How To Build Your Perfect Opening Repertoire With White

Greetings, chess fans! You might remember that in late December I published a study plan for advanced players. I gave a brief overview of what type of openings you should look for and where to look for reliable sources. Now, I'll attempt to expand the topic and offer you my recommendations. Everything below is my humble opinion based on my experience as a professional chess player, coach and author. 

• Finding The Right Openings
• 1.e4 With White
• 1.d4 With White
• Other Choices For White
• Transpositions
• Which Opening Sources To Use?
• The Learning Process
• What's Next?

Finding The Right Openings

I think that quite an important step for any player is to have a journey of creativity—at some point you try out the most popular openings. Why those? Because practice proves that they give you the best results in the long run. It's possible to have decent success even with openings with a shady or flat-out bad reputation, especially as an element of surprise or cheap tricks, but you'll simply win fewer games in the long run. After you are well on your journey, some of your openings will stand out. This is how I discovered the Reti Opening. I was a lifelong player of 1.e4 until I reached the international master level. When I started to experiment with other first moves, it was a complete shock to me how easy the Reti was to play.  

1.e4 With White

(Ed. note: There is a diagram with additional commentary at the bottom of each section.)

The biggest concern for any competitive player is what to do if Black plays 1…e5, a very solid move and a tough nut to crack. The most popular choices for White after 2.Nf3 Nc6 are the Ruy Lopez with 3.Bb5 and the Italian Game with 3.Bc4—both of them are very positional. If you're looking for something more dynamic, consider playing the Scotch Opening with 3.d4 exd4. However, the last great player to play it was GM Garry Kasparov, and it's basically obsolete at the highest level. Still, if you're very serious about 1.e4, you simply should learn the Ruy Lopez and the Italian Game.

Against Sicilians with 1…c5, the most principled way is to play the Open Sicilians with 2.Nf3 and 3.d4, but this will give you dynamic game most of the time, and Anti-Sicilians with 3.Bb5 have earned their reputation as a serious alternative. After 2…Nc6, there are many players who believe that the Rossolimo with 3.Bb5 poses Black many more problems than the Open Sicilian with 3.d4. The reason is that the Sicilian Sveshnikov gives Black a great game.

If you want to play some Sicilian Alapin with c3, I'd recommend playing it on the third move after 2.Nf3 e6, where Black essentially misses out some of the best potential setups against the classical Alapin. Personally, I've played a lot of the Baltic variation with 3.g3, with an idea to meet …d5 with exd5 and d4 with an arising IQP position but at the pro level, it's hard to get any advantage.

Against the French Defense, the best response is 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3, and attempt going for a sharp middlegame. 3.Nd2 is a nice positional alternative, but Black ultimately equalizes with 3…c5 and most ambitious players are aware of it.

Against the Caro-Kann, most players have switched to the Advance Variation with 2.d4 d5 3.e5, playing for space advantage. The classical variation with 3.Nc3 has lost popularity due to the great reputation of the Tartakower Variation with 3…dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6.

1.d4 with White

Against almost everything, I believe the most principled way to play next is 2.c4 and either 3.Nf3 or Nc3. This might lead to Queen's Gambit Accepted (QGA), so you must be ready to sacrifice a pawn on c4. Against 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6, the Catalan Opening with 4.g3 is a very popular setup (check out my boot camp!) but 4.Nc3 is also a very principled choice, and this can lead to either QGD, QGA, Ragozin Defense or Tarrasch Defense. There's also the Carlsbad Variation with 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5. These three are top-notch choices for White.

At the club level, a very popular choice is the London System (1.d4 and 2.Bf4), so this could be your lazy alternative to everything that moves. Most players with Black tend to play either 1…d5 or 1…Nf6 and then transpose with the eventual d5 push, so you should have something solid against that.

