And if you do find yourself, as a noob, unable to refrain from buying opening books, please just spend MORE time doing tactics puzzles than you do on openings, you will help yourself a great deal. The stronger your tactics are, the easier it is to learn openings. Much better than an opening book are books like "winning chess strategies" by yasser, or pretty much ANY silman book, or dvoretsky endgame manual for endgames, but a lot of these books will be hard to digest for a player with a beginners tactical arsenal. Two-month tactics challenge. 1 hour a day, before you play. *Ignore your tactics rating* *Release your ego and become a hungry humble sponge for information* *Focus on learning new patterns, and correcting calculation mistakes (usually from puzzles you failed)*
HEY NOOBS! Forget Openings, Study Tactics (The right way)
What if yo a basic member and can only do 5?
Chess is the original pay-to-win.
Since this guy loves Heisman so much I thought I would stick the dogs nose in it Chess isn't 99% tactics, it's just that tactics takes up 99% of your time" -- Dan HEISMAN
"Getting a Good Start (800-900; 1 month). Make sure you have learned to play correctly. This includes all of the basic rules (castling, en passant, draws, etc.), as well as moving the pieces. The book I recommend is The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Chess (2nd Edition) by GM Patrick Wolff. Full of good tips for beginners and even players who don’t think they are beginners. For adults, this should take their rating to 800-900 USCF.After/during reading Wolff, it is also a great time to also extensively practice board vision (de la Maza calls these Chess Vision) exercises. ..." - Dan Heisman (2001)
Do you think that The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Chess is 99% tactics?
openings still suck
... I see you in every thread spongey promoting literature and books, but really your audience should be ignoring you, getting off the forums and spending that time on the tactics trainer for fast tangible results.
As you know, somebody or other commented, "You can pick an opening as white and a couple of defenses as black to stick with, and you can look at master level games in that opening on chessgames.com ...".
So would there they be anything wrong with (for example) pointing out that such games (along with explanations) can be found in books?
Yes, we live in an age of information overload and most of the time the information people are given is not the best information available. ...
Does information have to be the best available in order to be helpful?
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t/creative-mind-knights-and-queens
On first glance, who would you prefer, white or black?
... IF you play thousands of blitz games or hundreds of slow games you will LEARN about your openings and all of the basic traps and tactics (hopefully) WITHOUT having to crack open a book that is full of variations to memorize.
... Again this is targeted at NEW players, BEGINNERS, 600-1200 up to intermediate players of 1500. Pick an opening to stick with for a while , look at some top level games played in that opening if you want, get the general concepts, ...
Do you think all opening books are appropriately described as "full of variations to memorize"?
"... Everyman Chess has started a new series aimed at those who want to understand the basics of an opening, i.e., the not-yet-so-strong players. ... I imagine [there] will be a long series based on the premise of bringing the basic ideas of an opening to the reader through plenty of introductory text, game annotations, hints, plans and much more. ..." - FM Carsten Hansen (2002)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627055734/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen38.pdf
Is there a reason to think that sort of thing can not help players to find games and "get the general concepts"?
"The way I suggest you study this book is to play through the main games once, relatively quickly, and then start playing the variation in actual games. Playing an opening in real games is of vital importance - without this kind of live practice it is impossible to get a 'feel' for the kind of game it leads to. There is time enough later for involvement with the details, after playing your games it is good to look up the line." - GM Nigel Davies (2005)
... Is a 1000 level player going to get an opening advantage against a 1600 level player? It's certainly possible, is the 1000 going to convert that advantage into a win while avoiding blundering a tactic for the next 30 moves? Not very likely. ..
What about sometimes managing "not to ... fall into ... lines that result in difficult positions"?
gotta be white is better
You do not need to buy an opening book and read it, THAT is what I am saying. IF you play thousands of blitz games or hundreds of slow games you will LEARN about your openings and all of the basic traps and tactics (hopefully) WITHOUT having to crack open a book that is full of variations to memorize.
"Thousands of blitz games or hundreds of slow games" will take most people several years to complete. And a lot of trial, error, and incorrect judgement along the way.
Or, you can crack open a book that explains the core concepts of your openings of choice, and shorten the learning curve drastically—which, interestingly enough, should give you more time to devote to tactics on the side (rather than spending all your time trying to learn your openings through brute force trial and error).
There are basic, and useful, ideas and strategies inherent to most openings that can be explained and taught, by those who've reach a level of mastery in the game.
Or, one can rely on their own lack of expertise and push onward, with the goal of figuring it all out on their own. (Granted, it's possible, but it'll be more of an uphill battle this way.)
in a sense, white is better, if he plays with phenomenal accuracy. I have played 2000 games of this and probably not 1 perfect game, its pretty hard to avoid mistakes, there are a lot of tactics available for 7 queens, especially if they decide to wait around and let you neglect one side of the board too much, white has to be very careful and the mistakes from white are much more costly. black can make some mistakes and still have chances for tactics and tricks all the way to the end
@steamgear It would take you years to memorize all the lines of the sicilian najdorf if you were only 1000 strength in tactics...
... Option A) Please provide a quote in which a professional chess player stated that an opening book had the biggest impact on his/her development. ...
Is it possible for a book to be helpful to an amateur without having been the biggest impact on the development of a professional chess player?
in a sense, white is better, if he plays with phenomenal accuracy. I have played 2000 games of this and probably not 1 perfect game, its pretty hard to avoid mistakes, there are a lot of tactics available for 7 queens, especially if they decide to wait around and let you neglect one side of the board too much, white has to be very careful and the mistakes from white are much more costly. black can make some mistakes and still have chances for tactics and tricks all the way to the end
i was just thinking that because white has more space and a lot of pawns he could try to block the board and curtail the activity of the queens. This might also favour the knights.
@steamgear It would take you years to memorize all the lines of the sicilian najdorf if you were only 1000 strength in tactics...
Well, perhaps. But good opening books explain specific ideas, key strategies, and things to look out for—rather than the mere memorization of lines.
And, as has been mentioned elsewhere—there's no reason a player can't work on tactics while developing some practical opening knowledge, as well.
and playing thousands of blitz games wouldn't be TO learn openings, but you would learn plenty of opening lines, as a biproduct of playing a game for fun. 6-7 blitz games a day and you are at 2000 a year... So.. not years 
yes I agree 100% practical opening knowledge. I am just in disagreement about telling a noob it is a good idea to try and tackle a book full of opening theory, this is what i am arguing against, or maybe I just havent seen any easy opening books. Any I have checked out were mostly filled with variation after variation with not enough simple explanations.
I knew it.A little attention grabbing is a healthy way of disconnecting from the real issues of life,ain't it?Anyway,me signing off and unfollowing. Thanks for your attention and pampering.Mislead them to agony my friend,good bye.Good luck.