How do I learn chess openings?

I am fairly new to chess and want to learn openings. How do I go about it?

you can learn chess openings by the feature "Book Openings" in chess.com

That is a poor way to learn openings.  You don't even learn them.  They show you the moves there but they don't give you an explanation.  Not how you learn openings.

The best way to learn openings I find is to watch videos on youtube or if you can on chess.com.  You will get some lines AND that all important explanation.

I have done that but I feel that I can't remember them!

I don't apply them in the game

You're new? But you said on another thread that you have an 1800 FIDE eqivelant rating. How is that?

Anyway, here is a link to a blog post I wrote about how I improved my opening knowledge:

http://www.chess.com/blog/kleelof/my-opening-study

And here are a couple of more somewhat related posts:

http://www.chess.com/blog/kleelof/benefits-of-knowing-basics-of-openings

http://www.chess.com/blog/kleelof/the-nature-of-imporvement

The guy I played had a 1800 fide. I am unrated. Thanks for the links.

The links were great thanks! Anything else to add by anyone?

get a book about basic chess openings, a book where some example games about every opening are given. dont focus on long theory lines, remember the name and first moves for every classic opening and then go for the opening you like most. Later in your chess career you can play several openings or change your openings but for now you should just focus on 2 for black(against e4 and d4) and one for white (d4, e4 or whatever). A good book for this is imo John Watsons series about chess openings. You should check it out. best regards

Thank you Till_98

youre welcome. You can also check some of my blog posts if you like: http://www.chess.com/blog/Till_98

best regards

http://www.chess.com/blog/pawpatrol/learning-openings-thoroughly-with-lucas-chess

http://www.chess.com/blog/PossibleOatmeal/more-on-learning-openings

Find a player whose style you like and study abunch of his games so you can make a decision to copy his moves.  For example, if you buy Karpov's Best Games from Edition Olms you'll find many great annotated games that Karpov won.  Make notes of every move and understand, not just memorize them.  To understand many you'd need outside sources such as books dealing with pawn centers (such as Dynamic Pawn Play in Chess and different structures arising out of the opening like Pawn Structure Chess) 

People play moves not within the spirit of the position when out of book all the time, and not just novices but intermediates too.  If you want further reading Questions of Modern Chess Theory is a great book (Fischer taught himself Russian in order to read it among others, though today there's an English version from Quality Chess) as it'll teach you not to get too attached to principles while adding further guidelines and how to spot various seeming exceptions to opening principles that have solid plans behind them.  It isn't about specific variations but rather the opening overall.  

In a 2007 GM John Nunn book, in connection with opening study, it is stated that, if a "book contains illustrative games, it is worth playing these over first", and the reader was also advised, "To begin with, only study the main lines - that will cope with 90% of your games, and you can easily fill in the unusual lines later."

In one of his books about an opening, GM Nigel Davies wrote (2005), "The way I suggest you study this book is to play through the main games once, relatively quickly, and then start playing the variation in actual games. Playing an opening in real games is of vital importance - without this kind of live practice it is impossible to get a 'feel' for the kind of game it leads to. There is time enough later for involvement with the details, after playing your games it is good to look up the line."

I still vividly remember the time I faced 1 e4 e5 2 d4 exd4 3 c3 over the board and I discovered that I had completely forgotten what Reinfeld had told me to do about it. After getting clobbered, I looked up the book recommendations and I think that I am considerably more likely to remember at least some of that stuff if the situation ever arises again. For many players, I suspect that their opening knowledge expands gradually in that sort of fashion.

Here are some examples of books that make substantial use of sample games:

Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014) http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html

Starting Out: Open Games by GM Glenn Flear (2010) https://web.archive.org/web/20140626232452/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen134.pdf

Starting Out: Ruy Lopez by IM John Shaw (2003) https://web.archive.org/web/20140627024240/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen53.pdf

Starting Out: Queen's Gambit Declined by GM Neil McDonald (2006) https://web.archive.org/web/20140627005627/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen93.pdf

In a 2003 book, FM Steve Giddins wrote, "... one simply cannot play the [Najdorf Sicilian] safely without studying the complications and remembering a lot of concrete variations. If you are averse to doing this, or you have a poor memory, you are better off avoiding such lines. ... [There are main-line openings] that require less concrete knowledge and are based more on understanding." Consequently, I think that there can be some value to browsing through books such as

Back to Basics: Openings by FM Carsten Hansen (2010) http://www.thechessmind.net/blog/2010/1/30/a-brief-review-of-carsten-hansens-back-to-basics-openings.html and

Chess Openings for Kids by IM John Watson and FM Graham Burgess (2011) https://web.archive.org/web/20140627040230/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen146.pdf ,

but, admittedly, it might require some reading between the lines to discern information about which openings are better for "poor memory" players.

For some specific openings, memory issues are  explicitly addressed in How to Build Your Chess Opening Repertoire by FM Steve Giddins https://web.archive.org/web/20140627000253/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen49.pdf .

In a 2010 book, GM Andrew Soltis wrote, "... good books can [give a clear verbal description of what an opening is all about] ... If there isn't any text - if it's all just moves - then this isn't the book for you." It seems likely to me that less memory trouble would go with the greater understanding that might result from reading more verbal description. John Emms made a particularly extensive effort to use verbal description as part of his explanation of basic opening principles, in his 2006 book, Discovering Chess Openings https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf .

More GM Andrew Soltis advice can be found in Studying Chess Made Easy https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090448/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review750.pdf .

Thanks so much guys.