1. d4 AND/OR 1.e4 ??

Here I am; I just downloaded course materials for month one and now face the big decision.

I'm an 1.e4 player, but it is clear that the authors are instructing 1.d4 and simply providing a 1.e4 repertoire. I'm prepared to dump 1.e4 for the next year to get the most from the course and take the up front ratings hit. The question is when to take 1.d4 to prime time. I plan to compete in tournaments monthly and the next competition is in three weeks I'd like to use 1.d4 on the assumption that the materials in the course along with my existing preparation for the black side will carry me. Or is three weeks too soon?

Hi PawnCustodian, I will continue with 1 e4 until your d4 repertoire will be ready, then I will start to play d4. Also you can play d4 when you know what your opponent is going to answer to it and you already studied that opening. This is what I did. Good luck.

Thanks Tweety,

If I understand the course schedule I should then hold off until after month three when a complete 1.d4 repertoire is finished.

That's right, but don't forget you should assimilate what it is on those months before playing d4 and it is not going to be easy to achieve.

There is so much material to work on without the openings, don't worry. You'll have plenty to do.

I'm an e4 player as well and what I have decided to do is this:

For the more important games, stick to what you know best: e4.

For other games go with d4 and start getting used to how these lines should be played.

Eventually, I will feel as comfortable with d4 as I am with e4 so then I can "mix it up" in the more important games.

Well, I just fat fingered the Dutch into my computer and will begin playing some training games, but after looking over the databases it doesn't look like it's something I'll see very often (or at all) OTB.

On the plus I think that I'm going to get a lot of benefit from the method!

I am an e4 kind of guy, and a c6 with black when possible. I play mostly on Chessbase and it's seldom I find the Dutch.

I encounter the Dutch OTB very little as well.

Personnaly, i'm a kind of non-specialized guy, even if as white i play mostly e4, but as black indifferently any pawn (except maybe a and h).

I realize that somehow it is cutting down my ELO a bit, since i get caught by specialists on some variants. On the other hand, i win a lot of games because my opponents are surprised by my responses to their moves.

In fact my losses helps me figuring out a lot of concepts discussed in ICS about pieces activity and pawn structure, because opening in a fancy way makes weaknesses you have to deal with !
And finally without knowing the theoretical moves i noticed i was progessively making them because it was requested by the position.

It's only now, when trying to reach 1800 average level that i feel the need to learn some crushing shortcuts in my opening knowledge. I feel this need because i'm making more often draws at this level, or get lost because i try a more offensive variation that goes wrong.

I'm not sure it is so good to specialize in 2-3 openings only too early, you may have the impression to raise your elo, but aren't you stuck at a certain time and your wins very sensitive to the slightest variation ?

Moreover i recently tried to learn this variation in the French, since i encounter the French regularly :
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1139423

The game seems straightforward, anyway till now, i never managed to get it right because moves weren't exactly appearing in the same order.
Eventually only the Nb5 idea brings something valuable in most positions.
This illustrates how difficult it is to concentrate on only 1 opening variation.

The French is one I also see a lot of, and never felt I got a good opening against. That's one wild game you posted HangingKing.

I finally figured out how to port the repertoire games into Bookup from the chessbase files provided; that will save a lot of time, so I now plan to try and follow the e4 repertoire, but still plan to take d4 into competitions as soon as practical.

I've already played a few d4 games since starting this, however, the main course helped me in those games a lot more than the opening course has.

BorgQueen wrote:I've already played a few d4 games since starting this, however, the main course helped me in those games a lot more than the opening course has.

So far the 1.d4 opening recommendations look pretty good. The positions I've cross referenced to the databases are favorable to white, and I've now trained over half of the lines and find that they are simple enough to learn.

The big drawback is that without an answer to 1.....d4 until month 3 it would be difficult to take this into an early competition. Unfortunately for me, my black preparation never has taken 1....d4 into consideration (I've always used indian defenses).

I've always used the slav systems against 1.d4, but I have no idea yet what is recommended by the opening module.

They have a semislav repertoire that is fairly detailed.

Semi slav... slav... I don't know the difference yet ^^

Is the slav the one that pushes e6 or is that the semi-slav? lol

(rhetorical question really, I will find out eventually)

Semi-slav looks even more boring to me, but apparently it is very good. Slav you play e6 and lock in your light-squared bishop. Slav you get out the bishop to freedom, so it is more like the Caro in some ways. Semi-slav is powerful though I got killed playing against it once b/c I got cocky.

You called them both slav.

I've had reasonable success with them. I free the LSB only when there's not much chance of being checked by white's LSB.