how do you use openings????

- Dear chess people --- I have played chess for about twenty years but

I only push pawns --- I knew about openings from the beginning but

never took lessons and couldn't be bothered taking the time and

trouble to learn openings -- now I think I am stuck in a rut and I

cannot get better unless I learn some openings but I got to thinking

??:? how do chess players use opening? by that I mean I look at the

moves of one -- I think it is called the two knights defense -- well

if you move one move fine , make the second move fine , make the third

move ?:??? now I am wondering -- what if the other guy does not make

the corresponding moves for your particular "opening"??? what do good

chess players do?? do you continue to make all the moves of that

opening??? -- so having thought about it --- long story short -- I

came up with the question I asked you -- namely -- how do good chess

players use the openings?? I would really appreciate if you could help

me with a short answer to this dilemma -- please and thank you ---
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some people could debate the "luck" "skill" thing in chess and they

are welcome to their opinion on that but I personally believe my game

is all luck -- as a player who merely pushes pawns -- well my opening

-- if you call it that -- well I respond "knee jerk" to the moves the

player I am playing against makes --- well if at the end of the

opening my players support each other and control lots of squares and

can move freely and not block each other and my king cannot be put in

check -- I was "lucky" and made a good opening --- however some times

in responding to the other players moves at the end of the opening --

well your pieces can wind up being in each others way and blocking

each other --- your pieces can be "deployed" but useless and not

guarding or attacking any important squares --- and one's pawn

structure could be destroyed leaving no good way to castle --- worse

yet if the opponent can even remotely "put one's king in check" then

He can "check" you numerous times until he flukes a material advantage

-- or even check mate ----- in my personal game I personally try total

attack and if my opponent defends my attack generally then when my

attack peeters out I get whumped --- so many people maintain chess is

all skill but I maintain that unless you are a chess master ( then it

is all skill ) but unless you are a chess master my personal theory is

that chess for lesser players involves about 75 percent luck ---

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So having just pushed pawns all these years I am totally confused as

to how opening work and how good chess players use openings in a

"PRACTICAL" way. meaning what if the player does not make the

corresponding moves for the opening you try to play?????

So cute.. U read minds?.. Wonder if others towed our expected lines, can we still win? so lesser players like us do depend on lots of luck to go our way

Nice Article.

When I started studying chess thirty-five years ago, I played through master games from start to finish. Then, for opeing that I liked, I studied the lines given in an opening book (a classic from the early 1960s: Horowitz, Chess Openings: Theory and Practice). Then I attempted to play these openings in games. It was rare that a game remained in book after the fourth or fifth move except when my opponents were also booked up.

Now, I use the game explorer (and similar resources on my computer) to locate promising lines, then play through master games that reached that position, focusing on the themes and patterns. If I do not compprehend the reasons for certain moves, I will play something else.

The more middle game you know, the less opening lines you will have to memorize. By knowing middle game, you will know how to sail by your own in chess, and that's what is most important. Learning openings is an aggregating process: You take more as you need it. If you decide to open with QP only, you won't have to learn KP openings, only defenses against the KP openings. The defenses against QP openings are studied within the amount of time used to study QP openings. If you choose to open with KP, you should be saving the same amount of time as in the previous case. This saved time could be used to study middle game and chess endings. Some  opening lines take a lot of memorizing, because they are tactical in essence - don't worry, they'll come to you.