And I shall add to this that even when you hit 2000, Openings aren't all you should be studying. I'm 2082 right now, and I'm studying 6 books at the moment, ONE of which is an opening book. The others? 2 Game Collection books, 2 Middlegame Books, and a book on Calculation.
Middlegame and Endgame studying doesn't end when you hit 2000!
I work for free on this site, along with many other worker bees.
Great forum topic, Borg! This should be fun.
If you don't eat meat because it makes you sick, I can understand being a vegetarian.
15 books are in my current study que. None are on Opening systems, per se.
Except (perhaps) a recent purchase of Johan Hellsten, Mastering Opening Strategy, (2012). His emphasis is on the STRATEGY, not the openings themselves. Nuff said?
And I challenge IM @Pfren to a Judo-Death-Match, whenever he's ready. 
If pig is king, then i'd rather not be king considering the way you treat your kings.
I hardly ever eat animals that eat other animals. That makes me a vegetarian once removed.
Assuming you are 2000 or above, a lot depends on how you study the openings. I certainly don't agree that openings are a black hole in your study time.
Most games are decided [by this I mean one side or the other has enough to win] in the first 15 moves--so this makes openings important.
Assuming you are 2000 or above, a lot depends on how you study the openings. I certainly don't agree that openings are a black hole in your study time.
Most games are decided [by this I mean one side or the other has enough to win] in the first 15 moves--so this makes openings important.
I study openings by putting a cup of milk, a cup of margarine, and 14 bags of yeast, and stick it in the oven. The faster the oven pops open, the more open my chess games become!
No, in all seriousness, it's a stylistic thing. The Opening book I'm studying is "The Modern Defense: Move by Move". The flexibility of Black's position is what I thrive on. That's why when I played the Sicilian, I did better with the Taimanov than say, the Najdorf or Dragon. It's the most elastic of all Sicilians!
For others, they may prefer static positions, in which case, the Modern isn't for them. They should study the Closed Ruy and the Queen's Gambit Declined as Black.
Great forum topic, Borg! This should be fun.
If you don't eat meat because it makes you sick, I can understand being a vegetarian.
What's so hard to understand?
If you go selectively vegetarian, keep in mind pig is most versatile. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it covers all your bases. So you can study the latest developments in the Ruy Lopez while eating bacon.
Mmm, bacon.
Great forum topic, Borg! This should be fun.
If you don't eat meat because it makes you sick, I can understand being a vegetarian.
What's so hard to understand?
It's hard for me to understand why people don't eat meat because of the poor animals.
I mean, where do you draw the line? Why is it monstrous to kill and eat a pig, yet it's cool to kill and eat a soybean plant?
Great forum topic, Borg! This should be fun.
If you don't eat meat because it makes you sick, I can understand being a vegetarian.
What's so hard to understand?
It's hard for me to understand why people don't eat meat because of the poor animals.
I mean, where do you draw the line? Why is it monstrous to kill and eat a pig, yet it's cool to kill and eat a soybean plant?
If we dont kill and eat the pigs, they're gonna eat all the soybeans.
I know, I used to keep pigs. They also eat the neighbour's clivias
Have you smelt vegetarians! They fart alot.....I suppose if we farmed vegetarians we could power the machines that slaughter the pigs for us to eat...Smaller carbon footprint,it's a win win situation.
The vegetarians cut the grass while we have a big breakfast
Great forum topic, Borg! This should be fun.
If you don't eat meat because it makes you sick, I can understand being a vegetarian.
What's so hard to understand?
It's hard for me to understand why people don't eat meat because of the poor animals.
I mean, where do you draw the line? Why is it monstrous to kill and eat a pig, yet it's cool to kill and eat a soybean plant?
You know, i ask myself the same thing about other animals. Why do some people not eat horse meat? Rats, i can sort of understand. Why do some people not eat cats or dogs? Pigs happen to be smarter than dogs. What about those worthless human beings? Surely they could make a nice meal. I guess somebody has to draw a line somewhere, don't they?
Horse was deemed to have a more productive value, rats live in filth and carry disease,Hunting cats such as sabre tooth expelled too much energy,dogs had a working value also and people made good slaves.
Just eat the useless stuff
You don't understand the word overrated. You can't be overrated if you aren't highly rated
Great forum topic, Borg! This should be fun.
If you don't eat meat because it makes you sick, I can understand being a vegetarian.
really?
Vegetarian = old indian word for poor hunter
Horse was deemed to have a more productive value, rats live in filth and carry disease,Hunting cats such as sabre tooth expelled too much energy,dogs had a working value also and people made good slaves.
Just eat the useless stuff
What about the common housecat? I'm sure cattle had close to as much a productive value, yet they were eaten. People can be pretty useless too. At times they're even more trouble than they're worth.
Following the hallowed traditions of @Daeth, @YourASlob, @MrAwesome, and @MonsterNoName, I post the following two bold (and bald) assertions --
Generic middlegame and endgame knowledge is DECISIVE for your playing strength. Openings, are (mostly) just a black hole for your study time. This is especially true when you study many opening systems, and keep switching them round, hoping to find that "killer system" to use. Instead, your opponents easily transposes the opening into something you haven't studied, and you are SOL (shite out of luck), so to speak.
So Wise Up, and get your priorities straight.
Against Vegetarianism, I assert that Pig is King!
Compare BBC article on same --
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20970092
AND, if you INSIST on studying (many) openings while you are still a weak player, at least hire yourself a chess coach, and he will rein in your excesses.
*[Edit: (as of November 2013) -- about 130 posts below have been lost because of folks leaving the Chess.com site. As a result, our discussion, while still funny, can be a bit disjointed at times. I apologize in advance.]