Trying to learn openings

Hello! I am a new player about 1000 rated ( yes i know am not very good) and I was going to attempt to learn some openings,  and was wondering what the best way to go about this is? 

Over all I am just trying to improve my chess game and if anyone has a suggestion on a more efficient way to go about this I would be grateful!  ( I currently am doing the chess.com lessons and tactics) 

Thanks for your help!!

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/i-need-help-with-my-openings

It's also important to learn the ideas behind the openings, rather than memorization.

I would forget openings, just focus on the opening principles, buy an elementary tactics and endgame book and after a week , lady chess will start giving away her beautiful secrets. Consider this, many masters haven't spend much time on openings before reaching their title. But apart from that, until much later, your games won't be decided because you chose the wrong opening, but for much more elementary reasons, eg. hanging pieces (leaving loose or unprotected pieces for capture). There is much to learn , but the journey is rich and quite steep at the beginning. I started my chess career wrong by focussing on openings, how much time I would have saved starting out on tactics and endgame. 2 books i warmly recommend : predator at the chessboard for tactics and silmans complete endame course. Can't think of 2 better books to start with. Anything else is widely available on the net or here. Anyone welcome to comment on my advice or give it !! Good luck and enjoy.

"... In games between novice chess players, color is not the most important factor, but acquired knowledge is crucial. Without the basics of opening play it is easy to fail, and that's why openings must be learned. ..." - Journey to the Chess Kingdom by Yuri Averbakh and Mikhail Beilin

"... Maybe this warning against the study of openings especially focuses on 'merely learning moves'. But almost all opening books and DVD's give ample attention to general plans and developing schemes, typical tactics, whole games, and so on. ..." - IM Willy Hendriks (2012)

For someone seeking help with openings, I usually bring up Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014).

http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html

I believe that it is possible to see a fair portion of the beginning of Tamburro's book by going to the Mongoose Press site.

https://www.mongoosepress.com/excerpts/OpeningsForAmateurs%20sample.pdf

Perhaps TheRiptide would also want to look at Discovering Chess Openings by GM John Emms (2006).

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf

"Each player should choose an opening that attracts him. Some players are looking for a gambit as White, others for Black gambits. Many players that are starting out (or have bad memories) want to avoid mainstream systems, others want dynamic openings, and others want calm positional pathways. It’s all about personal taste and personal need.

For example, if you feel you’re poor at tactics you can choose a quiet positional opening (trying to hide from your weakness and just play chess), or seek more dynamic openings that engender lots of tactics and sacrifices (this might lead to more losses but, over time, will improve your tactical skills and make you stronger)." - IM Jeremy Silman (January 28, 2016)

Also, perhaps look at:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/picking-the-correct-opening-repertoire

http://chess-teacher.com/best-chess-openings/

https://www.chess.com/blog/TigerLilov/build-your-opening-repertoire

https://www.chess.com/blog/CraiggoryC/how-to-build-an-opening-repertoire

https://www.chess.com/article/view/learning-an-opening-to-memorize-or-understand

https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-perfect-opening-for-the-lazy-student

In a 2006 GM John Nunn book, in connection with opening study, it is stated that, if a "book contains illustrative games, it is worth playing these over first", and the reader was also advised, "To begin with, only study the main lines - that will cope with 90% of your games, and you can easily fill in the unusual lines later."

"... I feel that the main reasons to buy an opening book are to give a good overview of the opening, and to explain general plans and ideas. ..." - GM John Nunn (2006)

In one of his books about an opening, GM Nigel Davies wrote (2005), "The way I suggest you study this book is to play through the main games once, relatively quickly, and then start playing the variation in actual games. Playing an opening in real games is of vital importance - without this kind of live practice it is impossible to get a 'feel' for the kind of game it leads to. There is time enough later for involvement with the details, after playing your games it is good to look up the line."

I have used chess apps one of which is coach jays chess acadmey ( Excellent app highly reccomend) and lessons on chess.com, both teach tactics and end game. considering the fact that i have both those resources do you still feel that those books would be beneficial?

The most complicated problem in chess is the starting position.  Not a good place to start solving  the problem.  The endgame is a collection of much simpler problems  that add up to the openings and the starting position.  Start by solving  the simplest problem (K+p vs. K) and work you  way up  from there.

