Photo by Even Emberland, Norway Chess, 2014

Do you know how to study openings efficiently? From my experience, most club players face many difficulties along the way and end up shooting themselves in the foot.

John heard from a friend that the Najdorf Sicilian is a fascinating weapon for Black, leading to sharp positions. As someone who takes chess seriously, he bought a 500-page book on this opening and promised himself that he would study it from cover to cover. He also praised himself on the purchase: so much value for its price!

At first, he was very enthusiastic, but when he realized that processing 500 pages of sophisticated analysis primarily generated by chess engines is killing all his joy and love for chess, he gave up on the book on page 50. Well, at least he still has the book in his library, and it gives him a warm, fuzzy feeling when he looks at it and dreams that one day he will somehow know all of its contents! This anecdote is similar to the story about people buying gym passes and giving up on their workout routine after just a few sessions.

Let’s give John a helping hand and develop tips on how he could do better next time.

First of all, John probably took on a book that is beyond his current playing strength. Chances are, his main weakness is not that he doesn’t remember 20+ moves of cutting-edge theory in the lines he plays, but something more prosaic, such as not knowing what to aim for in the opening, overlooking tactical shots, or not being familiar with basic endgame positions. The opening encyclopedia could come in handy later, especially if John is not well-versed in working with chess databases. Still, it is counterproductive to delve into it at the early stages of learning a new opening at the club level.

Secondly, to familiarize yourself with an opening, you typically start by looking at a few model games illustrating the key ideas of the opening, followed up by choosing your role model for this particular opening.

Let’s talk in more detail about what makes a good chess role model:
• He should be a proficient player who plays the opening a lot and knows the ins and outs, including standard plans, tricky move orders, and even has his trademark ideas and novelties in it.
• Pay attention to the performance. Does the potential role model score well in this opening? If he plays it a lot only to suffer there, it is probably not a good idea to follow in his footsteps! Also, if he keeps landing in terrible positions out of the opening and then gets away with it due to middlegame and endgame prowess, he is a questionable candidate for the role model spot.
• If we are talking about the initial stages of mastering an opening, there is nothing wrong about learning from the legends of the past. For example, Anatoly Karpov’s style was largely influenced by reading a book with Jose Raul Capablanca’s best games in his childhood. Similarly, Vladimir Kramnik diligently studied Karpov’s games as a kid. One of Magnus Carlsen’s favorite books was a collection of Vladimir Kramnik’s selected games. It is no coincidence that all of them are known as exceptional masters of positional play.

That being said, if you include a certain opening into your repertoire, you will have to keep updating your files and enhancing them. For this reason, it is much better to choose a contemporary player who is still working on his openings.

You may point out that the tips mentioned above look good on paper, but how does one know, for instance, who is a good role model for someone who wants to master the London System? Or any other opening, for that matter? There are many ways, including the following:
• You may check out your chess database, perform an opening search there, review the stats and choose a top player who meets the criteria mentioned above.
• If you don’t enjoy working with chess databases or have no such experience yet, you may ask your chess coach. However, if you have a great coach already, he will probably teach you all this before you stumble upon this blog post.
• You can search online who the experts in a particular line are, but product reviews can be biased, purchased, or written by people who are not qualified to judge.

An efficient solution to this issue is picking the reigning World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen as your role model.
He:
• Is exceptionally strong and has been rated #1 in the world for over ten years.
• Works a lot on theory and has a team of Grandmaster seconds who analyze chess openings on powerful servers.
• Is a contemporary player, so you can expect him to keep polishing his openings, thus saving you time and energy, as you can use his findings as food for thought.
• Is very versatile even as compared to the other top pros. If you look at Carlsen’s games, you will realize that he plays pretty much everything as White and has faced pretty much everything as Black.

And here comes the concluding part where we get to shamelessly praise our beloved chess apps! 😊

We do practice what we preach though and believe that standing on the shoulder of giants is a great idea.

