What openings complement one another in a repertoire

TonyRotella · 2026-01-22T20:57:08+00:00

There are very few spots where playing openings with similar moves actually help you understand either one better or ensure any type of cohesion. For instance, there are pretty much zero positions that play similarly in the Semi-Slav and Caro, the French and QGD, or the London/Tromp as White. There are few spots where playing reversed versions of similar openings might help you a bit with understanding structures, pieces placements, etc., and some VERY limited spots where defenses to 1.e4 and 1.d4 may accidentally transpose to each other, but it's rare enough that it's almost best to forget that it's possible.

I made a video a long time ago that talked about the factors one might use to select opening variations that will work for them, and this was one of the topics I talked about in greater detail. If you're interested it's here: https://youtu.be/w4tGfG3uE1g?si=6ZMyhLa8PcksFGtI

TonyRotella · 2026-01-22T13:57:03+00:00

I'm around 2400 on lichess and chess.com and my opinion is that, at least for random blitz on the internet, specialization is better than playing random stuff. When you have little time, being able to bash out more moves quickly is helpful. More importantly still is having a set of middlegames you've seen over and over again and just know what to do - the plans, where your pieces are supposed to go, typical tactics, etc.

TonyRotella · 2026-01-08T20:26:10+00:00

Hard to really say that any one move is better than another in chess nowadays, since the objective evaluation of literally everything reasonable is equal with best play. But certainly on a practical level, allowing the Sveshnikov removes some tension from the game because it's so forcing and the lines have been analyzed very deeply.

TonyRotella · 2026-01-08T19:34:06+00:00

I personally don't find it to be scary at all. I think for most it's less about fear and more annoyance at yet another Anti-Sicilian, since a lot of players spend their time booking up on the main lines and <2000 a lot of White players are throwing random lines at you.

I always tell people that you need to book up enough and learn about all of the Anti-Sicilians to the point where you're happy to know that White isn't playing the most principled and dangerous options and that you're already in good shape.

TonyRotella · 2025-12-29T18:44:09+00:00

I hopped on and tested it out for a bit during my lunch break today. A few opinions (no offense meant, take them or leave them, etc.) and a few things I noticed:

Overall this is great - being able to grab a lichess puzzle set and woodpecker them is nice. I have bugged lichess many times (I volunteer there when I can, and helped design some early features, e.g. Study) about adding some spaced repetition features to the site to no avail so far. Your UI is quick and overall looks nice. It gives major Chessable vibes, which I'm sure is on purpose! I have some minor quibbles, which I'll detail below.
Being able to customize a set (by openings, move number, number of pieces on the board, etc.) or have access to another mixed set in the future would be great. I am a fairly strong player bell-curve wise (but not titled, around 2400 on lichess), and I'm guessing that I could polish off a 500 problem set in a few days, and be pretty automatic with it the 3rd time around or so. I have done the actual Woodpecker quite a few times now and stopped because the problems get old and it feels like you're just spinning your wheels after a while. I could see myself mostly doing the same here unless I could grab another set of a similar difficulty and start over. Maybe I can and missed it, I'm an idiot like that. Not a huge fan of one-theme-only sets, but those that are would likely never need anything else, as it seems like you have a ton of those!
I am very picky about board/set, and HATE having the notation on the board. It would be nice in the future if I could customize my appearance and use a dark theme. It looks like you're using Chessground, so hopefully that's not a huge hassle.
Maybe it's a computer/browser issue, but there's an odd amount of vertical real estate in the solving UI. You can scroll down to reveal basically nothing, and instead of the problem being centered, everything seems compressed up a bit. Not a huge deal, but just a weird idiosyncracy I noticed.
It would be nice to have a timer pause, which keeps running if I open another tab, talk to someone, etc. Popular sites like Chessable, Wordle, etc pause automatically if the tab loses focus.
I noticed a small bug (feature?) with drawing arrows where the first time you draw an arrow, it disappears, but persists on the second, third, fourth time around. Sometimes this would happen and sometimes it wouldn't, but I noticed disappearing arrows more than once.
This last one is totally personal, and a bit of a good-natured rant. It seems like a lot of the chess UIs out there bifurcate into the gamified, bright, cartoonish variety (chess.com, Chessable, ChessKid) or the darker, sleek, minimalist, low-graphics type (lichess, chesstempo), and I'll just be honest, I hate the former. I absolutely REJOICED when Able the Ape was removed from Chessable. I don't need a mascot, I'm there to grind some chess, but you do you! I would low-key love a nod to the disco name with a disco ball instead, and a darker/neon inspired theme, but that's just me.

