Studying opening theory/lines

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JakeB144

So I am fairly new to chess but I love it and want to get better. One of the areas I struggle in (which are all of them to an extent) is opening theory. I watch a lot of chess streams, and I hear them talk about various lines and variations of openings. Where should I go to study lines of various openings in depth?

baddogno

Oh this is such a common beginner mistake.  Opening study is so seductive; it seems an easy shortcut to chess proficiency.  The problem is that your opponents will almost never play what you are expecting and hours of study that could have been spent analyzing games or studying tactics will have been wasted.  Others will undoubtedly disagree...wink.png

Of course I wrote the above without realizing that your 1200 was a "real" rating as chess.com gives new members the option to start there.  So my bad for being lazy.  Still, many experts say wait until you are 1500 or even 1800 before studying openings.  Shame you aren't a diamond member as there are a ton of opening resources in the videos and mastery lessons.  Well, there is always youtube of course and some of the presenters do a very credible job.  One thing you can do now is use the Explorer to see how the pros usually play and of course review your games.

mrizzo14

You're going to see a lot of responses telling you not to worry at all about studying openings until your rating hits such and such a number. The number proposed is usually something really high like 1800, which most people never reach. IMHO, there's nothing wrong with mixing some opening prep into your studies, just don't do so at the expense of learning basic opening principles and practicing tactics. I would also stick to the first 5 or so moves until you choose some favorite opening lines to explore further. To answer your question, Gotham Chess is a pretty good resource for learning openings.

SwimmerBill

My suggestion: "in depth" means studying the typical kinds of endgames that come up out of an opening, the kinds of middlegame pawn structures and the plans that are good to follow in them. It also means looking at typical tactics from the opening. I suggest to study complete games that come out of the opening.  When you see an interesting tactic, save the position. Study how the middle game comes from the opening and try to summarize the plans as a short story. Find good players who play the opening and work through their games against lesser masters where the middle game plans work out neatly. My suggestion: study openings mostly by whole games.

JogoReal

Get the FCO book/ebook/kindle

FCO: Fundamental Chess Openings by Paul Van der Sterren

RorschachTest1

FCO is a good one. GothamChess on youtube has some opening analysis: 10-Minute Chess Openings - YouTube some of the videos go on for 30 minutes or more.

baddogno

Another vote for FCO.  I was so embarrassed for taking you for an absolute beginner that I forgot to mention it.  Van der Sterren will take a paragraph to explain a single move so he doesn't go deep, but he certainly lays out the opening landscape in a way that hasn't been done since Reuben Fine's classic The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings.

sholom90

Check out https://sah-conpet.com/phpbb/images/Understanding%20the%20Chess%20Openings%20(Collins).pdf -- it's an online pdf of Collins "Understanding Chess Openings", which I enjoy a lot.  It's way way less comprehensive than FCO, of course, but it explains some nice theory in a way that FCO does not.

RussBell

Chess Openings Resources for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/openings-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell