How to learn chess openings effectively by focusing on understanding instead of memorization.
Caro-Kann repertoire with games available here: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/caro-kann-pgn-130336434" target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>https://www.patreon.com/posts/caro-kann-pgn-130336434
Practice the Caro-Kann repertoire here: https://app.noctie.ai/repertoires/8f59ab0a-79eb-4baa-91e5-766897590bfa?aff=q9yKD
Practice tough positions from the repertoire: https://app.noctie.ai/themes/edb6902e-52de-413f-b0e1-340edffb3545?aff=q9yKD
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Learning openings is something every chess player does. There has been a lot of debate on whether that’s necessary, especially on lower levels, with opinions ranging from “never learn openings!”, to “study openings, it’s essential!”
Whatever the authors and coaches say, it’s definitely true that understanding what to do in the opening and the middlegame resulting from it is beneficial. It helps us navigate familar positions, saves us time, and it prevents us from making simple mistakes.
Learning an opening can be done in a lot of different ways. I have created a four step process that works for me. I have outplayed many strong players in openings and have gotten great positions because of that.
Step 1: Use a database to select the variations you want to learn and figure out how your opponent can branch out and deviate. For this I use lichess.
Step 2: Use resources like books and courses to learn more about the opening, to adjust your repertoire if needed and change things up if you find alternatives.
Step 3: Game analysis. This is the most important and most challenging part. Analyze games from the perspective of the side you’re trying to learn the opening for, focus on understanding ideas, patterns, piece placement, tactics, endgames, structures, pawn breaks, etc.
This way you build your understanding instead of blindly memorizing variations.
Step 4: Practice and play games in your repertoire. Ideally, use a human opponent for play and analysis. For most people as well as for me most of the time, that isn’t an option, so I use Noctie. Noctie is a human-like AI you can play any position against, and it’s going to play like a human would.