How to Learn Chess Openings in Less than 1 Hour!

Imagine you have just one hour before your next game. You're 4/4 so far in the tournament and winning your next game would get you first prize in the five-round tournament so you're pumped.

Unfortunately for you, you see who your opponent actually is. It's the up and coming junior rated 200 points higher than you and you know he has a GM coach preparing him against any of the opponent's he faces... you included. To make matters worse, you are a Grobb's only player and you know that pesky GM will tear you to pieces with his preparation. Knowing this, you have 2 options. You can...

1. Go in blind and play something you've never seen (which is terrible)

or

2. Try to learn an opening in less than an hour (better, but still seems hopeless right?)

Luckily for you, you go on chess.com and see this blog post. Voila! You are saved, you can learn an opening in less than an hour! (Disclaimer: if you have more than an hour to study an opening, this guide should NOT replace that as more time will obviously be better than less time spent studying) 

The following guide will teach you these fundamental steps and add on top of them to get you to improve and pull out a sick opening you've never played before quickly and effectively. I know this process works as I've used it against fellow titled players and confused some of them with openings as soon as move 4!

1. Go to game explorer (not opening explorer, I find that tool pretty useless)

2. Find a checkpoint (a place where you want to begin your studying)

3. Go through the top few suggestions recommended on the side and take note of the different positions and ideas that rise up

4. Record them in the notebook as it will not only help you remember the ideas, but also help keep them organized in your mind. Plus, you can use it in the future to add anything if you like the opening!

5. Memorize and understand the key points of the opening, there's no point studying if you don't remember anything

A key tip if you're a beginner/intermediate player is that you shouldn't try to memorize any theoretical lines and don't memorize any specific move orders. At your level, it's not important and will only get you confused. Instead, focus more on the ideas and plans as they are much more important!

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