chess openings

  Although I am not an expert chess player, I am a constant thinker in vast areas of all the sciences involved in everyday life, etc.  I came to a strong conclusion that knowing chess openings by name could be beneficial, however I do see some downfall in knowing all the names and variations within.  Study and focusing on chess openings can really draw away from your chess experience and the fact is you are playing an opening keyed by another player in the past.  Why is this necessary?  I believe getting a basic idea of a few openings is beneficial, however, learning tedious openings and their variations takes away from the learning experience due to the fact that using that concentration and memory on the openings takes away from the whole strategy of the game and what is going to happen in it.  However, I found one thing that was more helpful to myself.  Instead of memorizing every opening and variant, I learned a few and from that, using my mistakes and memory I created variants in my head that were successful.  When I see a position in my head for most cases in the game, I immediately know where to move, without sitting there for 20 minutes and trying to figure out what to do.  Why is this?  Using my techniques in chess, and playing many games in this manner for 14 years now, I have come to the point where I am in a position and my brain pretty much knows for the most part, what to do almost instanteously.  Instead of seeing opening names or position names, I see fast flashes is my head and I see the answer.  Now this allows me not to rely on books much, it also helps me solve chess puzzles easier.  Hey we all start at some point and yes memorizing chess openings, middle games, and end games is beneficial to increase a players ratings, like reading books, studying, etc in any other science tends to increase performance in that area and generally one's IQ.  I believe that my method, more of a hands on do it yourself learning and adapting definitely improved my game!