There are plenty of resources expaining the openings. One book is:
www.thriftbooks.com/w/how-to-play-the-chess-openings_eugne-znosko-borovsky/455246/#edition=3609756&idiq=1841468Just search: How to play chess openings and you will find ton's of books, sites, blogs, etc.
I would recommend the "Move by Move" series of opening books. I especially like the King's Indian Attack: Move by Move book authored by English Grandmaster Neil McDonald. This series of books goes through games that use the opening but stop and ask the reader what the idea behind a certain move is in a teacher-student kind of fashion. They might not necessarily have the most cutting-edge opening theory, but they're pretty good and they encourage you to try thinking more like a Grandmaster which is arguably more important.
@DaveCromer Before reading any book, I would recommend you Wikipedia:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chess_openingsThere are links of all openings in chess and they have variations mentioned with explanations as to why is it played.
And for book, first think which 'type' you want from here:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_opening_bookThe website has mentioned 8 notable manuals.
I would recommend you 'Mastering the Chess Openings' by John L. Watson
for me learning the ideas of any opening begins with finding a player you like who plays said opening (edit: i used
chessgames.com)
for example
as i struggled with the KID i looked at Ivanchuck and Kapsarov games as white as they always got open and dynamic positions and went over nearly all the games they won in a span of a couple of weeks
i noticed they played the Sämisch variation quite often and then i tried to understand the ideas by analysing their games in the variation
i tried to remember key manouvers, pawnbreaks or similar looking ideas that occoured freqently
what shouldn't happen tho (even tho i admit of doing it myself sometimes) is just flying over the games. the analysing part of a single should take anything from 10-60 mins depending on how much time u have and wanna spend
if you are really keen on improving you should write notes or make personal studies using the lichess tools so you can look back at it sometimes and improve on it
I strongly recommend the youtube channel of Hangingpawns!
A lot of bad table of contents if ideas are the objective. (videos don't have any, and most opening web pages such a list of openings, are not list of opening ideas. I am having such a precise point, here, worth emphasizing, I think. Surely, the ideas are to be found after exhaustive search of the tree move by move (not moves by moves, or root by root), and then in your third reincarnation you might be able to regroup them by shared ideas....
#10, on the other hand does seem promising. (not that the others are not valuable, i don't know, but i go by title first, then by table of content, then by pre-conceived ideas I might have...., half kidding).
As to waiting for an updating, I think that expanding on why it would need updating, might be a very educative good discussion, even more enlightening, than one author take on what such updating should look like. Serious, good faith discussion, with shared original objective of that book (or whatever readers appreciative of the book might have as such). Not about liking or not the book, but making progress in the same direction. what changed. ... I would definitely read such discussions (eager to read about different points of view about the content, not the book, but the object of the book, not its author either, unless it helps make an argument). I mean good faith, but no complacency, or reverence. isn't there room between those? I lack the nuanced words.
I have more basic chess openings,1. d4 repertoire (by Boris Avrukh) and The Carokann by Lars Schandorff
These have the basic ideas explained in them
I also found Petrosian move by move helpful in that context
To be frank almost all the basic ideas in openings are what you learn when you start out as a beginniner, for example, take control of the centre, place pieces optimally etc. Openings are just the applications of these ideas
In the end I would agree with going through games of the line in question. Petrosian move by move's game resources helped me in that
Another shout for HangingPawns on Youtube. Brilliant explanations of the strategic ambition underlying different openings, close examination of the different tactical options. Opened my eyes!
Thanks for all the answers everyone! Much appreciated. A few things to check out there so I'll come back to this thread over time.
@DaveCromer - it's probably also worth saying that at your level (and to a large extent at mine, too) the "idea" behind most openings is to develop your pieces actively, restrict your opponent's pieces, fight for control of the centre and get your king safe, without messing up your pawn structure or losing material to tactics. The subtler stuff can probably wait.
