My choice, less or more:
As Black:
The Owen
The KID/Gruenfeld
The Petrov
As White:
The London
The Catalan
The Colle/Zukertort
Makes six. Should be enough stuff for the rest of my life (aged < 70).
Thanks for any hints
I fail to see the connection between someone's age and his opening repertoire. :]
@TheBigDecline #2
Wait until you get older ;-)
What did 63 year old Smyslov play in the Candidates' Final 1984 against the young Kasparov? Queens Gambit, with white like with black.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?pid=15940&pid2=14676@tpr #4
Thanks for the cool link. But you are aware that i'm not a GM?
Age affects the strong and the weak just the same.
Smyslov could play at the highest level at 63 years of age and that is how he did that.
King's Indian Defence, Grünfeld, Owen, Catalan, Colle-Zuckertort look less suitable to that end: too sharp, too tactical and too theoretical.
King's Gambit as white, Sicilian and Dutch as Black. Unbalanced games keep one from dozing off.
Korchnoi rolls in his grave because you whipper-snappers don't have a clue.
1) For the mainstay of your repertoire :
In which openings do you have more experience than in others ? Among those openings, which are the ones where experience matters most ? In one sentence : capitalize on your experience !
2) For occasional surprise weapon :
Which opening will keep your energy, your "chess hunger" at the highest level ? Do you like to push passed pawns or to close the center and attack on both wings in a locked position ? What is it that you enjoy the most ?
I'm glad that both Smyslov and Korchnoi were mentioned earlier because they had very different approaches to playing chess after the age of 50. Guess what, they had very different qualities to start with ! If you share Smyslov's qualities (at an amateur level, of course), don't copy Korchnoi's recipe :) and vice-versa :) .
