Where do I go to learn opening chess theory?

I would like to start learning opening chess theory. Not just moves, but the advantages and disadvantages that each opening along with its variation provides as well as other things important in the opening. Thanks!|||The best book for what you're looking for in my opinion would be "The Complete book of Chess Strategy" by IM Jeremy Silman. He is a world-class teacher, writer and player. He's also coached the United States delegation to the World Junior Championship and taken his team all over the world.





The book starts out with basic opening strategy, castling, development, fianchetto and then delves into the various opening systems. He touches on 45 different opening systems in all. Each with the moves and the ideas behind them. He focuses more on the theory behind each opening than just memorizing long variations. They are in alphabetical order so if you have a specific opening in mind it's easy to find or you can simply go through each one briefly and see what piques your interest. It covers all the major openings that you would ever encounter.





The book also goes into middlegame and endgame strategy as well. To be a complete player, you must understand that you want to keep the endgame in mind from the very first move. It is all connected and not three completely seperate entities. So my advice is to study the entire book and not just the section on opening strategies. Once you see the game as a whole, it is much easier to form a good plan right from the beginning.





Added Note: As I've mentioned in previous answers, narrow down your choice of openings to only a couple for each color and stick with them until you really feel comfortable and know all the subtle nuances. It is not realistic, nor wise to spend your time trying to learn all the various openings.





Hope that helps!|||there are two books you can find at almost any bookstore including borders barnes and nobles etc.


first one is chess openings for white


second one is chess openings for black





also you could type in the opening on google and look at it on wikipedia. for example type in 1.e4 and then google will pull up king pawn opening on wikipedia tell how it is advantageous or dis advantageous and how to best use it. very theoretical.





i always do kings pawn opening because if they use sicilian defence you can use sicilian grand prix attack look it up. also the scandinavian defence is easy to counter so 1.e4 known as kings pawn opening is best.|||The answer to this question used to be pretty easy: MCO.





MCO, that is, Modern Chess Openings, has been the chess player's "Bible" for quite some time answering all these questions you ask. The latest version is the 15th. Here it is with a preview: http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Chess-Openi鈥?/a>





That's probably still the easy answer.





I don't have a copy, but the reviews of FCO (Fundamental Chess Openings) are full of praise. That could be an even better route than MCO at this point: http://www.amazon.com/FCO-Fundamental-Pa鈥?/a>








For a more comprehensive reference (without descriptive commentary) there is ECO, the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings, which is a five-volume set and most likely beyond what you would need. For example, this is one volume: http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Chess鈥?/a>





The trouble nowadays is that computers are finding flaws in many old evaluations and the latest theory can be hard to keep up with. For that reason, many turn to online or digital databases with millions of games and the most current theory. Here are a couple of handy resources: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/explorer and http://www.chesslive.de.





Apart from staying up with the latest theory, there are fundamental concepts behind the openings that remain mostly constant. Reuben Fine's "Ideas Behind the Chess Openings" (http://www.amazon.com/Ideas-Behind-Chess鈥?/a> is one of the best. Wikipedia is also a great resource (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_openi鈥?/a> so maybe that will someday just circumvent all other easy answers.





Finally, you can find a treasure trove of old information on http://books.google.com if you just search on chess. Sure, most of those old books are hopelessly outdated, but they also contain lots of information that has been lost over the years, including deep insights by some of the greatest masters who ever lived. Here's an example: http://books.google.com/books?id=9yZ-laV鈥?/a> ... I've added another example with great descriptions (are all openings bad?) by Gunsberg, who was one of the very top players around the time of Steinitz: http://books.google.com/books?id=SGwZAAA鈥?/a>





Enjoy!|||You want it all and you want it now...that's good....





But that's an awful lot of information to sort through!





I suggest you run that one by your favorite local neighborhood chess coach.





Bobby Fischer spent decades on studying openings, and it made him rebel (but then again, nearly everything made him rebel).





I think you should narrow down your plan to a couple of openings you like at a time. I've known masters who have never stopped mapping openings in their LIFETIME.