Something I've often thought about is the width of an opening repertoire. At amateur level it's unusual to find anyone who knows anything really well, top players seem to know and play almost everything.
Should we try to emulate what top players do? Frankly I don't think so because we don't need to. Being too predictable can be fatal at the top level where your opponents can be armed with super-computers and seconds. It's different for amateurs because we will not be facing such a high level of preparation and will be able to win quite drawish positions.
So for most of us I think that having a single set of openings is plenty, assuming that we know them really well. It's important that they should be sound and yet have enough scope to outplay our opponents. Preparing more openings than that is an unproductive use of time which might be better spent on endgames.
What about older GMs who frequently play in weekend events? In my case I think that a single set of openings with White is fine but with Black I tend to think that I need two. One would be for sheer solidity when meeting players of a similar or higher rating to mine, a second would be for when I play lower rated players and really need to avoid early simplification.
One final thought is to always consider the Flank Openings when choosing your defence against 1.d4. The Gruenfeld (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5) and Nimzo (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4) are great until your opponent avoids them with 1.c4 or 1.Nf3. In such cases you need something extra, which can mean a lot more work.
Training Tournaments
This week's training tournaments feature more lines from the Building an Opening Repertoire course, this time from White's perspective:
Sunday November 24th at 5pm UK Time: Colle vs KID with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.e3 Bg7
Sunday November 24th at 6.15pm UK Time: Colle vs Gruenfeld with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.e3 d5
Upcoming Events
Here's my schedule over the coming months, though it is subject to change. I often don't know until fairly late in the day.
December 1, 2024: Bolton Rapid Play
A fairly local event for me, so I'll be playing to to get some practice. Details can be found here.
December 7, 2024: Huddersfield Chess Club Seminar
I've run a number of seminars at this great club, this is the first since before COVID. Their website is here.
January 17-19: Huddersfield 4NCL Congress
I really enjoy the 4NCL Congresses as they're played under excellent conditions in nice hotels. This is the first one in Huddersfield, you can find details here.
January 27th: Stockport Rapidplay
I've played in this event with some regularity, so probably I'll go for it again. You can find details here.
February 16-27, 2025: World Senior Team Championship
I've accepted a place in the 50+ second team which means I'll play a much stronger field than on bottom board of the first team. Although this diminishes my chances of winning a medal I'm looking forward to the challenge.
July/August 2025: British Championships
Will these be held in Liverpool next year? There's a rumour on Tim Spanton's blog that they would be. I think I might go for the 50+ event if this is the case.
I'm hopeful that I'll get to play in the European Senior Team Championships (Walbrzych, Poland, April 4-14) in which I've said I'll play in any team and on any board.
Have a great weekend!
Nigel
