learning openings without memorization?

Let me preface this with a disclaimer. I'm new at asking for other people's opinions and new at chess too. I play for fun, and I completed the lessons in my Chessmaster 9000 a few years ago, but I've never competed in anything or been coached. So here goes.

My chess.com greeter said it was permissible to use the game explorer as a resource during online chess games, and I've been doing that. A lot the moves I get from it would not have come to me naturally, and my understanding of them is not so deep. In one game I was playing white and the opening was something called an "old Sicilian." I don't usually open with e4 precisely because I'm afraid to play against the Sicilian, but with the game explorer to help me into the middle game, my courage was bolstered. After about 10 moves I started to get really sick of the book, so I did something silly and traded away my d4 Knight. Then the beauty and resilience of the defense really struck me, and the clouds parted and a light from heaven shone on the d6 and e6 pawns (and the bishops were somewhat illuminated as well).

My old way of playing the opening was to memorize 3 or 4 moves and then just try to play something that would require a less-than-automatic response from my opponent (brain engaged? mission accomplished!), but the complexity and tension of these positions that I'm arriving at is, like, bottling my mind, and I would really like to have the strategic sense that could derive them.

So for all you better players than me out there, is there a way of studying the opening from a strategic point-of-view? I would much rather work on tactics than memorize lines, and isn't the opening just a way to improve your tactical chances later on anyway? I mean, I know the 'rules' about how to develop, but the idea of playing a "dark square game" (for example) is a little too abstract for me to appreciate until it happens and somebody's well-placed and well-supported knight in the center or whatever gives me a headache.

Anyway, any advice you guys have would be appreciated. I know from my own profession that nobody gets very far without being taught...

By the ton of responses to your question you can see that everyone has a quick and easy solution to your question. Unfortunately, I don't think there is a simple answer to your question. Many players will say don't memorize openings, just as you have done, memorize a short number of moves be intuitive and play for enjoyment. Some openings allow you to do just that. Others are less intuitive and the best moves were found by better players using trial and error, for instance, some lines in the Sicilian are very anti-intuitive and to get any enjoyment out of playing you must know the opening.

I guess the real question is what do you want out of your chess game? Fun, without a great deal of knowledge of what is happening in the game. Fun, with the idea of appreciation, something like enjoying the fine arts by knowing something about it. Or Fun, because you win more times than you lose. Or some mixture of the above. In a sense, it comes down to how much time you are willing to spend and what are your expectations. Study as much as you like or as much as you are willing for the results that you want.

Thanks so much for the response mnag; as the views creeped up and the responses didn't I was losing heart. My long winded blab I think concealed the real question, which was more concrete. I want to learn because it's fun to improve and more so because it's more fun with deeper and more subtle understanding. The question was really "is there a way to learn the opening from the tactical, thematic, or strategic perspective rather than by memorization, and what do I need to do to do it?" Do you think one learns it from a book, or a teacher, or just by playing? Or am I just being silly? (I can face the truth...)

To learn openings, you must start at the endgame. You checkmate the king by attacking him with more force than he is defended with. So, how do we achieve this majority of force? We create it in the middlegame. In studying the middlegame, we learn about the elements of chess like time, force, space etc. We learn how controlling the centre, having more space, having the initiative and other advantages help us win the game. Ah, now we arrive at your question. The opening is born from the middlegame question of how to obtain these favorable situations that will give us hope at the middlegame advantage that will give birth to our force major. That is the question that the professionals are still answering to this day. So you will do well to study the fundamentals, make converting material advantages into wins your rote memory. Then work on middlegame structures and absorb the common themes and manuevres. Last is the openings, and with your knowledge already fleshed out at that point, will be a much easier task. Then you will understand those bothersome 'now white is better' declarations those tricky masters like to throw around, because then you will have insight as to why.

All that was said earlier was/is true. The problem is that everyone learns in a unique way. One person learns through playing another will find studying easier. It depends on you and knowing how you can learn best. Then there are idiots like me who will tell you to do some sort of combination of the two. Its trite, but just remember its only a game and have fun. After all only you know why you waste so much time playing chess.

1. Play people who are better than you.

2. Memorize as much as you need to stay competitive.

3. Study your losses and make adjustments. 

4. Read books that focus on your weaknesses.

That's how I do it.  I'm probably not as good as you but I've been getting better at a very steady pace.  I feel that as you get better more memorization is required; however, it also becomes easier because you see the board better.

Anthony

mnag- sorry! I didn't mean to imply that you are an idiot! I saw from your profile that you are a very strong player, and I just thought you might have some secrets... Of course, you did say that there aren't any easy answers, but I thought you were just holding out on me.

