Best way to learn openings. . suggestions please

Hi all greatest chess players,

I am quite confused when i try to learn openings.

I have lot of books, lot of videos, lot of Fritz trainer. In any of the book or videos i didn't find "how to learn openings".

They are only having contents\ not the "Way to learn those content"

I take a chess coach online. He again started giving me content not the way how i can learn those by myself. 

At first when i started learning opening, i will open any book with fancy title and i will open a chessbase software. Then i will start loading  all those moves in the database, thinking that i am learning all those moves and openings.

But i cannot go further because i will lose patience soon and i will leave that at that stage and will start doing other works.

After somedays i will again start the same process and i will lose patience again. 

If someone around here can give me some suggestion of how to learn openings, i will be very greatful to you.

I am not expecting any fast track way. I want a method which i should do daily and also i should know that am improving daily. Its should not be just walk over through the book, i have to remember what i am doing. Atleast give some advice on what i am doing wrong.

Please help this poor guy who has lot of will to learn and improve chess.

if u want to know about chess opening and chess skill plz download a free lucas chess game from fischer  free chess  software.it will teach u chess skill very frindly manner and show u  the difference between your move and best move.again you can learn opening by watching chess game  of gm from website chessgame.com,thank u

First you have to choose an opening repertoire.  Preferably 3 openings as White and 3 openings as Black.  There are several opening training software programs on the internet.  Probably the 2 best are Chess Wizard(Bookup) and Chessbase.  It will take you 2-3 years to build your opening tree with the help of the computer and the software suggested above. 

Also you will have to purchase books or cds that explain in words what the particular opening is about. In other words, the ideas, plans, strategies of the particular opening.

You will have to analyze your games in order to determine your progress in knowing the correct book moves of the opening that the game followed.  And, of course where you went wrong in the game, the book moves you commited to memory from having played the same moves in practice with your Bookup software, but forgot during the game.

There is more, but I think the above is enough to get you started.

Good luck on your new chess adventure and have fun.

You can also use the openings explorer on this site to do the same thing. Yes, it takes years...

Thanks for your reply transpo and tondeaf.

1 main thing i got from your replies is that, it will take years to build good opening reportoire for myself.

So i need more patience.

My doubt is how to learn openings. For example, 

1.Select this book or software.

2.Choose particular opening from the selected software or book.

3.Go through the moves carefully.

Thats it you are done for the day. Repeat this process, so that you will be good in opening by the end of some years.

Am expecting some advice like this.

Thanks

Select these books- 1. "My System", by Aaron Nimzowitch

                             2. "Pawn Power In Chess", by Hans Kmoch

Both above books can be purchased at Amazon.com

Choose particular opening from the selected book- I can tell you that depends on your playing style, positional or tactical.  My opening repertoire consists of the following:

1.As White 3 openings - The English Opening(1.c4), The King's Indian Attack, and The Reti Opening

2. As Black 3 openings - In response to 1.e4 from White the Sicilian Defense (1...c5), In response to 1.d4 from White the King's Indian Defense, In response to any move from White The Caro-Kann (1...c6) if I am looking for a draw as Black in a tournament when I need it.

Once you have selected the openings for your opening repertoire you will have to buy books that explain in words the plans, ideas and strategies in those openings.  Let me know which openings you select and I will post what I believe are the best books to select.

Select this software- Chess Openings Wizard(Bookup) and Chessbase games database.  The instructions on how to use Bookup and Chessbase will guide you on how to learn the openings you select.

In summary, you will find that the stronger players will sometimes use transpositions to take you out of the opening you know into another opening where because they know that other opening they also know that by transposing in a certain position will put the color you are playing at a disadvantage.  So you will find as you develop that you will have to know both transposition junctures in your selected openings and the opening(s) they transpose to as well as the openings of your repertoire. 

I made a YouTube video on this subject; perhaps it will help:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_ZPltcSyjo

You need to play games with the openings you choose. Over the board games, not online where you can follow a book or software. Then go over the games you play to find the correct sequence for the lines you choose. You can get better in the openings, middlegame, endgame and tactics.

I understand your frustration but you are looking the wrong way.

To understand the opening you have to understand it's result , the middle game.If you don't know the number "2" you are not going to understand why "1+1 equals 2".And to understand middle game you have to understand it's result , the endgame.That is why endgame is so damn important and that is why opening is so damn unimportant for beginners.When you will be able to evaluate a position correctly ,when you will be able to  plan correctly , when you will be able to play accurately at least the simple endgames then you will be ready to understand the meaning behind 3.Bb5 in Ruy Lopez and you will be ready to understand why a position is equal , slightly better or slightly worst.Until then Ruy Lopez or Sicilian are completely useless for you.

     Right now what you need is simple openings that will improve your understanding in chess and will make learning complicated openings easier.You can't learn openings because you see uncomprehensible lines leading to uncomprehensible positions.Even if you do learn them nothing will happen , no improvement at all.

    You need openings that you can play with almost no theory knowledge and will help you understand some fundamental opening ideas and plans.Once you know well these you can move on to more complicated openings.

     You learn an opening by understanding it and you can understand it by understanding the positions it produce.

p.s. Message me if you need more information.

Thanks to everyone for your wonderful comments. 

Am expecting more from the chess gurus around here. 

