should we memorize openings or not??

as a relative beginer myself, i would say memorize a couple and try them out for yourself to see which (if any) work for you. It's always good to have options!!

And I probably could count them lol. Guess it just depends on the player when endgames come up most? You'd think a positional player though would see more endgames.

When I say endgames though I'm thinking more about the technical stuff with all the rules you need to know. Many endgames can be alot like middlegame positions that call for a very positional plan (like opening lines on the kingside and queenside to create pawn weaknesses) but with kings.

When you get to a decent level, knowing which endgames are drawable is a tremendous help. If you have a worse position, it's extremely beneficial to know which pieces you should be exchanging off to leave the most drawish endgame. Like "I have a bad position and I'm going to lose a pawn in a couple of moves, but if I can get the knight and rook off I should be ok."

The consensus is that until a certain level, you really should only study tactics and endings. Eventually that will lead to an understanding of the middlegame, and then it is useful to study beginnings.

That is great advice.

But I can't help myself. I really enjoy studying bad opening moves and figuring out how to punish them. I can't say it helps my rating, but it is interesting.

Do what you enjoy.  I personally find it tedious, but if it increases your enjoyment of the game and your ability then by all means book up.

Amen.

You really have me thinking about how endgame studies can improve tactics. With so few pieces/pawns on the board, it seems like ones tactics would need to be extremely good to win, thus improving tactics in the middlegame. It really is a difficult cat and mouse game in the end.

In Chessmaster, Josh Waitzkin credits his chess coach for his early success, always beating into the young Josh the importance of endgame study. Josh's opponents were well coached in openings, but Josh believes that their coach did a diservice to his team by endless drills on openings.

This recent blitz game I played was a disaster in the end. The clock was ticking and I could not plot a mate solution fast enough, so I lost on time. After analysis, it was mate in 4! Arg!

Time to crack open the Siliman's Complete Endgame Course, against his advice. He instructs students to only complete part one/endgames for beginners (unrated -999) before going on to part two.

Part One does not cover minor pieces. Well, the game below required the use of a minor piece for me to checkmate my opponent!

Below is the game I could have won had I known it was mate in 4, or had practice with two pawns, bishop, rook and king vs. king and six pawns.  My rating has climbed into the mid 700's on blitz. It was in the low 600's, so I am improving.

Please click on the blue 42. Bc6  for the checkmate solution. Thanks!

39. Rxc7 intending 40. Bb5 was a checkmate.

41. Rd8#

44. Rh8#

The rook made me nervous. 39. Rxc7...very clever. Thanks!

39.R:c7 Rc4+ prolongs the agony for a bit longer. 40.K:c4 Kb6

Yes, I rather think missing the mate in 1s was more a problem than the mate with Bc6. That said, as you get more experienced you'll see the pattern automatically and be able to play it with gusto.

A book on mating patterns might be useful, such as Renaud & Kahn's Art of the Checkmate, or Murray Chandler's deceptively titled How to Beat Your Dad at Chess.

After a year of playing chess on chess.com I recently started studying openings at the recommendation of a friend.  I started by studying top rated games and focused on the most popular opening lines.  I am slowly learning the openings deeper into the game as well as learning different variations.  I can now build a stronger opening position and as a result my rating is finally climbing after staying relatively flat for the last year.  Learning openings seems to be working for me. 

I don't know that this is very good advice.  If you memorize openings it should be with an understanding of what kind of middle-game they tend to lead to and the thematic ideas behind the resulting positions -- not just so that you can blindly play book moves back at your opponent until you eventually find yourself out of book and lost.

Learn the whys, not just the whats and hows.

Memorizaing opening lines isn't even fun. But I know from experience that stuyding opening ideas has helped me tremendously. It's not your priority, but you shouldn't ignore it (I'm talking about the advanced beginner and better)

I've always thought Jacob Aagaard's advice on how to study an opening was good (requires a database of games). Basically you study the endings that arise from the line, then the middlegame themes, and only at the end do you delve into theory.

1. Filter to games with the line to be studied 

2. Filter those games to master games where players are both 2500 or greater. I imagine for most of us some leeway can be taken here especially depending on the number of games found in the line.

3. Determine the typical endgames that arise, perhaps study up on those types of endings (not in Aagaard's advice, but probably a good idea for most of us), and play through games from step 2 containing these endings.

4. Determine the middlegame ideas that are common to the line. Take the top 150 games or so from step 2, and start to play through them. Every time you come across a new idea, write it down on a list of ideas. As you go on you will start to see the same ideas cropping up and will be adding ideas to the list less frequently. Play through a group of games containing the same idea to get a feel for it. Maybe select a game as an example game of that idea for future refreshing when studying.

5. Now you dive into the theory to learn the lines.

Interesting, that's close to my method of studying the opening, and I came up with it myself. The key thing is the study of master games. Opening books help (not the ones you look up, the ones that are dedicated to a specific opening) can help alot, but once you become good enough to analyze master games doing that is a great substitute, or if you've finsihed studying the book, should help you to get an even greater understanding of it.

Understand the opening before playing it. There's no use in playing out a line that has been proven by a top GM that gives good attacking chances if you don't understand how to obtain the advantage.

openings are the most important part of the game, i feel.  it's always important to have a good start otherwise you'll be defeated quickly, have a cramped and passive middlegame, or have a weak endgame.

Thank you -- this seems like a very reasonable approach for building a practical understaning of an opening and its variations.

Any idea, though, how to select an opening to study in the first place that tends to lead to the types of middlegame and endgame you like to play?  This seems like it should work well if you've got an opening in mind, but what's the best way to go about selecting that opening?

memorizing openings would be a waste of time, so i say NO!! did u get my point?