Tournament Play

What is a opening preparation in chess?

  • Competition
  • Format
  • Scores

Opening preparation is a tournament term: home study and analysis of openings and defenses that one expects to play, or meet, in later tournament or match games. In high-level play, an important part of this is the search for theoretical novelties that improve upon previous play or previously published analysis. This affects how games are organized, scored, paired, or decided.

Related terms

Free game review

See where opening preparation decides your games

Chessiro reviews your games with an AI coach that names the concept behind every mistake, then drills you on the exact positions where it happened until you stop repeating them.

← Browse the full chess glossary