Just asking because Im bad with the openings, especially with the names.

Play a lot of correspondence games where consulting opening books is allowed.

Simple, for every opening move, in each and every one of your games, sit down 10-20 mins thinking of the significance of the moves, and analyze all possibilities... if you commit to that extent then you'll become a master in 20mins to 50 years, it all depends on your I.Q. at thats point ... I think =P

The way that I've gotten better with my openings is by playing a lot in live chess. You'll find out what people are using around your level and above, and then use it on those lower than you. Kind of sounds like a way to bully in chess, but I look at it like I'm passing techniques on to the people with a lower score than me. As you work your way up the ranks you'll find an opening you can use effectively, for both black or white. This won't help you with the names of the openings, but I think those are listed somewhere on chess.com, in the game explorer I believe. Hope that helps

Piano Man!

If you click on Learn and then Game Explorer then you'll see that you can explore various openings and see what a master would play in a position similar to your own that you might find yourself in after a couple of moves. It is perfectkly legal to consult this Game Explorer when you playing games on this web site. Some people think you don't learn that way - I disagree though. Similarly you can look at your games after you have finished and compare how you moved in the opening with the most popular moves in Game Explorer. As you play your game though you'll hopefully see why certain moves you played lead to difficuties and you'll start to understand why. At the same time you should make sure you are familiar with opening principles. You can see some opening principles here:

http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/Openings/10openrules.html

It's typical for beginners to obsess about openings - I've done it too.  Just keep in mind that the mid-game and endgame are much more important than the opening, and that many openings involve gambits anyways, where one side will sacrifice a piece in exchange for position.  In light of this, whatever opening you use had little impact on the outcome of the game as long as you play sensibly and concentrate on your own personal strategy.

I've found that it helps to focus on about 3 different openings for white, and 3 for black - pick openings that you like personally; things that you can remember easily and you are confident with.  Play only with those 3 openings until you get very familiar with them and can play them without thinking about the theory behind them.  I would then concentrate on mating positions, and study the dozen or so common checkmates until you can recognize them at a glance.  This will help your game a lot more than extensively studying openings, some of which do not occur but once in a blue moon.

In general - what are the guidelines for openings?  Are there goals that we should try to accomplish?  I'd prefer not to follow a book and perhaps that is why I get crushed by the computer - I'd rather understand the fundamental thought processes of openings and then build that way.  Is chess really that prescriptive that the better opening memorizers win?  I read about Tabiyas - why play a game with all pieces starting on the back ranks - why not just start from the point that requires creativity and move on?  I'd rather build from a point of fundamental knowledge and work from that rather than just by memorizing or moving from a book.

What are the general guidelines then?  Build a strong center?  Activate my pieces?  Castle?  Knights before bishops?  Keep the king safe?  Keep the queen safe?  Don't move one piece twice before I move all other pieces unless challenged or advantageous?  What is advantageous?  Let my rooks see each other?  Don't double my pawns? 

If you do a Google search for ECO codes, there is a nice list of openings with their associated moves and ECO designation out there.  I have a copy of it that I got from the Wikipedia site, and sometimes bring it out to see what an obscure opening is called.  I think very few people bother to commit them to memory, since it's easy to look them up if you need to.

salamillion> In general - what are the guidelines for openings? 

They're published here:

http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/Openings/10openrules.html

For a more detailed look at opening principles, consider Ward's modern and short Improve Your Opening Play or Fine's classic and long Ideas Behind the Chess Openings.

 For hundreds of years, the opening was all about taking control of the center, namely by occupying with pawns.  With the advent of modern chess, we've moved away from occupation to the more important concept of control at-a-distance.  Aron Nimzowitsch's book, My System explores this in detail, with some guidelines as to what you should be achieving during the course of the opening and the midgame.  Control of open files and semi-open files are tantamount, as are control of the strategic center (the 4 squares surrounding the geometric center of the board), as well as the "march of the troops towards the border", which is Nimzowitsch's way of saying the major pieces should be developed (not only just the pawns).  Also keep in mind the concept of tempo (pl. tempi), which is to say that the same piece should not be moved twice in a row unless it accomplishes a strategic goal.  Using a single piece to attack, mindless pawn-grabbing, and mindless pawn advancement are all things to avoid in building a strong attack and center.

Great feedback in support of the original post - the Exeter guidelines are a big help - I would also say the articles on www.chesscafe.com from Heisman in his "Novice Nook" column and archives have been very helpful to me. 

The method i use is a method i've read trought the forum, somwhere - 2 weeks ago.
I choose 1 opening - and i use it each games i'm doing, or mostly.

Since i got a book about Nimzo indian.[Raymond Keene - Winning with the Nimzo-Indian] I'm constantly opening with 1 d4, ..  2 c4, .. 3 Nc3, ..
Different people plays different things to these moves.
So i'm getting familliar with every variations and transpositions that could happen from only these 3 moves, and i note em.

I'm planing playing 'd4. c4. Nc3' for 1 month, than look for another standart.
I'm now familliar with d4, since i've played against most of moves that could be done after it at least once - i think that if i just keep playing it, i will get familliar with the whole Nimzo indian System, and now - it will be time to pull out another book.

I looked at em all at least once with chessmaster. but did not considered em all.
I considered the most populars opening like - 10 -20min, but never as much as d4, since i'm  new to chess - i don't really know nothing about most of openings, but i know what they are.

You got to go slowly with this, because there's so many things to consider with an opening - i told myself i have the choice - to learn a lot of openings, and don't know why i use em - or to choose 1 opening, and to learn its system deepfully and consider every variations that could happen, and get used with em.

study the book!