5 Reasons To Know About Chess Openings

Five Reasons To Know Something About Everything in the Chess Openings

1. You need to be knowledgeable in order to make meaningful move choices;
2. Transpositions (shifting from one opening to another) take place frequently;
3. Ideas from one opening game can be applied to other similar openings;
4. Sometimes you reach a position in an opening with "colors reversed"- for instance, when White plays the English (1. c4) and Black responds with 1. ... e5, both players can find themselves in a "Reversed Sicilian".
5. One can improve one's overall play by practicing in different kinds of middlegame positions resulting from various openings.