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TigranChess School

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3 Opening Tips from Tigran, and 2 Repertoires for Your Level

The goal is not to memorize as many moves as possible. It is to reach a position you understand and know what to do next. In this short guide, Grandmaster Tigran Gharamyan shares three tips on choosing and learning openings, then gives you two complete repertoires so you stop picking openings at random.

  • Two pages built on Tigran's own advice
  • Three tips, each with the one idea to remember
  • Two repertoires with an opening for White and answers to 1.e4 and 1.d4

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Page 1

Three opening tips

01

Choose positions you understand

A good opening is not measured by how many moves you know. It should take you to a middlegame where you know where your pieces belong and what plan to follow.

02

Learn the plans before the lines

For each opening, focus on the pawn structure, the pawn break to prepare and the piece to improve. Then play through a few model games to see those ideas at work.

03

Stick with one repertoire

Switching openings too often means you never get your bearings. Pick a system, play it regularly and give the structures time to become familiar.

The right repertoire is the one you still understand once the theory runs out.

Page 2

Two repertoires for your level

Start simple, then build up your game. Each repertoire gives you an opening with White, an answer to 1.e4 and an answer to 1.d4. The guide explains why each one fits.

Improving players

Get your bearings, understand the structures and find the style that suits you.

Experienced players

Play richer, more demanding positions against strong opponents while keeping your play active.

Tigran Gharamyan

The method behind the guide

Tigran Gharamyan

Grandmaster · French Champion 2018 · Peak rating 2676

Tigran has been teaching for more than twenty years. His rule for openings is simple. Pick one repertoire and play it long enough to recognize the same structures, because one system you really understand beats five you have only skimmed.

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