Why Knowing Chess Openings are Important!

Hi Chess Players, this is Matt Martello, an Unofficial USCF Expert/Candidate Master player. What this post is about is why chess openings are very important for your chess game development and growth. There is a lot of speculation out there that you don't need to study chess openings as much. Personally I believe that is more important than tactics and endgames. My belief is if you don't know or understand openings (especially at higher levels), you will either feel lost, uncomfortable, or blunder a piece immediately and lose in an instant. Every opening is like reading a new book with each unique story behind it from the beginning of the story to the end of the story. Every opening that is played has its own strengths and weaknesses. Every opening has its own set of rules and laws that you need to follow in order to win. Every opening has its own unique game plans, tactics, middlegame, and endgame ideas that you need to be aware of in order to defeat your opponent. In some games, it doesn't necessary matter if your opponent is better than you in tactics, especially if you are not able to get out of your opponent's opening safely and cleanly. Tactics can't always help you when you drop a major piece or you trap your queen or rook early in a game. Tactics can take you so far. Also another disadvantage of not knowing openings is that you will take up so much time in the first 10-20 moves of the game that you will be very low on time when you are in the most critical parts of the game. So my theory here is that you should try to memorize as many openings as possible for both white and black sides. The openings that you know, the more you will become better as a player. The main thing that you need to do with each opening that is unknown to you is study it and understand the ideas behind the openings. Then if you understand each opening, you will be able to counter it correctly, or even punish the opening/gambit that your opponent is trying to do against you. But if you can memorize a lot of openings out there, you will even be at more of an advantage. Basically if you can copy every opening in the world just like how the Uchiha Clan can copy every move/attack with their Sharingan from the Naruto series, you will be very hard to beat! If there are any questions, or if I missed something about openings, or you want to comment what you think about openings, please mention it in the comments!