Learning to open in chess without learning chess openings.

#6. Yes, another address system, while having a tree structure, it still has no grouping of the games within, I mean the ideas are still buried in the tree and dispersed. It would still need to be inverted, somehow. for me to make sense, and reduce rote memory load by using concept or idea based associations, or whatever it is that i find lack in such an arbitrary partial ordering.

The ply level branching is the problem, it means very little in term of long term typology of the game (some do, but you will find in the ECO characterizations, that they had to include some Trademark icons, which i understand to reduce the claim that it would actually have meaning for the whole descendant branch (all the deeper variations will carry that term as address, but the meaning of the term would be not applicable to a sizable portion_). I am thinking of closed, open, semi-closed.... it might have been functional, in the past, but it seems that discovery, and transpositions put a dent in ECO being more than a library shelving system. (which is better than individual pioneers authorship names, but only so slightly, perhaps the names are more honest in not carrying any meaning, but the exact sequence of the variation they map to.

@dboing
I think you want the Opening Table style of Modern Chess Openings by GM Defirmian.

You have to learn everything of course.

Georgios Souleidis seems to be a good german teacher.

Yeah, I have to agree with what some others have said. The "don't study openings, just follow basic principles" thing sounds attractive because you can learn the basic principles in ten seconds and now you don't need to spend any more time on openings. If the principles aren't doing it for you any more and you need to study a book, why not get a book that will teach you concrete lines and the ideas behind them rather than trying to learn a whole lot more "principles" that you may or may not be able to apply in practice?

Have you tried playing Chess960? Opening theory is next to useless in that variant, and you will be challenged in applying your opening principles. In Lichess's description of 960 there's a quote from Levon Aronian saying it's healthy and good for your chess.

@Derrick1Rose Couldn't have said it better myself.

I can recommend SMITHY’S OPENING PRINCIPLES (free) course on Chessable.com

I play different openings only for the experience.no long lines or intricate variations just the bare bones of an opening.then I play it by ear.open,closed, hypermodern.i am still learning so I want variety in my games.ive been told not to worry about openings at my level but I have to start somewhere.