Build an opening repertoire from your own games

By Andrian Yarotskyi · 21 October 2026 · 6 min read

Many players build their openings from books and videos: learn the main line of a popular system, twenty moves deep. Then they sit down to play, and their opponent leaves the main line on move four. The theory never comes up, and the hours spent memorizing it are wasted.

There is a better starting point: the games you have already played. They show which positions you actually reach, how you score from them and where you lose points before the middlegame even starts. This guide explains how to read your own opening results and turn them into a repertoire that fits the games you really play.

Why start from your own games

At club level, games leave known theory early. Your opponents play the openings they like, often not the most popular ones, and they deviate as soon as they leave what they know. A master database tells you what strong players do; your own games tell you what your opponents do, which is what you need to prepare for.

Your own games also show you something no book can: your results. A line can be objectively fine and still go badly for you, because you do not understand the positions it leads to. Those are the lines worth fixing first.

Step 1: See what you actually play

Start with a simple overview, separately for White and for Black:

Your first moves. As White, what do you open with, and how often? As Black, what do you play against 1.e4, 1.d4 and the rest?
Your opponents' most common replies. As White after 1.e4, for example: how often do you meet the Sicilian, 1...e5, the French, the Caro-Kann?
Your score from each. The share of points you get: wins plus half the draws, divided by the games.

An opening explorer built from your own games does this for you: from any position it shows which moves were played, how often, and how you scored with each. Lichess has one for a single player's games, and Neochess builds one from all your linked Chess.com and Lichess accounts together.

Step 2: Find the leaks

Now look for lines that cost you points. The ones worth attention have three things in common:

They come up often. A bad score in a line you meet twice a year does not matter. A bad score in a line you meet every third game does.
They score clearly worse than your average. Compare with your overall score as that color, not with 50%.
They have enough games to mean something. Five games prove nothing; thirty start to tell a story.

Also look for positions where you play different moves each time. If you have answered the same position in four different ways, you probably do not know what you are doing there, and that is worth settling.

Going deeper into a line, step by step, often shows exactly where the trouble starts: your score is fine after move three and collapses after a particular reply on move six. That reply is what to prepare.

Step 3: Choose a small, consistent repertoire

The aim at club level is not to know everything, but to reach positions you understand. That means few openings, played consistently:

As White: one first move, with one setup against each of your opponents' common replies.
As Black against 1.e4: one defense.
As Black against 1.d4: one defense, and a plan against 1.c4, 1.Nf3 and the rest.

Switching openings every month resets your experience. Sticking with one lets every game teach you something about the same kinds of positions.

If a line keeps going badly, you have two options: learn it better, or replace it. Replace it only if the positions it leads to really do not suit you. Otherwise, it is usually faster to understand it better.

Step 4: Learn ideas, not just moves

Memorized moves run out. Ideas do not. For each opening in your repertoire, learn:

The typical pawn structures and what each side wants in them.
Where the pieces belong. Which squares are good for your knights, which bishop is your good one.
The usual plans. A pawn break in the center, an attack on the queenside, a minority attack.
The common traps, for both sides.

The best way to learn these is from complete games played in your openings, by strong players and by you. Going through a few model games teaches more than memorizing extra moves of theory.

Step 5: Prepare for the replies you actually meet

Here your own games are much more useful than a master database. Sort your opponents' replies by how often you see them, and prepare in that order. If a third of your opponents answer 1.e4 with 1...e5 and most of them follow it with a particular sideline, that sideline deserves more preparation than the main line a database would show you first.

For each reply, you need one clear answer and an idea of the plan that follows. You do not need fifteen moves of theory.

Step 6: Check your progress over time

A repertoire is never finished. Every month or two:

Compare periods. Look at your score in a line before and after you started working on it. Narrowing an explorer to a date range makes this easy.
Check new leaks. As you get stronger, you meet stronger opponents and different lines.
Keep the lines you rely on. Saving them somewhere lets you review them before a game or a tournament.

A note on openings and improvement

Openings matter, but less than most players think. A good opening gives you a playable position; it does not win the game. If your games are lost to blunders in the middlegame, fixing those will bring more points than any opening work. Use your opening results to find the clear leaks, fix those, and spend the rest of your time on tactics and on learning from your mistakes.

How Neochess helps

Neochess's opening explorer, Opening unraveled, is built from your own games across your linked Chess.com and Lichess accounts. From any position it shows the moves you played, how often, and how often you won, drew and lost with each, as White or as Black. You can step through a line move by move to see where your results change, narrow everything to a range of dates to see how your repertoire has developed, and save the lines you want to come back to.

The short version

Look at what you play and what your opponents reply, with your score in each line.
Find lines that come up often and score clearly below your average.
Keep your repertoire small and consistent.
Learn the ideas and plans, not just the moves.
Prepare for the replies you actually meet, most frequent first.
Check again every month or two.

Explore your openings with Neochess