Desperate with opening theory

Well... poor memory was always my problem. And opening is where you need it the most. After few monthes of using books and databases I find it to be quite boring just to copy what they recommend. Next time in same position I don't remember what to do and have to look it up again. And of course it gives nothing for OTB or blitz...

I enjoy studying middle- and endgame, tactics and startegy – just any aspect of chess except for opening theory. They all seem to require less memory and more "processing power" :-)

So I decided to stop using books and databases at least for some time – just to go by general principles, intuition and calculation.

Can this hinder my progress significantly? Does anybody have similar problems?

i memorize a lot of lines just by looking at a database and looking at my options. i'd say my openings are 60% sufficiant with being able to play all openings decent. using a datbase helps learn the lines. also learning the names of each line helps to remember key ideas about the opening and as well as helping to learn them. when you don't know what to do look around what did your opponent just do did he threaten something? can you threaten something and develop? take control of key squares become an active player make moves that help take control of certain points of the board.

You really dont have to know lines. Just get to something playable.
Develop your pieces and open lines. I spent two weeks with a GM (5 days a week) and all he said was "Develop your pieces and open lines for them"

Originally posted by Stockton
...all he said was "Develop your pieces and open lines for them"

well, ofcourse he had other advice. but that was the point he was driving home. The 3 week camp was free. he was there 2 weeks.

and you also played checkers and ping pong there, with free milk and cookies 😛

eh, not quite. no ping pong, no checkers.

chess, 3 weeks. 1 GM, 2 IMs, 2 Life Masters, 2 high experts.

i'm with stockton here......alot of chess mistakes are due to lack of development and failure to seize open lines....most new chess players are trying to create something new when all they need to do is castle early and develope properly......but my 1300 rating vetos all my sayings...

thats not true. I saw a game from a GM that was working with a group of us. he won in 25 moves. after the game another GM came up to him and asked "how did you beat him so quick? did he fall for an opening trap? did he blunder away a piece?" he looked at him and said "No, I just developed my pieces and opened lines"

It was true, he went over the game with us explaining how each move he tried to improve one of his pieces until he had a dominating position.

Originally posted by Stockton
thats not true. I saw a game from a GM that was working with a group of us. he won in 25 moves. after the game another GM came up to him and asked "how did you beat him so quick? did he fall for an opening trap? did he blunder away a piece?" he looked at him and said "No, I just developed my pieces and opened lines"

It was true, he went over the gam ...[text shortened]... ning how each move he tried to improve one of his pieces until he had a dominating position.

Gregory Kaidanov (I think that spelling is correct)

yep, there it is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Kaidanov