There are so many books out there on openings.

No other phase of the game has been studied so much by chess players.

Whether this is right or wrong is a matter for another discussion…

But let’s assume for now that you want to learn how to play an opening correctly.

And by correctly, I mean that you get a tiny advantage as White and a more or less equal position as Black.

These should be your realistic aims when you play any opening (unless your opponent feels generous towards you and decides to blunder) J

So, which steps should you follow?

1. Choose carefully which opening to study. This may sound self-explanatory, but it’s much more complicated than that. Learning a new opening requires a considerable time investment and if you don’t have much free time in your hands, you can’t afford many wrong choices. Your decision should take into account how good the opening is in general, but also your own style of play and whether you actually feel comfortable playing a particular opening
2. Get a good chess DVD or chess book for the chosen opening. There’s tons of chess material out there on openings. Not all of it is worth studying. And since I assume you don’t have much time, I suggest you get ONE piece of chess material and then build from there. Too much information right from the beginning will only serve to confuse you.
3. Understand the main ideas of the opening. Every opening has its own plans. There are openings where the aim is to control the centre or to develop a really powerful bishop or to launch an attack against the enemy king etc. You should familiarize yourself with the plans of both sides and the usual pawn structures and typical piece placements that come with it. If you master these, then the opening variations will be much easier to learn, since they will just make sense instead of trying to squeeze them into your already overused hard drive of your brain.
4. Play lots of blitz with the same opening. If you follow me, you know by now that I’m very skeptical of the educational value of blitz games (not the fun side of it– this is unquestionable!). But this is one of the exceptions. Blitz helps a lot when you try to learn a new opening. When I first tried the French Defense, I asked to play games only as Black on lichess. I made many mistakes in the opening during these games, but it helped me a lot since I also did the following…
5. Analyze your games with the new opening. Going over the openings of your games is crucial to spot any mistakes. You can also double-check with your book/DVD where you went wrong and how you should play the next time. With enough repetition, you will quickly become better and better and soon you will be playing the opening like a veteran!
6. Create your own opening database. You have to store somewhere your opening ideas and favorite variations and update them with every new game you play. You can also improve the database if you keep an eye for new opening ideas from games between grandmasters.