A man walks into the doctors office and says, "DOC! It hurts when I do THIS!" The doc simply replies - stop doing that.
Learning chess is a marathon that you only progress into if you enjoy the process. As you found above, there are many ways to progress ;). Enjoy the journey!
Play a system then. Colle for White, Hippo for Black.
as a permanant e4 player I do not have this struggle
@ContrabassFlute said in #13:
> as a permanant e4 player I do not have this struggle
Lol but the Berlin is far worse than the London.
Learn and practice the principles of chess. You shouldnt be learning openings yet. You need general principles to improve your game.
Openings are not really that important till at least below 2000 level.You should just know how to get a good/equal position in the middle game with an opening and know how to deal with positions that may arise from the middle game.Learning endgames and being tactically sound(not losing pieces and spotting tactics) is crucial at your stage of chess development.Once you reach say 1500 or 1600 you should put more focus on the middle game and strategic ides.Detailed opening preparation is only required at the uppermost levels of chess.Do not try to learn traps as they are not going to be useful in the long-term(every player the trap is played against reduces the chance of winning with it again).You may occasionally lose a match but you then gain knowledge of the trap automatically and you will not fall for it again.
Play the openings you are studying, both as white and black. - :]
learn openings , it will help you but dont use them blindly,like there are some players , who blindly learn openings and if their opponent does not play according to that oppening,then they just resign in next 3 moves,so if you have to learn openings,you should have a good understanding of chess in order to learn openings and remember,chess is a game of intelligence and not openings or endgames.:)
Break things down... studying an opening is a massive undertaking... Start off by getting the main lines down pat...Lichess studies could be a helpful tool... Learn the sidelines over time as they come up in your games... do post game review and analysis. Put the sideline into opening explorer... study master games. Watch videos. All of this should be secondary to endgame training and tactics training... 45%endgame/45%tactics/10%opening. Getting your opening repertoire to a high level of understanding should take at least a year or two... it is like climbing a mountain...step by step.
The London seems to be good for you. You don't have to learn anything, just play the same moves again and again. Boring but safe.
