Opening Explorer Practical Uses – Insights by Stefan Akall

The Opening Explorer tab can be selected in the game list.

The Opening Explorer is based on a database. By customizing the database, you can customize the Opening Explorer.

Example:

After studying the Opening Ruy Lopez Opening, you've played it often and search information about:
- your results improvement
- identifying inaccurate moves.
- comparing to another openening i.e. the Italian Giuco Piano.

STEP 1: Put together the corresponding games

• Copy your games into a new database, which you are now preparing.
• Filter on White=your player name, or Filter on Black = your player name,  according to your piece color. The color of the pieces I play with in an opening is crucial.
• Filter on a period, e.g., the last 12 months.
• Filter on the Ruy Lopez Opening.
• Alternatively, for more precise variations, you can access the corresponding ECO codes in the range C60-C99. (Example: C65: Ruy Lopez, Classical Berlin Defense: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O Bc5)
• See also Advanced filtering of variations.
• To check, you can filter on user IDs using the 'Player' tab (e.g., multiple online user IDs from multiple sites).
• You now have a 12-month set of your own Ruy Lopez games.

STEP 2: Opening Explorer: Opening Explorer: Go through the opening move by move to see the results

• Open the "Opening Explorer" tab.
• The winning statistics are displayed immediately.
• To get into the details, play the desired variation move by move. This will quickly show whether these often end in a win or not. You can study further if necessary. The percentage of games played may help you decide whether the effort of further study is worthwhile for this variation.
• The Analysis column can be calculated if necessary using the Analysis button. This also shows which player currently has the advantage.

STEP 3: Compare your results improvement over time

• Let's go a step deeper and search for our games 'Ruy Lopez, Classical Berlin Defense' with the online Userid1 (the games were downloaded from the online site using 'Tools\Database\Import\Games of a user in').
• Now we want to compare the first 6 months with the last 6 months.
• To do this, we need to divide the  12-month set (created in Step 1) in 2 semesters (Step 4).

STEP 4: Create 1st semester database

• The database we compiled earlier (in Step 1) is filtered on EC0 C65 (Example: C65: Ruy Lopez, Classical Berlin Defense: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O Bc5).
• Then we filter on the first 6 months.
• And finally, on Userid1.
• Export to a database named, for example: 'Ruy Lopez Userid1 Semester1'.

STEP 5: Create 2nd semester database

• Back to the first database (Step 1). Now repeat the same procedure as before, but for Semester 2.
• Export to a database named, for example: 'Ruy Lopez Userid1 Semester2'.

STEP 6: Compare the semesters with Opening Explorer

• The comparison of the semesters is done via the 'Opening Explorer' tab for the database 'Ruy Lopez Userid1 Semester1'. You can view the overall situation and the total number of games played. Details can be viewed using 'Next' and 'Previous'.
• Then click on the database 'Ruy Lopez Userid1 Semester2' using 'Select another database'. Now you can see whether this variation has been played more often (higher total number) and how the winnings are distributed across the depth of the moves.

STEP 7: Compare the 2 openings

• To compare the Opening Ruy Lopez with Giuco Piano, create a SemesterFile1 and SemesterFile2 and compare the results in the "Opening Explorer" tab like this:
• 'Giuco Piano Userid1 Semester1' with ''Ruy Lopez Userid1 Semester1'. This way you can see which opening produces the better results.
• Then compare 'Giuco Piano Userid1 Semester2' with ''Ruy Lopez Userid1 Semester2'. This way you can see which opening remains the better one.

STEP 8: Identifying inaccurate moves with Opening Explorer and the Analize tab

• Compile the relevant games. It's best to export the games to a separate database and edit them there.
• Open the 'Opening Explorer'.
• Click through the games move by move and pay attention to the Loss and %Loss columns. If high loser values are displayed there, it's an indication that the move may not be the best possible one. Conversely, high Win and %Win column values indicate advantageous moves. Since the results apply to the entire game and not just to the opening, caution is advised. An initial check with the engine will show if there are any serious blunders anywhere in the game.

Use the tab: Analyze and the suboptions to analyze immediatly the position on the shown chessboard. By default a positive value of 'Analysis' means an advantage in favor of white while a negative value means an advantage for Black. [As some engines have their own behavior, in case of doubt, check by opening a selected game and analyzing with the same engine (Utilities\Analysis\Analyze).]

Use the play tab under the chessboard to start a game from position. 

Read the opening name and variation displayed under the chessboard.

If the game was lost by timeout, even the best opening won't help.

A serious check of the opening can also be done using specialist literature or with Lucas Chess \ Tools \ Openings \ Opening Lines. Common openings are stored there.

Browsing within a variation with Opening Explorer

Click on the moves in the "Move" column of the table until the desired depth is reached.
In this particular variation, go back and forth by clicking the arrows below the chessboard. Or scroll with the mouse wheel.

Note: Only serious input assures serious output

The Opening Explorer is a tool that only works properly if you filter the games correctly.
Most likely errors:
The piece color is not clearly assigned: For your own games, you should filter on piece color. e.g., White=MyUserid for white-suited openings, such as Italian with white. Black=MyUserid for black-suited openings, such as Italian with black. The statistics can only be interpreted correctly if you know your piece color, i.e., who is to move and on which side of the chessboard. Without this information, the Opening Explorer displays the mixed results of all games.

The player names are not clearly assigned. For your own games, you should combine the player names in the filter: e.g., combine 'White=MyUserid' with 'Black=MyUserid' using the 'OR' function. This filters out the games with my userid, whether white OR black. Games that do not contain my user ID (other downloads, for example) are excluded.

Inaccurate filtering on the variations. See: 

Advanced filtering of variations before using Opening Explorer

Advanced filtering of variations before using Opening Explorer
There will be many cases where the openings were NOT played according to theory. In these cases, filtering by ECO number or full name will not yield satisfactory results: Too few games are considered.
In these cases it is necessary to filter in different ways:

Filter\ Opening: Play the moves on the chessboard and click Select. Theory moves with the variation names are listed in 'Select Opening'.

Filter\ by Position: Setup the position of a given depth on a chessboard.

Open the Openig Explorer tab to view your results.

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Version 2.20 - May 7, 2025   Stefan Akall