2 - First View

Since OpeningMaster.com is web about everything what can improve player’s game we are going to evaluate year 2008 in form of mini database (named Mini OM DB – more detailed under DB 2008 cat 9-21 see below).



We begin by creating tree of openings and compare it with trees which were prepared by famous creators of trees to foresee the future. By this we will get the idea how these advisors (creators of trees) constructed trees, based on which assumptions, based on which criteria, which mix of games was used to conduct the tree and when we used the tree what was the end-result comparing with year 2008 which is stored as a snap shot in the Mini DB 2008. There is some constants used for simplicity but readers can easily see supporting tools can be compared against each other but also with the anticipated reality. We will use series of trees of the advisors where you should watch:

a) number of games which were used to create a tree
b) percentage structure of openings in the first move
c) question marks “?” (for example English opening 1.c4 used in Sedat Perfect Tree 13 which doesn’t belong there as English is quite recognized and good opening)

Later we will continue with analysis more into the depth. For beginners the tree is very important tool. Mainly they can see how they end up using minority moves which they want to experiment with. For advanced players, slight differences in percentages of success mean that the given opening is active and more aggressive variants are being searched. Because trees are also commercial products they are for the first time showed next to each other. The Sedat Web compares trees as support for engines and how engines end up when using given trees. However this is not really supportive evidence to say tree is good or not because engine plays the more important role and not the tree. For theorists, the more interesting is the construction of trees themselves with evaluation of variants based on novelties which were successfully confirmed several times. The opinion about the variation is then changed.      

Different snapshots of trees in 2008

OM MINI 2008	Deep Fritz 11
Shredder 11	Junior 10
Hiarcs 12	Power 7
Strong	OM 2300
OM 2500	Perfect 13

The selection of trees is for evaluation purposes only. It should give a reader chance to compare given trees with 2008 reality. There are more trees however we chose these as representatives of accredited creators of trees. The trees OM 2300 and OM 2500 as well as OM MINI DB could be downloaded from our site.

Conclusion

When using trees try to understand the usage of “?” question marks, “!” exclamation marks etc… you can really burn on them because win or lose does not depend on that move but on the moves which may follow.

3 - Which openings were played most (statistically)

This part is more interesting for intermediate players. The Mini OM DB was indexed on openings (right click - > properties - > activate “Repertoire”). In main menu -> New Repertoire we get a new set which can be printed and analyzed anytime. The snapshot is on the web so you can see the quality of players

The standard set of Repertoire can divide your 5,000 games  into categories or groups of openings where it selects the moves which were played. It however doesn’t eliminate the transposition moves (TP) which is set of moves with same result however with different order of these moves. We are not going to evaluate moves under 100x. Each player can run this small analysis and see the results himself.

The overall statistics for year 2008:

Number of occurences	1st move	2nd move
457	1/ e4 e5	2/ Nf3 Nc6
382	1/ d4 d5	2/ c4 + TP
342	1/ e4 c5	2/ Nf3 d6 + TP for example  1.Nf3
271	1/d4 Nf6	1/d4 Nf6   2/ c4 e6 + TP
222	1/ d4 Nf6	2/ c4 g6
218	1/ d4 Nf6	2/ c4 e6
197	1/ e4  c5	2/ Nf3 e6
180	1/ e4  e6	2/ d4 d5
134	1/ e4  c5	2/ Nf3 Nc6 + other TP
112	1/ e4  c6	2/ d4  d5
103	1/ d4  d5	2/ c4  e6 + other TP

That which was played of course does not relate to individual opening as such or its variations. The minor variations are being played with higher ELO difference of players or when the opponent should be distracted from his memorized openings and started to play what he knows “just now”. The Repertoire sets are also very much used when preparing for your next known opponent but there you should have enough games to evaluate Repertoire report. (below)