Opening Ideas

Whenever I talk to a 2300+ player about openings, they always tell me not to memorize lines, but to learn the general ideas instead. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot more information on the lines themselves than the ideas behind them. Where can I learn the opening ideas?

Opening ideas are just an extension of sound knowledge of tactical and positional play.  Get a pretty good lockdown on tactics, wrap your head around a good middlegame book or two, then understanding the ideas behind the openings becomes second nature.

This, incidentally, is why beginners are advised to forget about opening theory for a good long while.  You need tactics to understand positional play, and you need tactics and positional play to understand opening theory.

Till then, just play on principles...or otherwise, just memorize the lines and go from there.

If you're looking for the principles behind opening a chess game, you can google "chess opening strategy/principles" and find a number of links with the general rules of thumb.

If you're looking for something a bit more specific, Paul Van Der Sterran's book "Fundamental Chess Openings" is great for walking through the main openings and explaining the ideas behind he different variations.