Strategy to common openings

Ive been reading up on a lot of openings lately. I understand setups, some of the lines, couple traps, etc. One thing I dont seem to understand is the actual strategy behind some of the openings. Other than to basically read & react, control the middle, just the basics. I like to have a plan and Im wondering if some people could help me with that?

For example, I understand the kings gambit strategy. Take control of the middle, and make an aggressive kingside push

what openings do you not get the stradegy of?

the question i guess is how am supposed to go about trying to win the game. whats the plan. i understand i have to react to people but i would still like an idea to play by.

And I was just saying in general, not specific openings. So i dunno, sicilian, ruy lopez, scotch, italian, french. Just rambling off quick ones

For me it happened over time. I can recommend a few things: 1) Watch chess videos by masters. You can find these on this site, ICC, youtube, lots of places. 2) Solitaire chess. Basically you pick a player you would like to emulate, preferably a 2600+ grandmaster who plays your openings. Then you sit down and try to guess his/her moves before you see them. Try to get inside their head. I used to do this with closed positions and within a few months my chess understanding shot up remarkably. 3) In chess there are two types of theory. Concrete opening theory and middlegame theory. The latter is what you need. For that, go through Jeremy Silman's books. Reassess Your Chess is the best one. 4) Learn the pawn structures. For instance, in the Queen's Gambit Declined, the pawn structure alone will tell you that there are 3 common ways to play the middle game. That structure in that opening is called the Carlsbad Structure. There are about 10 or so structures, called tabiyas, which form the backbone of most openings. Here are a few: Carlsbad Structure, Isolated Queen's Pawn, Maroczy bind, Caro-Slav structure, Botvinnik System, French Defence structure, King's Indian Defence structure, fluid structures like in the Modern Defence where you tear apart the centre from far away. Learn these structures and you will be able to handle any opening. Later on you can learn concrete theory by analyzing the latest games with the help of a database which will give you all the lastest played moves.

It takes some time, but really, you can tell a lot about any given opening by analyzing the things it does do (and the things it fails to do).  

Queen's Gambit opens c file or half-opens it, and Rc1 pretty early on, combined with Qc2 in many systems, puts a lot of pressure on that file.   That's kind of the point of the gambit (along with getting black to give up a central pawn).   There's a sort of machinery at work.   Even if black wants to trade pieces early, that's fine, you just keep moving people on to the c-file.   There's no intended kingside action, and this is indicated with the first moves - d4 and c4.   White is working the queenside.   

Same goes for black - if he plays 1.  ..., f4 for example, this is an announcement that he is playing on the kingside, developing to there, and hopefully winning there.   There are certainly finesses involved with any system or set of opening ideas and I think otb practice along with a book giving guidance is the only way to really master any particular opening.  

Most of the lasting openings, the tried-and-true, have a fairly easy to understand goal, and by striving for it, you certainly have better results.  One way I learned about this was when someone kicked my butt, I'd ask them to explain what I did wrong, or at least go back and look at how it came about, how their advantage was built.   

dude u can only memorise openings but statergy and stuff depends on ur thinking power calculations etc

solitare chess?

I do it.  I never really referred to it by that name but in Heisman's "Improving Chess Thinker" he has de Groot positions where you write down your thoughts and analysis.  I treat every unfamiliar position (including parts of the opening) like that.  I even found some interesting tactics that weren't even played in some of them, especially Petrosian overlooked tactics sometimes.