I was wondering how important in chess skill is the opening theory knowledge compared to stuff like calculation. I am just a beginner, my most common openings are king's pawn and French defence, like in most of the beginners. I know close to nothing when it comes to opening theory of those two openings (or any other opening for that matter). Is it worth it to spend my time learning opening theory instead of doing tactics for example?
No, it's perfectly fine to get destroyed in opening theory and then failing to get any tactical advantage while your opponent slowly picks you apart.
I think at level below 2200, games are usually decided by other factors, so I wouldn't recommend spending too much time on openings. Just pick a solid prespective openings and learn the plans and common tactics, so that you get a playable position where you know what to do. In any case don't try to just remember lines. Look at some games of strong players (preferably from the last 3 years) for inspiration on how to play.
Well, in chess I have always rejected the idea of memorizing openings (or anything), anybody can do that and it doesn't take skill.
Bobby Fischer had the same idea, that's why he promoted Fischer random chess.
However, if you pick an opening for white and one for black and always play it, you will learn the main lines and eventually also all the minor lines in game, simply by letting your opponents show you all the different lines. That's how I learned the openings I play.
I have always loved to learn by playing, I have never read a chess book in my life, only 1 exercise book on tactics, ever. So yeah, you can be a pretty good player just by playing alot.
If you are a book person and love to learn and memorize openings, go for it. But you don't have to, you can also learn by playing alot.
Bobby Fischer had the same idea, that's why he promoted Fischer random chess.
However, if you pick an opening for white and one for black and always play it, you will learn the main lines and eventually also all the minor lines in game, simply by letting your opponents show you all the different lines. That's how I learned the openings I play.
I have always loved to learn by playing, I have never read a chess book in my life, only 1 exercise book on tactics, ever. So yeah, you can be a pretty good player just by playing alot.
If you are a book person and love to learn and memorize openings, go for it. But you don't have to, you can also learn by playing alot.
Just learn the practical concepts and ideas of the opening you want to play. Get used to the type of pawn structures, middlegames and endgames of that particular opening. You should be fine with that for now.
It depends on how you play in my opinion. For some reason I do not buy people that say you have to be a certain level to study opening theory. As long as you understand it and learn something then it is a good practical choice to do so. Openings teach you very important concepts such as time/tempos wasted or gained that can be used in endgames where you have to lose tempos in order to win sometimes. Openings also teach you strategy and avoiding opponents tactics. It is important imo to understand all aspects equally. I learned a lot from GM Jan Gustafsson and he is a big openings advocate not so much a tactics/puzzles and so on kind of player. Him Karpov, Kasparov and Caruana are my chess models that I try and play like. Good to pick a couple of GM's with similar and or polar opposite styles to learn from. However your rating should suggest how deep you learn openings to an extent. For me I am learning by "obsessing" over one opening at a time then moving to another opening. Eventually I will come back to old ones I learned and learn them deeper. Its best to learn the first bunch of correct theoretical moves out to 7 or so then start working on specifics. My rating went from 1600ish to 1800ish when I did so. Now I don’t play a lot of rated like I did a month or two ago. But that is besides the point. Another important thing to understand is why moves are made not just memorizing them. What I mean by studying openings is not memorizing them to move 20 or 30 but memorizing and understanding the ideas behind why they are played. For example in the Grünfeld black plays to attack d4 and play should revolve around that square. You may ask but why does play revolve around d5. It revolves around d4 since white has a pawn centre and black is trying to prove the pawn centre a liability over an asset. You can get deeper than this easy and should but that is just a basic example of what a why question would look like in bare minimum. You should understand the different pawn structures that arise from different openings and the styles of play you should use in each opening as well. Often times in the QGA you get an isolated A pawn and in some cases this can happen in the Caro Kann as well. As white you should know how to deal with this and plan accordingly. One mistake that I made is not studying endgames. Not necessarily theoretical endgames but endgames in general. Endgames are as important or maybe in some cases more important than openings and middlegames. Since fundamentals are often more drastically proven in a endgame.
In openings when starting out I recommend playing e4 d4 nf3 and c4. Play everything. What you learn in one can be used in another. Also you can get tricked into other openings for example d4 players can be tricked into a French with d4 e6 e4 d5. And some Sicilian positions can replicate e4 e5 even though they dont play like that normally.
Just food for thought.
In openings when starting out I recommend playing e4 d4 nf3 and c4. Play everything. What you learn in one can be used in another. Also you can get tricked into other openings for example d4 players can be tricked into a French with d4 e6 e4 d5. And some Sicilian positions can replicate e4 e5 even though they dont play like that normally.
Just food for thought.
Just play tricky openings almost everyone will fall for. like mine, the ponziani
just try to go to a club to play some otb or get a group to learn from a master.
if you are isolated then watch Chessnetworks videos from beginner to master
just try to go to a club to play some otb or get a group to learn from a master.
if you are isolated then watch Chessnetworks videos from beginner to master
@blazeop : calculation is the most important skill in chess, but some opening knowledge can't hurt.
#8
You can't calculate what you can't see, so opening your mind to see all the possibilities is the most important skill in chess.
You can't calculate what you can't see, so opening your mind to see all the possibilities is the most important skill in chess.
Depends on your level.
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