Weird question, but I have been playing my father in law lately and he is heavy into theory. So heavy that he almost doesn't play games, just dig deeper and deeper into theory. The last game we played, he played french against my e4 and I followed up with Nc3. That was not the move I was "supposed" to play so he was a bit off guard. I really just enjoyed thinking out the move myself for my own reasons.

If I was deeper into theory I might have chosen a different approach, but I have a feeling the more theory I learn, the more auto pilot it will become (I am talking mostly openings)

Did you feel that way ehen you decided to learn chess properly? Did it take away the pleasure of thinking out move 2,3 and 4?

Looking at what Karjakin and Carlsen are doing these days with months and months of prep makes it seem auto pilot (until Carlsen does something wierd:))

Mid - and end game I assume will never be boring because you are so far into the game and have to rely on tactics.

Am I just being scared for nothing? I guess learningnproper theory will also open up another dimention of chess.

Why so many people accuse people of cheating on chess.com?

is getting better at chess ruining the experience?

not a wierd question at all, its just that with all the analysis from chess engines, chess becomes more a game of memory more than strategy and tactics, Fischer thought chess was becoming stale aswell, this is why he thought of chess960.

@Juergen. I said nothing about cheating...

 

@baddongo. Good thing most normal people suffer from random memory loss I guess

 

@borntogrowgrowntodie. Makes sense. 960 is something I don't fancy yet, but to eliminate the memory training it is probably a good thing. 

you have a good point, i remember being a beginner and leaving my queen en prise and sitting there trying to look confident that I didn't make a blunder hoping the opponent would not spot my queen hanging. Sure miss those days.

No, it is clear to me that the better you get in strength and positional understanding, the more you will enjoy chess.

Sometimes in games you can feel like you had more fun when you weren't so great at them. But you aren't really at some point where opening theory is so important that the game is becomming stale or whatever. Even if you don't play the opening well you'll be fine as long as you don't blunder something.

Worst case scenario against an opponent that is booked up is that you just end up with a disadvantage in the opening. But then the middlegame comes and your opponent has to actually do something with that which requires things other than opening knowledge. 

A practical example is that a GM could play a move like 1.a3 or 1.h3 and still beat lower rated players handidly simply because the GMs are better players. So no opeing knowledge isn't going to make the game stale for you at all.