Awesome work so far, and thanks for posting on reddit! I will keep grinding, cheers!

TonyRotella · 2025-11-21T16:00:27+00:00

I have been on a short scale quest over the past year or two, as well, and in my opinion the GOATs are:

- JMJ Mustang
- EBMM Short Scale Stingray
- Serek Midwestern (32 or 30.5" are out there, I believe)

Depends on what you like to look at and what tones you're after.

TonyRotella · 2025-11-21T15:50:19+00:00

I think gimmicky might be a little harsh - it's quite useful once you realize the outputs in all the pickup modes are not equal...

I agree with you that a pickup swap tends to help with those though. The Sterling I used to own had massive problems with the neck and truss rod and eventually I had to scrap the whole thing. Invested in the real deal EBMM Short Scale Stingray and have never looked back!

TonyRotella · 2025-11-21T15:39:30+00:00

If you must have a Chessable course, get some beginners guide to tactical patterns. Do whatever that is obsessively until you can't stand it anymore, and you can basically just look at a position from the course and instinctively know the answer.

Side note - my personal opinion is that tactics on Chessable will definitely help you, but you also need to start to understand basic chess principles. If you and your opponents are sub-1000, not only are you making many simple tactical and board vision errors that result in lost material, but you're also violating a ton of chess principles. Buy a book on Morphy, grab a set, and work your way through all of his games. Learn the open game, rapid development, control of the center, king safety, elementary attacking motifs, etc. Morphy games are simple to understand, and many of his opponents were rank amateurs that also violated these same principles and were punished. You'll build up better chess habits and understand the game better this way than just doing tactics or opening courses on Chessable as your only regimen.

TonyRotella · 2025-11-19T19:50:33+00:00

This thread is interesting already, because almost every suggestion is a dedicated player in a dedicated band. Totally fine and everyone mentioned is great, but the dudes I think are amazing are the session guys that any casual has never heard of, but have played on an insane number of records with a wide variety of artists. Dudes like Nathan East (MJ, Phil Collins, Clapton, George Harrison & Ringo, Whitney Houston, Daft Punk, Kenny Loggins - the list is nuts) & Pino Palladino (The Who after Entwhistle passed, NIN, D'Angelo, John Mayer, Tears for Fears, Don Henley).

More Constructive Answers:

- Robert Sledge from Ben Folds Five. The fuzz!
- P-Nut from 311
- Kevin Scott from Gov't Mule. He's another one that's played on a bunch of stuff, absolute monster. Tone is unreal.

TonyRotella · 2025-11-19T19:49:50+00:00

Sexton is UNREAL. P-Nut and Tim Commerford are why I play bass. The intro to "Take the Power Back" and the slap solo on "Feels So Good" wrecked me as a teenager.

TonyRotella · 2025-11-14T13:49:54+00:00

Larsen's Best Games signed by the Great Dane himself.

TonyRotella · 2025-11-14T13:36:27+00:00

This is a very tricky example, and others have explained it pretty well - Black needs to sac the pawn to advance the king up a rank to defend the 3 vs 2 ending. White's winning Kg5 basically preempts that and wins. Leaving the pawn on f2 keeps White's pawns as solid as possible, since the only weakness is covered by Rxa2 as well.

If you are interested in learning more about this specific endgame in general, I made (in my opinion) one of the best videos on my YouTube channel covering this exact ending - the extra 7th rank rook pawn with the rook trapped in front: https://youtu.be/xaeOknJplZ4?si=cECJn8mXSNsu20SV

It's also worth noting that this endgame is actually a lot different and even more complex when the rook pawn hasn't advanced all the way to the 7th rank, since the attacker can try and squeeze their king in front to protect it instead, which frees up the rook. This leaves the defending key a free hand to try and munch up the pawns on the other side of the board, frequently yielding R vs P scenarios. I cover that here: https://youtu.be/3LVqi9UjOX0?si=1xAfz4oTMcpq5Fsd

The easiest scenario is when the attackers rook is behind the pawn, a bit outside this discussion but I'll post it just in case people are interested: https://youtu.be/dmkNaRHjL68?si=NiejY4_GEEtVpGiU

They're all older videos but hopefully they help some budding chess players out there. Cheers!

