Behind Every Chess Opening

We find this bit of wisdom in Max Euwe's "Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur":

"Behind evey chess opening is some fundamental idea for gaining control of the chessboard.... Of prime importance in playing an opening is an understanding of the basic ideas behind that opening.... a player who understands the basic ideas behind an opening realizes where the real strength of the opening lies, and plays accordingly."

This makes a hell of a lot of sense to me, but where/how is one to come by this understanding? I have looked at a few opening books, but cannot seem to come to this "understanding of the basic ideas" behind a particular opening. Help!

Basically, I think you just have to play it knowing this and try to figure it out for yourself with the understanding that you are driving towards controll of certain squares to support an attack.

Originally posted by basso
We find this bit of wisdom in Max Euwe's "Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur":

"Behind evey chess opening is some fundamental idea for gaining control of the chessboard.... Of prime importance in playing an opening is an understanding of the basic ideas behind that opening.... a player who understands the basic ideas behind an opening realizes where the real ...[text shortened]... em to come to this "understanding of the basic ideas" behind a particular opening. Help!

Basic Ideas behind Chess Opening by R. Fine

That explains the ideas. Read that.

One of the things most people dont seem to know about openings is the pawn you move sets you off onto a white or dark square strategy.

The opening you play will determine which of your pieces will be better or worse....easiest seen in the battle between knights and bishops.

Some openings are designed to mobile others are designed to be more static and give you control of certain squares lasting well into the middle game.

The pawn stucture of the opening determins a lot.....which parts of the board are you strong/weak etc Which side of the board you should attack.

Different ideas behind different openings, some concede space for example and then burst open...coiled spring openings.....other fight from the center from the word go. Yet other openings tend to aim for an endgame advantage at the cost of some opening advantages. etc

It should also be noted that openings will often see the same middle game style of play and endgame setups occurring in terms of pieces left (ie some openings are more likely to get rook endings where as others might boil down to king and pawn endings more often than not) and pawn stucture.

Originally posted by basso
We find this bit of wisdom in Max Euwe's "Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur":

"Behind evey chess opening is some fundamental idea for gaining control of the chessboard.... Of prime importance in playing an opening is an understanding of the basic ideas behind that opening.... a player who understands the basic ideas behind an opening realizes where the real em to come to this "understanding of the basic ideas" behind a particular opening. Help!

In the most recent edition of Modern Openings of Chess (or Modern Chess Openings, i forget which; and i think its the 14th edition) behind each opening they explain some of the fundementals of each opening, allowing you to know the mid and sometimes endgame you are heading for. After you read a few of them you should understand what he means

EDIT: It's got a wood chess board on it and its called: Modern Chess Openings 14th edition (MCO-14) By Nick de Firmian

hey i love to study openings usually when i blunder its there. i was playing someone rated about 100 pts higher than me and he made 2 mistakes in the opening and i made 1 and that one mistake cost me the game. But i was playing the sicicilian which is very sharp one wrong move could mean a brutal beating.

Originally posted by c guy1
In the most recent edition of Modern Openings of Chess (or Modern Chess Openings, i forget which; and i think its the 14th edition) behind each opening they explain some of the fundementals of each opening, allowing you to know the mid and sometimes endgame you are heading for. After you read a few of them you should understand what he means

EDIT: It's g ...[text shortened]... hess board on it and its called: Modern Chess Openings 14th edition (MCO-14) By Nick de Firmian

The MCO or NCO are the last things id buy if I wanted to understand an opening. The mini paragraph before each opening in the MCO provides no real understanding of the opening....or more importaintly the plan of the opening....after that you just have varitions dumped on you with maybe a +/- (if that) as a pointer.

If you want to understand the ideas behind an opening the best way to go about it is to ask someone whos been playing it for a year+

An idea is to read a database with games from the opening you want to learn so to understand what is going on and then to play some games maybe with little time limit (Pc may help you here-I have tried 5' games with fritz and it helps) with this opening to understand it better

i found a book that helped me understand the openings very well. pawn structure by andrew soltis is very good and shows the plans for the main pawn structures.

Thanks for all your replies, guys. I just got this email from Amazon:

Discovering Chess Openings, by John Emms
pub: August 1, 2006
$15.57 at Amazon

In Discovering Chess Openings John Emms argues that studying openings doesn't have to be hard work - it can be both enjoyable and enlightening. The key to successful opening play is not simply learning lines off by heart; instead it's the understanding of the basic principles, and here the reader is guided through the vital themes: swift development, central control and king safety.

Sounds like a winner!