How should I learn openings?

How should I learn chess openings? By book, videos, websites or other?

Whatever works for you.  My advice is do more than memorize the lines.  Understand the strengths and weaknesses of the opening as well as the plan of it.

At your level, focus on opening principles. This is most of what you need to know for now:

https://www.chess.com/blog/nklristic/surviving-the-opening-first-steps-to-chess-improvement

Memorizing lines is not the best idea because it will not be so effective at novice level. Most of your peers will not play main lines, so knowing 10-15 moves of main line will not really help you in those cases. Pick an opening variation you would like to play memorize 3-5 moves and build up on it gradually.

OP: It's really hard to judge your rating, since you've only played a couple games, but I'd guess based on your rated puzzle performance you'd probably be somewhere around my rating, 800 or so.

While I'm certainly a total, barely functional beginner too, at our level spending lots of time on opening study is somewhat questionable.  As an example, I've been playing the Qd8 Scandinavian Defense as black (1. e4 d5 2. exd5  Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qd8) based on John Bartholomew's online courses.  I've learned the first few moves, but studying any of the optimal lines in depth doesn't do me any good because (for example) all the books and everything about the Scandinavian say "2. exd5 is so much better than any other alternative that you can disregard the rest" but in fact I see everything else but what the opening expects.

I seem to see a lot of 2. Nc3, 2. d3, or 2. f3 to protect the pawn, 2. e5 to remove the threat, and once even the wacky 2. Bd3.  I've memorized Bartholomew's recommended move or two in response to those (all collected in his online course in a chapter called "rare lines" at the end) and have a decent idea of how the opening is supposed to go, what kind of pawn structure I'm shooting for, etc. but it's really just a crapshoot what I'm going to face when I play it. 

Sometimes my opponent just blunders piece after piece into my queen in the middle of the board and it's like a shooting gallery.  Often I wind up in a situation that the guides say "oh here you just transpose into the mainline Queen's Gambit Declined or Caro-Kann or whatever" and I barely know what those openings look like.

And, of course, a good deal of the time (particularly since the London System is so popular for white at our level) I see 1. d4 and have to do something else.  (I've similarly learned the first few moves of the King's Indian Defense for that situation too, but again it doesn't pay to learn more than a few moves because after that we're out of book and on our own.)

Really, it doesn't take much to just have to fall back on good general opening principles:  Arrange pawns so they mutually protect each other.  Try to move each piece only once before moving any a second time.  (and yes I know the main line Scandinavian violates that.)  Try to get control over the center.  Think about king safety.

And, once in a long while, an opponent will go straight to crazy town and think I'm challenging them to a duel with queens in the town square.  Those games are probably why I play the opening in the first place, but they tend to be hyper-aggressive blunder-fests and anyone could lose.

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I'm a chess coach based in California.  

You need to find what works for you.  You can learn openings from a chess coach, from a book, from YouTube channels, and more. Pick one method and if it doesn't work, then move on to something else. 

  I hope that this helps. 

I learned my opening from a chess coach.  

Nowadays as a total beginner I would look at chess.com for the names of openings I natural play and then I would watch some YouTube videos about the opening. Work with that for a bit then worry about the rest.

its always important to have a plan in chess. some players like to get very aggressive even within the first 5 moves of the game. the first chess world champion steinitz had a theory that neither player should mount an attack until it is justified by the opponent making a misstep. in the opening the goal is not to launch an attack but to make superior developing moves. hopefully by the time the middlegame arrives, you will have some sort of advantage, like control of the center, an open file for your rooks, a safer king, more active minor pieces, or a space advantage. these are all things you can aim for with your opening moves. if you have such an advantage and believe it warrants an attack then you shouldn't hesitate to do so. of course you don't have to launch an attack just because you have an advantage, you can use a space advantage for instance to maneuver your pieces to better squares and only then launch an attack. another point is that after the opening is complete it is quite possible that both players will have some sort of advantage over the other and in such a case they will quite possibly have to attack their opponents weakness while defending their own at the same time. the kings indian is an example of such an opening where one player may have space on the queenside  and intend to create a passed pawn, while the other player may have a safer king because they have moved many of their pieces to the kingside and intend to launch a mating attack before their opponent can destroy their queenside. one last point is that the opening principles can and should be broken at times if there is a good enough reason like winning some material or even perhaps weakening your opponents pawn structure

Yes...

Chess Openings Resources for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/openings-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

Good Chess Openings Books For Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-openings-books-for-beginners-and-beyond

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

Learning openings here is a little tough, especially at the lower ratings.  Most chess played at the 400-500 level is free-for-all.  Looking at over 50 games recently it is rare for the analysis of the games to show than 2 book moves.  I'm finding it difficult to improve as I haven't yet learned how to not be totally confused between what I get in the lessons and what I actually see in play.   I'm in awe of more advanced players who I watch plow right through the slop and win these wild matches easily.  I keep reviewing my play in each game, hopefully learning from my play in hopes of gaining that knowledge and moving on up to more serious play.  I'll worry about openings later.

I do trial and error lol

I feel your pain, playing at 800-ish.  What I've found is that a lot of the better material on openings does spend at least a little time looking at (a) why the main line moves are particularly good and sometimes (b) how to respond to early deviations from the main line.

For me, I've found it's very helpful to know the main lines of my openings to maybe 5 moves, and spend some time learning maybe one best move in response to each of the non-main-line responses I see people make.  This at least buys me a little time to think about how to go from there to punish their deviation from the "best" move while they're thinking about what to play.

I write the lines in a notebook and play with an opponent using the trap or opening . If I lose, I don't play that opening so often.

If I win then I play that trap or opening often.

But when the people don't fall in the trap anymore, then you can move to another trap or opening .

 I tried the Fishing pole trap but no one falls in it anymore

Yeah, I tried the Ruy Lopez but nobody falls for that either.

On a more serious note, I'm trying a new plan for learning not just openings, but solid play. I have a list of four openings (2 white, 2 black) that I have decided to learn.  I'm backing off from live chess and playing the computer more. I selected an opponent with a 1200 rating and have been playing my desired openings.  I can already seen some improvement and my working knowledge of the openings is growing. I feel more confident.  Still taking the time to do some study of the openings also.

Working for me, your mileage may vary.

hi im new to chess i know what everything does and that kind of stuff but i have never really wanted to learn all of the opening and stuff until recently what should i start to learn first?

gothamchess on youtube has good opening videos.

Thank you