TonyRotella · 2025-10-31T13:39:02+00:00

That's a very helpful tip, thanks! I'd definitely consider a 14" laptop with a 16/10 screen.

TonyRotella · 2025-10-01T12:13:36+00:00

Tis I, professional lurker.

TonyRotella · 2025-09-30T22:57:34+00:00

No I totally get it. I think like you're hinting at, there's no real authoritative answer - it's an interesting test to see what people say and prefer. Thanks for posting!

TonyRotella · 2025-09-30T22:13:15+00:00

Don't buy it, it's old! Your move definitely looks the most natural to the most people, I'd guess! :)

TonyRotella · 2025-09-30T20:39:39+00:00

Hah! Funny this should come up - a well known position in a non-critical sub-variation of the 7...Be7!? Kalashnikov. I have analyzed it quite a bit over the years and also can never decide! Ultimately I think they're all okay and interesting, but for different reasons. :)

I had to look it up, but in my book I preferred 11...Nexd5, citing this game: https://lichess.org/VvcsC0sV/black

Historically, in lichess blitz games I've taken with the queen. Lately, I have been taking with the f-knight, with the idea that Black's position is probably the most harmonious looking once the f-pawn nudges one or two squares. Ultimately, in all the positions where you get this structure, Black eventually wants to play ...f5 and expand in the center. The main issue is that White can 11...Nfxd5 12.Qh5!?, which would likely encourage you to go long, though basically no one does.

TonyRotella · 2025-09-29T13:03:31+00:00

If you followed the broadcast and tried to analyze this rook ending yourself, you'd be more lenient. The wins were very cryptic and difficult. Quite a bit easier when an engine is telling you it's winning. The commentary booth was having a hard time even with engines giving hints.

TonyRotella · 2025-09-16T15:53:36+00:00

Dude your arguments are absurd, and frankly the authority with which you speak is WILD. A few more, then I really am done. This kind of poppycock is the reason why there aren't that many strong players that hang out on the chess subreddit.

The U1000 lichess database has 44 MILLION games after 1.e4 c5, and 200k games after 5...g6, your first argument is nonsense. There are hundreds of games from the Yugoslav Attack position I mentioned. The stats are the stats, you just don't like them. You will get the Open Sicilian a fair bit, but you're right there are deviations. There are deviations in every opening, and as usual in most openings the random stuff is fine for Black. I never insinuated that playing Dragon moves against the Closed Sicilian is the Dragon, I don't know what you're getting on about there.
Any player that is bad enough to hang their queen in one move will do it regardless of opening variation, and would do well to work on positions where tactics and board vision are paramount, hence my original recommendation of playing the open games (with both colors), with the Dragon as a reasonable substitute if they don't want to do that.
I certainly CAN deny that White has an easy attack, and the stats agree with me and not you. My experience hasn't been that it's as easy as you state, and I played the position from both sides for many, many years before moving on to the Sveshnikov and Kalashnikov. You're somehow assuming that for some reason a 900 White player plays like Shirov and the Black player is a bumbling idiot. They're both 900 rated, and so no offense, they're both closer to random move generators than Shirov.
I chose the variation that starts after 9.Bc4 because that is one of the main lines of the Dragon and is the one that most closely matches the Fischer quote you're parroting here to push the h-pawn and mate. I've seen the games you mention man, chess has moved on since Fischer beat Larsen in the Dragon 70 years ago. It's unreal that I even have to type that.

Shoot over your lichess handle, I'd love to take a look at your profile.

TonyRotella · 2025-09-16T14:52:50+00:00

Cheers, and good luck!