If you are thrilled about learning from the World Chess Champion and adopting his opening repertoire that has been specifically tailored towards club players’ needs, you may want to check out Magnus Trainer. In the app, you will find explanations of the key ideas, plans, setups, traps, refutations of common mistakes, and, importantly, numerous interactive training exercises! If you want to become a strong player, it is essential to learn by doing instead of merely digesting what others have written.

Finally, everything looks easy before you try it yourself. Once you complete the theory lessons and the practical exercises, you should start playing training games in the opening, putting your newly acquired knowledge to good use. By analyzing your games, you will enhance your understanding of the lines and have a chance to update your opening files accordingly. You can challenge your friends, compete in tournaments, take on Magnus Carlsen and other top Grandmasters in the Play Magnus app, or check out one of the chess servers, such as Chess24.com! The choice you end up making is just a matter of personal taste.

There are so many fantastic openings waiting for you to meet them! Now go ahead and give them a hug! 🤗

You can sharpen your chess puzzle-solving skills by downloading our Tactics Frenzy app.

On his way to the top, Magnus Carlsen’s style was strongly influenced by studying Vladimir Kramnik’s games. 

Chess Openings: Who are Your Role Models?

Starting February 14th, you will be able to challenge Henrik Carlsen in the Play Magnus app. His spot on the Hall of Fame is as deserved as can be since without Henrik Magnus would have neither existed as a chess player, nor even as a person!

Henrik is an enigmatic character who doesn't give too many interviews. Also, when he does talk to the media, the reporters usually keep approaching him with the same questions about his son Magnus Carlsen over and over again.

To help you prepare for your upcoming matches with Henrik and to shed some light on his personality, we decided to ask him a few tricky questions related to chess:

How would you describe your chess style? Did you have any chess role models growing up? What are your key strengths and weaknesses as a player?

Although I don’t play chess in coffee houses very often, I think I am a typical coffee house player! Always looking for tactics and swindles. Magnus has sometimes been slightly impressed by my tactics, as well as amazed at what he calls a complete lack of positional understanding and concern for king safety.

Did you ever consider playing chess professionally, or was it always more of a hobby/part of cultural education for you?

When I started playing in the local Asker Chess club at 15, I was trounced by some younger players (Agdestein brothers and B. Oestenstad) and professional chess was never in my thoughts. It was a hobby I was quite passionate about until work and family took priority.

Do you have a favorite chess game? Also, please share with us one of your own best games, which is characteristic of your playing style.

I usually watch Magnus playing in tournaments and sometimes his choices make even the analysis.sesse computer confused. I find those moments very fascinating. I cannot claim any memorable games myself, although I did in fact win the beauty prize in a Norwegian 5-round classic chess weekend tournament back in 2001. At the time Magnus was already much better than me, but I had a great event and ended far ahead of him (for the last time 🙂).

Previously the Play Magnus app used to revolve around challenging Magnus at different ages. According to one of the databases, you defeated 9-year old Magnus in Arnold Grand Prix in 2000, while he came back for vengeance at 16, beating you in the Arctic Chess Challenge in 2007. Do you have any “secret” memorable games against your son that we can present to our readers?

When we traveled Europe by car in the autumn of 2003 we played quite a lot of Blitz during our stay in Crete. Magnus had 1 or 1.5 minutes against my 9 or 8.5. Still he managed to win nearly all our games. I was quite proud in the Arctic Chess Challenge in 2007 though, just for meeting the top-rated player (Magnus) as late as round 6!

You compete in classical, rapid and blitz FIDE-rated tournaments from time to time. Do you also play online and, if “yes”, what site do you prefer?

In fact I mainly play online. I joined chess24 already back in 2013 or 2014 and have played too many games (as bukkerogtakker) ever since 🙂

Editor's note: "bukker og takker" literally means "bows and thanks" in Norwegian, i.e., it is a self-ironic way of saying "thank you for the applause" after a game.

Do you talk chess as a game with Magnus nowadays? Are there situations when you ask him for advice? Or, vice versa, maybe he loses a tough match and you, as a father and a passionate chess player, can’t abstain from recommending him something?

