Frankly, I felt somewhat embarrassed to have annotated that Opening Sequence in the previous blog part (part 9).  The annotation just come from me, someone in a real world, is not an authority on Opening Theories.  But I still put that on in the hope that novices like me may be assured that they can annotate their own games (it would help a lot if a strong player would assist in the annotation to pinpoint real points).  Learning how to annotate a game are just few clicks away from the internet, it's quite a lengthy topic so I will not put it in just to repeat someone's work.

Okay, you have the copy of your favorite player's database and you have separated his White games and Black games.  Then you arrange them again by gathering according to Openings.  For example, I have collected Alekhine's games, gathered the games in which he played the White pieces, then gathered games accordingly by their Openings, that is, all games of the Ruy Lopez, the French, the Sicilian, etc.

If you're a fan of Alexander Alekhine, then by all means try imitating his play.  But that's just a matter of choice.  For the sake of sharing, let's say you answer yes.

So in all of your previous games you played 1.e4, now you switch to 1.d4, because that's the usual first move of Alekhine.  I'm not saying he never played 1.e4, it's just that 1.d4 was his most frequent first move.

After 1.d4, Black has various replies.  Among his opponents, they mostly replied with 1...Nf6.  Other replies were 1...d5, 1...e6, 1...f5, 1...c5, or 1...b6.

For novices, it is enough to limit your book to 12-ply moves, meaning 6 moves for White.  For this demonstration, we will set the limit to 6 moves.

Of course, as you play more games, your book will grow, because you will be adjusting your games to make it more Alekhine-like.  Most strong players at club-level have memorised Opening variations up to the 12th move, or 24-ply.  Gary Kasparov, in his younger years, went over the 12th move.  If you are that passionate enough, you can copy right down to your fave player's 24th move.

Now let's say that after 1.d4 Black replied with 1...Nf6.  Alekhine's next move is either 2.c4, 2.Nf3, or 2.g3.  His frequent second move was 2.c4.  I just showed you that Alekhine had other weapons too, aside from 2.c4.  This is done by strong players, but for novices, let's stick to one choice.

Most of Alekhine's opponents replied with 2...e6, and then Alekhine's most frequent reply was 3.Nc3

A little note on selecting the move based on Frequency: being frequently played move does not necessarily mean that it is the strongest move among various candidate moves.  There are other factors to consider, like the percentage of his victories when he made that move, or the average of his rating when he made that move, and lastly, the move's Tournament Performance Rating (just how the move fared against tournament conditions, like average rating strength of all participants).

Let's proceed. Black replied with 3...d5.  And now for the sake of the demonstration: on his fourth move, Alekhine either played 4.Nf3 or 4.Bg5.  Based on frequency, it was 4.Nf3.  But based on percentage of wins, it was 4.Bg5.  It is logical to go for the move that was in games that won more, so our fourth move is 4.Bg5.  But then again, there are other factors to consider, for now, I gave some basis.

Black's fourth move is 4...Nbd7.  There are other moves, and Alekhine has replies to them, but we're trimming things from now.  It's like learning ABC, but when you get used to this, you will do well looking for the strongest lines.

We're just using the database as our basis, and Alekhine's reply to each and every possible moves are not available.  On the event that your opponent plays a peculiar move and your Alekhine database does not provide the answer, you can just look at another player's database with a known expertise on a specific opening, for example, Viktor Korchnoi is an avid fan of the French Defense, John Nunn is a fan of the Marshall Attack of the Ruy Lopez, Bobby Fischer was a fan of the Poisoned Pawn Variation of the Sicilian Defense.

Okay let's continue.  Alekhine replied with 5.e3, this was his most frequent reply, and yet his 5.cxd5 secured the wins 100%.  In my personal opinion, the ratio between 5.e3 and 5.cxd5 was just too big that I could not count on 5.cxd5 being the better move.  I believe that 5.e3 was much more put into test, probably against amateurs and grandmasters.

Black answers with 5...Be7, and Alekhine played 6.Nf3.  Again, the discrepancy between 6.Nf3 and 6.Bd3 was just too big though 6.Bd3 was 100% win.  But if he played 6.Bd3 at a very high level, then play 6.Bd3.  Because if you look at the rating at which he played the move, you might consider that less frequent move was in fact his novelty move.  Just look at the dates which move was more recently played.  And lastly, don't copy a move if you're not comfortable with the move.  Alekhine might execute the move due to preparations or experience or mere expertise, but if you think you can't grasp the idea behind the move then select another option which suits your preferences.  See, I've told you.

According to Kasparov, a beginner must have at least 3 openings as White, and 3 openings as Black.  As White you may include in your repertoire: Ruy Lopez, Sicilian, and French.  And as Black you may include Sicilian (in reply to 1.e4), Nimzo-Indian (in reply to 1.d4) and English Opening (in reply to 1.c4).

Memorise the openings, from 1st to 6th moves.  Play some games, and adjust your Opening book accordingly.  But be honest with yourself, don't peek.  In case you forget a variation during actual play, that's okay.  You can just keep on memorising your book until they become natural part of your chess Intuition.

On the last note: It is good, as grandmasters do, to post-analyse your games.  Don't do marathon games.  Stop and analyse each and every game, know where you've made mistake in the Opening, see what you've missed in the middlegame, and what should have been done in the endgame.  This can only be done as long as you record your games.  Always match your openings with your fave player's favorite or successful opening moves. 

I still have a long way to go, but I feel I'm right on track.  Every long journeys start with that first step.  I just shared with you what I believe strong players adapted in their trainings to become stronger.  And it's my dream that one day, I will see myself having a 24-book repertoire with 48-ply on each book.  God bless you all on your chess journeys, my fellow chess enthusiasts.