Is chess just memorization?

Yes, you have to memorize more variations than the number of atoms in sun and then you'll crush everyone

Easy as that!!

I'm 1400 rating & after watching many GM video's of them playing it seems to me that I would need to start learning openings & the plans behind them to improve further.

It's no good just being good at the game when you are playing people that know all the lines and traps in all the openings. 

Soon I'm going to choose 2 openings for white ,2 for black. & I will take the time to learn them off by heart, the traps & all the plans.  I know for me it's the way forward from here. 

Up till now I have just been playing any opening I feel like just to try them all out to get a feel as to what I like playing best.

Anyways I know deep in my heart if I did this I will get to 1600 rapid on here. 

I hope

no, you've very correct. that's why Bobby Fischer has invented the "Fischer Random" Or "Chess960":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer_random_chess

Fischer - "I hate chess" "it's about memorization":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P349BdHUxlc&t=126s

and he's a magician, so you know he's serious.

Yeah Nigel Short's king walk was something he had already seen before

So were Morphy's opera mate, which he popularized, when there was almost no chess theory compared to today and he was so ahead of his time

Same thing for Steinitz, right?

I bet Tal's unique entertaining style was something he read in a book to calculate all of those amazing sacrifices

Probably that amazing queen sac from Garry that crushed Karpov was something he'd already seen, right?

Well... A lot of chess games become completely brand new to the database by move 15, 20 or as soon as move 10. Honestly, for me, that's just wrong. Just because someone can't study opening theory and doesn't like it doesn't mean the game is all memorization. It has to do with intuition, brute calculation, and a lot to do with strategic concepts. 

5 - 10% memorization is helpful.  I'd say 25 - 50% pattern recognition and some intuition, remained is problem solving.   Memorization and pattern recognition probably becomes more important as you get shorter on time.  

Players today of my level are very good in the opening because of their opening study but as soon as the middle game starts they seem a bit lost for plans and eventually just blunder tactically

To play devils advocate, is not pattern recognition just another name for memorization?

I don't think so.  Pattern recognition is more intuitive - it's understanding that when you see pieces on the board in such a way that there's potential for a smother mate and then you can start looking for a way to solve the problem.  But that isn't the same as a memorizing a move order on an opening or something - because you have an almost infinite variety of ways  in which such patterns can come up, whereas a board opening is pretty defined.  If you don't put a knight on f3 and a bishop on f4 it isn't London.  But there's unlimited ways to arrange a hook mate.  

I cant remember

My answer to this question is always the same. 

Read all the books you want on how to perform open heart surgery.  Memorize every word, picture, and diagram.  Then try and perform open heart surgery.  You cant and you know why?

All you did was memorize what you read and what you saw.  What you didn't do is learn and understand the "why" behind what you read. 

No

The GM I been watching can remember tons of lines from every opening possible.  He knows the openings & every possible traps in them all. He sometimes knows what move to make 30 moves or more into the games.  Memorization is a massive part of this game. I know if I had a better memory my rating would get out of control.  That's why I'm on the fish oils now

Knowing openings is certainly helpful, but if your opponent steps away from theory, you should be able to still find good moves, even if the position is unfamiliar. That's not memorization - that's something else.

Until about 2000 elo the most important factor is just a tactical eye.

I'm 1900 and I know barely any openings. I know the opening *ideas* which is all that is necessary at my level (I accept though, that if I'm ever going to push into the 2000s then I *now* need to start studying openings).

Also, you didn't ask, but I don't think long calculation enters into things before the 2000s either. Most of my games are won or lost based on one player having a superior strategic understanding and/or simple 2 or 3 move tactical shots. 

just some advice, you don't need to know anything to get over 2000 :]

Dont remember who said it, but...

Until you're a Master.  Your first name is tactics.  Your middle name is tactics.  Your last name is tactics.

In openings only memorization can be very useful. Middlegame and endgames are more on how to implement techniques; pattern recognition and imagination.