My Opening Repertoire

My chess opening repertoire is a bit autobiographical in that I can remember the exact path I’ve taken from the start with 1.d4, to 1.e4, to the Scotch game, to the Italian game (4.d3), to experimenting with unorthodox openings and searching for a universal formation. I can even remember my chronological trial & error phase of starting from left to right with the wing pawns followed by the rooks. This phase can still be witnessed in new comers systematically trying to find an ideal opening usually before knowing any opening theory.

At the age of 12 or so, my same aged neighbor friend taught me the rules of the game or at least as many as his dad taught him. He had a chess program on a computer, but he wouldn’t let me play it because he said the opponent would freeze up and not move. Knowing what I know of computers now I wouldn’t doubt that his old computer program would take hours to move indeed.

Some time in my early teens I acquired a copy of Chessmaster 3-D for Playstation. Up until this time I had proudly sought out my own ideas for openings such as the Scotch game and remained loyal to it. However, I assimilated some of the strategies the computer would play against me in order to advance closer to the grey-bearded Chessmaster 4000 engine. Since I couldn’t beat it, I had to join its strength and seeing as it wasn’t human this humiliation was easier to swallow. I was introduced to the Scotch game defense ( 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Bc5 5. Nxc6 Qf6), the Spanish game defense (4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. Nxe5 Qd4), and the Italian Game: Giuoco Pianissimo (4.d3) which from then on became my opening of choice.

Nearly two decades later… 10,000+ Correspondance & Blitz games have enriched my intuition and not much has changed in my opening repertoire. I’ve never cared much for the Spanish Game and Sicilian Defense as they are the most common openings for White & Black respectively. Only recently have I bought a chess program with a Houdini 2 engine for exhausting my search into the few openings that I do enjoy. Two of which have been the Guioco Piano (4.c3) and Spanish game(3…Nd4). Perhaps you’ve had a similiar preference for these limited openings as I have. If so then I’d like to hear about it. Thanks for reading. 🙂