FiveofSwords wrote: "and why would they want to get weaker players out of book...what would they have to fear being the better player with the best opening. again your inferior intellect exposes itselt [...]"
Getting a weaker player out of book means forcing him to find his own moves instead of letting him play preparation/theory. Your posting demonstrates nothing but ignorance, GMs do that all the time. This is common knowledge of anyone who frequently sees the inside of a tournament hall. In my last 4 games against GMs, two went for obscure openings and one improvised rare move in a well-known position from the Slav.
I also think where FoS is clueless is that he thinks he so cool and knows all about chess because he can play a few "main lines" deeply, but his "intellect" fails on him when you go out of book, so he whines.
Next, he'll go around saying how people like Reb and I recommend to people to learn the main lines, saying we have no clue what we are talking about.
Here's the problem with most chess players below 2000. They fall under one of 3 categories:
A) They try to cut short their studying by playing nothing but offbeat lines that give them equality at best as White and inferior positions as Black. For example, they will learn just the c3-Sicilian, cutting out all the lines in the Open Sicilian, and think this will get them beyond beating the pee-wees. It won't.
B) They try to be all flashy and claim they know everything because they know 25 moves of 6.Bg5 Najdorf theory, probably knowing it deeper than anybody rated 2400 or below. The problem is, they know it from route memory, and don't understand jack when White deviates. Then they whine and complain about how their opponents could play such a bad move on move such-and-such when they are doing nothing but blowing out air. Just because one move on White's 17th move is best doesn't mean White can't still have a smaller edge with something else. Maybe their move is +0.23 instead of +0.41.
C) They memorize a few main lines, and they quickly go thru sidelines, and they maybe understand a couple of basics, but they still have no clue what is going on beyond move 10. Ok, I got to the end of my book knowledge, now what?
Here's the key. First you should learn the main lines of whatever you play. That means if you play 1.e4, Ruy Lopez, Open Sicilian, one of the main lines of the French (3.Nc3, 3.Nd2?!, 3.e5), one of the main lines of the Caro-Kann, etc.
However, you don't stop here. Next you learn the various sidelines for multiple reasons. One is you might decide one day to play the Sicilian as Black and need to know the anti-Sicilians. Another is you are facing a booked up Dragon player that is clueless on what to do against the c3-Sicilian. This doesn't mean the c3-Sicilian is anywhere near as strong as the Open Sicilian - the Open Sicilian is lightyears stronger than the c3-Sicilian as the c3-Sicilian gains nothing but equality against best play - but against a 1700 peewee, the c3-Sicilian played by a 2400 would cream him faster than the Yugoslav Attack would. That same said 2400 player wouldn't be caught dead playing the c3-Sicilian against someone like Kramnik unless he either has no goals at getting better, or possibly has played Kramnik numerous times and is looking for a change of pace opening.
And quite frankly, sometimes it just isn't going to work because the lower rated player has either played what you are playing as well and knows it even deeper than the master does, as was the case with me in my win against a 2447 player when I was rated 1999 in August 2010 and he tried to nail me with 1.b3 and we went main line all the way until he played the inferior 11.Nd3?! instead of 11.Nxc6 and I won in 60 moves. Still to this day the highest rated player I've beaten.
Where the kings gambit is concerned I doubt anyone had more success with it ( at the top level ) than Spassky . Bronstein also did very well with it .
It is (perhaps) more revealing that @5BadWords consistently plays Standard Chess against players averaging 500 points lower than himself.
That, and his Avatar's scowl leaves something to be desired. Just saying.