Opening, Middle-game, or Endgame, Which is most critical for improving your chess and why?

Opening, Middle-game, or Endgame, Which is most critical for improving your chess and why?

All of them, none Trump the others.

The course of the game is decided in the opening, the result is determined in the middlegame, and the rest was in vain if you cannot come through in the endgame.

"... The game might be divided into three parts, i.e.:- 1. The opening. 2. The middle-game. 3. The end-game. There is one thing you must strive for, to be equally efficient in the three parts. Whether you are a strong or a weak player, you should try to be of equal strength in the three parts. ..." - Capablanca

You should probably study them all, but your main emphasis should be on the endgame first, later on the middle-game, and focus on openings last.

All that being said, I think most players are weakest in the middle game.  This is where players flounder for plans.

Yeah, i agree

The middlegame is probably the toughest aspect to master.

If you want to be better than your opponent at one thing,

It should be endgame.

I think it is most advantageous of the three

Overall growth is More important

Openings and endgames require a certain minimum proficiency in order to excel, but ultimately have diminishing returns, the middle game is wide open in terms of improvement possibilities.

It depends on which level of chess you play at. The lower level the player the more important studying the endgame is. 

Well a poor opening leads to a poor position and just as likely a poor outcome. However, perhaps recovery can be made in the middle game? Does that make it more important? Maybe. But a poor endgame certainly doesn't leave any time to recover = loss. But, if you can win before reaching the end game, how important is that end game?

I would (and do) focus on 1 or 2 openings/defences, while studying/practising tactics. If you have a good idea about general opening principles, you should get into the middle game in reasonably good shape, where the study of tactics starts to pay dividends. Knowing a few common endings is important, but excelling in the mid-game, I think, is where many games are won (or lost).

So, start with one or two openings but don't "study" them. Know the easier, common endings, but again don't spend hours on them. The biggest gains are from studying tactics and strategies that can be applied at any point in a game, but are generally most useful in the middle game. Good luck. 

I like the explanation m_connors

Endgames are the least forgiving of mistakes. Openings are the most forgiving.

But there's no guarantee you'll reach a playable endgame, meanwhile it's not very hard to reach a playable middlegame.

So the middlegame is the most important, but you need to know at least a little about all of them.

And like others have said, studying one area can help other areas. Studying endgames makes your middlegame strategic play better, and studying openings helps you reach the kinds of middlegames you like.

I think all three phases are equally important to play well but I also believe that studying the endgame is the fastest way to improve because it has the same elements as the opening and middlegame but in a setting that is easier to understand because the results are concrete at that stage and there are less pieces on the board. You can use endgames to practice tactics, calculation, and strategy. Also, simply knowing the various theoretical endgames and whether or not they are better for you is a big help when calculating variations in the middlegame.

I can also agree with this. The higher level the player the more important opening prep becomes because it's a given at the highest levels that, barring fatigue or a mental slip, they will demonstrate proper technique in the endgame.

an excerpt from the following blog article...

"The most important fundamentals for the beginner-novice to study in chess are: Tactics, Endgame and Opening Principles....while the last of these is certainly important to understand and to become skilled at, you can never study too much of the first two of these. That is, time spent studying and improving your tactical and endgame skills will accrue more to your chess success and rating than focusing primarily on learning specific openings."

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond...

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

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

A story comes to mind about this guy I played in a 10 round tournament.

He was rated maybe... 1600? But he had won almost all his games. I played him in the 8th round.

He outplayed me in the middlegame, and had a marginally winning endgame... but it became clear pretty quickly that he had absolutely no idea how to handle the endgame. We drew.

Next two rounds I watched his games. Same thing. He'd get a sizable lead heading into the endgame, then fall apart. The last round he even managed to lose.

But man, he was really good for the first 30-40 moves. I imagine he must have rigorously gone over some large game collection for the openings he played. He was always getting middlegames where he knew the correct idea(s) and where all the pieces belonged.

So anyway, the moral of the story is you need at least a little bit of everything. The OP is >1700 in blitz, so I'm sure he's studied something. Maybe it's time to study the thing(s) he's been neglecting up till now.

All phases are important. The reason so many people are poor at playing the endgame is that most games end before the endgame, so people are not as versed in the endgame.

It's the endgame  phase that is most important to study though, because it's the phase players get to play the least.