13 Aug 07
Originally posted by kmac27I somewhat disagree. I read lots of chess books for the first few years I played, but after a while my game kind of stagnated and I only recently started to study openings. They have been a huge help, one of the biggest things they have helped in is giving a long range plan, so after you leave "the book" I dont have as many of those moments where my clock is ticking away and I am thinking "ok, what am I supposed to do now?"
At my level i've read through many books, probably 5 openings books. what did i learn? Pobably not a lot, a lot of lines that get confused from good lines and bad ones. If Icould go back and do it again Id study master games. If your looking for queens gambit games go to kasparovs predecesors books, great annotations and you'll learn more than just the openi ...[text shortened]... es and your play will improve. use openings databases for helping develop your opening skills.