Originally posted by Dragon FireRight you are - for improving opening play player must use databases and books. Its not only remembering moves but also understanding main ideas and plans of current opening line or system.
I am on this site for one reason and one reason alone. To improve my opening play. I do that by [b]using books whenever I can. I will shortly be using a database also but I find books better as they tend to explain the ideas behind the opening in a way a database cannot. As time goes by my knowledge improves and I can play ever deeper into an opening ...[text shortened]... my OTB play although I would expect my OTB rating to follow it up 6 months or so down the line.[/b]
1 edit
Well from what I've read using opening books for correspondence chess has actually been done for a good portion of this century. Back when people were mailing each other their games, it was common knowledge that some players to be consulting books for help. So it isn't entirely an internet phenomenon like chess-engine cheating.