well.  This preparation should get you past this group and into stronger opponents.

I remember very specifically having a pet line in the Ruy Lopez. I got the idea from one of my favorite players Gata Kamsky while on one of my chess breaks(I had decided to stop playing chess for a couple years at this particular time).

I was reading the newspaper and came across his game that he had recently played. Since I hadn’t been playing chess, this game became very interesting to me.  I casually studied this game for months.

From that study I picked up some ideas that I really wanted to exercise in over the board play.  However, what I learned is that my average opponents, where making mistakes long before I could get my home preparation to work.

I had to stop and prepare more accurate responses to weaker lines just because I was seeing them so often.  I am not sure how many other players do this type of preparation, but for me it was a little frustrating.

Now that I am a little stronger, I am glad that I did preparation period.  I am learning to document my ideas as much as possible in any opening that I play.  Even if it is just a casual idea or a move that I would have liked to have played.

Sometimes you can get in a position and come up with this great tactic and your opponent won’t even go into it or might see it and avoid it.  You should still document the idea.  You may find yourself in that position and again and not have your tactical sharpness ready.

Reading your own notes on ideas and games can be magical over time.  I have been playing here at chess.com for almost a year and I have learned so much. Especially about my own game.

I look forward to another year of training and play.  I hope you will join me.