Chessroshi and Anthony-thanks also for the responses, you guys are definitely right to try to keep me grounded in the fundamentals. I felt that playing complicated openings from the game explorer was so interesting, but I think that at my level the opening isn't really the biggest issue.

I am teaching a student this very thing right now. So I can give you a general understanding of it. You have to look at chess from concept of force, space and time.

Force = material advantage

Space = positional advantage

Time = tempo advantage

The first two you are probably aware of, the third needs a visual representation. Take notice at blacks 3rd move thru move 7. Black is doing nothing but attacking the white queen. This is known as creating tempo. When a less valuable piece attacks a more valuable piece and the less valuable piece can not be captured

There are general things you should try to do when you are making opening moves.

1. You want to take some control of the 4 center sqaures. This is usually done with a pawn move of c4,d4 or e4 for white

2. You want to develop your pieces towards the center of the board, Knights before bishops is the general rule.

3. King safety: get your king away from the center of the board as it is most vulnerable there.(Create a clear path for the king to castle kingside, castle queenside only occasionally when necceassary)

4. Avoid moves which lock in your pieces on the back rank. You know that feeling you get when you have bishop you havent brought out and is stuck behind your pawns and the pawns cant move because they are prevented from moving forward.

5.Avoid moving pieces twice in sucession unless you are forced to.

6 Dont bring the queen out to early (Use the previous game as an example of why that is a bad thing)

7.Connect the rooks

It is not nessaarry to do this in any specific order and understand that there are exceptions to all of these, but for the most part they will hold true.

You want to make moves that follow these rules, while at the same time prevent your opponent from following these rules. In the example I forced white to move his queen 4 times in succession, while moving all my pieces only once.

Look out for when your opponnent breaks these rules voluntarily. Like in the game and white moved Qh5.

This is the basic opening strategy that you need to learn before you advance to setting up positions 5 to 10 moves down the line. You also need to figure out what your style of play is and this takes experience to figure out.

Well good luck. I hope this sheds some insight for you.  

I started getting a lot better after I learned Sicilian so I think avoiding it may cause you to stagnate.  I bought a book called, "Weapons of Chess," by Bruce Pandolfini.  It focuses on tactics.  Also check out http://www.chesskids.com/lessons04.shtml and do the exercises.  I know it seems lame but it will help you learn in the most simple way you can imagine.  However, it does get into the theory behind the moves as well.  I'm 26 years old and I've learned a ton from that website in the past two months.

man, chess kids is awesome! I love how you can answer "don't care"

I'm glad you like it.  I think it walks you through stuff in a way that really helps you see it without focusing too much on all the variations.

International Master Julio Kaplan told me the best way to learn an opening is to quickly play over thousands of games of that opening, without analysis.

After you absorb the typical themes, moves, and tactics of an opening, you can start to better understand why some variations are better than others.

Play over a thousand games huh...sounds fun :)

I'm playing automatically without thinking or asking questions so it sinks in.  This to me seems more productive than systematically trying to memorize.

I've noticed that the excellent players I play against aren't too concerned with the names of openings.  We'll begin a certain way and I'll point out the name of the opening and they are likely to respond "I don't know" or "I don't remember."

To learn openings, you must start at the endgame.

I've read tons of mottos and sayings and advice but this idea to me is brilliant.

I'm trying to get the chess world to "dumb down" to my level (http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/eco-abandoned) - as an alternative to getting smarter myself. I've quickly discovered, in going from knowing nothing about openings, to knowing very little - that it's far easier to gain a shallow knowledge about a lot of openings - than a more valuable, in-depth knowledge of just a few.

Besides knowing the general ideas of the opening you might consider game assimilation.  do a search in your database for a strong player like Tal and just play threw all the games of his on your database (as both white and black)(very quickly, make sure you know why it ended, sometimes it's a draw at move 20 in a crazy position that should require a lot more play you can be sure there where physological reasons for those draws.). any strong player(a previous or current world champion or his contender) will do I mentioned Tal because he can make some crazy moves somtimes and I like that. 

instead of memorizing you should get a book on an opening you like and just study that. Not only will you memorize many moves but the book should tell you why to make those moves and what plan you should have afterwards. Just memorizing doesn't help very much because you would have to memorize a ton of variations for any opening and even if you had the better game you might not know what to do with it.

Certain openings have more memorization than others.

A good opening with less memorization than most is the Colle-Zukertort, I recommend it to anyone!

paul211 wrote:

Perhaps people that are familiar with openings having studied many books can help here. The question I have is: what english book(s) explain what an opening is, what are the white and black camps trying to do and how will they achieve this ?

=> I think books closer to what you're looking for are Seïrawan's 'Winning chess openings', and then Watson's 'Mastering the Chess openings'