Master your Openings

Openings become more and more crucial as your rating rises. Beginners just go e4 and wing it from there, but after a while you have to get more complicated. So here's a few ways to learn your openings easily.

1. Chess.com Lessons

Probably the easiest method. Just go to Learn > Lessons, search by theme, and select "Opening." There you'll get lessons on a bunch of different openings. Just choose one and learn!

(Also, if you want to learn a bunch of openings to be ready against anything, the one below is great.)

Pros:

• You are taught openings instead of doing it yourself
• A lot of openings to pick from

Cons:

• The exercises aren't really in-depth
• These are series of lessons, and unless you're diamond you can only do a certain amount per week; Default: 1, Gold: 3, Platinum: 5

2. Explorer

This one I haven't used, but it could work for some. In Learn > Explorer, you can search openings and find lines you really like. After choosing the moves you like the most, you can memorize those and try them in games. After a game, go through your moves and see where the game went off the moves you memorized. Then learn those moves and rinse and repeat.

Pros: 

• Very customizable
• Learn at your own pace

Cons:

• Takes much longer
• Limited amount of moves unless you have premium

3. Chessable

This is how I learned my openings. Chessable has many lessons on different openings. Each lesson has a full version, which is paid, and a Short and Sweet version, which is free. I don't usually spend much money on chess, so I always buy the short and sweet version, and it's always enough for me.

Pros:

• Lots of lessons
• Most lessons come with a video and tons of exercises
• Opening Explorer for each opening 
• As many lessons as you want per day
• Spaced repetition helps as well

Cons:

• You have to sign up, but it's free

4. Chess Books

These are really in-depth, though I personally haven't tried any before. If you're willing to spend money then there's thousands of books for each and every opening. You should check them out!

Pros:

• Thousands to pick from
• Really in-depth

Cons:

• Cost money

Those are a few ways to master openings. It would be helpful if you could tell me a few ways you learn openings. Thanks for reading.