What you will find  is the more you practice and learn about endgames is immensely helpful  each time you start a new game against  an opponent.  Your understanding of the moves you make and your opponent's moves start making sense in many different ways that you did not understand before.  

"... if you have just learned to play, all you need to study is the section designed for beginners ... Once your overall strength tightens up and you feel you're ready to break into class 'E', re-open this book and master the material that's been designed for players rated from 1000 to 1199 ..." - IM Jeremy Silman, referring to the first 54 pages of his 523 page endgame course.

"... If you are reading this section, you either are a class 'D' player, or you have learned all the material in the first two parts and wish to use this additional knowledge to help you break into the '1200-club.' By this time you know a few openings, you have a reasonable grasp of tactics, and you've learned a positional concept or two. ..." - IM Jeremy Silman on page 56 of his endgame course

You can use chess base + Hiarcs book too . Also Wikipedia can be sometimes helpful .

If you wanna dig deep . Then I can give you a book or 2 on that opening

 You need a coach bud, put 10 euros on my paypal account and Ill get you to 1200 lol.

Seriously tho. Just study opening principles and play SLOW GAMES. At least 15/10. Focus all of your other time on tactics, TONS of them. And on endgames, start by learning the 4 basic checkmates (avoid the knight + bishop if you like) and look at basic pawn endgames.

I forgot to say. Analyze all of your games after it without the engine. Think what were your mistakes. And after it post your games here on chess.com so people can look at them and share their opinions. 

Dont use engines to evaluate unless you want to look at some tactics.

Also, if your opening went wrong, ask yourself, what opening principle did I broke, and dont repeat it!

If you are going to learn openings, which is inevtible, learn something sharp. Sharp means something that is always responded (or mostly responded) with the same answer everytime which is good for beginners. I think that the most important things to learn are reponses for black. Myself I only know a responce to e4 and d4 and can play up to 1800. Try pirc / chekz defence for either e4 or d4 and semi-slav defence for d4. Avoid playing pirc super often althought it will improve your game. And remember, understand everything behind the move before you make it, make that a crucial part of your learning curve!

What?

No, dont learn anything sharp now. Spend your time watching games from Morphy, Anderseen, Steinitz, learn endgames, all you need right now is opening principles, those will get you far. Focus on tactics and endgames.

The most critical thing to do at rating 1000 is tactics training. It is important notice threats. I so wouldn't bother about openings at this point. Do tactics training, play games and when you stop blundering pieces, paws, stop missing easy tactical shots. 

For opening play the same moves. Play e4 openings. So 1. e4, 2. Nf3, 3. d4, 4. Nxd4 5. Nc3, 6. Lg5, 7. Lc4, castle short and go from there. Play the same thing with black and you will eventually start to notice ideas of what works and what doesn't work. That would be the time to look things up because now you have some kind of understanding. And this is what chess is about: understanding the position you have in front of your whether it is tactical or strategical. But you have to do it in steps that make sense to you or else you will be discouraged that the ideas in the Najdorf didn't work out because you missed a tactical shot or didn't remember to play e5 at the right time.

@TheRiptide

At your playing level, I just recommend two things:

• Learn the basic principles of chess (you can search over the internet)

• Play a lot, I mean, until you really feel like you're improving

Whenever you feel more comfortable with your play, or as soon as possible, you can start to analyse your games, really try to analyse by yourself, and only after use engines, if you dispose of those.

Frankly I never use engines, I just analyse them myself and if I have some doubt I use chess.com's imbued engine to check out the advantage change.

Hope I can be of help

BronsteinPawn wrote:

"... if your opening went wrong, ask yourself, what opening principle did I broke, and dont repeat it!"

Is correct opening play entirely determined by principles?

sluck72 wrote:

"... For opening play the same moves. Play e4 openings. So 1. e4, 2. Nf3, 3. d4, 4. Nxd4 5. Nc3, 6. Lg5, 7. Lc4, castle short and go from there. ..."

After 1 e4 c6 2 Nf3 d5 3 d4 dxe4, wouldn't it be against the rules to play 4 Nxd4 ?

One of the principles is "Don't make blunders".

blueemu wrote:

"... One of the principles is 'Don't make blunders'."

Is reading that going to enable one to play openings correctly?