Theory vs Openings

I am finding i have the most trouble during the opening of a game. Despite how much knowledge i have about a particular opening, i often find myself either falling behind in developing my pieces, or i am quickly put on the defensive. Would it be better to expand studying on the openings, of is gearing more towards opening theory instead a better choice?

Its logical to study openings a bit. You need to know few openings you play to some depth. Try to learn first 5-10 moves of your most played opening. Try to understand reason behind these moves and why one move is better than the other. Then focus on opening principles (google it - search on youtube and learn it) - and try to always follow the principles. Principles will always be there to guide you and thats why they are more important then memorizing lines.

Warning, don't spend too much time learning opening, for now just learn how to get decent position.

Then sometimes later in the future as you play more you will expand your knowledge naturally and probably feel you need to study openings more.

Randomman, there are generally accepted principles in playing the opening

1. Play a centre pawn or two out.

2. Develop Knights then Bishops

3 Castle early

4 Connect your rooks

Hackeneyed advice but still good principles to follow in building up your position before attacking.  Control of the centre is key strategy, followed by the scope of your pieces - ie ability to control key squares/infiltrate etc.

Then look for Pins, Forks, Skewers etc.  They will appear!

Study opening principles ... not Openings.

How? 

Pick up an instructive annotated game book with Master vs. Master or Master vs. Amateur play.  As you play over the games carefully, you'll see "good" opening principles being applied no matter what opening the players are playing.  

Excellent examples:

- Logical Chess (Chernev)

- Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur (Euwe)

- Most Instructive Games (Chernev)

- Tips for young players (Matthew Sadler)

- Best lessons of a Chess coach (Weeramantry)

Go over enough of these games and you'll start to get the intuitive idea of what to do just by principles/guidelines rather than waste time memorizing lines.  This "opening principles" knowledge must be acquired well before one decides to deep-dive into one specific opening.

thank you everyone for the feed back!

Also, you can find Dan Heisman's Novice Nook column on the internet. He had one earlier column in the archives about learning opening lines and ideas, which covers the basic principles, and how to balance opening principles vs playing book openings.

Could you please point us to an example from one of your long games ?

Usually, sticking to the opening principles (pawns in the center, developing pieces, king to safety and watch for opponent's threats) should get you out of the opening with an ok position.