A Reflection on the State of Chess

It is 11:00 at night. Armed with an article from New In Chess Yearbook 127, I am attempting to look at some main line Dragon theory.

A sideline on move 17 catches my attention:

Beautiful stuff, yes. But a crisis begins to form in my puny brain. Is it really worth memorising such lines up to move 20 and beyond, just to get a marginally better endgame? How would I feel were I to play the line in an over-the-board game? Would it be so beautiful? Would I enjoy bashing out move after move, winning that game solely because I'd memorised a few lines I'd read in a magazine? I don't think I would. I would no longer be playing chess - such play has as much in common with the game I've grown up enjoying as memorising a million digits of pi or studying for a spelling bee. And is it really worth memorising that massive chunk of theory just to pick up a point once in a while?

3. Bd3 has never felt so alluring...