some beginners questions

I only look at rapid because that is a better indication of your chess precision and i count 17 since the 7 janv this year.

That is not a lot in +9 months and you lost 5.

Now how many of those 17 didn't play a known opening?

I looked at 10 games in a row,starting to the 7 janv in rapid and only two didn''t have a know opening.

My advice for a 470:

Learn the scholars mate

Get to 800 easily.

Having memorized an opening variation does not mean you are good at playing openings, or even that specific opening, in particular.

How many players under 1250 Elo has any deep understanding of all the nuances and traps of their favorite opening? 

You will be good if you play it 500 times.

How many do master their opening under 1250?

Before I started to play on the net daily I bought 6 books! One on opening,one on end game and three on tactics and a great one of 448 pages on the basic, up to play around 1400 Elo from the soviet  school by two very well know guy a GM and an IM.

Before looking an my book on opening i knew the basic because at 14 i did read a 70 pages book on the very basic,like get out the knights before the bishops etc but i had no idea that i could choose between dozens of different opening.

I learn (memorize) very fast the Italian the Spanish and the Queen gambit in a few days.

Of couse the books on tactics were very important so the endgame book.

I went from 800 to 1300 in a few months after playing +1000 games.

That was +25 years ago.

And 99% of the +5 000 games I played since with white are those three + the london system after 1300.

aussierookie i don't eact acorns, they give stomach aches to humans.  kevin from the land down under, thanks for the shout out.  ben fiengold is a funny guy. i enjoy his videos on this site. i have also learned alot from the other videos, unfortunately, there are not subtitles, which would come in handy with the chess teachers on this site, that have very heavy accents.

Memorization is a big part of chess but hardly anyone wants to mention this because it doesn't sell that many books. Instead, they will spew stuff like: “Don't memorize! It is more important to understand ideas!” However, if one cannot actually remember what they study, no ideas will be remembered (memory again!).

Should you memorize chess openings? 
 
Yes you should, but not in the way you assume it. If you play an opening that has volumes and volumes of lines to go through then you must memorize the lines. If the opening is playable only by playing "only moves" or forcing lines then yes, you need to memorize it.

Do Grandmasters memorize?
 
If you watch grandmasters play, you will see just how much emphasis they put on studying openings. Before a tournament, they study and memorize so many opening lines just to get a slight advantage moving into the middlegame.

I can’t stress enough how important the opening is in chess. Those first few moves on the board aren’t going to win you the game, but they are going to dictate the entire course of the game.

Getting an early advantage is the difference between having the upper hand and having to defend for the rest of the game.

Getting an advantage isn’t chance or luck though, it knows how to outplay your opponent in the opening.

 Playing well in the opening is going to make all the difference. It’s going to take a lot of studying for you to memorize opening lines, but it is going to be worth it.

You are going to have an enormous advantage over any opponent if you can force them into positions where they have to defend.

Even if we can’t remember all the nuances, memorizing the main moves, ideas, and traps are going to give you a significant advantage.

Not only will remembering an opening give you a better position, but it will also allow you to play much faster.

The time that you save for knowing the best moves beforehand can be crucial.

''Mastering the Chess openings'' (volume 1 and 2) from John Watson explaining the main plans of almost every top opening except the English and the Dutch.

Chess Openings:

https://www.thechesswebsite.com/chess-openings/

Jeez, come down, Marie-AnneLiz

No-one is disputing that opening theory and memorization are important in chess. What Ben Finegold (and many other coaches) is saying is that opening theory (i.e. studying and memorizing opening variations) is not important for low rated players. Or, in the very least, way less important that other stuff, e.g. tactics.

Teaching beginners opening theory is like teaching ice hockey beginners advanced dribbling and puck scooping before they can even skate.

Yes, but it's not grandmasters we are talking about

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I’m a respected  chess coach and chess YouTuber based in California: 

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

A rating below 500 is a beginner who makes a lot of silly mistakes every game.  A rating about 1000 is a stronger beginner and makes silly mistakes from time to time.  

1600 is a very decent  rating.  

A USCF 2200 rating is a master rating.  Those players are in the top 1 % of all chess players.  

An opening is a specific sequence of moves.  For example, e4, d5, is the Scandinavian Opening.  

I hope that this helps.  

TommyPeebles_07—very disappointed in your post (#16).  It comes across as trolling & bullying, neither of which are appropriate.  Would think an FIDE 2100 rating would be above petty issues.   Strongly recommend a retraction and sincere apology to consider this matter closed.  My reasons are as follows:

If you encountered cheating or felt like you were wronged and reported it to Chess.com, then whatever outcome (their site, rules, decision, etc.), the matter is over, end of discussion.

If you did not report it, then the matter is over as the incident was not of importance, end of discussion.

Nothing justifies your post.

Respectfully

The opening is the most forgiving phase of the game. Mistakes in the opening have comparatively little impact on the result of the game.

Of course it's useful to know something about the openings you play, even if you're very new, but the great majority of people spend time on openings in a manner that does not impact their results... mostly they try to memorize too much.

In regards to the "cheater" (hope that's not too offensive), just take a look at her profile. You will see that she has won dozens of games in a row, and her accuracy has never dipped below 90%.

"Respectfully"

Do you know the level of precision of a 1818 Fide player?

Did you notice that i very rarely play against an opponent above 1800 here= 1700 Elo at best.

And you are a lier,my last games i got a 82.5 and my opponent 86.3 and one of my other last game i got 83.6 and the other one 69 and at least 26 of my opponents in the last 40 games  are under 1500 here = 1400 Elo.

And 20 players of those last 40 were under 1405 here = 1305 Elo.