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how to find a repertoire that fits your playing style?

hello everyone,

i'm playing chess for two years now and i decided - besides tactics - it's time to start working on an opening repertoire that fits my playing style best. the problem is, i don't really know what my playing style is like and how to approach the problem of finding it out.

any advices on this task?

how did you approach the developing of your repertoire? did you evaluate your playing style or did it just 'happen'?

best regards
I am still in the process of developing my repertoire, but I got an idea of which openings I'm going to play because of my playing style.

One fun way to evaluate your playing style is to take this quiz: www.chesspersonality.com

It will evaluate your playing style and suggest which openings you should play and which strong player has the same style as you.
I started to learn openings that are not often played by top players to win some games quickly because my opponents didn't know them. That was a big mistake in my eyes.

So first I would recommend to learn a "mainline" opening.

If you like to maneuver pieces you may look at some queens pawn openings possibly the london system as it is not much to learn for the start. As black you may look at the french or the kingspawn opening.

If you like to play wild tactical positions theoretically you have to study some more. Kingspawn and Sicilian are usually quite sharp.

To find out what opening you want to learn deeply I would recommend to take a very short look at all of them. You will do that most likly anyway if you start analysing other games.
Building a repertoire for me is a romantic encounter that comes naturally.
Some openings just do not attract you for their lack of beauty, as others do. And with some you fall in love. Eventually for a lifetime. That is not certain of course, cause you have to learn to know them a little better before you know you want to bound for ever. You might get bored by them.
So it may be just an affair that will end some day, but it was exciting nevertheless. And the next fiancee is waiting around the corner, joining your harem instead.
Go through a bunch of master games. Pick different styles and try and find the most logical moves for both sides. Whatever ones are more natural is a good indication it is a good opening for you.

You can use the keyboard arrows to go to the next move:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1633008
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067294
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067335
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1820022
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1813974
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1813653

Just a few to get you started.
You should also look at the Sicilian I did not include any games with the most popular opening.
You love to have the game be very open, I suggest you learn the Scotch as white, and maybe try out the Petrov as black. ;)
If you dont know what to play I would suggest you to play 1...e5 against 1.e4. You will play a lot of different positions, sometimes tactical sometimes strategic games and the repertoire will hold you forever?
In the meanwhile you will realise what positions you are striving for. Other responses to 1. e4 are just too specific for you to find out your preferences.
And with 1...e5 you will explore bigger world than with all the other responses together. ( not scientifically proved, just my feeling )
@kein_system #1

Just ask a fairly strong player to go through your games (If you don't want or can't hire a chess coach).

Normally I ask my student to supply me some 50 to 100 slow time control games, to be able to go through.

Looking at your ratings there's only a classical "provisional" rating.

However, I believe that a lot of chess players do have the capacity to do part of the chess coaching for themselves. You only need a bit of self knowledge, awareness and insight for that.

If you would go through you own games, and write down which chess positions you like and don't like, you can probably also find out which openings you like and don't like.

Apart from that, thematic tourneys can also help you to find out which openings you like (feel comfortable with) and/or what you are good at.
For example : I know that Bogo-Indian is for black and white not an opening that I feel very comfortable with and am good at (despite the fact that years ago I went through a few games by GM Korchnoi, playing it as black).
And Scotch game, Steinitz line, with white works often fine for me in thematic tourneys.

GL, HF !

First, i think that you evolve your style by trying out different openings and structures, not the other way around.

You might aswell just start and pick something up that sounds fun to you. A good player needs to have a rough understanding of all the important structures anyway.

Here´s what i did:

1. Kings indian defense, cause i wanted to checkmate white!

after a while i realized that i had huge trouble with my attacks even against significantly lower rated opponents. So no KID was not for me, but i learned how to play the kings indian structures (and how to play against it), which has helped my general understanding tremendously.

2. Benoni/ benko Gambit, basically same thing, struggling vs weaker players, getting smothered. But definately some lessons learned aswell.

So seemed like i needed a more solid defense against 1. d4

3. since d5 didn´t appeal to me (too straightforward), i tried the nimzo/bogo indian and i really like it. the arising positions and plans are sometimes similar to the KID but with seemingly less risk to get crushed on the queenside...

Just go ahead and experiment. Even if the opening is not for you, there are tons of important lessons to take from it

I did the evaluate for 100 games method. I forced myself to play opening pawn structures for at least 100 games. The openings I liked I studied. I also did theme study. This is taking a certain theme and look at them. So for example if I combined the two methods, I would choose an opening for white and black that went under the theme of Hyper modern. And I would play those openings for at least 100 games. Of course when I took up the task I bought a primer book like those everyman chess books that give an overview of a system.

Turned out after all that, I am more or less a universal player. I can swap equally between e4, d4, c4 and b3. And I enjoy the freedom.

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