Training notebook · Study plans
Should you study chess openings or endgames first?
Allocate opening and endgame study using the decisions that cost you games, rather than treating either topic as a universal priority.
Start with the games you actually reach
The right balance between openings and endgames depends on your mistakes, not a slogan about which phase matters most. If you lose pieces before move ten, a long theoretical ending may not address the immediate problem. If you reach favourable simplified positions and repeatedly draw them, more opening memorisation may be equally misplaced.
Review several recent games and identify where you first stopped understanding the position. Distinguish a tactical blunder in an opening from a lack of opening knowledge. A hanging bishop is not automatically evidence that you need a new repertoire just because it happened early.
Define a minimum opening foundation
You need enough opening understanding to develop pieces, protect the king and reach a playable middlegame. Learn the plans and common pawn breaks in a small number of structures. Study complete examples so you can explain what happens after the memorised moves end.
When checking a specific line, ask why the move is played and what changes if the opponent deviates. A sequence without an idea becomes difficult to use against unfamiliar moves. Expand theory when your games reveal a recurring concrete problem, rather than collecting lines simply because they are popular.
Build a usable endgame foundation
Basic mates, king activity and straightforward pawn endings provide practical reference points. Learn a method, then play the position out from both sides. Recognising a diagram is different from converting against active defence, especially when the opponent forces you to choose the correct move order.
Endgame knowledge also affects earlier decisions. Before exchanging rooks, you need some basis for judging the pawn ending that remains. If you cannot tell whether your king arrives in time, the trade deserves calculation or study. This is one reason endgames need not wait until you routinely play long games.
Allocate study from a simple error log
Use three columns: opening understanding, tactical decisions and ending technique. Put each reviewed error in the category that best describes its cause, not merely its move number. After a few weeks, give the largest recurring problem an extra session while retaining a small amount of work in the other areas.
For example, a player reaching safe middlegames but missing forks may need tactics more urgently than either opening expansion or theoretical rook endings. Another player may need a single pawn structure explained. No fixed percentage fits everyone. Reassess after you have enough games to see whether the change helped you make a specific decision more confidently. A balanced plan is one that addresses your current needs while preserving the foundations needed to understand the rest of the game.
Put the practice into a routine
Where Brass Pawn fits
Brass Pawn includes tactics, endgame drills and replayable games. Its bundled material can support these areas, but it is not an exhaustive opening-theory database or a replacement for a structured explanatory course.