How Important Is Memorizing All This Crap?

I've been studying the game for 9 months now and I of course still have a long way to go, as this isn't very long, but I have managed to learn some good skills so far.  I'm starting to focus more on openings and have become very overwhelmed with all of this.  It's actually hard for me to believe that anyone could remember all this stuff, and this seems to be directed at more casual players, not masters or grandmasters.

The sheer ability to remember things by these instructors is fascinating me, they seem to be able to recall positions from their past games effortlessly for instance, as well as this maze of alternative lines in the opening lessons they teach.  As one who certainly has not been blessed with a good memory, let alone one that appears to be to be superhuman, this appears very daunting and not a just little disheartening.

It's enough of a challenge for me to remember the first few moves with an opening or even be able to spot it from that.  I'm doing the course on the KID for instance and it says that this will challenge players up to 1800 and not only is it a huge challenge for me, I'm pretty confident that if I live to be 100 I'd never be able to remember all of this, or even any sort of significant part of it.  Some of the moves are fairly intuitive, and I do OK with those, many of them are not and seem to involve sheer remembering of the analysis.

So what I'm wondering is, how much success do players of certain skill levels, elo ranges, have in remembering stuff like this, and how important is it in the grand scheme of things?  I'd hate to think that I'll be forced to play from behind all the time although if that's the case well so be it I guess.  I'm not even sure that I want to bother continuing on with this opening stuff because I don't seem to be getting much out of it.

Memorization is not important, understanding is. My memory isn't that good either, I'm frequently out of book after 5-7 moves - and that's okay as long as I have a pretty good idea of what I should be trying to do in the position.

The more you play, the more moves become intuitive. My advice is to go over your games (especially your losses) and figure out what your mistakes were. Look up the opening in books afterward, and next time you'll know that line one move deeper than before. In any case, if you're working so hard at chess that it isn't fun for you, then you're working too hard. You play this game for the fun of it, so if it stops being fun then what's the point?

It's simple, only nine months in and not enjoying doing it, then don't bother. There plenty of other areas, can get big improvement gains, like not hanging peices. With more experience what being taught will be more natural.

You could always try chess960, aka Fischerandom chess, which removes any need for opening theory. You can play it on this site.

For idiots and scam, but it is just my humble opinion. Good luck.

I only remember bishop fianchieto and not dismiss my central pawn.Better try my variant.I hope it could be a future chess.

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess960-chess-variants/functional-exchanged-chess

How do you set up the fianchetto in your version?

At your level all you need is a basic idea of the purpose of your opening and maybe the first 5 moves or so. That will get you a long way by itself. Play over master level games featuring your opening as well to get further ideas. All these things have helped me a lot in improving. Also, don't take this stuff too seriously as at your level it's very important to keep practicing tactics and minimize your serious blunders.

I disagree. The title has the hallmark of a thread that will run for a long time !

To the OP . Chess is like language. You remember more as your understanding increases. A child doesn't have to try and remember words to start talking. Same with chess. The thing to do is relax. Some of us have been playing decades.

Memorising great scads of prepared lines is possible, and perhaps necessary, for people contending for the world title, for the rest of us it is generally considered a mistake.

It helps that once you find a couple of openings that you like, you create the same positions over and over again and this gives you the chance to gain insight into the oportunities and dangers.

It also helps, once you find a particular opening that appeals to you, to play over two or three master games in which that opening is employed.  Once you see how the positions created by the opening play out in the middle game and then the end game it becomes much easier to start appreciating what the opening is about.

Thanks, this all makes me feel better, that's been my goal, to understand, not remember, so I will continue on with that

Perhaps i don't really know what the fianchieto is.I mean the fianchieto is by put your bishop in the longest diagonal infront of the corner rook.

The red sentence above seems unconscious memorizing.

Remembering to castle is handy.

Johnyoudell wrote:

It also helps, once you find a particular opening that appeals to you, to play over two or three master games in which that opening is employed.  Once you see how the positions created by the opening play out in the middle game and then the end game it becomes much easier to start appreciating what the opening is about.

Fine advice, although with our easy access to databases, two or three hundred games might be an even better basic investment.  Two or three thousand and you're starting to get serious...

Games I played years ago against peers I can remember in full (or maybe forget only 1 or 2 moves). Games I play against a beginner I can't remember immediately after the game is finished.

People remember because it's like remembering the plot of a movie. When the moves make sense and tell a story, it's easy. When you're forced to remember each individual move it's incredibly hard.

(also I review past games, so it's not like I saw the game only once)

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KID is theory heavy. Other openings you only need to understand the general idea and it takes many "wrong" moves before you get into any trouble vs the way in some openings 1 wrong move means you're instantly lost.

Also, as a lower rated player, I don't expect you'll be facing a variety of lines in the KID, and certainly not 10+ moves of theory. I really wouldn't bother with videos and books. Learn maybe 2 different setups (depending on what white does) and a general way to attack on the kingside (push your f pawn all the way to f3 if you can, pile up attackers, sacrifice to breakthrough, and try to mate).

After that, just play a lot of games, and look up the opening (to learn 1 more move like suggested above) and just keep playing. Over time this repetition makes various lines memorable. The players you see quoting tons of variations have probably played that opening for years.

Don't worry, up to this point in my life I have only played a game once in which White knew his theory on the KID, most of them just get instantly mated on the kingside with the Rf6 lines.

In a 2006 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."

"... I feel that the main reasons to buy an opening book are to give a good overview of the opening, and to explain general plans and ideas. ..." - GM John Nunn (2006)

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."

Perhaps, look at: https://www.chess.com/blog/alexcolovic/learning-openings

Unless you're playing the Sicilian, then most of the people I play use early deviations.

You have a choice:

1. You can memorize, and sound really impressive.

2. You can understand, and play really impressive.  

Obviously memory is important, but memorizing openings and not understanding "why" moves are made doesnt accomplish anything.  What are you going to do after you commit time to memorizing an opening and your opponent takes you out of book on move 6?

Opening Principles.

Keep your pieces active.

Develop your pieces in, or near the center.