Beginner Questions (Mainly about openings)

Hello everyone, first time poster here. I am new to the game. I was smart enough to watch the everything you need to know series here on chess.com and I purchased a copy of The complete idiot's guide to Chess, which I have pretty much read. So I am not totally ignorant at this point.

My main problem is the Openings. So I am going to ask a few questions which maybe someone will be kind enough to answer.

A. Am I expected to memorize all openings in order to be a decent player?

B. How important is it know all these openings, as compared to other things I could study in chess?

C. OK, say I want to start my game as white with the Ruy Lopez. 1. e4 c5, wait, that's not how it says it'll happen in the book! In the book it say 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3...  So is my next move going to be 2. Nf3 or am I SOL now and need to come up with another opening?

D. What do I do if I don't know what my opponents opening is, how should I proceed?

Sorry if these are dumb questions, but if I don't ask I won't get it  thanks.

Here is my belief on those topics.

A. No

B. It isn't important to master them all. Just sort of cycle through them and learn some of the general theory behind most of the better played openings.

C. Your next move could be 2.Nf3 if you wanted it to. No you don't need to find a different opening, just play a move that makes sense. The opening is about the most key part in the game. How you play there affects the rest of the game.

D. Just play cautiously and again only play moves that make sense according to the position. Also pay attention to you opponents moves they will help you a good amount on how to respond. Overtime you will start to become somewhat familiar with each opening.

They aren't dumb questions in the least! They are actually very good!

Good luck in your future games!

While jjbooy makes some fine points, it it obvious to me by the question that you haven't quite got "it" yet... hmm... no problem!  "Openings" also include a less discussed "Defence"  You see, you arn't in a Ruy Lopez at all if black plays 1..c4  That's a Sicilian defence.  In other words, a defence to 1.e4.  The Ruy Lopez (an opening, not a defence) comes from the 1.e4, e5 line.  Move by move the opening is BUILT by the players, each developing their pieces and organizing their armies.  Memorized openings will only take you so far... until you are ready for them.  Once you learn "chess" (ie. TACTICS TACTICS TACTICS) then openings can be a powerful tool to loft you higher.  Don't worry right now about openings specific, but opening IN GENERAL.  In the opening phase of the game it is generally important to get your pieces off the back rank and into the fight. This is called development.  Castling and getting your rooks too "eye" each other along the first rank is a good goal.  Hope this helps!!

I hate studying openings.  It just seems so open-ended.  So I only study them on a need-to-know basis, like if I get crushed in a particular opening, esp by a lower-rated player, where I clearly had a bad setup.  And then I'll just look up the opening in a survey book like Ideas Behing the Chess Openings or Fundamental Chess Openings.  That seems to work OK.

But you'll learn a lot just by playing a lot.  Mostly I look for particular move sequences (priyomes?) where, if he makes a particular move, then I need to make a particular move.  Like on the Black side of the Ruy, you don't have to play ..b5, kicking the bishop a second time, until White guards the e-pawn because then the ..Qd4 trick doesn't work anymore after BxNc6 dxc6 Nxe5.  That kind of thing.

@JJBooy Thank you, those are just the words of encouragement I needed.

@ wowiezowie Thanks dude, that actually really cleared up the entire confusion about openings. In the books the openings seem so set in stone. Thank you!

@BoobyRaulMorphy Thanks I'm checking into those books.

I grabbed a couple used copies of a few books (Didn't pay more thank $4 for any of ) Pandolfini's Chess opening's Traps and Zaps 1 & 2, Weapons of Chess, Chess Traps, Pitfalls & Swindles. Which I am hoping will help me out a little. I also got Deep Shredder 12 for Linux and a really cool opening trainer called Chess Position Trainer, which is free! It's got a really neat way of teaching opening's.

No problemo!