Start by separating what you need as White and as Black. As White, pick one main first move, such as 1.e4 or 1.d4, then keep only the replies you actually meet. As Black, start from the most common first moves: one answer to 1.e4, one to 1.d4, then a few sidelines.
- 1 One folder per color or goal. Its bar shows the average mastery of the repertoires inside.
- 2 The king icon shows the repertoire’s side: white or black.
- 3 The breadcrumb recalls the side and folder of the open repertoire.
- 4 “Train” starts a session on this repertoire.
The temptation is to add too many lines. ChessFlux works best when every branch has a reason to exist: you play it often, you went wrong in it once, or it leads to a plan you want to learn. A rare line you never review quickly turns into noise. In the tree (figure 1, marker 1), a folder whose bar stays red is often an overloaded folder.
A useful repertoire should stay smaller than your current motivation. Add lines once the old ones are reviewed, not when the tree starts to look impressive.
Limit the depth
For each line, go as far as the position where the plan becomes clear. That is not always the same number of moves. Some lines need ten moves because a tactical trap comes early. Others can stop at move six if you already know which setup to aim for.
- Keep forced moves and critical replies.
- Remove or avoid branches you don’t understand yet.
- Add short comments when an idea matters more than the exact move order.
Review with a simple loop
Once the repertoire exists, run a first training session without chasing a perfect score. The goal is to find the moves that don’t come naturally. They then show up in the repertoire panel (figure 2).
- 1 Global mastery: how many moves are solid and how many are left to work on.
- 2 The last sessions and their score. A rising series beats a single spike.
- 3 Weak moves and their miss count: the list of branches to clarify.
Then go back to the repertoire, clarify the confusing branches and run a shorter session. This build, train, fix loop is more useful than a long passive preparation phase. It turns your repertoire into a living tool: every mistake tells you what to simplify, explain or repeat.