Learning 1.e4 e5 thoroughly

I think that is good advice at my level. I'm not a pro. Never will be!

Yeah and tbh you're probably more likely to get to pro level by just drilling yourself on tactics and positional play, if you ever make it to expert/master level then you will probably need to spend some more time on openings although in my opinion you can get away with playing non-theoretical stuff at basically any level just look at Carlsen.

Who is this Carlsen person everyone keeps talking about? Is he at my level?

In serious games ( classic rated tourney games for me )  I don't play 1... e5 unless I am almost positive my opponent plays the Ruy ...

Reb: I hear you. I'm with Chicken Monster and the Soviet Chess Mafia that playing the Ruy is a primo way to learn to play Real Chess.

But as Black I really don't want to fend off the King's Gambit or the Fried Liver or whatever KP chaos White class players will throw at me if I play 1...e5.

And as White I have no compunctions at playing weird KP lines if I suspect my opponent is vulnerable to them.

I've played 1...e5 a few times this week, thanks to this accursed thread. I've done okay, though. Somehow the French Defense seems easier.

If you guys know some magic openings that you are keeping secret from me, that will allow me to reach a high level of chess without working hard or learning theory, please give me that repertpoire.

I could argue that one is crazy to open with 1.e4.For exampe, THE SICILIAN DEFENSSE. Look at ALL the options Black has. I usually open with 1.d4. Works okay.

I regret using the word "thoroughly" in the subject line of this thread. I wish I could redo the subject line...go back in time...

What happened? Did it get to the Ruy, only to the Scotch... or what?

I struggled against the Italian in a 15/10 game this morning, winning due to a horrific blunder by my opponent. It's in my game history. I might post it tomorrow. I'm watching NCIS now.

Know a l ot of openings a little bit. Learn general opening theory. Learn a few that you will play all the time very deeply. How about the Petroff, Caro Kann, QGD, KGD, Nimzoindian, Goring Gambit, Kings Gambit, Veresov and last but not least the 4 Knights game. However forget all of that. Best way to improve is to do three things. First USCF tournament chess at long time controls. Second play on here turn based 3 days per move and only a couple of games at a time. Study each position after the book opening for an hour before making a move unless obvious recapture or forced move. Third read books on openings, middle game and endings. All of the above has worked for me. 

@chess2Knights: That all made perfect sense to me except for the I kind of fell out of my chair when you said to spend hour per move. Obviously a typo.

How do you know?

In correspondence chess, an hour per move is blitz mode.

Yikes.

Well, you folks are probably referring to very high-level chess. You certainly don't see a lot of that on this site (at club levels). I guarantee most of those correspondence expert people know the openings well. They don't "forget" about openings. Quite the opposite. They probably know what changes happened in the Najorf theory last week.

Point taken though. I am playing way too many games and not spending enough time on each move. I don't think I could spend an hour on a move. I would run out of ideas to consider....however, I should slow it down.

Spending an hour is easy. Just crank thorough 60 games with the move that you are considering.

What do you mean, exactly?

During the opening phase of a correspondence game, I look through many previously played games in that opening. I go through all the moves to get a feel for the patterns. This process is easiest with database software, but is possible on chessgames.com or even using chess.com's explorer.

note: GE is a bit crappy.

Chicken-Monster, I played this game for you yesterday morning and annotated it later in the morning. Below the game score is a partial screen shot that supplements the annotation at move 5.

Screenshot of ChessBase output:

@Ziryab: Oh I see now.

Also, thanks a lot for playing that game and annotating. Very helpful. Saving to folder now...

I think 1...e5 to 1.e4 doesn't have to be all that difficult, as one can steer the game down certain lines. Now, granted, learning Ruy Lopez, Italian, Two Knights, Four Knights, 27 Knights, Scotch, Fried Liver, Lolli, Bourbon, Ponziani, Birds, etc. overnight isn't going to happen.