Depends on your experience level. Im USCF 1800+ and opening study is the last thing i work on. Unless your Expert/Master strength, learn the principles behind the openings you play. There is no need to memorize openings 20+ moves deep, unless you just want to sound chess smart.
Understand the principles behind the openings you play
Understand the pawn structure behind the openings you play
Well it'd depend on 2 things how deep you feel you want to know the lines and how deep you really know them because I know openings very well not due to any research of openings but research of GM games so I'd say it's all about if you feel your openings... or even 1 particular opening is the chink in your chess armour
Hey DAVID! and no way, if you want to improve you should study the idea of a move and their plan not just the best move. In a real game ur probably just gonna forget it and screw up and lose.
Pity you didn't buy van der Sterren's FCO instead. He rarely goes more than 10 or 12 moves deep in an opening, but explains the rationale behind every move. Not at all unusual for him to devote a paragraph to one move. Opening books that just list moves are pretty much useless in this day of cheap or free databases. Still, a lot of oldtimers swear by them.
Pity you didn't buy van der Sterren's FCO instead. He rarely goes more than 10 or 12 moves deep in an opening, but explains the rationale behind every move. Not at all unusual for him to devote a paragraph to one move. Opening books that just list moves are pretty much useless in this day of cheap or free databases. Still, a lot of oldtimers swear by them.
Van der Sterren's FCO is an excellent opening guide.
Here is what I do. It has worked well for me.
Our ratings are similar, maybe it will work for you too.
dept of the openings is not that important. i have a friend who has a USCF rating of 1826 and he doesn't even know the names of most of the openings.
dept of the openings is not that important. i have a friend who has a USCF rating of 1826 and he doesn't even know the names of most of the openings.
Im 1805, and thats pretty much me.
So I just got a fancy, big, fat chess openings book. Sounds jolly, doesn't it? The only problem is that I have no idea to what depth I should study it to. Most of the lines in the book go up to 20, 25 moves. Should I really go that in-depth into the book and devote hours and hours on it, or should I just briefly address each line and do other chess stuff with my time?
are the few things I keep in mind for every opening
So I just got a fancy, big, fat chess openings book. Sounds jolly, doesn't it? The only problem is that I have no idea to what depth I should study it to. Most of the lines in the book go up to 20, 25 moves. Should I really go that in-depth into the book and devote hours and hours on it, or should I just briefly address each line and do other chess stuff with my time?