Openings at 400 to 700

TLDR: Learning an opening at this level is a waste of time because you won't get to play it. Learn solid principles first.

Over the last couple of weeks, I played about 100 rapid games at rating 400-700, and recorded what Openings we played. From my side, I kept things simple and I actively tried to play into something resembling the Four Knights game, as both White and Black. After that, it was up to my opponents to steer the game into another Opening.

In order for the first few moves to be considered an Opening, I set the criteria that we each had to play at least 3 moves of "common theory", which I had to look up after each game. Less than 3 solid moves each and I recorded our Opening as 'Random'. You might not agree with my criteria but think of it like this. I'm White and we play 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5, but then Black has no idea what to do after 3. Nc3. I'm only playing what I think is logical, not something I studied, and my opponent replies with some random Queen move. To get to this random position didn't even manage 3 solid moves on both sides, so can we really consider this a Scandinavian? After 3 moves I was as likely to go out of theory as my opponents were, but by then we usually had some kind of structure to work from.

With that out of the way, here are the simplified results:

* About 50% of the openings were Random, meaning we left theory within the first two moves.

* In the remaining 50% we reached the Four Knight about half the time. It seems that players who don't play a specific Opening are pretty happy to play into a basic Four Knights.

* Only 3 games went more than 5 moves into theory. 

These results tell me that, for all the Noobs like me who ask "What Opening should I play?", the answer is "It does not matter because in 75% of your games you won't get to use it. In the few games where you get to play your Opening, and even when do you won't go more than 4 moves deep."

My next goal is to reach 1000. I will again record my openings and report back. After that, or of 1000 proved too tedious, I will try to reach 700 in Blitz and... record the openings.