Does anyone memorize all variations for 1.e4?

I'm new to chess and thought I would try Chessables' Short and Sweet 1.e4 course (free).  I figured its short so it should be fairly easy to learn and use in my chess.  5 variations into 77 I began to realize this is NOT short.  Do players really memorize all 77 variations?  With that much memorizing I would think a player would play one opening ALL the time.  There isn't any time to learn another one.

Am I missing something?

At your level that is a waste of time.  Work on the basics like Opening Principles. 

Opening Principles:

1. Control the center squares – d4-e4-d5-e5
2. Develop your minor pieces toward the center – piece activity is the key
3. Castle
4. Connect your rooks

Tactics...tactics...tactics...

The objective of development is about improving the value of your pieces by increasing the importance of their roles. Well-developed pieces have more fire-power than undeveloped pieces and they do more in helping you gain control.

Now we will look at 5 practical things you can do to help you achieve your development objective.

They are:

1. Give priority to your least active pieces.

• Which piece needs to be developed (which piece is the least active)
• Where should it go (where can its role be maximized)

2. Exchange your least active pieces for your opponent’s active pieces.
3. Restrict the development of your opponent’s pieces.
4. Neutralize your opponent’s best piece.
5. Secure strong squares for your pieces.

Don’t help your opponent develop.

There are 2 common mistakes whereby you will simply be helping your opponent to develop:

1. Making a weak threat that can easily be blocked
2. Making an exchange that helps your opponent to develop a piece

Pre Move Checklist:

1. Make sure all your pieces are safe.
2. Look for forcing moves: Checks, captures, threats. You want to look at ALL forcing moves (even the bad ones) as this will force you look at, and see the entire board.
3. If there are no forcing moves, you then want to remove any of your opponent’s pieces from your side of the board.
4. If your opponent doesn’t have any of his pieces on your side of the board, then you want to improve the position of your least active piece.
5. After each move by your opponent, ask yourself: "What is my opponent trying to do?"

Once you're comfortable with that, and find openings you like to play.  Then at that point work on gaining some understanding of "why" the pieces and pawns go where to go.  Play over over older Master games of the openings youre working on.  DO NOT go over modern GM games.  They are to engine driven, and you wont understand the "why" behind the moves.

normally i only memorize those that follow a certain logic. bad moves i try to refute over the board. for me to remember it well and for a long time there has to be something that weaves through it that i can verbalize. brute force memorization is not something i do very well at all.

it is short because in reality 1 e4 is a truckload of theory if you plan to play in a principled way.

also you shouldn't be too concerned with pure numbers. i usually remember by associating things with each other making them one long bridge. so as long as i can make sensible connections i can keep lengthening the bridge.

If you look at chess.com study plan (https://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-for-beginners-the-opening2), for players below 1400 they recommend to learn only the first 5 moves and only of the most common openings. 

If you want to improve your opening play, it's much more useful to memorize the opening principles: https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-principles-of-the-opening

Nobody memorizes all variations. It is more productive to recognize common themes.

The way strength in openings develops is:

1) Understanding of basic principles

2) Understanding of common plans

3) Construction of a repertoire - stick to playing one thing

4) Line specialization

Opening principles will get you pretty far in unfamiliar situations. I remembered I also tried memorizing lines when I was starting out, but it did not work because my opponent never stuck to theory.  Legend has it that Capablanca never opened a theoretical book, so you could try emulating his solid style.

Unless they're a very good player, I don't think anyone memorizes every single variation that could possible derive from 1. e4.

When I used to play 1. e4, I had one line vs the Sicilian and one line vs 1. e5. As I started to improve, I gradually expanded my repertoire to include 4 Variations vs Sicilian (Najdorf, Dragon, Sveshnikov, and Nimzowitsch (Because it annoyed me greatly)), 2 lines vs Caro (3. c5 and Tal variation), 2 vs French (Winawer and Steinitz), a line or two against the Pirc and Alekhine, and then most of my focus vs 1. e5 where I studied a lot of Vienna stuff.

And I never wavered from those until I switched to 1. d4 for no reason and redid the whole thing again except with 1. d4 instead of 1. e4

Magnus Carlsen and a few others have memorized all of those variations. For everyone else we just try to memorize the first few moves of a few common openings and use chess principles to help guide us through everything else.

OH k... I barely even know 1 variation lol

Don't know any variation lel hahahah and I got to 1500+ recently in rapid... 

Not much... Like I know the lines in the advanced french... etc but whatever

A

you should probably get around to openings then. 1500+ is a great time for that

The moment you use the word "memorize", the rest of what you say is utterly useless!

Chess is not about memorizing.  It I about fully understanding the opening.

For example.

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6, what is the point of 6.a3?

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc4 Bg7 7.Bc4, what should White do if Black avoids ...c5?  For example, 7...O-O and 8...Nc6 instead of 7...c5?

The fact that I have memorized both those lines is utterly useless!

The first one, the problem is that after 6.Be2 cxd4 7.cxd4 Nge7 8.O-O Nf5, there is no good way to cover d4 without losing other material.

With 6.a3, White is looking to gain space and to fianchetto his Bishop to cover d4 and e5.  After 6...Nh6 (6...c4 is also possible, preventing b4, but removing pressure from d4) 7.b4 cxd4 8.cxd4 Nf5 9.Bb2!  White looks to keep the stranglehold on d4 and e5, blockading Black's pawns and not allowing the Bishop to come out.

The answer to the Grunfeld question?  BEATS ME!  Just because I can regurgitate moves in the main line of the grunfeld does not mean I understand it, and quite frankly, I hate the Grunfeld more than any other opening!

Memorizing is NOT the answer!

i don't know any other word to describe what i am supposed to do with the information. maybe you can invent one.

i like your passion though, describing things as "utterly useless" even if you absolutely cannot prove that to be the case. grandstanding. someone pay attention to this guy. he needs it desperately.

At your level, what you should do is select ONE opening at a time and don't memorize all variations, instead learn the basic ideas you play in the opening. For example the Queen's Gambit, all you need to know is that whether they accept or decline, your motive is FASTER DEVELOPMENT and ultimately you can get a BETTER CENTER CONTROL. Once you think you have learned the opening well enough only then switch to second one

I often here this "controlling the center". Maybe a real newbie question but I guess it means that I should try to have more pieces than my opponent (or at least the same) aiming at each one of these four squares so that I would go + after an exchange? 

Does it also mean that I should try to put pieces there in the center? I understand that if I have a safe piece (or a pawn) on one of the squares, I do have control of that square but is it a goal by itself to also have more pieces in the center squares than my opponent or should the main aim be to have "control"?

And when we say controlling the center, are we only talking about the four central squares or does it also apply (but maybe in a lesser degree) to the surrounding squares?

Regarding E4 openings, the only line I realy studied and made sure to learn and remember is the one where white attacks F7 square with a Bishop on c4 and night on g5. 

Below 1000 rating, 1. e4  2. knight g3 3. bishop c4 is very often played and in the first games I played, I often got into this position (sometimes also corresponding position when playing white) and I didn't know how to get ot of it without beeing a piece down. But now I have learned how to avoid getting into the situation and also how to do best follow through the attack if I get the opportunity.