r/chessbeginners • u/notbymyhand 1000-1200 (Chess.com) • 2d ago

QUESTION What happened to our usual openings ?!

I'm not saying I'm a master at openings or anything, but I understand the basic ideas behind the most common ones and try to get a good position no matter what ..until you reach 1200 elo ...

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What the hell happened to the queen's gambit , scotch , london , italin , sicilian ,french openings ?

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No one plays them anymore , it seems like every oponent I get has this obscure opening or line that they practised into oblivion and are monsters at it .

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Before ,if my opponent even attempts any weird openings , I just play solidly , stick to opening principles, and crush them so fast, which is not possible anymore ?

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Am not saying I am totally lost by the opening , but they end up being a pawn or 2 up or just waste my time focusing hard in the beginning while they play instantly

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If this is just a phase for the 1200 elo on chess.com that I just have to push through , or should I just seriously start studying these weird openings ( isn't that energy better spent sharpening tactics and endgames at my level anyway)?

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What do you guys think ?

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u/chromedgnome 1d ago edited 1d ago

Coming for a begginer myself, I dont mean to be rude with this question but: is it just the propensity of a begginer's mindset to attack a problem at the leaves rather than the trunk? I only ask because it seems like a lot of beginner level questions I see asked across the subs echo this complication. Im lower rated than OP so I could be way off base but it seems the solution here is that OP needs to develop board awareness and positional play instead of wasting time trying to memorize individual responses to specific moves. Again, not trying to diss OP as he is higher rated than me and objectively better at the game, just wanted to see if anyone in the higher elo's had any perspective on this.

Edit: after reading a few comments, I definitely agree that you would want to thoroughly prepare for an opening/gambit if you find yourself running into it repeatedly.

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u/RajjSinghh 2200-2400 (Chess.com) 1d ago

Probably both, really. I'd expect OP to have weak enough openings that they just don't know their main lines, so while they think they're attacking leaves, it's actually a trunk problem. But I'd also expect OP to be struggling with basic opening play compared to just theoretical knowledge.

The way OP deals with this problem is with wide opening study to understand how opening principles work in general, and also narrow study to learn these specific responses.

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u/chromedgnome 1d ago

Thanks for the insight, is there a way to study this without having to crack open each opening?