Many lower rated players concentrate their study on openings, but Schroeder emphatically stated that that the best moves are not in the books and he advised against reading opening books or articles until you are at least an Expert (2000-2199).
In those pre-computer days he advised not to use books like Modern Chess Openings or Encyclopedia of Openings because they are compilations of selective data and contain thousands of mistakes in analysis and their positional evaluations are often wrong. I suppose the same thing could be said of modern databases and that engine analysis is critical to get at the truth. On the other hand, unless you are playing correspondence chess your opponent is human and playing what you are familiar with is a factor.
In any case, my observation is the below the Grandmaster level most players won't follow the “book” lines more that a very few moves which makes memorizing reams of analysis pointless. I remember one time when doing a post-mortem my young opponent was highly critical of one of my opening moves because it wasn’t what Bobby Fischer played. He could not answer my question why, if it was so bad, could he not refute it.
According to Schroeder, only after you 1) become completely knowledgeable of:
1) how to checkmate
2) thoroughly understand the endgame
3) know all the possible types of tactics (we used to call them “combinations”)
4) have played through at least a thousand master games
are you are ready to study the openings. By that time you will be a Master.
Openings based on cheap traps are appealing, but you are wasting your time because if you cannot refute a bad move over the board you will never be a good player, said Schroeder
The late Senior Master Kenneth Smith gave the same advice. He emphasized tactics, making the point that tactics will overcome a bad opening, a poor middlegame and lack of endgame knowledge. Smith's advice was similar to Schroeder's: only when you reach Expert can you stop devouring everything on tactics.
The following online game is proof of their advice. Sometime when encountering a lower rated opponent I will play 1.h4 just for fun. Generally known as the Desprez Opening named after the French player Marcel Desprez, I have also seen it called
the Hawaiian Orangutan Attack and the Kadas Opening, after Gabor Kadas, a fairly strong Hungarian master who has picked up a few GM scalps using 1.h4.
The Desprez is a horrible opening for several reasons:
1) It does furthered the development of any pieces, 2) white has not claimed a share of the center, 3) white has handed over the initiative and 4) it weakened the King's castled position.
[Event "Chess Hotel"] [Site "?"] [Date "2025.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Tartajubow"] [Black "Guest"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A00"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17"] [PlyCount "57"] [EventDate "2025.??.??"] {A00: Desprez Opening} 1. h4 e6 {I have never seen this befor as black customarily plays 1...e5 or 1...d5} 2. Rh3 {Because my opponent was fairly low rated I playe this as a way of giving him odds...the plan is to sacrifice the R on f7.} d6 3. Rf3 Qxh4 {Black will end up losing time with this P grab, but there's nothing wrong with it. White's best continuation is now Nc3 and Nge2 etc. Obviously the R is horribly placed on the 3rd rank and castling is a long way off.} 4. Rxf7 {Giving R odds. I have played this sacrifice several times against low rated opponents and they often overreact to perceived threat like Ne5+ or Ng5+ or Bc4+ or Qh5+} Kxf7 5. Nf3 Qe7 6. d4 h6 {Overreacting.} (6... Nf6 7. Ng5+ Ke8 8. Nc3 Nc6 9. e4 h6 {Now this gains time by forcing the N to retreat.} 10. Nf3 {White is simply a R down.}) 7. e4 a6 {Way too cautious. 3... Nc6 is better. Even so, white is still a R down and black has a solid position. } 8. Bc4 b5 9. Bd3 {I chose this over 9,Bb3 because there is a glimmer of hope of utilizing the weakness of g6} Bb7 10. a4 b4 11. e5 {Hoping he will play ... dxe5 so I can get a N on e5.} d5 {Refusing to bite. Now that the position is closed I have little choice but to play "normally" and develop and hope black somehow blunders and throws away his advantage.} (11... dxe5 12. Nxe5+ Ke8 13. Qh5+ Kd8 14. Nf7+ {and white has not only equlized, he is actually a bit better.}) 12. Nbd2 a5 13. c3 Ba6 14. c4 {I need to keepo the B because g6 is still a square of interest.} c6 (14... dxc4 15. Be4 Ra7 16. Nxc4 {Baiting a trap!} Bxc4 17. Nd2 Ba6 (17... g6 {is a must. Now after} 18. Nxc4 {I am still a R down.}) 18. Qh5+ g6 19. Qxg6#) 15. Ng1 {A surprising move that came to my attention only at the last second. The threat, which is really no threat at all, is to play Qh5+} Ke8 {Heading for safety.} 16. Bg6+ {This is a little better than Qh5+ because it prevents a possible black expansion on the K-side by advancing his g-Pawn.} Kd7 17. Qf3 dxc4 18. Ne2 Kc7 19. Nf4 Nd7 20. Ne4 { My pieces are well placed, but there is no way to attack and I am still a R down and the well placed pieces are not enough compensation.} b3 {Finally! Black blunders and allws me to equalize. He still has to complete his development so 20...Ngf6 was called for.} 21. Bd2 Bb7 22. Nd6 {A good square for the N!} Qh4 {[%mdl 8192] This is an outright blunder that not only costs a P, but allows my pieces to swarm his K. 22...Ngf6 is about equal. Unfortunately for black he saw the threat of ...Qh1+ winning the R and went for it without further investigation.} 23. Nxe6+ Kb6 24. Nxc4+ {[%mdl 32]} Ka7 25. Nxa5 Qh1+ {It's too late to save the game, but apparently black still didn't suspect anything because he played this instantly.} 26. Ke2 Qxa1 27. Nxc6+ Kb6 28. Qxb3+ Ka6 29. Bd3# 1-0
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