One of the things I learned early was fortunately to stop giving Magnus bad advice, and I tried to shield him from most of the advice from others as well. While we talk about his games sometimes, typically sometimes when I have had access to a computer, I don’t offer advice. When I played tournaments more frequently in the past I sometimes benefited from Magnus’ advice as well as from my opponents fear of Magnus preparation!

Is there anything else you would like to share with the users of the Play Magnus app? Any special tips on chess or life in general?

For many of us, chess improvement is mainly about not dropping pieces and pawns left and right. One winter several years ago I did some 15,000 tactics (at chess24) and that reversed my otherwise negative trend and rating loss for subsequent years.

Download Play Magnus and challenge Henrik:
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Starting February 14th, you will be able to challenge Henrik Carlsen in the Play Magnus app. His spot on the Hall of Fame is as deserved »

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Get “Space advantage” and 475 other lessons in Magnus Trainer now!

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Twice a week, the Play Magnus team works to bring you a fresh, new lesson designed to help improve your chess skills. Lessons help you learn everything, from strategy and tactics to openings and endgames.

Keep an eye out for these new lessons, coming to Magnus Trainer every Monday and Thursday

How does one obtain space advantage and use it to cruise to victory? What are the potential pitfalls of getting overzealous when it comes to grabbing space? Let’s find out! 

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Get “Tata Steel Chess - A Surprise Winner” and 474 other lessons in Magnus Trainer now!

This year’s edition of Tata Steel Chess was full of surprises, starting from the lineup that was finalized at the very last moment and to the eventual winner. Don’t miss our tournament report! 

♟️🧰 New Lesson // Tata Steel Chess - A Surprise Winner

Somewhat surprisingly, of all the combinations of minor pieces two knights do the best job of fighting off the queen. Let's see how these fierce battles usually proceed!

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Get “Queen vs. Two Knights” and 473 other lessons in Magnus Trainer now!

Somewhat surprisingly, of all the combinations of minor pieces two knights do the best job of fighting off the queen. Let's see how these fierce battles usually proceed! 

♟️🧰 New Lesson // Queen vs. Two Knights

A game from which we learn that the Pseudo-Trompowsky can lead to problems for White.

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Get “Queen Pawn Openings - The Pseudo-Trompowsky - Guess the Move” and 472 other lessons in Magnus Trainer now!

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During Opening Week, the Play Magnus team works to bring you fresh, new lessons designed to help improve your chess skills - every day for a week!
These lessons will help you understand the main ideas of the opening, and test your aquired skills

A game from which we learn that the Pseudo-Trompowsky can lead to problems for White. 

💎 Openings Week // Queen Pawn Openings - The Pseudo-Trompowsky - Guess the Move

This is a clumsy name for an opening variation, but it is one that has stuck. Let's take a look at this poorer cousin of the Trompowsky itself.

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Get “Queen Pawn Openings - The Pseudo-Trompowsky” and 471 other lessons in Magnus Trainer now!

This is a clumsy name for an opening variation, but it is one that has stuck. Let's take a look at this poorer cousin of the Trompowsky itself. 

💎 Openings Week // Queen Pawn Openings - The Pseudo-Trompowsky

Today we will try to guess Magnus' moves in his crushing attack in the Trompowsky.

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Get “Queen Pawn Openings - Magnus Plays the Trompowsky - Guess the Move” and 469 other lessons in Magnus Trainer now!

Today we will try to guess Magnus' moves in his crushing attack in the Trompowsky. 

💎 Openings Week // Queen Pawn Openings - Magnus Plays the Trompowsky - Guess the Move

The Trompowsky, named after a Brazilian master, is a cousin of the Torre Attack and Veresov openings. An early Bg5 is common to all, but in the Trompowsky, the bishop is developed before either of the White knights. This gives the position an original flavor.

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Get “Queen Pawn Openings - The Trompowsky” and 467 other lessons in Magnus Trainer now!