Reasons of Repertoires

Probably one of the most discussed topics in chess is that of having a good, solid, attacking, defensive, broad, specialized, surprising or otherwise useful opening repertoire. Players must admit it has always been a challenge for players to construct an opening repertoire. In the process players have gathered a lot of knowledge and experience on the subject.

It is important for a number of reasons to have a decent opening repertoire.

1) With White: To reach an opening advantage and put the pressure on your opponent

2) With Black: To reach a playable middlegame position

3) To know what to play

4) To deepen your play

5) To be able to play faster

6) To feel at ease

7) To punish your opponents mistakes more often

8) To know which typical middle game positions, pawn structures, endgames and tactics (that arise from certain openings) to study

Making choices regarding your opening repertoire should take these considerations into account. 

What does it mean to have a chess opening repertoire? Having an opening repertoire means more than just deciding to go 1.d4 or 1.e4 on the first move or deciding to counter 1.e4 with for instance 1… c5, the Sicilian Defense. Ideally what constitutes an opening repertoire is that a set of agreements with yourself based on prior relevant research and corresponding decisions regarding the systems, defenses, lines and moves you would like to play during the first phase of a chess game. Of course it doesn’t stop there. This set of agreements with yourself needs to be evaluated, checked and undergo maintenance if necessary. Also it demands a certain attitude from you, the chess player. Ideally your opening repertoire is a happy merger of two things: you and decent chess. But what about you and what about decent chess?

Considerations when building a chess opening repertoire are as follow :

What is my playing style?
What is my previous experience and what are my results?
How much time do I have available to study?
Should I play theory and main lines or not?
Should I play to surprise or not?
Am I playing for a specific result or not (win or draw)?
Who is my opponent, should I be pragmatic?

To be able to decide on your opening repertoire it would seem you need to answer all of these questions. And ideally you would also like to know which questions are the most important so they can guide your decision making process step by step. In this case you would take a software-wizard-like approach where the answer to the first and most important consideration influences the options for the second one and so on, until you have the ultimate answer. But here comes the catch: building and maintaining your opening repertoire is very much a practical issue and it is virtually impossible to take all the above considerations into account and put them in some kind of expert system that will provide you with the perfect answer.