How do people remember all chess moves in openings?

The key is UNDERSTANDING, NOT MEMORIZING!

Take the French Defense.  If you cannot explain the following, you have learned nothing about the French.  Does not matter that you have moves memorized.

After 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 Why is it that after:

A) 3.e5, 3...c5 is clearly the best move?

B) 3.Nd2, 3...c5 is a strong move, though not the only choice?

C) 3.Nc3, 3...c5?? Is a terrible move?

D) After a stupid move like 3.f3 (not covered in books), 3...c5 is not the right move?

Again, if you cannot answer this, you do not know jack about the French, even if you memorized this far.

The first 3 all have to do with your d5-pawn!  After 3.e5, all tension and pressure is taken off of your d-pawn.  It is now a strong point for Black, and the White d-pawn is a fixed target.  3...c5 pressures White's center with no weakening to your position.

After 3.Nc3, 3...c5?? Is a terrible move because White has not committed the e-pawn yet, and the Knight on c3 directly hits the d-pawn.  After 4.exd5! exd5, Black has a very weak pawn on d5 that can never be protected by a pawn.  The Knight on c3 directly hits the d5-pawn, and White can build up an attack against that fixed target.

So why is 3...c5 good against 3.Nd2 when White has not committed the e-pawn?  From d2, there is no pressure on d5.  He would have to go back to b1 and out to c3 to put ant pressure on the pawn.  White's Knight also blocks in his own Bishop, which in turn blocks in his own pawn.  So White's play is very slow just to avoid getting his pawns doubled, and Black is willing to take an isolated d-pawn that cannot be easily attacked in return for opening up his pieces and gaining an initiative on White.

In line D, 3...c5 is just stupid because 3...dxe4 wins material.  If 4.fxe4, the 4...Qh4+ and 5...Qxe4.

The same goes for any other opening.  Why 4...Nf6 in most Sicilian Lines?  Why is 3.f3 OK in the Caro but not the French?  In the QGD, what is Black waiting for before taking the pawn on c4?  Why are the King's Indian and Pirc nothing alike despite the only initial difference being the White c-pawn?  Why is the e5-pawn not hanging in the Ruy Lopez after 3...a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6?

You need to be able to answer these types of questions, not memorize moves.  Why?  What happens if your opponent deviates?  Do you know why it is bad?  Why After 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 are 5.Ne2 and 5.f4 weaker than 5.Nf3?  Just memorizing 5.Nf3 Qb6 does you nothing if White does not play 5.Nf3.  Why did you lose?  Because White didn't play the best move?  Pa-Leez?

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I’m a respected  chess coach and chess YouTuber who helps beginners out : 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP5SPSG_sWSYPjqJYMNwL_Q

Tell yourself you will memorize the openings!  

1) Just practice many times on a chess board.    Repetition works!  

2) Hire a chess coach to help you memorize openings. 

I hope this helps!  

And the answer is: by ideas and general principles. 

OP, I've been on both sides of this. When I was young, I once had the brilliant idea of just trying to memorize the NCO, a big 500+ pages book with only moves and no explanation. That was a terrible waste of time. Sure, I got through the first 8 moves fine, but then I had no idea what I was doing. When I got stronger, I started to understand how futile this approach was. By looking at an IM playing blitz, I started to understand that they also didn't know that much theory. They just played normal moves and got positions that were fine. I switched to no theory for a while, playing 1. d4, 2. g3, develop kingside and then b3 and develop queenside. I gained 200 points in no time. I didn't study openings again till I was over 2200. I know players that are stronger than me that do not study the opening and that do not know theory. Every game is a new adventure for them. 

The problem with memorization is that you don't know what to do when your opponent plays an inferior move. And that inferior move might not at all be so much worse than the more fashionable move you've learned. Just because a GM has shown that white can get a small edge if black plays a certain old line, doesn't mean that you in practice will find this refutation. The other problem with memorization is the way you use your time. Memorization will costs you heaps and heaps of time. This time could've been used to study the middlegame for example. I'm not saying you can't improve as a player from memorization, as you do see new positions and are getting familiar with normal looking moves, it's just not nearly as fast as you would otherwise do. And memorization is boring. It sucks the joy out of chess. At least it does for me.

Here's why studying opening theory as a lower rated player is particularly useless. There are certain opening principles that rule good opening play. They are: controlling the center (white would like to get both e4 and d4 as a big pawn center, black should try and prevent that), getting all of your pieces developed (every piece moves only once and should be used in the battle for the center) and getting your king safe (castling). When you look at most of the openings out there, almost all moves up to move 8 can be explained with these opening principles. Grandmasters don't do crazy weird stuff in the beginning of the game. Playing with these principles in mind helps you play normal moves, even when your opponent plays weird and illogical moves. I've even seen players up to 1700 regularly not adhere strictly enough to these opening principles. If you do, you're already playing the opening better than all of them. 

