Practice an Opening

Is there a way that a beginner can repetitively practice a specific opening?  B;y that I mean, play the first four of five moves of an opening, with common variations, over and over and over.  Preferably using a computer.  I'm a kinesthetic learner ... I learn by doing.  Reading about an opening or playing a single variation 10-15 moves deep is not something I retain

If you are wanting to play it against an opponent then I believe you set it up in an analysis board then select finish vs computer. If you are just wanting to play through the moves I think you can set it up in analysis board and then just make the moves randomly, but would take a lot of set up. The opening explorer may also be of help in seeing the opening variations (I think you can even click an analysis button and it will open a analysis board with the current variation and moves selected), you can make the moves yourself if you want, but all the variations you will see may be overwhelming.

That being said I don’t recommend just memorizing the moves. You need to understand why you make the moves, and know why they are considered best moves (or good moves). Also at the beginner level the players don’t follow book openings well or at all. Learning the opening principles, tactics, and blunder checking are more important and will help you no matter what your opponent plays.

Hope this helps

Hi

Thank you, AT. It does help.

At my level, you are right. Opponents can seemingly play purely random moves which just confuse me. However, I often recognize the first several moves as a common opening, but have no idea which it is or know the main line ... even four or five moves deep. Playing sensible opening moves sometimes helps, but often doesn't.

Again, thank you for your reply.