Knowing your openings goes a long way in getting an upperhand in chess. Knowing the openings and end games can give you a lot of edge. Have a look at this http://www.gautamnarula.com/how-to-get-good-at-chess-fast/ the guy explains how to get good at chess.
"One of the biggest mistakes players make is to devote massive amounts of time to openings. This is because openings tend to be very concrete, and beginners think that simply memorizing an opening will give them an unassailable advantage over their opponents6.
Don’t bother spending any time studying openings outside of analyzing your games. Just make sure you know the basic opening principles."
Yes, we have this in memory. And at the highest level, extremely important.
The more important lesson is to analyze the opening position for the plans and thematic patterns at crucial junctures. Then, with critical positions memorized, you can usually work through the necessary moves at the board.
The majority of the opening part of a Chess game is spent trying to force your opponent into a variation of an opening that you are most comfortable with.
To be a good Chess player, you would need to be at least aware of most of the main lines, and then really master a few.
Much depends on the level of play you are at. Beginners flounder through weak openings while intermediate players know the main lines of the popular and strong ones.
There's really not a "master" for openings. After the first dozen moves or so you'll have your first exchange and the beginning of the middle game.
[+] [-] S4M|12 years ago|reply
The wikipedia article is more informative: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_openings
And also, they don't put the Benoni defense which is my favorite opening :-)
[+] [-] hislaziness|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TylerE|12 years ago|reply
"One of the biggest mistakes players make is to devote massive amounts of time to openings. This is because openings tend to be very concrete, and beginners think that simply memorizing an opening will give them an unassailable advantage over their opponents6.
Don’t bother spending any time studying openings outside of analyzing your games. Just make sure you know the basic opening principles."
[+] [-] tsudot|12 years ago|reply
I'm curious to understand if chess masters have all of this committed to memory, and thats something one needs to excel at Chess.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Defence,_Dragon_Variat...
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgYY4c7ijy8
[+] [-] rohwer|12 years ago|reply
The more important lesson is to analyze the opening position for the plans and thematic patterns at crucial junctures. Then, with critical positions memorized, you can usually work through the necessary moves at the board.
[+] [-] nanijoe|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TylerE|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Codhisattva|12 years ago|reply
There's really not a "master" for openings. After the first dozen moves or so you'll have your first exchange and the beginning of the middle game.