I recently saw a YouTube short of Magnus Carlsen sharing one of the best advice he got early on in his career. It made me understand why so many amateur chess players feel they have to play several openings when there is absolutely no reason for it.
He says this:
“Maybe the best advice I got was from Simen Agdestein at a fairly early age… We would go through some of my games. And once he noticed that for a few black games in a row, I played the same variation of the Sicilian Defense. And he said, ‘I don’t care if you consider this to be a good or a bad opening, if you are not going to explore, you are not going to learn.’ He’s like me, he’s not a very organized person. He went to the shelf and he said ‘this book, this opening.’ So I tried that in the next game, then I tried something else.”
Let me be clear: this is amazing advice for Magnus. I’m sure it had a tremendous impact on his career.
But here is why this advice is so bad for 99% of people seeing this video.
The Questions to Ask When Hearing Advice
The main issue is that Magnus Carlsen is such a unique case. Advice that is good for him (or was good for him as a kid), only applies to .001% of the chess-playing pool.
To make sure you are not led astray by advice that isn’t for you, you should ask yourself two questions when stumbling on such advice.
The first question you should always ask yourself is:
“Who is this for?”
In this case, a Grandmaster (Simen Agdestein) is advising a very talented, strong, young chess player. A kid who likely plays 100+ OTB classical games per year and spends several hours every day training chess.
The second question is:
“What is the goal of this advice?”
We can safely say that the goal was for Magnus to become as strong as possible (among the world’s best) and to learn as much as possible from every single game.
So the advice was aimed at players who are:
- Young kids
- Super talented
- Playing 100+ OTB games a year
- Aiming to become world-class
- Able to understand new positions quickly, with minimal guidance
So… is this you?
Hell no. I’m not trying to be offensive, but I’d be surprised if many of my newsletter readers even ticked one of these boxes.
Why Did It Work for Magnus?
Before we get to why this is bad for adult improvers, let’s understand why it worked so well for Magnus.
As a young kid, he absorbed new information like a sponge. His coaches quickly realized he could play almost any position reasonably well right away, and that analyzing these games later would accelerate his learning.
Because his time horizon was long, his goals enormous, and his training volume sky-high, playing a wide range of openings was a perfect fit. That’s how Magnus can basically play any opening comfortably even today.
Why It Wouldn’t Have Worked for Me
Looking back at my own career, I know this approach wasn’t meant for me. My former coach, GM Dorfman, once told me something along the lines of:
“You are the worst GM I’ve ever seen in a new position. But you learn quicker than many others.”
That same approach would have been a disaster for me. I needed time to understand a position deeply before feeling comfortable.
So even as a future GM, the “try everything” advice wouldn’t have helped. Imagine how much harder it is for someone starting later in life.
The Reality for Adult Improvers
Now, let’s get to you, my dear readers. Many of you are:
- Adults who didn’t learn chess at 5
- Without a Grandmaster coach
- Playing maybe 25 OTB games a year
- Squeezing chess training around work and family
For you, “Don’t play the same opening several times, no matter if good or bad” might be one of the worst pieces of advice you could follow.
The Trap of Half-Knowledge
Here’s how it usually plays out:
You pick up an opening, watch some videos, and maybe buy a course. After a few games, you scratch the surface but still make big errors due to missing fundamentals like opening principles, pawn structures, or tactics.
With nobody to guide you, you turn to the engine, which shows concrete lines but no real ideas. Before you truly understand anything, you move on. New opening. New course. New confusion.
Soon you’ve “played” the London, 1.e4, Catalan, Sicilian, French, and 1…e5. But if I ask:
- What’s the main plan against an isolated pawn after 1.d4?
- What is Black actually trying to achieve in the Sicilian?
Most would look at me with a giant question mark.
In practice, you end up making the same mistakes, just dressed in different openings. You blunder in the French, then blunder in the Sicilian. Same error, new costume.
And with so much time between your OTB games, by the time you revisit an old opening, you’ve forgotten everything anyway. Instead of progress, you’re stuck in a cycle of half-knowledge.
What You Should Do Instead
For nearly all adult improvers, the best approach is simple:
👉 Stick to one opening repertoire.
You already have so much else to worry about, fundamental chess understanding and tactics, tactics, tactics.
Getting familiar with your positions and not worrying about brand-new structures every week frees up mental energy to improve where it matters most.
Later, when you feel solid in your repertoire, comfortable in its structures, and able to play them even after a break, then it’s time to expand.
For me, that moment came as a 19-year-old IM just turning pro. For Magnus, that moment came way earlier. For you, that moment might never come. And that’s totally okay.
Rewriting the Advice
There’s nothing wrong with the advice Magnus got. But context is everything.
If I had to rewrite it for adult improvers, it would sound more like this:
“If you want to truly become a Master at Chess, at some point, you need to explore and go outside your comfort zone. Once you’ve mastered the basics, stopped making big tactical mistakes, and gained confidence in your openings, then start exploring new ones. Learn from your games with a coach, expand your horizon, and repeat the cycle. Until then, focus on depth, not breadth.”
And just to be very clear, the general message from Simen Agdestein is very useful. We want to think more about growing, learning, and improving than getting stuck in old patterns just for the sake of better short-term results. That just looks different for different levels.
I’ll leave you with the interpretation, the mindset, Magnus shares that he took away from this advice:
And that thing, like always being curious, thinking about learning rather than being stuck, than being in the same comfortable patterns has been very important to me.
Keep improving, but likely still with the same opening,
GM Noël Studer
PS: This is the short I saw. I think this is just a copycat channel, that’s why I’m not very prone on sharing it. Sadly can’t find the original footage.
PPS: This article was initially sent out to my Newsletter list. If you want to get chess improvement advice for free in your inbox, join 17,000+ chess improvers by signing up for Friday Grandmaster Insights here.
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