How high ELO do you honestly believe I can get if I memorize all the openings and basics?

As title says, I plan to memorize ALL the openings, do all the lessons I can get my hands on, and then perhaps do some puzzles afterwards to get back into the groove.

Im currently 680 elo right now, how much elo do you think I'll gain after I do this? I plan to spend at least 200 hours studying before I start playing again. So far I am about 100 hours in.

I spend about 5-10 hours a day studying, just to give you an idea of my dedication.

Oh my god, you are doing the same thing i'm doing. I feel attacked.

What makes you think I dont? <3

5-10 hours a day??? Srsly? That's bad for health. I never beleive in openings. Middlegames are where most games are decided. So I play simple openings and try to play the midgame well. But to answer your question if you learn all openings maybe 1500-1600 bcuz after that level your opponents will know how to defend against them. Also learning openings alone will not take you to 1600.You need to play the other phases well.

Chess has over a thousand opening variations and just memorizing moves isn't enough because then you'll have to memorize what to play in all possible branches of worse moves as well as moves which aren't "theory." On the first move of the game, white has 20 possible choices and then black has 20 possible responses. Just on move 1, this gives 400 moves to memorize. Memorizing is uneffective and impractical.

Much better is to learn and understand the basic ideas of each opening and to rely on general opening principles: https://www.chess.com/blog/KeSetoKaiba/opening-principles-again

Memorizing all the openings doesn’t necessarily make you good at chess, there’s still the middle and end game. Just practice one opening you’re really good at for Black and White. It is also good to study some other common openings just in case your opponent doesn’t play as planned. I agree with @xngawangx, I like the Caro-Kann too

This is a terrible plan. It would take years to do that on a basic level, and the benefits are negligible. It's like trying to learn a language by memorizing the words for all animals and plants.

If you have a ton of time and a ton of dedication to improve in chess, you should join a chess club. Or get a private coach. Or get some chess books from a library. Or watch educational videos.

And play a lot of chess. And do a lot of puzzles.

Chess has over a thousand opening variations and just memorizing moves isn't enough because then you'll have to memorize what to play in all possible branches of worse moves as well as moves which aren't "theory." On the first move of the game, white has 20 possible choices and then black has 20 possible responses. Just on move 1, this gives 400 moves to memorize. Memorizing is uneffective and impractical.

Yes @hyzelw7 thank you for copy and pasting my exact post. Just make sure to quote me next time

You can't memorize all of them. There are too many.Aso, openings suck, just learn one and boom you're good to go.

5-10 hours a day? You sure your not gonna get burnt out:/ maybe if you play at least as much as you study

Ps:you don't need a lot of studying just understand the basic ideas tactics can be helpful for putting some pattern recognition in but playing is still best just try to figure out why and how your messing up that's alot more helpful

Memorization alone won’t get you far if you’re not practicing applying what you learn. Playing regularly—even if it means losing games—will help you improve faster than only studying theory. The experience of handling different kinds of positions and getting comfortable with middle-game tactics and endgames will help you retain knowledge and increase your rating.

Up to 10 hours a day, and 100 hours left to go, you’ll be done in under two weeks. Come back and let us know.

How do you have that much free time? Also good luck memorizing ALL the openings in 200 hours, your time is probably better spent learning tactics and basic endgames than openings.

Begin with something easier, such as counting all the stars.

Painting the Sistine Chapel also works.

Sixtine that is.

I litteraly don't know any opening

2500