For these first 8 moves you don't need any memorization if you know the opening principles. After that real theory starts. Grandmaster ideas don't come up at move 4, they come up after the easy moves are done. These ideas can be hard to understand. Especially if they're computer generated. Moreover, these ideas build upon one another. One idea might have gotten refuted, but this new idea makes it impossible for you to play the right counter/defense against that previous idea. And even if you memorize it perfectly, these ideas are all aiming to get a small advantage for white or to equalize with black! That's very important at high level chess. But in lower rated chess games, who has ever won a game where their opponent was left no chance after the opening and a small advantage was duly converted? No one! Evaluations in lower rated games tend to change massively during a game. There are tactical shots that each player misses too. It's just not a problem if white starts with a very small advantage after the opening, because the mistakes both players will make subsequently will be bigger than that tiny advantage that was earned by many hours of memorization. 

OP, leave the opening alone. It'll cost you massive amounts of time for little to no gains. Do tactics and study some middlegame strategy. That would at least be my advise as a life long chess trainer.

I agree it's a combination of memorization and understanding the why of a move.

As Bobby Fischer said, there's billions of possible moves during a chessgame, but only a few good ones. Hence true chess is not a game of many possibilities but of finding the correct moves.

Because other moves simply generate weaknesses down the line.

So yes, you have to study your lines.

Also, I have compiled a visual reference of most opening lines, and it is MUCH bigger than the NCO.

Don't think there are a few hundred opening lines to pick from; there's a couple thousand of them. Memorization of a few key lines is nice to have in your repertoire, but to try and learn a volume is a futile attempt. It's better to enjoy and level up in the complexity of your own ideas rather than making chess into a textbook course.

You don't have to. Just play and analyze each game after playing, and learn from trial and error. You will eventually learn the correct move orders of the opening. 

Focusing on pattern recognition training would be the priority of new players. 

Once you are experienced with patterns and traps, you are ready to learn the openings because then you can understand the reasonings behind opening move orders. Opening isn’t even that important as people say it to be. It's important only for master level players. 

Years of study, trial and error, and repetition.

(Emphasis on the years part.)

I'm not sure if it's already been suggested here but chessable is a great site for drilling different opening lines using a spaced repetition system, and a lot of the courses on there are free! More importantly though is that they also include a description of why each move was played (you don't need to memorise every move if you understand there's only one good choice in a certain position!) which is good practice, and makes things a lot easier.

(EDIT: I should add that I'm only rated ~1000 rapid, this is more based on what I'm finding useful now than any kind of long term experience )

Interesting. This is an issue for many players.

I think rote learning and pure memorization don't work. The key is to understand the logic behind the moves.

This not only makes it easier to remember the moves, but as a bonus, you'll also know what to do if your opponent plays something dubious.

There's an interesting method a GM recommends in this article when it comes to memorizing the moves. I'll summarize it in 5 points: 

 - Study with full attention and focus.
- After you finish an opening, add the files to your database or notebook without looking at the book, 
- Play the line with your friend. When you practice, it becomes easier to remember the ideas.
- Fix the mistakes where you tend to forget the line.

I personally know many people for whom this way of learning the opening works much better than just mugging up the line.

Try it out and see the results for yourself.

burst !!

(there. hadta clean the yogurt from my nose)

chessnutz. im sorry but im pfren would roast u on a open file (pinocchio wuzza piece a wood).

for anyone ANYONE who wants to get better in openings read, reread, and REREAD post #56. ...then apply.

Even 1200 rated players have "opening prep" in the sense that there are openings they prefer, and openings they don't like. But that's not the sort of opening prep Pfren is talking about.

I find it amusing that the OP is actually in Elite League. It seems like they play a lot more than they actually takes time to train or analyze, although I don't want to judge them just based on this clue. As far as I understood Leagues, you have to play a lot to get to a higher level.

I had 15 moves deep in some lines at like 1200. I think everyone does this... it's not helpful but people do it.

Sometimes I play a few moves in a row that I think are 2nd or 3rd best, just to be sure to get out of someone's prep.

One time as white I had 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6.

Of course hyper accel dragon players have no idea how to play chess. They memorize 20 moves of theory in a dozen lines and think that's what chess is. I'd have to be an idiot to play main lines.

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When I played 8.b3 he twisted his face up. Well to be fair it is a gross move, but 3 move later I had an advantage. I also won the game.

And sure, some games I'd play lots of prep. But against certain players and certain lines I'd play non-moves on purpose.

If that were true you'd know double finchetto isn't any kind of theory there.

Memorized theory doesn't help against non theory no matter what opening you play. 

Anyway, I forgot you're 12.

You believe whatever your parents told you to believe, just like every 12 year old who has ever lived. You'll have your own thoughts on religion later in life.

practicing the opening against bots and watching videos on youtube about the openings to help memorize the opening.

It's far from a necessity, but knowing some openings certainly makes things easier.