Set the openings aside!
Alright, you may be thinking: “I’m for chess tips for opening so I don’t have to fall for these trappy and attacking opening lines that I don’t know about. And now your advice is to set the openings aside?!”
I want you to keep one thing in mind: you can’t live without openings, BUT you cannot live with openings alone either!
For many chess players – beginning and improving, they focus a lot on learning or better yet memorizing reams of theory. They spend hours in front of their computer studying the sharp Open Sicilian, the strategically deep Spanish Opening, and other popular lines.
Bottom line: their chess skills – tactical vision, thinking process, etc., which is way more important than memorizing new opening lines, are left lagging behind. And this results to little or, even worse, zero progress.
I’m certain that’s NOT what you want out of those long hours spend on studying.
Studying chess openings is necessary. True, you need to have an opening repertoire to stick to in tournaments and competitions. BUT as I have said earlier, you cannot live with openings alone, and with that in mind, opening study should NOT be the top priority.
That explains why out of the other chess tips for openings I have in my arsenal, I want to focus on this topic first.
“But what about those top grandmasters? Don’t they spend most of their time analyzing and developing novelties?” you may ask.
That’s true. And that works for them. Why? Simply because they have reached a point where their tactical skills, chess thought process, endgame technique, planning skills, etc. are fully developed. And they are up against players who are of the same caliber. With their skills at par, the only way for them to get an edge is through heavy opening analysis and preparation.
If you are of that playing strength, then go ahead download the latest issues TWIC, grab the latest chess opening books, and weed through the ChessBase database in search for potential novelties.
But if you are far from being a grandmaster yet, then follow my first chess tip for opening – set them, the openings, aside. Study them BUT don’t make them your priority.