What does it take to prepare an opening repertoire, such that it will give you enough advantage to enter a comfortable, playable position?

Or rather, in this era where time is almost as precious a commodity as gold, how much time does it take to prepare openings systems against various possible replies?

Duirng the tme when I played chess actively on the local circuit as well as represent my country (Singapore) several times in team events before work and family committment took higher priority, my local rating shot up from 1630 to 1900 (FIDE 2060, playchess.com 2160 under the handle "boy boy") within a span of 4 years, from 1995 - 1999. That translates into an average of almost 70 points a year! Let me share my experience with you.

My opening systems then were chosen based on a few criteria.

(1) They have to be solid. I do not want to be blown away within 15 moves.

(2) They have to be unusual. I had believed (and still do) that surprise value is tangible benefit.

(3) They have be able to meet many responses, or be able to cut down many options.

Just to give you an idea, my white opening then was the Torre Attack. Back in the 1990s, this was not a popular opening. It took GM Julian Hodgson many years to develop a reputation using this "dubious" opening. But Julian knew what he was doing. He knew exactly what to do in this opening because he was the expert on it! He was a Torre specialist, until it came to a point where his opponents as black will strive to avoid Torre at all cost!

Ever since Torre gained a good reputation, it has lost its value as a surprise weapon. But this is not a problem. Chess theoreticians will always surface new ideas, sometimes reviving ancient lines, sometimes giving new life to offbeat or previous thought to be inferior lines with new plans and move orders.

So, what is the secret to good opening preparation? It really depends on how much time and energy you can devote to this fascinating game. Here, I will suggest a plan for those who enjoy the game enough to spend 2-3 hours a week to study the game, but no more than that.

This means that we have rule out theory-heavy openings as well as razor sharp lines, where the verdict and assessment can change with every new decisive top-encounter game.

The openings that I am playing now fulfil my criteria for (1) soundness, (2) surprise value and (3) good chances for winning.

For instance, I specialise in the Centre Game as white. After 1.e4 e5 2.d4!? I immediately cut down 70% - 90% of black's openings. No more Petroff, Ruy Lopez, Italian Game and Latvian! Instead of being comfortable in his opening preparation, your unlucky opponent is now trapped in your opening preparation! Plus the shock of having to play against that! On top of that, the look-down-on-this-crappy-opening mentality will surely work in your favour as black thinks that he is playing against a patzer who violated an opening principle. But surprise surprise! Even one such as Judit Polgar used this opening several times!

So, the verdict is: Search for openings that do not take up too much time to study, solid, has surprise value and has good winning chances. One short cut way to do this is to look for the games played by strong masters known to be mavericks, like Jonny Hector, Morozevich etc.

Have fun! If you need help, do feel free to drop me a line. I will be glad to be of assistance to you.