Are you 600-1500 rated, and spending more time studying openings than tactics? BAD BAD BAD!

"It is important for club players to build up a suitable opening repertoire." - GM Artur Yusupov (2010)

"... Overall, I would advise most players to stick to a fairly limited range of openings, and not to worry about learning too much by heart. ..." - FM Steve Giddins (2008)

"... Once you identify an opening you really like and wish to learn in more depth, then should you pick up a book on a particular opening or variation. Start with ones that explain the opening variations and are not just meant for advanced players. ..." - Dan Heisman (2001)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140626180930/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman06.pdf

"... Review each of your games, identifying opening (and other) mistakes with the goal of not repeatedly making the same mistake. ... It is especially critical not to continually fall into opening traps – or even lines that result in difficult positions ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2007)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627062646/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman81.pdf

You can even turn the tactics on custom (unrated) mode and set your rating range.  Sometimes it's fun to try and solve as many easy puzzles as you can in a stretch of time, for example, set the rating range from 400-800 and see how many puzzles you can solve in 10 minutes!  Don't underestimate the value of doing easy puzzles over and over it will make you faster, and it will make it easier to find more complex tactics that are really just a composite of multiple simple ideas. 
You can also set the rating range from 400-2500, let's say, so that way you don't have a bias going into the puzzle, it forces you to look at everything and this is a good practical habit to adopt because sometimes you are looking for something really deep in a position that can be won with a simple tactic.

there is no universal solution that applies equally well to everyone.

what you say isn't particularly wrong, but you also need to understand that not everyone is like you and what works for you might not be the best for someone else.

I any case, I appreciate your effort to help others.

@dk-ltd Yes! I realize everybody learns differently and we all have unique strengths and weaknesses!  But there is really no way around it, you will never be an 1800+ player if you aren't competent in at least 1500 level tactics.  So whether you get better at tactics by analyzing your own games, or puzzles, or blindfold exercises, or by forcing yourself into difficult tactical positions, whichever method you prefer, you will likely struggle to get stronger if you are not getting better at calculation and learning/reinforcing tactical patterns.  I promote tactics puzzles because if you are doing them right they should exhaust your brain as if you just finished studying for a difficult test.  

@alphazero I advise against memorizing openings early on, strictly for the reason of working smarter vs harder.  Learning an opening as a 1500 is a lot easier, and will take a lot less time than it will when you are 1000.  The patterns will be more familiar, the moves will make more sense, you will understand the tactical justifications more clearly, you will likely be better at notation and you will have better intuition for where your pieces will be the most powerful.

If we took two beginners equally rated, and we gave them both 100 hours to study chess, one focused mostly on openings, and the other focused mostly on tactics, my money would be on the one who studied tactics 100%.   

This is the same in sports and anything competitive.  You can learn all the plays and strategy you want in a sport, but if you can't dribble the ball well, if you have no accuracy in your shot, if you can't execute with proficiency then your skill will be capped.  Tactics are simply the concrete execution of ideas. 
A 1200 is going to blunder 5+pts of material in almost every game he plays. (otherwise he wouldn't be 1200) and this is going to be a much more decisive factor than the +.6 advantage he got out of having better opening knowledge.    The only thing a beginner really needs to know about openings is to fight for the center, not waste tempo, develop and coordinate efficiently, castle connect the rooks, pawn storm if opposite-sides castled, fight for the center and queenside if same-sides castle, etc.  Opening PRINCIPLES are important for a 1200, but not opening SPECIFICS (i.e. if black bb4 then white qc2 or qb3)  Knowing specifics will be close to useless if the player doesn't have a clue WHY he is playing the move.  

"... Again this is targeted at NEW players, BEGINNERS, 600-1200 up to intermediate players of 1500. Pick an opening to stick with for a while , look at some top level games played in that opening if you want, get the general concepts, ..." - AntonioEsfandiari (~2 days ago)
Is there a reason to think that there are not opening books that can help players to find games and "get the general concepts"?

"... Review each of your games, identifying opening (and other) mistakes with the goal of not repeatedly making the same mistake. ... It is especially critical not to continually fall into opening traps – or even lines that result in difficult positions ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2007)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627062646/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman81.pdf

Is anyone advocating a focus mostly on openings?

I totally agree with OP.

 AntonioEsfiandari Im just wondering your tactical level is pretty low actually why do you argue so much ?

He is one of the world's leading experts on tactical and smositional evaluation of intersmositional communication processes.

Misconception on openings does not matter. Every chess game starts with the opening. Your tactics training will be useless if you are already a dead meat on the first 10-15  moves.

I totally agree. Don't reinvent the wheel. Use well-tested ideas and if you're strong enough you can improve those ideas. Exceptions are a part of every area in life and experience/learning will show them where they are. 

I don't get all those people who say openings don't matter. Learning the opening doesn't mean sitting there with an engine or opening book and memorizing all the moves. It means understanding the ideas and plans of the opening, playing a lot of games and analyze them. 

Over time you will improve and at some point you can look up what the pros are playing. At this point you should be skilled enough to understand why certain moves are played and or not.

Against a chess.com 1700 I would mostly win. Why? Because they are only good at tactics. Their openings are very weak. A 1900 does already have a bit good openings,tactics and strategy. And of course some endgames. Focusing on tactics for years alone will only land you at chess.com 1800 then stagnate.  Just basing on what I noticed on players who are big fans of tactics.

I think this is a nice article. Thanks for the information. 

Excellent Post. Much appreciated.