I think the Lopez/Kasparov method (hence forth the LK method) of organizing openings makes the most sense for what I want to do. Basically enter the name of the variation into the game header, and add games to the particular lines that I play, versus entering a game and adding tons of variations at each possible branch. It makes finding the deviations so much easier. Regardless it is still a ton of work. There are mainlines and critical sub-variations for every opening. Fortunately I have worked very hard on finding out which openings suited my particular style of play and worked to streamline the possible responses of my opponents. One also has to keep in mind the possibilities of transpositions from one system to the next. I had already pretty much established those lines prior to beginning the Circles exercises. (I think the only thing I haven’t done is researched in depth what I want to play versus against the English as Black. The symmetrical variation has served me well in the past, but I know there are some sharper lines that offer more counter play for Black.)
So anyway I started reading through several of the Chessbase USA "T-Note" archives to get a better grasp on more of the hidden features Chessbase has to offer, also to avoid shooting myself in the foot when I’m further down the road.
I have found in the past that the case with most software is the user manages to utilize only a small fraction of the software’s capabilities. Of course I’m guilty of doing this too, but I have also noticed that if I take the time to read through the tutorials, and various message boards it will make my life simpler in the long run plus I get a better grasp on the product overall.
Wish me luck.
7 comments:
Good luck my man. I have to agree with you on the aspect of not using a piece of software to it's maximum capabilities. I'm still trying to figure out how to get the most out of Fritz analysis.
Against 1. c4 you should have a glance at the Bellongambit. For some reason I'm very succesful with it.
I completely agree. For years I have lost much time in following tree ramifications. Now I take my database of 600k games and play as many games as possible, very fast. I sort them by result, then I play the shortest ones first. Gives me ideas of fast win plans and of traps to be avoided. Not even necessary to have your own database, just use chessbase online.
Tempo has made a nice training program for me for openings. This is very helpfull, in real games it gives you much more benefit if you now what to do. You can ask Tempo for it.
It's actually Bookup lite, but don't tell her.
You might have a look at the free tool at http://www.chesspositiontrainer.com/. It looks pretty good, and can even update the repertoire itself via PGN files and ICC (I think). All this manual processing to maintain a database just screams for someone to write a computer program to take all the drudgery out of it.
CPT is a great program, I have had the link up for Stef's site for quite some time now.
Bookup also has a feature to manage files for games that you have played on ICC, kind of cool.
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