I know it is based on theory but ISTM that in 2022 most chess is memorizing openings along with most of the lines. So if I want to raise my game to the next level do I really need to memorized all those openings and defenses? How many lines of each do I need to know. Do I need to study games and see how others played? Or could someone be a really good player (though not IM or GM level) based on theory alone?
Hi, I’m a retired chess coach and my highest ELO rating was 2390.
I have never memorised an opening - and I’m not alone!
To be a great chess player you need:
- determination to spend a lot of time on the game
- ability to recognise patterns
- great concentration
- patience (especially when defending worse positions)
- start young
Top class players do spend a lot of time studing, practising, playing and analysing the game.
Kasparov used to take a month off every year, travel with his coach to a pleasant resort and work on his game (e.g. analysing his main opponent’s games.)
But they do not memorise openings!
The reasons why memorising an opening doesn’t work are:
- you don’t learn the ideas and principles behind the opening and how to develop the game later on
- you are completely stuck if your opponent plays a move you didn’t expect
- you’re not concentrating on the game, merely waiting your turn to play
I remember playing IM Basman (now sadly deceased) in the British Championship. He was an inventive player, who tried to get his opponents out of their opening preparation asap.
He opened 1. g4 and also answered 1. e4 with 1. … g5. 
Neither of these are a very good openings, but they are not losing moves.
Basman was a very good player and often took advantage of opponents who over-estimated their position after his unusual openings.
Mr. Glee, could you explain the difference between ‘opening prep’ and memorizing an opening? Also many GMs write books about specific openings, covering dozens of lines — are those strictly analysis of concepts or do they shade into memorization?
Thank you,
nm please
I enjoy the game but am not very good. I want to improve too.
Reminds me of “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”
Grob’s spike, eh?
I had a friend who liked to pull this every now and again.
Happy to help.
Memorisation (as you’d expect) is just learning a string of moves by heart (and hoping your opponent will play every single one of them in order.)
Opening prep is studying an opening that you like and trying to understand what is going on during the opening and then into the middle-game.
A player will see the main line, but also various alternatives.
Now once you have played an opening many, many times, you will have effectively ‘memorised’ it. But you will also have a deep understanding of what is going on - and how to deal with opponents who play unusual moves.
Top players also do specific opening prep for their regular opponents. Since there are masses of games on the Internet neatly catalogued by player and opening, it’s easy to find out what your forthcoming opponent likes to play - and prepare for it. (This takes a lot of work - and no memorisation is involved!)
Here’s a trivial example.
Suppose you like to play as White 1. e4 (one of the best opening moves, along with d4 / c4 / Nf3.)
You expect to meet various replies (e5 / e6 / c5 / c6 etc.)
If the game begins 1. e4 e5, you like to play 2. Nf3 (develops a piece, attacks the pawn on e5 and controls the centre.)
Here you again expect to meet various replies (e.g. Nc6 / Nf6 / d6/ c6.)
Suppose you find a game against a future opponent who after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 likes 2. …f6.
This is definitely ‘irregular’ (and would upset a player relying on memorisation )
You can now analyse the exciting 3. Nxe5
(that position can be seen here: Chess Board Editor - Apronus.com )
If Black continues 3. … fxe5, they lose 
after 4. Qh5+ when either:
-
- … g6 5. Qxe5+ wins a Rook and a pawn for the Knight (a)
-
- Ke7 5. Qxe5+ Kf7 6. Bc4+ gives White a wonderful attack (b)
(a) diagram here Chess Board Editor - Apronus.com*
(b) diagram here Chess Board Editor - Apronus.com*
As it happens, Black should play 4. … Qe7, recovering the pawn. But after 5. Nf3 Qxe4+ 6. Be2, White is ahead in development (and will gain yet more time by harassing the exposed Black Queen.)
Game position here: Chess Board Editor - Apronus.com
I’m not anywhere near @glee’s level, but one simple principle in openings is to watch what’s attacking what. Let’s say that you open by moving one of your center pawns forward 2 (fairly common), and your opponent then (either right away, or any number of moves down the line) makes a move that threatens that pawn. You don’t want to give your opponent a free pawn, especially not right off the bat, so you might respond by moving to support the pawn (so if they take the pawn, you can take the piece that took the pawn). Then maybe they move another piece to threaten the same pawn: Now they can take the pawn, and then take the piece you used to take their piece, and still come out ahead. So you might also move another piece into a position to threaten that square. Or maybe, if you’re feeling adventurous, you respond by threatening a different one of his pawns: Either he takes yours and then you take his, or he responds to defend his other pawn, and you have time to do something else.
