Learning Chess

I practice on my board, alone, moving both the white and black pieces from a published book on my favorite opening. I'm trying to memorize as many of the opening moves as I can. Is this a good procedure?

Not really... Openings are one of the least useful things to learn in chess outside the master levels...  You only need to really learn openings until its not the main reason you aren't losing anymore (which isn't much, its basically a matter of not falling into traps).  Besides, since they are all memorization, openings really only teach you openings.

Most important is learning chess tactics (like how to fork, skewer, pin, checkmate, and whatnot).  In the words of ken smith: "Until you are at least a high Class A player: Your first name is 'Tactics', your middle name is 'Tactics', and your last name is 'Tactics'."  Being able to see how to get an extra piece more often is so much more important then a +/- advantage out of the opening.

Another important thing to learn are endgames.  Do you know when you can win when you have 2 kings and a pawn?  How about 2 kings, 2 rooks, and a pawn? (lucena position)  Do you know when its a draw? (philidor position).  Endgames might not come up much at the beginner level, but its a crying shame when you are up a pawn and can't win a game of chess, since these endgames listed come up in over half of the games that simplify to an endgame.

Finally, a bit of study on the middlegame makes for a well rounded study, but still probably 90% of your time (I'm serious) should be spent on tactics until you aren't dropping pieces due to tactical combinations.

bickley has good points i get cought somtings with nc7 cheak but have leart when i boils down rook v night i will always offer the draw whitch ever round it is

Thank you MBickley and bigmac. Do you have any suggestions for book study?

Yeah, it's really about the tactics. When I state these things, please understand that I'm an average player, but I study and slowly imporve my playing. The openings are great to know but when you approach the middle and end games, it's all about tactics that give you an advantage. I used the Chessmaster training program and a number of books like Pandolfini's "Ultimate Guide To Chess." I also like his book on the end game and pretty much all of his other writings. I use the PSP version of Chessmaster because it has an unlimited  series of puzzles dealing with tactics.

Memorizing openings without gaining the understanding of them is useless. What happens if someone changes the variation/order of the moves on you?

Grasp the concepts of them and u should be fine. Then learn tactics and strategy including in the endgame. You do all that and u will improve better.