Help Studying Openings

Hey everyone. For the past 2 months I've been trying to study openings to increase my skill. Here are the resources I've used to study:

Opening chess theory wiki page: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chess_Opening_Theory

Many premium member videos here at Chess.com (I had a free 1 month membership)

Every youtube video regarding the openings I studied

Using the game explorer to see how 2000+ players reply to openings

I've tried my best using the resources available to me to increase my knowledge of the opening, but I feel as if I've learned very little given the effort and time I've put into it.

I'm starting to become very frustrated. I'm starting to think the only way to become a good chess player is to be trained by a chess coach. There are no chess clubs where I live or chess coaches. I feel like I have all this ambition to learn and better myself as a chess player, but don't have the resources needed in order to become better.

How am I suppose to teach myself all this opening theory using nothing but poor quality information found on the internet?

The problems I'm having with the current resources:

1. They are vague and aren't directed towards people new to the opening. Instead the resources try to give broad, generalized information that helps in only gaining a vague understanding.

2. They don't go into detail about how plans or key points in the opening. The resources simply give you lines of opening theory with no explanation behind them.

3. The resources are often very shallow, they lack depth. They don't go into detail of various lines. Instead, they give the first couple of moves, without any explanation or reasoning behind them, and then nothing else.

As a side note: I don't want to order books online. It's expensive and inconvenient and is something I would rather do as a last resort. There must be quality resources online that help explain openings.

The thought of having to order books is so tiring. I would have to do research on what the best book is for each opening. Would have to do research on the best website to purchase it. Would have to purchase prepaid credit cards from the store, activate the prepaid cards. There's no way to make sure whether the website will accept the prepaid card until I buy it. Then there's the cost of shipping. After it's all said and done, it might not even be a good book that I find helpful! Not to mention that there are so many openings an opponent can use in response to yours.

Ex. I play 1. e4 because I bought a book on the Ruy Lopez then he replies with the Petrov's Defense and the book is now useless to me.

I don't want to go through that. I just want some resources online that are of quality and can truly teach me openings.

Opening I want to learn:

White

1. Ruy Lopez

2. How to deal with people who play the Sicilian Defense

3. How to deal with the various openings in response to my 1. e4 opening (French defense, Petrov's defense, etc.)

Black

1. French Defense

2. Sicilian Defense

3. How to deal with 1. d4 openings (QGD, King's Indian, etc.)

Do I really have to buy a book for each individual opening? That will cost me so much money and effort to order that many books on the hope that they will actually be good.

Can someone please help me?

If you become a premium member again, Chess Mentor has a great course on the Sicilian

The thing about Chess Mentor is that it doesn't actually teach you the opening. It expects you to already know the opening and then tests you on your memory of the given line/variation and provides some explanation. If I don't already know the basic lines of the Sicilian then Chess Mentor really isn't helpful.

I can help you although I am not really sure that you want to get helped.Most beginners are obsessed with the opening as they feel they can cover their ignorance by finding the perfect opening and playing the perfect line. 

You are looking at the wrong direction.It's not opening study what you need.

You need middle-game and endgame study(do you know even the basic endgames?)

You need 3 or 4 VERY GOOD middle game books and a couple VERY GOOD endgame books(not more for now, they will only confuse you).They are not going to cost you much as you can find them used.Focus next 6 months(at least) on serious middle-game and endgame study.

   No matter how good you study opening it's not going to help you.The reason is simple.Can I learn driving by watching F1 races?Of course I can't.Wouldn't be funny if I tried to learn driving like that?Wouldn't you tell me that I first need to learn where the break and the gas are , then learn how to use them properly, then get a driving experience by driving an actual car and then comes understanding why Alonso took that turn so tight?

           That fundamental truth that is totally obvious in everything in life(if you want to be a math teacher  you start from the numbers,if you want to be a writer  you start with the letters) is unfortunately not obvious in chess.

