Chess Bookshelf

Opening repertoires

An opening repertoire is a subset of opening moves that a player has practiced or studied and ready to play against an opponent. It should be a group of opening variations that leads to middle game positions the player is comfortable with or believes he plays them better than his opponent. The opening repertoire sets the groundwork for future success, by leading to positions the player will have more competitive success in.

Chess opening repertoire books aim to arm a player with a ready-to-play series of opening systems against a variety of typical opening moves from an opponent. But at a minimalist level; giving the player just enough opening material to arrive at a playable middle game position.

A well-designed opening repertoire ensures that the player gets positions to his liking in each game, and minimises the chance of an opponent pulling the player into positions he fares badly in.

Starting an opening repertoire

Opening theory is a huge and difficult topic. You can spend months learning and memorising the intricacies of the Najdorf Poisoned Pawn variation, and then fall to a tactical trap in the c3-Sicilian. There’s always more to learn, and a lot to cover to have a reliable and systemised opening repertoire.

A player needs two repertoires, one for playing White, and one for Black.

A White repertoire is based on picking a first move (1. e4, 1. d4, 1. Nf3 or something more offbeat), and then to have a system or plan of play against every major Black system.

For Black, you need one system for each main White opening move, and something to deal with offbeat options

Switching an opening repertoire

Playing both sides of an opening

At some point a player’s White and Black repertoires overlap, and the chess player is effectively playing against their own repertoire. Different players handle this in different ways. A broad swathe of players are comfortable playing both sides of the same opening. Tal and Fischer on the Sicilian, Keres and Karpov on the Ruy Lopez, Kasparov on the Sicilian Najdorf and King’s Indian Defence. On the other hand, Botvinnik avoided 1. e4 for decades to avoid playing against his favourite French Defence.

The difficulty is how to play against your own opening. And that depends on your strengths. Fischer adopted the Sozin against the Sicilian to avoid his favourite Poisoned Pawn variation, but he was also adept at countering the Sozin (e.g. Byrne - Fischer, Sousse 1967). This works for Fischer because he seeks the universal truth of the position, the correct answer without bias.

Types of repertoire books

1. Complete opening repertoires

2. White opening repertoires

3. Black opening repertoires

4. Opening repertoires of players

  • Kasparov’s Chess Openings - Otto Borik
    • As White 1. d4, Queen’s Gambit Slav / Semi-Slav Meran, Queens Gambit Declined Exchange (with Nge2), Nimzo-Indian Classical, King’s Indian Classical (9. Nd2), Grunfeld Exchange (8. Rb1), Modern Benoni Taimanov system
    • As Black: Sicilian Scheveningen, King’s Indian Defence
  • Openings according to Kramnik/Anand.

5. White universal opening systems

  • King’s Indian Attack

6. Black universal opening systems

  • 1… d6 against everything
  • 1… Nc6 against everything