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Chess tips: How to build up your opening repertoire

Chess is a game of strategy, and if you take opening moves to a logical conclusion, given the layout of the board and the ability of movement that your pieces have, then there will only be so many opening moves to a game of chess. From that very humble opening, each movement that a chess player makes can determine success or failure of a player to beat his opponent. Games can be lost in a matter of moves, and it is therefore important that player learn how to build up their knowledge and opening repertoire.

There are several ways of achieving this, and though many argue that practical playing of the game is a good way to go, this is questionable. Yes, you will learn which moves work and which don't though unless you hone these skills, your playing will always be mediocre.

Adding to the repertoire from experience.

If new to playing, a player will very soon learn those opening moves that are erroneous, and many players that play on a casual basis are unaware of how they can use this learning process to improve their skill. It's a hit and miss affair, though with the age of technology it doesn't have to be. If you are earnest to improve, then one of the ways of building up a repertoire from experience of games with others is to open up notepad or a word document, and to document the moves that were made throughout the game. Once the game is finished, run these through a chess program and take a look at the ways you opened and the consequences of those openings, and you will learn to eliminate those openings that are ineffective, and keep a record of those that work well for you.

From books and learning sites.

There are many sources on the Internet and in software and book form that give details of classic openings. Instead of just reading them and trying to digest the information in number form which is hard to picture, again playing a simulation against the computer or on a chess game console will help you understand how the tactics work, and expand your repertoire.

The sources that list classic openings are many, and what made these classic openings was constant use and recognition that they work. If you were to think of the chessboard as a battlefield, which indeed it is, how good a battle would be fought in real life if soldiers were sent in to war with no thought of consequence or pertaining conditions ? The battle would be ineffective, and in chess it really doesn't have to be that way, since the options that

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