I am also thinking, what is the target group of all these courses? I am 1300-ish player and I think I am far below the rating when most of the opening courses start to be relevant. But on chess.com I am on 95th percentile.
Is the huge load of courses on various platforms targeted on like 3% of chess players?
It is true that up to a certain level (a quite high one that is) studying openings and spending money on opening courses is about the worst way to improve your chess.
It is true that up to a certain level (a quite high one that is) studying openings and spending money on opening courses is about the worst way to improve your chess.
My take is slightly different.
Under 1600 - Forget about it! Endgames and Middlegames are far more important.
1600+ - These "Opening Courses" are typically not the way to go. They are all narrow repertoire books and not a full research on an opening. I mastered the French from studying numerous books on a board and pieces (NOT a computer screen). Having to play through moves multiple times, if you rehearse the IDEA behind each move and not just memorize it, will get the idea stuck in your mind for years to come.
About 80% of opening books are repertoire based. They are not bad, but do not pigeon-hole yourself to any one book. Like in the French, one book might give the Open Tarrasch and the Classical. Another might give the closed Tarrasch and the Winawer. Maybe the Open Tarrasch and the Winawer work for you. Maybe the Closed and Classical work for you.
Video courses are only useful in 2 cases:
1) It is a very obscure opening that you will find little of elsewhere - Trent's course on 1.e4 c6 2.Ne2 or Martin's course on the Tango, for example.
2) It acts as a supplement to other material you have read.
But again, this all starts around 1600, not 1000.
Studying openings from GM courses won’t help you at your level, the moves will be confusing if you don’t understand the positional or strategic goals behind the moves. Also at your level you’re much more likely to get people playing random moves and you’re out of book right away and will rarely get to play the opening you just studied. Also GMs tend to focus more on equality as black or maintaining a slight advantage as white. At 1300 your opponents will be trying to rip your head off with the Englund gambit and such. The best thing you can do is just pick a few openings you like for e4 d4 c4 as white and black, then watch YouTube videos on the common traps in these openings so you know how to either crush your opponent or avoid whatever they are trying to do. Other than that you should just play , analyze and do puzzles. Maybe read a book like my system. You will eventually hit a wall with your homemade trap repetoire and then you should start spending money on opening courses when you know how to understand chess concepts a little better
I always found books to be a better way to learn openings than videos. With books, it is easier to go back and review. You can also take more time. You can play through variations on a real board and get a feel for what can happen
i agree that studying openings is not very useful for novices through club level players. I have told students the following. Suppose you get a position at move 10 that Magnus played. Great. You have played perfectly for 10 moves. But you will then play at your level for the rest of the game. And the result is you will have the same rating as before.
Too many people waste money on opening courses that they don’t need and won’t help.
Hi, I wonder if someone does the same as me.
I see some video with some interesting opening, go to chessable (or any other courses platform) and find a course suitable for my rating (or higher, because I see myself as a master after finishig the course), read info and say "that's a perfect course of an interesting opening, I will study it thoroughly, become an expert in it and destroy all my opponents."
Then I buy it (ideally with some expensive 20-hour video) and start studying - and during the first chapters I am like "why would opponent play this particular move? what if he plays something else? this variation will never occur on my board, I don't even remember first five moves"
and after studing 10% of the course give it up thinking that I will rather study middle game or endgames.
And after some time the same situation happens again with different opening course...