Tournaments with specific openings ANDlow rating ranges...

   Every time I see a opening themed tournament with a rating range like 1000-1300 I laugh...why and what can someone within that rating range know about an opening.

very little.  that's the point...we're trying to learn it. 

you missed my point

Only way to learn opening is to play it over and over and over again. And no better way for that then themed tournament.

ratings that low don't need opening practice, the thory is not necessary yet...

 That is so stupid that I have no comment to make. Please tell me more about how they should learn chess principles, and end game etc.

You can not play chess if  you do not know at least one opening good, and only way to learn it is to play it as much as you can. I play french all the time and still havent played all variations of it, and I have played 40+ games. When I am done with french I move on to Caro-Kann. If someone with that small rating play 20 free games and all are diferent openings they would be somewhat lost. This is good way to practice, and I dont know why you are against it?

This is a good example...what if you end up playing the french, but the opponent does something out of book? The opening wouldn't be considered french because the opponent didn't do the necessar moves...in fact, the opening could be horrible(for either of you)

If my opponent play e4 e6 is French. He can not play out of it.

If he plays d4, you learn one opening for queens pawn and play it, same as for e4

What is not clear here?

And every out of book move in first 5-7 moves is  not good or else it would be in book.

In the end, every game will eventualy go out of book. That is when principles and therory of chess take place. But one at the time.

after e4 e6 your opponent can start responding out of books, which would make him "wrong." Low rated players who memorize openings cannot capitalize on this because they don't know why the theory is correct.

Listen, mate, not all low rated have mental disabitiles. If you play one opening, and know what to exploit from it, and what is the idea of that opening,  you shouldn't have too much trouble moving on and defeting your opponent who play out of book in move no.2, on the other hand, most of lose games of low rated players are becouse of blunders, miss a rook here, knight there and you are allready 2 peaces behind. Neglecting the pawns is one more mistake most of beginers make. When I started paying more atention on what my opponent plays and not making blunders my rating rocket up. Other issue is positional play, that ask for great understanding of positional play and theory, good and bad bishops, pawn structure etc. And dont take only french in consideration. Look at this game of mine, its first game I played here on chess.com

http://www.chess.com/games/view.html?id=4736614

It's basic that you have to know why is some move bad or good. Without it you can memorize all of CEO openings and still have no idea what are you doing, that is out of question. And I am saying, first principles then openings by book. But to learn one opening you can not just memorize it, you need to play it over and over again.

Shirley, you can't be serious?

Of course you can study openings; at least as much as anything else in chess. There are countless books on chess openings, and probably about half of my personal chess library covers openings. I would have to say that there is more specific theory on opening play than either of the other stages of the game.

I can't be serious? Why is that? Dont take my statements out of context. Play it as they are ment to be played, not play first few moves by book and then go wild.