yeah......... players who are highly rated like to tell ya what to do or not do......... some of their advice is good, a lot is NOT. if it concerns moves on the board - yeah, they'll know more than an inexperienced guy. they can pick out the moves - BUT, how they acquired their knowledge, how YOU should acquire your knowledge ---- they often are wrong. they see it all from how they did it. i guess that worked for them - but just because it worked for them, no reason it will for you, or the next guy, or that guy, or that other guy........etc. for that you need a teacher, not some guy who is simply a highly rated player.
i always enjoyed openings, and so i studied them. once you 'memorize' them, and figure out they why's and why nots --- even if you make mistakes (you will) - imho you'll be doing fine. i play guys better than me, who don't know an opening from a banana - whatever. they're stronger players than me. actually, against them i MAY have an advantage in the opening, which i may lose due to their being stronger than me. that happens. they're stronger players than me, they should be able to recover from their opening gaffes. these guys do not want to study openings. that's up to them. however, they won't be able to become really highly ranked players until they correct their openings. which may be never. that's up to them, entirely. those guys sometimes love playing, hate studying.
i agree with #3: at lower levels in particular, guys will not know the openings, and they'll make all manner of crazy moves. you should be able to take advantage of their gaffes. what you should NOT do, imho, is learn complex variations and openings, so probably not something like the ruy lopez, altho i guess that's up to you. i'm a p low ranked player, and i play the ruy regularly. i enjoy that opening, as it has lots of variations and immediately confronts black with Bb5 attacking the N at c6. how a lower rated guy responds to that provocation can be strange, and your job is to take advantage of that...
personally, now i mainly play e4 openings that are pretty open....... petrof, scotch, and i started with the italian. i don't care for the italian any more. it's pretty static, esp at the lower levels, imho. i've been trying to learn the d4 tree of openings --- i guess i've just never felt comfortable with that... but until i spent months playing the d4 stuff in blitz, i would not have learned or gained that knowledge............. so it was i guess worth it.
i strongly encourage guys to learn openings at the club level..... i mean, unless you hate or don't like doing study. in which case, maybe don't bother or just study a little....
i always enjoyed openings, and so i studied them. once you 'memorize' them, and figure out they why's and why nots --- even if you make mistakes (you will) - imho you'll be doing fine. i play guys better than me, who don't know an opening from a banana - whatever. they're stronger players than me. actually, against them i MAY have an advantage in the opening, which i may lose due to their being stronger than me. that happens. they're stronger players than me, they should be able to recover from their opening gaffes. these guys do not want to study openings. that's up to them. however, they won't be able to become really highly ranked players until they correct their openings. which may be never. that's up to them, entirely. those guys sometimes love playing, hate studying.
i agree with #3: at lower levels in particular, guys will not know the openings, and they'll make all manner of crazy moves. you should be able to take advantage of their gaffes. what you should NOT do, imho, is learn complex variations and openings, so probably not something like the ruy lopez, altho i guess that's up to you. i'm a p low ranked player, and i play the ruy regularly. i enjoy that opening, as it has lots of variations and immediately confronts black with Bb5 attacking the N at c6. how a lower rated guy responds to that provocation can be strange, and your job is to take advantage of that...
personally, now i mainly play e4 openings that are pretty open....... petrof, scotch, and i started with the italian. i don't care for the italian any more. it's pretty static, esp at the lower levels, imho. i've been trying to learn the d4 tree of openings --- i guess i've just never felt comfortable with that... but until i spent months playing the d4 stuff in blitz, i would not have learned or gained that knowledge............. so it was i guess worth it.
i strongly encourage guys to learn openings at the club level..... i mean, unless you hate or don't like doing study. in which case, maybe don't bother or just study a little....