I Love Openings

I'm just going to say it now: I'm an opening junkie. There is nothing I like better than to see some obscure position or bizarre set of opening moves and to be able to slap a name on it, play either side or point out a useful piece of information about that opening. I am sure it is not the most useful way to spend my time (although I also study tactics a LOT, and am starting to work in a couple positional ideas too) but there are few things I enjoy more than getting down to the nitty gritty of why book moves are book moves. Granted, I don't study them badly, ie rote memorization 20 m oves deep. Rather I don't move on to the next move until I understand why its predecessor was played, etc. I'm only posting this here because I surely can not be unique. There must be somebody else like me! Everybody I talk to tells me decidedly NOT to study openings; I disagree thoroughly. I think people should TRY studying openings to see if they like it! If it turns out you DO like it, then hey, go for it! We learn best what we're interested in. If you don't like it then stay well away from it for as long as you can (which can certainly be a while) but I would never dissuade somebody from learning about openings on principle. I'm writing this because at a chess club I was at earlier, the teacher in charge told another pupil to "learn the Italian Game but don't study openings any more than that!" I thought that was a horrible attitude. Where will the kid's love of learning / of chess come from if he's explicitly told not to go near a whole third of the game?!

Sorry for the long post; just something of a rant. 

Whassup?  I believe it is certainly beneficial to know as many openings as you can, and what their objectives are.

How you doing? Yeah, it struck me as I was writing this that you were the only other person I could think of who had such an interest. Haha

yeah i agree, i dont know why but I also like to look at openings, the positions and structures different moves can create, opportunities for sacrifices and gambits...

I also know its not a good way to spend time, but its fun.

The opening is my favorite part of the game.

I have lots of books on opening and most of my tournament game i have the edge after the opening.

Yeah, openings are fun.

Strong players tell you to ignore openings, because they dont know what it feels like to get losing middlegames all the time.

 I often use the golf analogy: The tour pro's tell you putting is the most important part of the game. "A missed putt can never be recovered" etc.

But they dont know what it feels like to still be short of the green after 6 shots..... And anyway, driving's more fun

Too right! My sentiments exactly. So there are others like me!

Do what you like. I like the middle-game so I play the Bongcloud to get out of book right away. I think the caution against openings is for those who hide behind memorization of lines to shield their weak tactical ability, but if you just genuinely like to study openings go for it.

I don't think I'm particularly weak tactically for my overall skill level. I also like playing over GM games, especially those of my favorite players; Morphy, Tal, Taimanov, Alekhine, Fischer. Would you actively discourage a beginner from studying openings at all, though?

Yes I think it's necessary to know really well a whole repertoire. Nothing too deep, I would say learning by heart the first 10 moves of all the possible (realistic) variations AND knowing the general plans and themes is ok.

I would say 10 moves of opening theory should do well against all untitled players.

Before studying openings I always got into a compromised position. No matter how good you're at tactics or even positionally, if your opening is messed up you'll always be worse.

Look at what kind of book all the chess publishers keep producing: the chess world is full of opening junkies.

But don't kid yourself,they're fun but do nothing for your chess. The chess world is also full of players with stacks of books and a rating that's plateaud for Years.

It is good to familiarize yourself with as many openings and variations as possible. You never know what your opponent will play. Therefor, it's good to go prepared!

yes i think the thread starter is right, we shouldnt study what to play, we rather should study everything we should not play. So when that moves springs to our mind, we can easily say nah bad move.

People have the general tendency of looking for a shortcut to win, so beginners have the hope of finding an opening that will magically give them a winning position.

But studying openings does a lot for your chess. It teaches you a lot of important positional concepts and themes. Understanding the opening is necessary to understand the middlegame.

Well, there is a difference to be made between studying openings, and studying opening theory.

Of course you have to know why openings are played and what the ideas behind them are, because you'll usually find yourself in some typical position and you need to know how to play it.

But theory is more or less the science of finding out whether white has an advantage in the opening; as soon as black has equalized, theory stops. E.g., if the QGD exchange is played with an early Nf3, like 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 Be7 5.cxd5 exd5, theory will say "black can now develop his Bc8 and has equalized". It probably also helpfully adds "?!" to 5.cxd5. And then opening theory stops. But you really, really need to know to play such a position if you play the QGD!

However, that quickly gets into the subject of studying typical middlegames. I think studying typical middlegames is a much better road to understanding the middlegame than studying opening theory.

The typical opening book just gives lots of variations (of the theoretical lines, no examples of typical equal lines) and maybe some verbal explanation. As soon as your opponent deviates, you don't know what to do.

And the typical opening books has few exercises, if any. Chess is like math, you only really learn it if you do a lot of exercises.

Hi dear friends

Openings are desparately the important components of chess game. White has a glorious oppertunity to canalize the game. A particular move can devastate the plan of the black. Overall the Book opening is a popular one which is also suitable for beginners too.

Other example is the gambit queen opening which can paralize the plan of capturing the center. This would be a threat for Bookers :))

What about a plan to open a broad field of chat in order to argue the openings?

Impressive rating 

Not sure about the fail rate though.

lol

We had the same rating at the time, that's why I complimented it 

Eek!  I hate em.

There are also way too many young players going around spouting off about Kalashnikovs and whatnot when they don't have a clue what they're talking about.  And that's been true for as long as I can remember...