From author: "Chess is a game of understanding and not of memory." This maxim, with which I opened my brochure, How Not to Play Chess, has met with universal approval, and there is no reason for not applying it to the study of the openings 1 It is not, then, by memorising variations that we shall become proficient in playing openings, but by understanding their meaning, their purpose, and the general ideas and principles which are their foundation...