cityscapes
Take care of yourself.
hi im 1900 on lichess so am still not qualified to give advice but i'll do my best anywayim a bad beginning player who has never really learned any openings (like I feel like if I'm honest I know 1 part of the mainlines of queen's gambit for white+how to avoid the fried liver w black, and nothing else. like sure, I "know" the move order for some lines of the italian game, but being real I should not really be going for the italian game at my level).
How do you learn openings? and what openings do you recommend for black? I'm kind of too dumb to ever become actually good at chess, so mainly looking for lines that lead to favorable end games or at least clear end game plans. Like, how did you come to understand an opening beyond just memorizing some move orders? I just feel so lost trying to understand the positions im trying to get w openings and what types of plans I have in those positions.
Is there a certain lichess.com study or free youtube video that was particularly helpful for you to finally understand what types of positions to play for from a certain opening? repost it at me if possible plz.
i pretty much never memorized move orders. with basically every good opening you have a wide assortment of cool developing moves and ideas and it's just a matter of picking the one that makes the most sense. for example in the sicilian do i go for d6 g6 or e6 a6? when do i develop the queen's knight? depends on what the opponent is up to.
opening traps do exist, but since they're in the opening they're pretty simple to remember and adapt against. you know how to beat the scholar's mate? you know how to beat the fried liver? it's pretty much that except opening specific.
memorizing move orders without the necessary exp/understanding typically doesn't help you that much anyway. i watched this video on the smith-morra and memorized like 10 moves, got one of them wrong, and lost my queen (to be fair my opponent was getting ghosted by the resident smith-morra tryhard at the club)
gothamchess's opening playlist is your best bet for learning the main ideas of openings fast. i remember the first time i went to my irl chess club, i whipped out the grand prix prep against my arch-nemesis dylan and got an awesome position that i went on to win.
chess coach andras is the best chess channel on youtube imo. where his videos differ from other instructional content is that he just really enjoys the game, and his videos are geared towards not only helping you get better but making you enjoy the game as well. here's the stuff i've taken to heart from his vids:
- play both e4 and d4 as white, regardless of your temperament as a player. neither opening is particularly offensive or defensive. if you can beat someone with e4 you can also beat them with d4, and vice versa. (edit: im proof of this. for months i was an e4 only player, then i started playing d4 c4 type stuff and did fine with it)
- focusing on results -> "but what if i lose :(" -> negative. focusing on game shape -> "i wonder what will happen in this opening!" -> positive. remember why you play chess.
- don't be scared of theory, your opponent won't know any either
- the sicilian is awesome once you learn how to not do stupid things in it
once i was super tilted and played the medusa gambit against some dude and randomly won in 15 moves. another time i was in call with lumi arguing over which moves to play and won that too. this game is a complete scam and is best with a healthy dose of screwing around. stockfish is out to ruin our fun. even if you make an unsound sacrifice you probably have a 50% chance of winning.
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