If Black plays the King's Indian Defense—which for many players is the universal answer to everything except 1.e4—don't shy away from the challenge, but instead study it. There are some very good setups, but the classical Bayonet Attack is not so popular anymore. The current hot choices after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 are 5.Nf3 and 6.h3 with the g4 plans, then there's the very trendy 5.Be2 and either 6.Be3 or 6.Bg5 that might again involve the g4 push. I would start here.

Against the Slav (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6), the most popular choices are 4.Nc3 or 4.e3—I like the latter very much, because it allows your queenside knight to be flexible and potentially be developed to d2, with b3-Bb2 perhaps in the works as well.

The Queen's Indian (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6) is not very popular for Black at the moment and it's best to fianchetto your light-squared bishop to g2, which will nicely fit together with your Catalan, if you play it. For sharper players, I would recommend the Nimzo-Indian with 3.Nc3, but you will have to develop a very good feeling for the unbalanced positions and be alright with doubling the c-pawns.

I believe this covers what your opponents are going to play against you 90% of the time.

Other Choices For White

I'd rank the Reti Opening and English Opening as less popular choices, but they are still are very serious openings. One of the main perks that they have is that it's possible to improvise and transpose from one line to another, which is where so many players with Black struggle. For example, you can start with Reti, then switch to English Opening, and finally end up in the Catalan. 

The King's Indian Attack is a mega popular setup at the club level, but the pros also like to play it from time to time. If you start with 1.Nf3, Black often responds with 1…d5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.0-0 Be7 5.d3 with ideas to continue with Nbd2, e4-e5 and start a kingside attack.

The Reversed Sicilian with 1.c4 e5 is the main drawback for White in the English. However, anyone playing it as Black has to learn an extra first move that they can't also play against 1.d4, White is still doing great—playing either the Four Knights with 2.Nc3, 3.Nf3 and then either 4.e3 or 4.g3, or immediately playing 2.g3. Very often, White is quite happy with the Sicilian Dragon setup from the White's perspective, since Black doesn't have the usual attack on the h-file.

Transpositions

This tip mostly applies to the advanced players—make sure that your chosen openings can't be tricked with a different move order by your opponent! Let me show you an example of how I once tricked my opponent with the move order, leading him into a line that he didn't know well:

So, what was the correct response for Black after 1.g3? Since my opponent was a Sicilian player, it made sense to answer with 1…c5!?, inviting me to play the suboptimal closed Sicilian, or Symmetrical English with 2.c4, neither of which I play myself. Tricking the opponents with the move order in the opening phase is one of the most exciting things for any chess player.

Which Opening Sources To Use?

I already mentioned this in my study guide, but it is worth covering again here. For an appetizer before the main meal, you can start with Chess.com Lessons or individual Youtube videos, but most of the serious work (including a complete repertoire) you will have to purchase as a standalone product. Obviously, the first places in my mind are any digital products: the Chessable / Chess.com courses. There are also other sources like Modern Chess, or such established online chess academies as ChessMood, Killer Chess Training, or ProChess training that offer an impressive package.

Obviously, there are still good-old printed books, but when it comes to openings, they're typically a bit slow to produce while theory keeps developing quickly. They also can't be updated without releasing the next edition, and customers have no direct support from the author; and importing it into Chessbase PGN is a nightmare. Still, studying a course from a laptop often can't come close to the feeling of reading a printed book that you in the late hours on your comfy sofa!

The Learning Process

Let's assume we're talking about a Chessable/Chess.com course here, but like I already said, you can find the information also elsewhere. You want to start with Quickstarter and the Important Lines function, if the course has one.

I wouldn't stop looking for extra sources once you feel that you have found the opening that suits you. Even if the course feels great, after all, you've got the opinion of just one author, and perhaps there are variations by a different author that might broaden your understanding of the variation.

From time to time, I hear an argument that the video courses are pretty expensive, but consider this—compare the hourly fee of titled chess coaches with the course video price, and you've got yourself a fantastic deal, especially if it comes with discounts!

What's Next?

This article covered opening ideas for your games as White. Check back next week for my article on openings for Black to complete your repertoire!

What is your favorite opening to play with White? Let us know in the comments!