Why we shouldn't memorize openings at 1000ish or below rating.

I've popped on these forums over the last couple of years hoping to get some tips on how to improve at chess. The answer was always "develop your pieces, fight for the center, castle and don't even effin think about learning an opening unless it's the London". I was annoyed because it seemed like I would be totally loosing in four moves because I didn't know "theory". So I ignored their advice memorized some openings and improved to the modest 1000/1100. What I've come to find is they were right. And I was totally robbing myself of a deeper more enjoyable chess experience. By focusing on flashy openings instead of the fundamentals I was totally delusional thinking I could improve. I got good positions because I memorized theory that gave me good positions. Not because I understood them. I just wanted to share because I wasted a lot of time learning opening theory that would have been way more valuable learning end game stuff or what the best square for my piece is. There is something liberating about forgetting theory and asking "What does my opponent want to do?". I hope to improve to 1500 by learning the fundamentals. Any advice from folks is appreciated. cheers

Very well, once a person gave me this beautiful advice that I would like to share with you. He said "What is the point of playing first ten moves like a computer when you play the next ten moves throwing away the advantage?"

Lol!

Lite Opening Theory is little use without middle game knowledge. Simple Chess by Stean is a good middle game book for intermediate players. There's also videos about the book.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUrgfsyInqNbkyiwPSSBQ6ALkkccKItPE&si=zsHQsazMeytkTEhu

I think that recognizing openings is valuable at any level. It's insight into the next few moves that the opponent may make. Especially openings that the player frequently plays against and good responses to them.

One must know the reasoning behind playing "time honored" moves AKA as "theory". Exactly what is "theory"? Basically, it is the culmination of literally thousands of opening patterns from mostly Grandmaster games from rated tournaments.

Find some simple openings that challenge your opponents and gain experience in those.

indeed. I like how you say that you improved when you started taking Openings more seriously and memorized some lines. Cool. Building your own Opening Repertoire early on is (to me anyways) while often daunting, agonizing, "hard" in the beginning often becomes one of the most enriching, self-satisfying part of enjoying your chess experience (as you say) as times goes by. It's not delusional thinking you can improve by focusing on "flashy" openings (or the like) instead of the fundamentals, because you already did it. What's more important here is improving your "fundamentals" alongside Opening Theory because facts: Openings are Fundamental too. Memorization is always a key component to learning, what you do with that acquired knowledge is another topic. You'll realize that we must all recall certain endgame principles, mating patterns, positional concepts we've memorized (whether directly or indirectly) and studied previously in real-time during a game. Understanding always comes later especially if you're just starting out by yourself and learning as you go along. Last thing, while the goal is always to win and to level up... don't stop for nothing. Keep pushing yourself even if you got a streak of wins, bad losses or reached 1500. Just keep playing because playin's always the thing with me.

opening theory is the best response and counter response in a developing position for a certain amount of moves. generally, the opening becomes the middle game when a taybia position is reached that allows for multiple avenues of strategic planning.