Another basic opening principle is to try to control the center of the board, by having pieces on and/or attacking the center squares. Controlling the center gives you more options for your future moves, and fewer options for your opponent.
To expand slightly on Chronos’ helpful advice:
- throughout the game, see if your pieces are under attack
- in the opening try to a) get developed (i.e. bring pieces out) b) control the centre c) get castled into safety
I’ve been learning a lot from watching the Chess Network videos on YouTube. He analyzes professional games and does a really good job explaining the reasoning behind the moves, and explores variants to understand whether other possible moves would be better or worse. He uses Stockfish sometimes to help evaluate games, and while I haven’t done it much myself, I would suggest using Stockfish or a similar program to help you with practice games. Some software is now much better than even the best human players, and it’s nice to be able to make a move and immediately see, oh Stockfish thinks that reduces my advantage significantly, and then probe a few moves deeper to see why.
While this can certainly be fun (I like Adagmator’s videos), I’m not sure it helps a mediocre or even “good” player become a great one. I know that for myself (maybe a 1200 OTB player on my best day, something like 1700 Rapid on Lichess - solidly mediocre) the mistakes I make are so much more egregious than what would happen in a professional game that it’s like we aren’t playing the same game.
For a player at my level really the only thing that matters is getting better at tactics and endgames - that is where I win or lose almost every game. Very rarely an opening trap that I have to just memorize to recognize the pattern for next time. As an example, lots of folks like to play the Stafford Gambit (largely because of Eric Rosen, I think) at my level and I just had to memorize a few lines to make sure I can defend the position after the gambit.
Many, many years ago when I was a kid, Bobby Fischer was a star and I learned to play chess. I wasn’t very good at chess. My main opponent was my older brother. He always beat me, and I got frustrated. In those pre-internet days, I would go to the library and find books. The chess books were full of openings that I couldn’t memorize or understand, but one book had the valuable advice above–control the center of the board. It gave examples of moves to control the center and supporting pieces under attack. The advice I remember was:
- Try an opening and bring pieces out
- Control the center
- Support pieces that are threatened
- Castle when you can
This improved my game greatly, which greatly angered my brother.
All good advice, but in my experience, once you’ve mastered the sort of basic principles gnarator outlined, the most productive use of your training time by far is to solve problems, which will train you to identify tactical patterns. Not memorizing moves, but thinking on the level of “I recognize that pawn structure creates a potential vulnerability; do I have any pieces in a position to exploit that vulnerability?” If you download the chess.com app, you can do problems on your phone all day whenever you have a few minutes to kill; it tracks how you’re doing and keeps giving you problems of the appropriate difficulty levels.
Another golden rule for the opening phase: To the extent possible, try to move every piece exactly once, and move pawns only as necessary to get them out of the way of the pieces. Even if they’re only moving a square or two, every piece is much more powerful when it gets off its starting square. Obviously in most games your opponent will make some sort of threat that will prevent you from following this plan exactly, but it helps to know what you’re trying to do.
The ideal pawn structure is to have both your King and Queen pawns moved two spaces forward and protected. Again, it’s unlikely your opponent will ever actually let you do this in the opening, but it’s useful to have in mind as a goal to aim for (and to make sure you don’t let your opponent do it). So, if your first move is to push your King pawn two spaces, then if your opponent somehow makes a move that would allow you to push the Queen pawn on your second move with neither pawn being attacked, you should definitely do that.
Keeping these rules in mind will get you through the opening much better than trying to memorize sequences of moves.
In high school I was second chair at a large high school. I knew I had a decision. Get serious about chess or have a life. I chose having a life (more or less).
In addition to what has been mentioned. I would ask myself questions like:
Why did my opponent make that move? What is their strategy
What is my biggest strength? How can I take advantage of that?
What is my biggest weakness? How can I fix that?
What is my opponent’s biggest strength? How can I neutralize that?
What is my opponent’s biggest weakness? How can I take advantage of that?
In trying to look ahead in moves, watching Agadmator’s channel I’ve started looking at where my opponent can move on their next move to F up my game. Like, “If they move their knight there, they’ll fork my rook and bishop.” Then I use my move to avoid that.