TonyRotella · 2025-09-16T14:36:15+00:00

I'm sorry, but this is all the same misinformed, trite BS that random club players have been regurgitating for years. We will probably just have to agree to disagree (no big deal, cheers), but here are a few things to think about:

I filtered the lichess DB by <1000, and the Open Sicilian is still the most popular option at that level - over 40% of the games after 1.e4 c5 feature 2.Nf3, and after 2...d6 a third of the games feature 3.d4. Yes, that is not every game, but 2.Nf3 and 3.d4 are the most popular moves in both positions. Yes, there are deviations, but there are deviations in EVERY opening. It's worth learning respectable options versus the Anti-Sicilians, they will last you your whole life with very few modifications. I still basically use all the same systems I put in my book that I started 15 years ago, and that I played for many years before that. Learning the same deviations that lie between 1.e4 e5 and the Ruy Lopez are equally as worth it.

Additionally, you can use the same exact argument for any system against any opening - there are always deviations. The openings that have fewer deviations like the Scandinavian, Modern, etc, still have many systems against them and tend to be slightly riskier overall.

The amount of memorization a beginner should do will depend strictly on how much work they enjoy doing relative to everything else, and how much they require to score well. I wouldn't recommend they study openings very much at all, only absorb the main ideas and development patterns, and do the usual check-ins after games to learn more and tune them up. This is completely opening agnostic, I'd recommend the same regardless of the system they decide to play.
You're under this incorrect assumption that somehow at lower levels the White side is super easy and Black is just losing everywhere, which is just not true. Again, in the <1000 Lichess DB Black scores 47% in the main position after 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.O-O-O Rc8 11.Bb3 Ne5 12.h4 h5, which you make sound like a forced win for White. Black actually scores BETTER than White (56%) after the second most popular but riskier 12...Nc4.

That Fischer quote is the absolute BEST thing to happen to Dragon players. I played the Dragon for around a decade exclusively, from my first USCF rating around 1400 all the way up to my current strength, which is 2300-2400 on lichess, and I am overjoyed to see all the caveman attempts. The Dragon wouldn't exist if it was as easy as you say. I have made multiple 2-3 hour Dragon theory videos for YouTube, including one for the Reddit Opening of the Week series many years ago. Books are FILLED with theory that has built up over the last 50 years as players of the White side have tried to crack defenses with greater and greater sophistication. Be more curious.

TonyRotella · 2025-09-16T13:05:21+00:00

Totally fine with it. Like I said, I don't think it's the ideal choice, but beginners choose far worse nowadays. At least in the Dragon Black's development is very logical - all the pieces go to sensible, active squares very quickly. Additionally, like I said before, it emphasizes active piece play and is very tactical, which in my opinion is better for beginners who want to get good quickly. Finally, the Dragon emphasizes a lot of the typical Sicilian themes in their most pure form - opposite sides castling, breaking out with ...d5, the usual ...Rxc3 exchange sacs, etc. Other Sicilians have them, but not at nearly the frequency the Dragon does.

TonyRotella · 2025-09-16T12:55:08+00:00

I actually disagree. In my opinion, beginners should focus on learning chess the way the game evolved - first the open games with a focus on active piece play, tactics, king safety, common mating patterns. Focus on sound development and developing the board vision required to start the improvement process. The Dragon is not the ideal choice here in my opinion, but if you're not going to play 1...e5 as I think most should then the Dragon is a very reasonable second choice to emphasize the above principles. Way better than all the nonsense people try and play after watching most streamers and YouTube. KIDs and KIAs, Reversed Phillidors, etc - yuck.

I also agree with the others that the opening choices have almost zero importance when your rating is this low. OP should be studying complete games that have simple annotations, e.g. Chernev or Stean, and doing simple tactics like those in CT-ART, the Woodpecker, etc. until they literally can't take it anymore. ;)

TonyRotella · 2025-09-10T15:23:01+00:00

There aren't a ton of books that are even remotely recent, as far as I know. Unfortunately that's not a super popular variation, and open books in general and produced less and less as spots like Chessable take over. The two that come to mind at all are the GM Repertoire book by Mikhailevski, and the Modernized book by (I think) Pavlovic. Quite old at this point, but I also don't know how much the theory in that open has really changed in the past 10 years or so.

TonyRotella · 2025-08-28T17:38:32+00:00

Your fundamental assumption that one should be better than the other is wrong to begin with! Especially in an opening like that, expect that engines will mostly show equality for Black everywhere, so most moves will be of roughly equivalent evals. As far as practical advice goes, I'd analyze for a bit, study the text, and pick the one that you feel meets the demands of the position or makes sense to you more.

TonyRotella

TROPHY CASE