Openings...

To all who see this: Hello. I wonder about the primary gain in memorizing book openings (i.e., some of you will cite my below average ranking, in point that I don't know yet, all that I do not know Maybe so...But I ask humbly, how much do we players <1800, or <2000, need to know and memorize book openings? Will it avail us a steady climb up through the ranks? Or are there other 'Rank Appropriate' puzzles and/or Brain Teasers, which would lend themselves to a continual substantial rise? I love playing, learning, experiencing, and yes, even winning at this wonderful game! Thank you for these experiences and opportunities; I am grateful. I await responses, opinions and points of view, in my earnest strive to become better than I am. Peace to All.   

Thank you, RoseQueen, for your sound advice in this part of my development in this marvelous game. I believe I understand what you mean; Let me offer up a corollary in an effort to be sure:  I am a lifetime musician. I understand music Theory very well, and am a much better player because I employ Theory in my playing. However, when I first learned Theory, over 30 years ago, it availed me much less than now because I had not an adequate foundation of experience on which to rest the Theoretical Framework(s) of which we speak. In the like, concerning Chess, I will benefit from some of the Ideology of Book Openings, wih which I must familiarize myself, more and more, as my experience, and subsequently my Rating(s) increase over time. I will be able to comprehend or fathom the depths of the Theory with a broader base of experience underneath. I love the Tactics Trainer and, as you pointed out, is most of what I would need now, that is, pragmatic and practical value, for the here and now, looking forward to ingesting more and more of the deeper theoretical elements of the Game. I hope I understood you correctly; if not, please advise.                    Again, I Thank You so much!  Steven 

Hey RQ, I am glad to hear your encouragement--It is well-timed, and will not return void! I will indeed go and get both books by Alburt. I, in my lifetime, have had to 'emerse' myself in study to fully retain the subject matter well enough to teach it. If I can go and teach material I have learned, it is likely I will always retain it!  As you put it so well, rote memory of Book Openings, per se, that is, without the experiential balance of a strong tactical grounding in play, is insufficient--The learning here, I believe, must be learned each, and then woven as One in performance of play, revised and revived over time. 

You're the Best! I have so enjoyed this exchange. I will get many miles from the encouragement you chose to give to me. Peace, my sister...I will talk to you, anytime! Thanks again,  Steven

This topic really hit home with me. I play a good middle game and a pretty fair end game. I really struggle with the openings and more often than not, I come out of the openings at a disadvantage. Dispite the disadvantage, I win more than half of my games coming from behind. The problem seems to be that once we "get out of the book" and I try to play sound principles I end up with a bad position.

I remember reading that openings should be understood and not memorized. Is that what is being said above about knowing theory? How does one learn the theory behind an opening? Every opening book I've seen goes into the main variation and then endless sub-variations.

Help, anyone.

Yeah, I had/have similar issues with openings, even had a thread about it.  I had begun using Lev Alburt's books (white, black, and PIRCAlert), putting the moves into COW professional (so I could train them) and thought it was awesome, but it took so daggone long...I spent hours a day for 1 whole week and I was only on page 70 of the black book (out of 500+? pages or so), which is very unimpressive considering the first 40 pages or so are really just a quick overview of the openings for black and not the repertoire itself.  

I saw the trend...I could do this for several hours a day for a couple months and finally have a complete black and white repertoire that I could drill and drill and drill and avoid those embarrassing cheapo losses...but that was just inputting the moves into the computer without understanding, without memorization, without drilling.  

I would then have to spend another several months drilling the white/black repertoires on a daily basis.  I finally decided that I'd be better off practicing tactics/mates and some endgames over the same 6-month period rather than just inputting/drilling a comprehensive opening repertoire over the same time period...doing both was not an option, because I felt I'd spread myself too thin with my limited time to study...not that I am better than I was 1.5 years ago, but whatever, I am taking the "long-term improvement over several years" angle (I guess).  

Low-level players like us will likely have to revisit this issue when we decide to finally enter an OTB tourney for the first time, since we will need a solid repertoire to avoid the cheapos and early blunders when our triple-digit-rated opponents briefly play at a 3000-level.  Even if you are better than them in the overall chess sense (factoring in tactics/strategy/endgames), you must play the opening, and you may not be that much better than them to overcome a piece or piece-for-a-pawn or losing-the-exchange-or-right-to-castle disadvantage.

But I hate this need to "memorize" an opening repertoire just to "break even" against otherwise very weak players, and how that takes us away from learning the more logical & universally applicable aspects of the game (tactics, positional play, strategy, calculation, some endgames), which is why I am starting to like chess960.  I am starting to respect Fischer's [chess-play-only] views more, even though I get all riled up about him quitting professional chess after 1972.

I skip the opening and go straight to the middle-game.

Ah yes...the "catch".  I still need to hear more, like an infomercial style advertisement with lots of large-font-italics-in-different-colors and exclamation points and big bold-faced headings).  

If there is anything I love more than chess, it is my money (or rather my d.f.e.d., debt-financing-enabler-device, as I call it...some of you may call it a "credit card"...it is the same as cash if you sans the interest rate).  You will hear from me.

I am willing to spend for value...I am a diamond member.  I doubt I'd improve 150 points though, simply because I don't play enough games very often.  But even if I thought my understanding and play was subjectively improving, I'd pay up...I think anyone would.  I have spent that much money and gotten far less value for it (ever eat at a Whole Foods Buffet for $7.99 per lb/0.45kg?).  I have bought a lot of chess books without ever opening them...in fact, if you want to do this barter style with several of my chess books, let me know.