Is there value to learning openings as a new player? Am a new player (had played before hadn't picked up a board for 3 years having never taken the game that seriously) and am going to try and commit to at least 1 rapid (10+5) game per day.
Have made it to 950ish on Lichess (and was disappointed to find that puts me in the bottom 2%). In my approx. 15 games I've found on analysis I've opened up at least a couple of times  (unintentionally 25 or 30%) with the Kings Pawn: Leonardis variation or the French Defence: Classical variation as black. I've just tried to play what I thought was a sensible move and this is what the analysis classed it as.
Is there any value to learning openings as a new player? My only comparison is Poker where it's advised not to use game optimal theory on new players as they don't know what the correct play is a lot of the time. Conversely I'm thinking in Chess the chance of getting a new player to not make a mistake or blunder in the first 10 moves is very low (&amp; if someone goes off of a line I'm figuring it lowers the value of an opening). I'm figuring also if you get a completely different move to what you anticipated back (e.g. e4, d5) it would also lower the value of it? (so hence lowering the value of welding yourself to one opening).
Is there more value at this stage to be looking at pattern recognition and positional awareness and then specialising on an opening at a later stage?
Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions.
The opening in those games depends on your opponent just as much as you, so with the sample size being so small, don't take the statistic too much into account.
The analogy with poker doesn't really work out too well. You definitely want to play &quot;optimally&quot; in chess against beginners! While in poker you can choose between different strategies that will lead to different expected amounts of cash/chips gained on a hand, in chess there are only three results: win, draw and loss. If you play &quot;GTO-like&quot;, you'll win 100% of the time.
The problem is that, when you're still a beginner, studying openings won't make you much closer to being an &quot;optimal player&quot;. We should distinguish two things here: you should definitely learn how to play the opening well (as in: develop your pieces, control the center, put your king into safety, prevent your opponent from doing these three things and similar strategic ideas). Don't just stick to the &quot;slogans&quot;. Take a look at a variety of examples. However, this is not the same as learning a lot of moves deep into opening theory. Learn mainly by reviewing your own games (by yourself, not with a computer) and by watching how more skilled players treat the positions you reach.
The main reason why deep study of &quot;opening theory&quot; is not so profitable for beginners is that the difference between play &quot;perfectly&quot; and making a small opening mistake is much smaller than when those mistakes happen later in the game. The other main point I'd make is that it is much easier to remember opening theory when you are a skilled player that understands the underlying tactics/strategy and only has to rely on memory for a few critical situations. One of the opening mistakes I commonly see among beginners is making the &quot;right move&quot; in the wrong position (as in, thinking you are in a given theoretical position where the right move is X but it turned out it wasn't the same position)