    The fact that the game starts with the opening doesn't mean that the opening is the most important part of the game.There is something that is before even the opening:Understanding.

     Everything in chess needs understanding and spending tons of hours studying incomprehensible opening lines trying to get the perfect "slight edge" position will actually contribute nothing to your understanding.

    Here is the trap many fall.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.

I'd like to make a few points here:

1) Michael-G's advice is good; I've seen him make a number of similar posts to similar posters here recently.

2) I got to 2000 CC here without knowing a single line of the Sicilian past move 5, without knowing a single line in the Italian past move 3, without knowing a single move in the Nimzo past move 3, without using opening databases, without using books, ... Yeah I got beat a few times like I know absolutely nothing about chess, but not regularly by any stretch. Not trying to boast, but I feel its a good way to make the point: You don't need to learn openings in depth to become better. In fact, recently I've been attempting to work on my openings a bit more (just kind of looking at a few lines, I don't have time to seriously study) and my rating has dipped by about a hundred points. This might be because I'm entering more main line openings where my opponents are more experienced and have a better feel for the middlegames that result than I do at the moment. It surely hasn't happened because I'm spitting out lines which GMs have worked out, through game after game, end up in roughly equal positions to fight from.

3) Information costs money and time. Your original post asks for some kind of fantasy resource online which teaches you openings in great detail etc. but that is also FREE. I'd like that as much as the next guy! But the best information is probably found in opening books. Until then, I'd recommend doing what I do: play games, analyze your games, and if you found yourself entering the middlegame with an inferior position, try and work out which moves you made were bad, why, and then next time prepare a different try, and see how that pans out.

4) If you have any specific questions about an opening, ask in the forums. You get mixed results, but some people round here really know their lines. (Or seem to!)

Oh, and if you suddenly happen across the free online openings resources of detail and quality, please let me know!

What would you recommend for very good middle game/end game books?

Ke2 is all you need dued

               Pachman's 3 books "Complete Chess Strategy" and Keres "Practical chess Endings is the bible for every beginner that wants to do serious study and doesn't look for the easy solutions.After them , the 3 books of Kotov , "Train like a Grandmaster" , "Play like a Grandmatser" , "Think like a grandmaster" and also , "Rook endings" by Levenfish and Smyslov are very good choices.2 drawbacks , they are not so easy to find , and they are written with the old British notation system(for example ,NKB3 is Nf3 but also Nf6 ).I advise you to buy them even used if you find them.What matters most is the knowledge they can give you and not  having some pretty books for your library.

    Especially regarding the middle game prefer the old, time tested and generally approved writers like Pachman , Kotov and Keres.Avoid new writers because today's writers  care more about money so books have become easy and "cheap"(in knowledge) as they want to sell in a wider market.Back then  books were destined for serious chessplayers, today the percentage is only 10% and it is easy to get lost and buy a nonsense.Unfortunately many very low level books have become best sellers just because they claim that they contain all the middlegame knowledge you need.

     Another reason why you should prefer the old writers is because  middle-game principles haven't change from the 80's(and before) and they are not going to ever change.Minority attack, for example, will be minority attack as Pachman described it in a thousand years from now, there going to be no evolution in that.You can't have a better teacher than Pachman , Kotov or Keres because no one knows chess better than these  and no one ever will.I assume you know them , if you don't, just read about them and compare them with today's low level players that present themselves as "teachers".Believe me , 99% of those would not be able to qualify for  Pachman's students(if Pachman was alive).

    Good middle-game book means clear , but not necessarily easy , explanations and the best possible examples.Today's books use games of Internet users like Indiana Jones or Jackknife.Recent example , I bought a  book , only to discover that even I could find better examples.One of the games was one played by the writer with someone called Jackknife in the Internet.You can't learn chess by studying the games of "Jacknife" no matter how hard the writer tries to convince you about that. 

  I said a lot  because finding a good middle game book today, is like looking for a needle in a haystack.Many will appear and recommend any nonsense there is out there.

   Good Luck!!!