Develop a Deeper Understanding

Hi,

I've been playing chess for a few years now and have been trying all the while to expand my understanding of chess strategy and positional play. One problem with my game that I am trying to address is my lack of knowledge with regards to opening theory. I have tried studying the main ideas of every opening I could look up but haven't been able to find what I am looking for. I am looking for books or materials that can expain ideas such as "When white plays 1.d4 then e4 becomes a key square to control and attack". These are the sorts of boiled down facts pertaining to positional play in each opening that I would like to learn. I don't mind other information being introduced, but I do want clarity in the important themes and ideas of many of the most common and some irregular openings. Does anyone have some advice?

Look at the grandmaster repertoire series.

FCO: Fundamental Chess Openings

Do not look at the GM Repertoire series. They are way too detailed and advanced for what you're looking for.

Maybe you should narrow it down a bit in the first place.

The "Starting Out" series by Everyman Chess claims to focus on basic ideas. From what I've seen, that's correct for at least some titles published there.

To each their own, but from personal experience, I struggled with all of the above comments for years now, and only recently did I feel I am developing that deeper understanding.  To quote the forward of my recent (2.5 months ago) purchase of The English Opening Volume 1 of the Grandmaster Repertoire series, "As a child and teenager I only played 1.e4, but at the age of 18 I switched to 1.d4.  For several years I employed aggressive set-ups, but in the early '90s I started to be attracted to the schemes involving a kingside fianchetto.  Without me being aware of it, this was the moment when the book you are holding in your hands started its unusually long period of gestation."  The author, Mihail Marin continues the forward in such a way I was so touched I cried.  My own experience parralled his in many respects.  I have no formal chess education, so while that left my creativity over the board boundless, it also left me confused on how to proceed in many openings after move 3, which I blamed for many of my losses.

A few years ago I played in a small tournament that a friend asked to come to with him.  I did fairly well and began with a provisional rating in the 1700s.  Last year I decided to enter the 2012 Philadelphia Open U1800 section which I won even though I had no idea what to do in many of the early resulting positions.  I proceed to enter a few more tournaments (U2000 and U2200 sections) after that, and got destroyed, leaving me to doubt I could ever get any better.  Around December 2012 I asked myself the same question as yours until I stumbled across Marin's books.

I have spent these last 2.5 months studying his first 2 volumes in preperation for the under 2000 section of the 2013 Philadelphia Open, which I recently competed, and tied for 5th place with a performance rating of over 2000.  My only loss was to the player who took 1st place, and it was because I did not have sufficient time to cover all of Marin's variations.  Unlike the previous tournaments, it was not luck to get the 2 draws I had, but was on the offense and simply didn't fully think through my attack.  My sacrifices left me down material, but with enough momentum to force my opponent to a draw.  In many of the positions that arose from this tournament I would never have had the slightlest clue on how to proceed if I had not spent these last 2 months intensly studying his annotations.  So while I understand many people preaching the study of endgames, basic opening principals, etc. I for one have found no substitute for studying something that teaches you how not to make early, unrecoverable mistakes in the first place.  I also believe my recent live, 6 hour matches are proof to that.

I would also like to add I have a fairly unique style, as I am a specialized flank attacker.  While I am strictly devoted to the English opening as white now (after reading Marin's books), I play the Sicillian (against 1.e4) or Benko Gambit (against 1.d4) as black.  The result is I am left in similar positions on either side of the board I can reason myself through, lending itself to middlegame tactics and long term endgame strategy.

the last one is really a big one to read it lol

well the problem with opening books is, i just assume it also with mihail marins book so. That they sometimes show the mainlines and when they show why its bad for your opponent not to stick to the mainlines, the reasons are sometimes way to difficult to understand.

I second sapiendust's recommendation of FCO.  If you take a look at the "study plans" on site, you will notice that it is recommended that beginning intermediates (1400 and over) learn the first 8 to 10 moves of around 40 common opening systems.  I think FCO is probably the best single volume opening reference around because each and every move is explained.  You learn what the plans are for white and black without requiring you to memorize endless variations.  If you understand the ideas behind the openings your task is so much easier and you can get into a middle game without crippling weaknesses.  In many ways FCO is a modern version of Fine's "The ideas behind the chess openings" which is still a fine book but a little long in the tooth at this point.  Of course your main focus should still be on increasing your board vision and tactics are certainly the best way to do that, but learning enough opening theory so you don't get killed in the first dozen moves or so makes sense too.