Mine is over 30 moves, in the Yugoslav dragon.

#2! 1-3 moves.

I don't memorize a lot in my games!

Lol wow... I have several over 15 =S ... chess nerd! :P

I find unsound gambits very interesting and memorize them 10-15 moves deep!

mine is like 9 moves deep Scandinavian Defense

lol If you play the Najdorf with black, game often begin around move 12 or so^^

i know 15 moves of theory in openings that i don't even play

I mostly remember 10 moves around for the normal openings I play (ounce I get above 2000 I will study way more) but one Italian line goes around 30 moves deep (all of the moves are forced).

Mine is 11 moves long with the Trompowsky.

I proudly got to move 17 as black in the French Defence, Milner-Barry Gambit once, only to discover that my opponent knew it to move 20 - and I lost!

"Mine is over 30 moves, in the Yugoslav dragon."

lol, how many after 2.c3?

How could you not know at least 1 move?

If you never studied opening, you don't really know to play e4 instead of h4.

I'm terrible at remembering the book lines. I know the first three moves for a lot of openings, but after that it's just strategy and insight that drives my moves (and sometimes the opening database)... The most I know is Pirc for black, exactly five moves.

But to be honest, at 16-1800 level  the opponents vary so much with the things they do that remembering lines is hardly worth the effort.

I don't spend time memorising opening lines, but I do know openings a few moves deep (3-5) just from seeing master games etc.

Understand, don't memorize.   If you understand what's going on, then it's a lot easier to know what moves to make.

Jpatrick wrote:

"Understand, don't memorize.   If you understand what's going on, then it's a lot easier to know what moves to make."

That's the only right answer. You can memorize a bunch of gambits (each of which can be defeated if attacked properly) or you can actually understand chess and defeat them all through fundamentally good play.

Gambits are just tricks. Real players understand the holistic concepts, and don't need to "memorize" their "stunts."

No, I don't think I'm a good player. I do think I'm better than a lot of players that have higher ratings than me though, and I think that understanding the game itself rather than memorizing a bunch of facades will make me better in the long run.

Case in point. This game this person used a gambit and it caught me off guard because I didn't react to it well (I'm not familiar with it):

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game.html?id=22982009

The second game though, I pretty much slapped him like a hooker when he tried it again:

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game.html?id=22982790

He knew a gambit, not how to play chess, and in the end I got more points than he did. I'm better than him, even though he's memorized a good opening.

Err... "Opening."

Not "gambit."

I like the word "gambit" so I use it a lot, sometimes when it's not the right word.

No offense Ketamine, but

1) It's not much of an achievement to beat a 1000 rated player (yes, I know I'm rated 1000 but I timed out on 20 games at once a few weeks ago because I needed to study for finals)
2) That's not really an opening anybody knows. It's not an opening. It's some unsound thing that the guy (or girl) invented.

Otherwise, good points.

Yea, I use the najdorf, so I memorize that far in.

ketamine I dont understand what you are talking about.  He doesn't seem to have memorised any opening at all although he seems to do a similar thing aiming for the same kind of weird structure.  Also, I don't think either game was lost in the opening as such, although they were lost early.  In both games, which were quite different although your opponent was trying for a similar setup in each case, the games were lost due to bad chess moves, nothing to do with understanding an opening or even opening principles. 

Interesting mix.

OG

Oh, okay. Like I said I don't memorize openings, so it looked like a pre-set thing to me. My mistake. It certainly had a pattern to it and I did fall right into it the first time, so I thought it was a pre-planned thing.

My mistake.

And yeah, he's rated low - now. I had a hand in that. At the time he was a 1321, though, so it obviously worked on a few people.

10-15 moves (12%)

for a line in the budapest

if i play the halloween, i might have to memorize some more

i  have a memory like a siv... i would memorize if i could but i cant so i dont... its as simple as that

well i could memorize any move... but only if i look at them individually, which is pretty easy for me

Sicilian Dragon as White!!!

10-15

I like memorizing things

it is suprising these much people memoring the moves!!!!! but i cant

I dont like studying chess!?