This topic will be helpfull for lot of beginners like me lurking around this forum.

Here's my two cents:

Choosing an Opening (if you must do it for yourself)

Figure out what type of middlegame you CAN play well or can LEARN how to play well...NOT what kind you WANT to play well. We would all like to play like Morphy, Tal, or Nezhmetdinov, but this is unrealistic.

I would break it down into these categories:

1. Slow/Fast [The most important category!]
2. Kingside/Queenside/Neutral [Attack the king? Win material? Play across the whole board?]
3. Degree of Risk [Is "kill or be killed" acceptable to you or no?]
4. Statics vs. Dynamics [Do you want things to hinge on piece play or on structural considerations?]
5. What openings/defenses are you willing to allow or are determined to avoid?
6. Depth vs. Breadth [One main opening or more than one?]

These questions should help you choose something suitable.

Studying the Chosen Opening

First, ChessBase is a must.

Second, make one database for each opening or line. Find high level games in that line and add them to your database. If the games are not annotated, annotate them yourself, checking with Houdini afterwards.

Third, practice your openings on ICC in blitz or rapid games. Continue to study.

Fourth, use the openings in tournaments.

Your 1400, I doubt your major weakness is openings.

Agree with Estragon's comments.

Michael-G is correct with regards to what he wrote highlighted in red.

What he did not add and probably knows is the gist of it and the most important part.  You need to build 5 visualization pattern memory banks, and they need to built in roughly the following order:

1. Basic Checkmate (K+Q v K, K+R v K, K+2Bs v K, K+B+N v K) endgame visualization pattern memory bank

2. Tactics visualization pattern memory bank

3. Endgame Technique visualization pattern memory bank

4. Openings visualization pattern memory bank

5. Middle Game visualization pattern memory bank

In the actual learning process there will be alot of overlap regarding the build up of these 5 memory banks in your mind.

In addition you will have to learn alot more about theory.  Not opening theory.  More basic than opening theory are the following concepts:

What is Chess?  Answer: Chess is Siege Warfare in the form of a board game.

1. Siege Warfare  (Expertly explained by "My System" and "Pawn Power In Chess) in any form involves 3 strategies (restrain, blockade, execute the enemy) Michael-G writes:  "...then you will be ready to understand the meaning behind 3.Bb5 in Ruy Lopez..." Almost all books I have ever read, explain that the move is designed to win Black's pawn at e5.  The truth is that 3.Bb5 is really designed to very temporarily restrainBlack's queenside pawns, especially Black's pawn at d7 (this is a pawn that is critical to Black's ability to fight for control of the center)  The reason he cannot play 3...d6 or 3...d5 is because White can then play 4.BxN(c6)  to which Black would have to respond with 4...bxB(c6), saddling Black with a loose double pawn complex (pawns at  c7,c6, d6 or d5) which is definitely a weakness that White can exploit.  A general guideline for exploiting Black's loose doubled pawn complex is described as follows:  A limp in a sitting man is undetectable.  But, when that man begins to walk the limp is patently obvious.  White must make moves that force or strongly encourage Black to advance the pawns that comprise his loose doubled pawn complex.  That is just the beginning of the process in White's exploitation of Black's lose doubled pawn complex weakness.  The rest of the process is very clearly explained in the book, "My System", and of course the process involves restrain, blockade and execute, the enemy.      

2. Two Chess Opening Theories (Classical and Hypermodern)

   a. Classical - Control the center (d4,e4,d5,e5) by occupying it with your pawns and pieces.

   b. Hypermodern - Control the center with the power of your pawns and pieces.  With this method you do not create targets in the center for your opponent to attack. (The book, "My System" is all about Hypermodern Chess Opening Theory and its application in practice in actual games.)

3. Pawn Structure - is the terrain (hills, mountains, and valleys ) of the battlefield on the chess board.  All plans of attack against the enemy position must conform to the pawn structure.  "Pawn Power In Chess", is an encyclopaedia of pawn structures and how to handle them from the White and Black side.  In addition there is detailed a breakdown of concepts, principles and ideas that comprise the pawn structure and how to use them.

If you would like to know more, please let me know.

Openings are not unimportant for beginners. Memorizing lists of moves without understanding those moves is the problem.

If a beginner studies the opening PROPERLY (which implies studying the middlegames and possibly endgames that arise from their openings, and improves positional evaluation) it will be a huge help. Not to mention it will also improve tactics.

The problem, as I see it, is that most openings books do not teach the opening properly and the reader gets more confused and doesn't know what they are doing (believe me, I have been there!). That is why opening study gets a bad rap.

Although you can't get around memorizing moves, it is always better to first familiarize yourself with the general themes of the opening: the usual pawn structures, piece placements, and plans.  Then once you know the basic ideas, you should learn the correct lines and hopefully, then, know why they are played.

You might try the latest (probably last) version of my program, GuessTheMove (GTM), in the chess.com download section.  You should load it up with games that play the opening you wish to study.  You can use SCID (a free database) to select the games.   Play over the games via GTM, trying to guess the move actually made.  Eventually, you will learn the moves that are safe to play, as well as the positions they lead to.  After some experience, you should pick a handful of openings you wish to specialize in (probably based on how much you like the middle game they lead to), and continue playing over games that use those openings.  Good luck!

I suppose there is a lot of opening theory to be mastered