What do you do to memorize openings?

@dfgh123 - please rate the app if you like it!

More updates!

⭐ picks up right where you left off, even if the app was closed
⭐ "analyze" button appears after completing a drill, clicking it opens the variation in a browser where it can be analyzed

How do I memorize openings?

I don't.

I find it a LOT easier to memorize ideas instead. Then I fit the actual moves around those ideas.

So suppose I'm learning a line in the 2. d3 KIA vs the Caro-Kann defense (1. e4 c6 2. d3)

I will look for instructive games in that line, especially older GM-quality games that display the ideas of the variation clearly.

In the above case, (1. e4 c6 2. d3) I would have found the Tal-Smyslov game from their 1959 Candidates match, and studied it... along with a few others.

Those master games and the ideas they contain will give me a framework that can support the memorization of specific variations. Once I have this conceptual structure anchored in my memory, it's much easier to remember the moves.

Watch a Ginger GM opening video - that is how to learn an opening, I found him a great help. I am well over 2000 but I don't have the ability to remember hundreds of opening lines, I simply know the thematic ideas and key squares and I work through some GM games that use that opening.

really helpful thread!

@blueemu - agreed that understanding goes first. Training by repetition might be the next step one can take to really get proficient with the opening repertoire. After all playing chess games is by itself training by repetition. The app from the original post simply offers the ability to run through more focused, decoupled repetition trainings.