studying openings is a great way to improve

- If you just memorize moves hoping to have a winning advantage by move 10 you're doing it wrong.

- If you think you should win by force when your opponent does a strange out-of-theory move you're doing it wrong.

- if you decide what to play based on database scores or what a GM did in that game then you're doing it wrong.

But after these caveats, I found studying opening to be really beneficial for improving positional understanding, training calculation/visualization skills, and a little bit of tactical theme just a bonus.

I don't attempt to memorize moves; rather, I study a book and try to understand a position. Understand why I'm supposed to play a certain way, what are the features of a position, what each side is playing for. This improves my understanding of the position and gives me common themes and plans that I can apply in many other situations i.e. even when the game goes out of theory and the position is different, but similar.

An example.

Ah, and I also wanted to say that it's ridiculous how people on here claim that opening advantages don't matter until you're "an expert" or something. In my tournament experience players around 130 ECF (around 1700 fide) are fully capable of exploiting an opening advantage.