Quote:


C.J.S. Purdy The Search for Chess Perfection II, p.57

Cheers. Yeah my tactics need work. Sometimes I'm ok and sometimes I chuck material. But anyway I wasn't really worried about theory but rather playing the "wrong" openings and only getting to play only one or two kinds of pawn structures all the time. 

For example when I use the Budapest I usually get a small center with pawns on f4, e4 and c4 vs d6 and it's the only pawn structure I play whereas with openings like the QGA or QGD there is a bigger variety of structures to play with. But I haven't had any problems with the Budapest either. Getting developed seemed pretty simple and no one has tried to keep the pawn yet. 

Thanks for the help.

ErictheRed wrote on 02/14/14 at 18:22:38:


I agree with that. But this is not an argument for studying opening at 1400 rating in my opinion (probably that's not what you meant anyway, just saying). This is a case for analyzing middlegames and basic concepts of pawn structures, initiative etc.

All sorts of differences yes. Very player dependent too. Blunders are normally much, much easier to produce in bad positions.

Others have beaten me to it. As soon as I read "I have played well against 1900s otb apart from some bad blunders" in the original post, I wanted to comment. The difference between a 1400 and 1900 has nothing to do with opening knowledge, or any other specific knowledge, for that matter, and everything to do with frequency and severity of blunders. 

Just play as much as possible, making sure to take the time to slow down and look for your opponents' possible replies on every move. Do a lot of tactics puzzles to learn to recognize common tactical patterns, so you can spot them quickly and accurately during your games. 

Put the opening study aside, and just play whatever openings appeal to you at the moment. Study all your games after playing them, and use a database to compare your opening play to the masters. I use 365chess.com - it's not perfect, but it's free and available to anyone with a web browser, and it's good enough most of the time. You'll learn bits and pieces of opening theory as you use your openings. Save the serious opening study for when you've reached a higher level of overall play.

I agree that you should worry more about middlegames than openings.  Regarding having problems playing the Tarrasch, you would do much better to learn general middlegame plans playing with and against an isolani than studying any theory.  Of course, some good opening books are suitable to be used for middlegame study as well, but at your level you would do better to learn the middlegame ideas from a book like How to Reassess Your Chess first.

GabrielGale wrote on 02/14/14 at 02:06:12:


I agree with this so much. Worry less, play more. Don't overthink the opening. Finding a repertoire in which you love every possible continuation is extremely hard to find. Look at a few model games, play and do analysis on your own games.
10 moves is plenty for your (original poster that is) level. When I was playing your level not so long ago I was always overprepared and my opponents wouldn't make more than 5 book moves or so.