More Friendly Games

Last Friday night Jamin and I got together again for a few more friendly games. I was eager to try out a couple of new openings I had looked up earlier in the week. Unfortunately I guess I hadn't looked at them enough and I lost all five games we played. Probably these losses can be attributed more to the 300 point rating difference than the openings but I find it discouraging when my opponent hasn't yet begun to think and I am struggling to remember the proper move order, or even worse have no idea what the correct move is and have to spend time trying to figure out a plan.

The only way to combat this deficiency in my game is to study openings and it would probably help if I narrowed my opening repertoire down to a couple of standard lines and concentrate on them. When I returned to chess 2 years ago I was basically a blank slate. I had forgotten almost all the opening theory I had learned in the 80's (most of which was probably outdated anyway). I have been reluctant to trim my opening tree up to now and in fact have been going out of my way to expand it. Partly because I felt that some of the openings I had been playing were not best suited for my style and I hoped trying out different openings would help me find some which were a more comfortable fit. The other reason is that I fear I will get bored with chess if I play the same openings over and over.

As the Canadian Open approaches I think I will soon need to choose my top openings and begin to study them more thoroughly if I want to achieve the level of play I think I am capable of.

Then again, there is the whole 1.d4! line that I have been itching to try, and wouldn't it be nice to play every game in the Canadian Open without repeating the same opening twice.