Success in chess strongly depends on the quality of the opening repertoire. It can be your best friend, giving you with a nice head start into the game, or your biggest enemy, providing you with a permanent handicap. Mastering the opening is important for
- starting into the middlegame with a good position
- understanding the arising middlegame structures
- choosing your favorite structures and bring them about
- controlling the middlegame up to the early endgame
My core skills, beginning with the black perspective, are
- Caro-Kann (concrete theory)
- Caro-Kann – Black’s winning ideas in the mainline (4-8h)
- Sicilian Four Knights
- Sicilian Sidelines/Anti-Sicilians
- Nimzo Indian
- Queen’s Indian
- Anti-London with e6 (2h)
- Anti-Trompovsky (6-8h)
- Remaining Queen Pawn Openings
- Hedgehog against the English Opening
From White’s perspective I advocate the English Opening. This is a huge complex, which could be structured as follows:
- 1.c4 e5 (Reversed Sicilian)
- 1.c4 c5 (Symmetry Variation)
- Anti-Slav
- Anti-King’s Indian
- Anti-Grünfeld
- Anti-Dutch
- Anti-Tarrasch
- Anti-Hedgehog
- Reti (Anti-Queen’s Gambit)
- 1.c4 b6
