Opening Books Are For CC?

Originally posted by anthias
I have always wondered this. Whenever I open an opening book, it is so packed with variations that my head swirl. Surely nobody can memoirze all those moves! I guess people use it for their correspondence games; they open them when they need to look for a continuation of their favorite opening.

Usually, below the master level, people are not that booked ...[text shortened]... inding no sensible plans, I just accepted my inferior position and lost.

Well, that's all.

A good repertoire book will explain the important strategic ideas, and then show you how those strategic ideas play it in speciic varations.

First, learn the basic ideas, but do not attempt to memorize anything. After you play a game, look up the variation in the book and see how you can have improved your play.

BTW, just because your move is different than the book's move doesn't mean that your move is inferior. Basically, if your move didn't lead to an unpleasant tactical shot or create a significant positional weakness, then there was probably nothing wrong with your move.

Originally posted by gaychessplayer
A good repertoire book will explain the important strategic ideas, and then show you how those strategic ideas play it in speciic varations.

First, learn the basic ideas, but do not attempt to memorize anything. After you play a game, look up the variation in the book and see how you can have improved your play.

BTW, just because your move is d ...[text shortened]... eate a significant positional weakness, then there was probably nothing wrong with your move.

Very well put. CJS Purdy said the same thing observing that books are illustrative lines from master play, and apart from improvements there is usually an alternative about as good as the book line. Again, good post

I use a 1.3 million game db and just checked my last 20 CC games against players rated 2000+. Average number of moves before we were out of the db…10.5 moves!

Originally posted by masscat
Very well put. CJS Purdy said the same thing observing that books are illustrative lines from master play, and apart from improvements there is usually an alternative about as good as the book line. Again, good post

I use a 1.3 million game db and just checked my last 20 CC games against players rated 2000+. Average number of moves before we were out of the db…10.5 moves!

Well, sometimes exceptions happen. A game I played against a 2000 plus player had 25 moves deep theory until we started to play by ourselves. That was fun 🙂

Originally posted by masscat
Very well put. CJS Purdy said the same thing observing that books are illustrative lines from master play, and apart from improvements there is usually an alternative about as good as the book line. Again, good post

I use a 1.3 million game db and just checked my last 20 CC games against players rated 2000+. Average number of moves before we were out of the db…10.5 moves!

Thanks for the complement. CJS Purdy was a great chess teacher. A collection of many of his better writings, "The Search for Chess Perfection" is a great read.