I've been dabbling in chess for several years but have only recently begun to take it seriously and study it in earnest. I'm looking around to purchase various books to improve my game and obviously to play on RHP as often as I can.

With that being said, I won't be able to really study openings for quite a while do to priorities/not being able to find a book about openings that I like that much. So would it be better to play one opening very consistently and learn all the variations of it, or to try out various openings and learn by trial and error? I'm just not sure if playing the Caro Kann for example would be beneficial if I don't know it's regular progressions/variations past the first two moves

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Originally posted by stockton1984
I've been dabbling in chess for several years but have only recently begun to take it seriously and study it in earnest. I'm looking around to purchase various books to improve my game and obviously to play on RHP as often as I can.

With that being said, I won't be able to really study openings for quite a while do to priorities/not being able to fi ...[text shortened]... rogressions/variations past the first two moves

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Originally posted by Bad wolf
Stick to a certain opening, use a database to follow the lines, but don't buy a book on it or anything like that.
Instead you should concentrate on tactics and the endgame before anything else.

that is true. most books that you buy will have tons of information about the opening and how to go about the middle game. as for now you want to just play solid openings and go from there. when your openings and tactics are better you will find out what kind of player you want to be. if you are an agressive player then playing openings like the sicilian and french openings might be for your if your a person who likes it quiet the ruy lopez and some d4 lines might be for you. d4 lines tend to be more positional as opposed to e4 which is just attack then counter attack by black mostly. best of luck

Give this page a try:

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

It's a pretty good (and regularly updated) starting point. Best of all, though, it's free!

Have a look at this, too:

http://www.chessgames.com/

ars longa, vita brevis

Best of luck,

Mathurine

I don't agree with a previous poster's comments about banging-in moves from databases. I think it's fairly useful to know why you're playing various opening moves, especially if you happen to eventually play an OTB game & have to improvise & actually think😛

Originally posted by stockton1984
I've been dabbling in chess for several years but have only recently begun to take it seriously and study it in earnest. I'm looking around to purchase various books to improve my game and obviously to play on RHP as often as I can.

With that being said, I won't be able to really study openings for quite a while do to priorities/not being able to fi ...[text shortened]... rogressions/variations past the first two moves

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

my friend had trouble with the opening even after i explained a lot of the moves. after he studied tactics he understood the opening principles better.

Originally posted by kmac27
my friend had trouble with the opening even after i explained a lot of the moves. after he studied tactics he understood the opening principles better.

i know i let him borrow attacking chess by josh waitzkin and hes mowing it down.

"Discovering Chess Openings" by John Emms is the best openings book I've come across so far. It's not for the complete beginner but it's accessible and covers the basic principles in clear language then goes on to relate this knowledge to a selection of openings. In time you will come to favour particular openings and then go on to study these in more detail and devlop a repertiore that you become familiar with.

However a well played opening against a good opponent will leave you either even or with a slight advantage or slight disadvantage and the battle will be won with strategy, tactics and endgame skill. Concentrating on tactics and endgame but still allowing some time to study the opening principles would be my recipe for rapid progress.

I recommend all the books by Yasser Seirawan - the titles are self explanatory and on the web the chess tactics server www.chess.emrald.net is a good place to practice tactics.`

Originally posted by Mahout
"Discovering Chess Openings" by John Emms is the best openings book I've come across so far. It's not for the complete beginner but it's accessible and covers the basic principles in clear language then goes on to relate this knowledge to a selection of openings. In time you will come to favour particular openings and then go on to study these in more detail ...[text shortened]... the web the chess tactics server www.chess.emrald.net is a good place to practice tactics.`

Originally posted by stockton1984
I've been dabbling in chess for several years but have only recently begun to take it seriously and study it in earnest. I'm looking around to purchase various books to improve my game and obviously to play on RHP as often as I can.

With that being said, I won't be able to really study openings for quite a while do to priorities/not being able to fi ...[text shortened]... rogressions/variations past the first two moves

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

I recommend "Winning Chess Openings" by GM Yasser Seirawan. He explains general opening theory and how they play out in the most common openings. He then suggests an opening repertoire based on the King's Indian Attack, King's Indian Defense and the Pirc Defense.