How often do you actually get to play the Zuke?

[Fromper]

So I switched to 1. d4 with the intent of playing the Colle-Zukertort/150 Attack/Barry Attack repertoire. In my USCF games, I've gotten the 150 Attack twice since making the change, but I have yet to play the Zuke or Barry even once in about 9 or 10 games as white. In internet games, I've played the Zuke three times now, but never the Barry Attack, and that's out of an even larger number of games. I almost always face some sort of anti-Zuke line. Or the Dutch - I've faced that more than expected.

While I enjoyed reading Zuke Em, and the Colle-Zukertort seems like a fun opening to play, I have to wonder what the point is, if we never actually get to play it. And as I said, I see the Barry Attack even less, though I like the 150 Attack so much that I'd rather be playing that after g6, anyway, so no complaints there. I will say that I like the early Bg4 lines, which I've played more than the actual Zuke, but I didn't switch to 1. d4 to play the white side of the Dutch, Slav, and Queen's Indian all the time, which have made up a significant portion of my games since making the switch.

Bearing in mind that I'm rated 1744 USCF, playing opponents in the 1500-2000 range, am I just having a run of bad luck with my opponents' opening choices, or is it always like this?

--Fromper

[jstainer]

Yeah this is my fear as well. I will be playing in my first OTB tournament in about 5 years in a couple weeks from now and it looks like I stand a good chance of facing some Dutch players and I don't have a way of dealing with it because I only own the Zuke Em book.

[Rookpawn]

The point of the Question of how often do I play the Cole-Zukertort. (And the repretoire associated with it.)

First lets answer why I play this system. (I use the term system to mean my repretoire.)

I now have a rudder for my chess studies. In the past I would switch opening about as often as I'd change my underwear. Mainly because I'd have a bad tournament or two or by the latest book on opening theory. (There are a number of excuses to drift from opening to opening.)

I decided to start down this path because I found a phylosophy that has helped me chess from a local from a strong local Master that taught me that "an opening repretoire is not a goal of specific moves but a process of understanding and familiarization with a system of moves/positions that your comfortable with."

He clearify himself and over the last couple years we've had alot of discussion on this. He's said that although I may never see an exact set of moves I wish to see in an opening that I should never forget my opponent has his own agenda in mind and will do anything in his power to make it happen. And futhermore that the more I know about my 'system' the more I can impose my will on my opponent.

Second, how often I actually play depends on where I play.

I play the Zukertort quite frequently on ICS in short games and in thematic tournaments on Chessworld, where longer time control of days per move, help keep opening within certain guidelines. If I was to play in just weekend tournaments, my learning curve would take much longer and the frequency I'd see "Zuke" proper would be infrequent. And as my opponents learned what I like to play they of course would adjust accordingly.

In the past when this adjustment occured I would blame the opening and start all over with something else. This no longer occurs!

The 'ideas' in my system are still valid and I know try to adapt them to new situations. Although it may not be a 'pure' Zuke or part of my system I can usually find my way much more easily. If nothing else the post mortem is going to help my learning curve!

In conclusion: It's not the specific set of moves that are as important as the overall concepts and the ability to adapt them to unfamiliar situations and move orders.

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(01-20-2010 09:25 AM)jstainer Wrote:  Yeah this is my fear as well. I will be playing in my first OTB tournament in about 5 years in a couple weeks from now and it looks like I stand a good chance of facing some Dutch players and I don't have a way of dealing with it because I only own the Zuke Em book.

Zuke Em doesn't cover the Dutch, but there are a couple of threads in this forum that could give you a couple idea against the Dutch.