Openings are one of the most important phases of every chess game.

They’re also the focus of attention of most chess players.

Most chess books (and DVDs) are dedicated to them as a result.

But some openings have a lot of variations and sidelines.

This is why there are whole books about just one variation of some of the most popular openings (like the Sicilian Defense).

But this overproduction of chess material about openings shouldn’t confuse you.

In fact, for the vast majority of chess players out there, openings are less important than they think.

To be more precise, the importance of openings depends a lot on the strength of the individual chess player.

The weaker someone is, the less important openings are.

The stronger a player is, the more time he should devote to openings.

Just think about it for a moment:

When two beginners play, mistakes are very common.

As a result, the material advantage swings multiple times during their game.

So, if one of them gets an advantage in the opening (unless it leads to checkmate of course), this means very little about the final outcome.

In other words, for a beginner, the opening has very little importance; I can easily beat a 1000 Elo player even if I lose a bishop or even a rook during a badly played opening.

(Obviously, I can’t do the same with a 1400 Elo player, but Carlsen could probably manage)

Openings become much more important as you become stronger, and it is precisely this area of the game that strong GMs focus their attention.

At that level, mistakes are rare.

So if one player gets some sort of advantage out of the opening, he should normally be able to have a comfortable game onwards and perhaps even win.

Kasparov was no fool when he dominated for decades focusing –amongst other things- on superior opening preparation.

But this is not to say that you should disregard studying openings until you’re close to 2000 Elo rating.

After all, it’s much better NOT to have to play catch up if your opening is a disaster. J

And like I have emphasized before, the better your opponent is, the more difficult it is to remedy bad opening decisions.

Therefore, I would advise you to focus on a couple of openings for White and Black.

Learn these openings well and –until you come close to the 2000 Elo mark- invest your precious training time on other aspects of chess.