? ? ? I am a Canadian player of around 2000 strength. I have been so for
? some
? ? ? time. I have been frustrated so for some time. I keep flipping
? openings
? ? ? frequently and getting nowhere quickly. After yet another mediocre
? ? ? performance at a tournament, I asked a FIDE master bits of advice
? for
? ? me
? ? ? to improve (In addition of course to this wonderful site! ). This
? ? was
? ? ? his reply:
? ? ?
? ? ? 1) Study the opening well and postions arising from it. He said you
? ? should
? ? ? know some endgame stuff but it doesnt really help to learn how to
? defend
? ? an
? ? ? endgame one pawn down if you get blown away in the middlegame by some
? ? ? opening theory 20 moves deep that your opponent knows well.
? ? ?
? ? ? 2) Pick openings that suit your style. To dtermine your style, look
? at
? ? ? well annotated games of GREAT masters (GMS of course).
? Tactical
? ? ? dragons like Tal,Shirov or positional boa constrictors like
? ? ? Karpov,Petrosain, Andersson or somewhere inbetween! Looking at modern
? ? GMs
? ? ? also give you more up to date theory as well. I like Capablanca but
? ? all
? ? ? they played back then was a lot of Queen's Gambit and such. Not much
? ? ? theory back then on the Sicilian Sveshnikov!
? ? ?
? ? ? 3) Once you've got a player with whose style you like, chances are
? you
? ? ? will like the opening choices they made too. Hence you can copy their
? ? ? repertoire because they have done all the work for you! There seems
? to
? ? be
? ? ? logic in his advice. Well what do you think? Any takers?
? ?
? ? Hi juggernaut
? ? As a relative beginner to this game the advice you got sounds
? reasonable
? ? to me. I think one of the most daunting aspects of the game for people
? at
? ? my level is just what constitutes a 'good' opening. I think from my own
? ? limited experience I would say 'One that you're comfortable playing.' I
? ? use Chessbase 9 and it's an awesome program for opening study as you
? can
? ? really get in depth reports from the program which allows you to study
? and
? ? analyze just about every variation (once you get the hang of the method
?
? ? )I love the style of people like Morphy, Fischer and Kasparov, but I'm
? ? aspiring to great talents way beyond my aspirations, and then some! I
? ? don't know your preferences, but Judit Polgar has played some great,
? ? exciting chess in recent times and has a repetoire that someone of your
? ? talent may well enjoy looking at. Any other advice or opinions would be
? ? welcome.

?
? The book 'Mastering Chess' by Kopec, Davies et al has this piece of advice
? being given by Jon Speelman (or Mestel) no less - basically pick a player
? and steal his repertoire, style etc. The writer suggested Fischer,
? whereupon Speelman/Mestel said "Ah... Fischer has a very complicated
? style" and suggests adopting a more straightforward model.
?
? Personally, I'd go with Nigel Short.

Do you know of any books of Nigel Short's greates games? Is there one?