How long to try out a new opening?

Thanks Bill ! I wanted to go to that but had just married in 1979 and would probably have lost my wife and job had I taken off and gone to play in it!

 Is 1976 your USCF rating or the year that you played on the Tech team?

Personally, my rating's much lower than that (1468 USCF), but I do know that the openings you named in your post are all considered "sound". Many grandmasters play them regularly, so they must be good enough for the rest of us. There are even some "unsound" openings that grandmasters wouldn't touch that you could probably get away with until probably the 2300-2400 level. And those of us at lower levels can get away with even more unsound stuff (like my 5 game undefeated streak with the Englund Gambit in USCF tourney games). 

Also, I didn't start playing chess until after I finished school at Georgia Tech. Go Yellow Jackets!

--Fromper 

I think Reb's quote about "being true to yourself" makes much sense. Most openings are playable, if you feel comfortable with them, up to a very high level (and I mean 2300+). 

The problem might sometimes be somewhere else : some openings don't allow the same kind of play than others. Let me explain : if you usually play Sicilian defence, you're probably used to get some counterplay on the Q-side, one way or another, and in open sicilians, you know you have some pawn levers available in the center. 

If you play a classical Caro-Kann as black, well - these patterns just don't exist : you have to be patient and hope to get a winnng ending thanks to the far advanced h5-pawn (I might oversimplify here, but you get the idea). 

What about the French ? Well, most of the time, you have to deal with this annoying light-square bishop, and you just can't launch an attack unless white agrees with it (for example in some lines of the Qg4 Winawer).

To make it short, I think you should try and look for the roots of your losses with this new opening : are you outplayed because your opponent displays better understanding of the position, or do you lash out and play un-thematic moves which just dont fit with the position on the board ?

Another good way to see if the opening is okay for you is : do you feel comfortable with the thematic moves ? I remember a very strong Dragon sicilian player who just felt uncomfortable playing the thematic f6 in a French advance structure (d4/e5 pawn chain). I wouldn't have recommended him to play the French. Go figure

 I recomend in my book "Easy Guide to Learning a Chess Opening" that you should play at least 25 training games to get the hang of the opening and at least 25 rated games. By then you'll have a basic understanding of that opening and will know if you want to continue playing it or not.

You wrote a chess book Leopold?

I imagined the raised eyebrow when I read this.  Very good.  I must say, though, I think the advice is sound.

Yes, you can get it off my web site for a whopping $2

http://AmChessCoaching.com

Its in .pdf form

Server update problems but its fixed now

With respect to your original question, I think it depends on your goals.  If you are testing out the opening for competitive use, I suggest trying it until you have determined if you are comfortable with the basic pawn structures that arise from the middlegame positions you obtain.  By "comfortable", do you find that you can develop strategical plans in a reasonable amount of time by studying the structures, or do they seem "unnatural"?  Does your intuition lead you to want to continue play from the type of positions you are obtaining?  Do not worry about precise evaluations at the beginning or whether or not you got to the position a pawn down.  If you truly feel comfortable with the middlegame positions, then you can track down an openings manual and figure out how to play the opening most accurately.  Give yourself at least 10 games, possibly several more, to gauge your comfort level.

If you are employing the opening for aesthetic reasons, then start by researching some annotated master and grandmaster games.  This background will help you understand where good players take the opening and for what reasons.  If you are NOT comfortable, keep playing it anyway (in the aesthetic case).  With enough use and continual reference to master games, you will eventually have a "light bulb" moment!  Then you will see the beauty in the strategy, and you will begin to feel comfortable with the positions.  You might then even use the opening in competitive play, if you can work out strategical plans efficiently.  However, it might take several dozen games for complex openings to get the "lightbulb".  So, don't rush such openings into use in competitive play.