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What Chess Openings are the Strongest?

for black that is. the best opening for white and the game is the Catalan
The best openings are the ones that make get all warm and fuzzy inside at the mere mention of them. King's Gaammmbit. Yeah I said it. Say it with me now. King's Gammmmmmmbbbit. Feels good don't it? Fyi that'd be the recommendation if you're looking for aggressive openings". It'll require a lot of study and solid tactics to master but it'll be more than worth it.
I also went from 1200-1500 after roughly a year of fairly casual opening study. Simply understanding the systems and guiding principles behind the more common openings helped my games immensely. Opening study is more than just route memorization of lines, and it isn't so impossible for beginners trying to move toward intermediate level play to understand them like some have implied.

Chess is made up of 3 distinct elements: the opening, the middle game, and the endgame. Tactics training generally helps you the most in the middle game. Endgame study doesn't help much until the middle-to-endgame transition and the endgame itself. So for those who say not to study openings, what is your suggestion on how said players are to get to the middle game or endgame without being already horribly positioned from their terrible opening and thus already losing or completely incapable of coordinating pieces to generate tactics?
look this is the first time I play this opening,
I am sure this is out of theory
but did white lose because he has not studied the opening
no, It was all tactical
he made twice a double pin or double attack I dont know how it is called
http://en.lichess.org/KbQrcJFm/black
so how did I play this opening without knowing it,
well because all chess is similar and the idea of one opening relates to another opening, so in reality I have played this opening before by playing other openings,
of course there are subtle things that are important
but our level subtle things get deleted by obvious mistakes,
I guess thats why strong players say dont spend too much time on openings but to each its own.
I would argue that White lost that game because he moved the knight 4 times in the opening, which gave him no attack. If he had learned about opening systems, he could see that Black's main weakness that came out of this opening is a difficulty in developing his light squared bishop. Thus 6. g3 was objectively a better move because it takes advantage of that by developing his own bishop, and eventually after Nf3 and O-O he will have drawn White's pieces into the center where he can now begin to challenge it with his very active pieces.

This has nothing to do with understanding the proper moves of an opening through memorization, as I have said at least 5 times in this and other posts. This is about studying openings to learn the basic SYSTEMS in place in a variety of openings so that better choices can be made. Those tactics that you say lost the game for him would not have arisen had he responded with g3, Bg2, and eventually Nf3 and O-O instead of moving his knight around the board. So yes, I stand by my point.
Shadow, can you point me towards some resources to learn these systems too? I don't want to memorise lines, but rather do what you did
well, its common sense really, its no system,
just play the games and you will find that moving the piece several times its loss of tempo.
well, here You have some principles
http://ajedrez.chess.com/article/view/the-principles-of-the-opening
http://chess.about.com/od/tipsforbeginners/ss/OpeningBasics_4.htm
http://www.chess-strategies-tactics.com/chess-opening-principles
but its better to view it on board rather than to see it on text
just google chess principles and You ll find plenty of links
there are videos as well but its better to play the games
since each game has its own principle and u have to find it.
Once you play several games You ll find that common patterns arise and what once was difficult or complicated it starts to unfold, so You get more efficient to develop the pieces and not getting cramped and so on, just by repeating mistakes but it requires some work of course, some games
, plenty of hours I mean.
and then more hours.
I think maybe what you can do, is think about the bishop,
knights in general are more efficient, more easy to place in the opening with the whole jumping but you really need to have an idea of where are you gonna put the bishop,
then sum that idea with choosing a central pawn or a side pawn,
c, d, e, cause you really dont want to get cramped, fianchetto and hypermodern is very difficult for beginners I think and then in general you castle short but in some cases u castle long, etc.
just get your pieces connected and look for space,
I think for white is really not that difficult to make a huge mistake in the opening since It starts, It has more like not committed to play perfectly, with black is more difficult though perhaps one has to spend more time studying openings with black.
Really there is no shortcut but ull find ideas.
Pretty much what motion said. Basically I go through and look at opening systems that have had long-term popularity. The first system I recommend looking at is the Ruy Lopez because it's quite easy to follow by using the logic of basic opening principles. White develops a pawn to the center, Black does the same, White contests the center by attacking the pawn, Black defends it, White threatens the defender. Pretty basic stuff.

But when you get deeper into the lines, you start having choices, and that's where I think opening study comes in handy. You can examine what choices are good, what choices are bad, and what qualities each of the good choices have that are different. For instance, there is a completely different character to a Spanish (Ruy Lopez) Game in which White pushes his pawns to kick the bishop away than in a game where he simply continues development.

I recommend starting with the classical openings, because they are easy to understand, look through main lines for Spanish and Italian Games. With Italian, also examine Evan's Gambit and with Spanish also look at 4 Knights Game. Then move on to d4 openings to explore the Indian systems. Start with the Queen's Gambit both accepted and declined and see how each has a different plan. Then move into the Indian systems by looking at the King's Indian Defense in particular, then if you feel bold take a look into Benoni and Gruenfeld. Then look into closed games...take a look at French Defense games in the e4 openings and Slav and Semi-Slav games in the d4 openings. Again, note the different characteristics, the different plans, the different strengths and weaknesses. Try to understand how the opening principles apply to each.

You know, I think this is what I should be doing for a video series honestly, even though there are countless videos on all of these openings.

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