How to REALLY study Chess Openings

I recently have seen a lot of questions regarding what the best opening to play is. Different individuals give different opinions, but I believe this leaves a vast majority of people confused as to how to proceed regarding choosing which openings to put in their arsenal.

I would like to offer a different way of looking at things. Rather than focusing on which openings are best, I want to focus on how one should study openings. Practically every opening has been seen at the top level. The distribution of opening frequency employed by the very top players can be accounted due to a common stylistic trend that has been proven to give these players a slight edge against their competition. Not to mention, a lot of the top players have a mentality of "win with white, draw with black", which I don't feel is a good philosophy for up and coming new players to adopt. Without further ado, lets get to the good stuff.

Which opening to choose: Depends on your goals. If you want to just have fun, choose an opening like London system that requires essentially no work. If you want to improve, choose an opening that allows you to experience a wide variety of different positions. This will hone your intuition to allow you to play uncomfortable positions that you may encounter in the future more effectively.

Immediately after picking an opening, you are going to feel a MASSIVE urge to go through that opening and memorize as many variations as possible. I can totally relate with you. It is so fun seeing the work you have put into something come to fruition right away over the chess board. Actually getting to play that variation that you spent 2 hours looking at is so cool. I think this parallels people's desire to "get rich quick". By implementing some ideas that you intensely looked at, you get to experience the fruits of your labor so fast.

Honestly, this is not that bad of an approach, but I believe it is flawed.

How to REALLY study an opening: Before you dive into the nitty gritty variations, it is important to step back and look at the big picture of things. You wouldn't buy a house without considering where it is located, how many bedrooms it has, what the schools nearby are like, or how much it costs. Similarly, with an opening, you should ultimately try to understand if that opening allows you to play positions that YOU ENJOY PLAYING.

Ask yourself these questions to guide you:
1. What types of endgames tend to arise from this opening?
2. What types of pawn structures does this opening tend to bring you?
3. What are the aggressive options within this opening?
4. What are the positional options within this opening?
5. What demographic is this opening likely to be successful against?
6. When are you going to have difficulty playing this opening?
7. If you forget theory at any point, are you comfortable defending in the type of position you are in? (this even still happens to me)
8. Does this opening offer you adequate opportunity to improve as a player?
9. How much time will you have to spend studying this opening?
10. If you were put in an incredibly high pressure environment (such as a tiebreaker game), could you rely on this opening to get you a decent position?

When considering these questions, you want to look for general trends. Some variations are more complicated than others, but at the end of the day, most openings tend to trend towards a certain type of position.

After going through these questions, before you dive into the variations, you want to try to explain the opening to a friend (or to yourself in the mirror) in 30 seconds or less. Try to see if you can get the big picture across in a simple, coherent manner.

All in all, I do recognize that learning variations is important. Without the process of memorizing (to a certain, LIMITED degree), you will constantly be fighting from behind in inferior positions. However, taking a step back to consider the bigger picture will allow you to play against unfamiliar ideas in a well-planned out, strategic manner.

If you are interested in exploring other chess articles, feel free to join my team here: lichess.org/team/chess-learners

If you interested in private lessons, feel free to send me a private message.

Great read -- I hope that chess authors finally take note of this because I don't believe I've found an opening book that covers all these topics.

Often times I'll discover some tactical motifs from an opening I play after checking with stockfish. If you just look at the games of top players, that motif might not appear because the other player won't blunder into it. Those are extremely valuable because sometimes you need to make a move for positional reasons, that at first glance appears to lose material.

Question one is a really important one that a book on a chess opening needs to properly address. At least set out a chapter demonstrating a few endgame positions and a guide on how to play them. For example -- there's a common imbalanced endgame position that arises out of the main line scotch. If you can memorize up until that point, and train that particular endgame, you should be well prepared for a tournament.

@on_the_kingside Appreciate the insight. A couple of further things I would like to clarify. First, part of embracing a new opening is recognizing that you will overlook a lot of the tactical insights that opening has to offer initially. That is why it is important to play lots of games, to make sure to drill those complicated concepts into your intuition. Second, although in theory memorizing openings to the endgame position is a semi-viable strategy, often times players that do this are put into difficult situations when their opponent opts for a deviation.

In summary: Play lots of games in the opening you want to adopt.

Thanks for the advice, TitleKiller.

Always a pleasure.