Why not to obsess about Chess Openings?

Subject : Chess

It is far more useful to understand the main ideas of an Opening than learning loads of moves and variations parrot fashion. The opponent except at the highest levels is unlikely to play the book moves and you will be stuck if you don’t train yourself to think of good moves in an unexpected situation.

Many Chess games are a comedy of errors and changing the Opening will do nothing to improve that because it stems from a lack of understanding and or concentration.

Players at the highest level will study Openings in great detail because it is much harder otherwise for one player to accumulate advantages over the other player. This is because they make far fewer mistakes to take advantage of.  Even at the top level they may play a surprise Opening or a surprise variation of a well known Opening if they desperately need a win and not a draw. This is a high risk high reward strategy.

Please watch the video below. It is excellent.

https://youtu.be/xDna9eIBM8M?si=qscYmMI16sVPYcuU

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