How important is the opening theory?

+1 OwenKraweki

#1 blazeop: As a beginner one should know something basic about openings. A very good start is go to lichess home page or page 1. On the left side of this page go to section WATCH and scroll down to Video library and click on it. Scroll down to search for Beginners' Openings and Tactics. There is a picture of a man and besides him is a chess Board and click it. That man is GM Varuzhan Akobian and he will teach you about controlling the centre of the chess board and developments of minor pieces. Besides these there are something about tactic. Good luck and happy learning. bye friends

#1 blazeop: Your rating for classical is 1587. You are not a beginner and therefore the recommendation I gave is not suitable for you. bye

@blazeop

You don't accept messages, so I don't know if you receive replies here. I will keep trying I guess.

If you want, I can try to work with you. I think what you need though is to get use to study. Can you please let me know if you know how to manipulate them?

If you truly want to improve I will help you, but you have to know that it's a lot of work and you need to catalog notes. Studies made this possible and easy. Please let me know if you understand them, and if you need introduction I will send you the link to the video. Then let me know if you want me to help.

I personally think that the opening is going to tell how the game is played. It's a good idea to understand basic opening theory so that you can tell what strategies may or may not work. The most common first moves are c4, d4, e4, and nf3, so getting a basic grasp of what they do is a good idea.

But, I'm on the boat of the fact that it's only the beginning of the game, and doesn't decide the end.

Hikaru Nakamura - "Up until International Master level, chess is 90-95% tactics."

I'd recommend dividing your study time accordingly.

The most important skills are board vision (for example, to know what color is each square without a board on sight) and tactical awareness (to spot pins, forks, etc in just one or two seconds).

That said, opening theory is important but not for the sake of the opening itself but in order to achieve a good middlegame that you know well.

First, study the endgame and the middlegame. Later, openings.

If you are interested in learning some basic ideas about various types of openings, you can go to:

chess openings.com

He does a video on several openings and gives you the idea behind the move order and things to consider.