I've been playing chess since I was young, and as a byproduct 'developed' openings that I was confortable with.  Not until recently did I find that I didn't invent these openings but that they have been around for a LONG time.  Some with nice little names attached to them.

 Where would be a good place to go online and study chess openings?

 

Thanks in advance. This community of people is great. 

you can try wikipedia.

http://www.eudesign.com/chessops/ch-clear.htm

Hey Johnny, first of all thanks for the good game we're playing. Second, there are several chess books which include chess openings. One I own was written by one of the greatest chess players of the day. The book is called (not surprisingly) The Game of Chess; and Siegbert Tarrasch wrote it. Most of the material in the book is totally original; it has, in the order listed, the elements, or basics of chess(good to read even if you're a pretty good player because it goes in depth about the basics and can actually help a little bit), the end game, the middle game, the openings (explanations of general openings and detailed descriptions of 28 specific openings, with examples of some excellent moves and explanations of virtually all moves), and finally, some games that Tarrasch described in detail (some are his own, some are of other players). I can honestly say that it is excellent and can improve your game even if you skim through it, but pay close attention to a few general pointers or a few specific moves you find interesting.

Again, the book is The Games of Chess, by Siegbert Tarrasch. The only downside to this: it costs money to buy! Good luck with your openings.

As murshid said, Wikipedia is a great place to learn about chess openings.  There is a Portal (dedicated section) in Wikipedia devoted exclusively to Chess.  You can find it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Chess

The Chessops link is also a good one and finally, the Department of Computers and Mathematics of the Arkansas State University has a nice webpage dedicated to Chess openings, the link is here:

http://www.csm.astate.edu/~wpaulsen/chess/index.htm

Finally, as Chicken man said, books I believe are the best way.  You can take them with you, earmark them, annotate them highlight them, you know.  Something I did to practice openings is that I played with an extra board.  The first board was for the game at hand and the other was to practice the moves ahead before doing them in the real game board.  As time progresses you will become better at this and will no longer need the second board.  So, the second board is only to help you with visualization in your mind.  

I hope this helps.

I wouldn't read 'the game of chess' by tarrasch unless you are interested in how chess was played before the hypermodern revolution.  Tarrasch was a dogmatic chessplayer who was absolutely opposed to hypermodern openings.  Also - even in classical openings, tarrasch's books will be hopelessly out of date.  Even a book from around 1950 would be far better.

Agost003 wrote:

The Chessops link is also a good one and finally, the Department of Computers and Mathematics of the Arkansas State University has a nice webpage dedicated to Chess openings, the link is here:

http://www.csm.astate.edu/~wpaulsen/chess/index.htm

Holy smoke. Thanks for the link.