For example, Ray Lopez. There are more than 100 variations in ray lopez. Which variations I should know and which one to leave. Again, if I play white pieces and games goes on e4e5 Nf3Nc6 than it is possible to go with ray lopez. But if black plays d4/c4/... or many other moves instead of e5?
I want to know, how masters learns and study openings.
You have to reduce the material. Play some minor lines.
Play. Look up. Play.
Currently, I am preparing the Rat (Pribyl, Czech Pirc) and I think it’s quite good as a system where ideas can prevail. Admittedly, some concrete variations will help. But it’s not that much compared to other lines.
So stay tuned, Chessable course is coming ASAP. :D
Look dude, this is like a knife fight where both guys are blind. You have two ways of winning. You either feel for the other guy's face and sacrifice your arm so you can shank him, or you bring a machete instead of a knife and swing like a madman. Those are the only two ways; there's no secret kung fu here. If you try playing the lines to other players you're gonna find out that they don't follow them, and the reason is that they don't know them either; they're also blind. Now you just have to get yourself a nice machete, or figure out which one of your arms you need the least.
Simple solution: Don't play the Ruy Lopez. As you've noticed, it has too much theory for an amateur who can't dedicate all day to memorizing lines. I play the Scotch instead. I can recommend this video
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLpYQCCcZ6wApparently, the e4 opening is facing a lot of possibilities from black and some people suggest to play a d4 opening for that reason; like the London system.
A thing that I think is kind-of helpful to do at some point is to actually draw out the tree of variations in its entirety, at least to include all the "named" variations. You can then go through it and work out which variations you actually need to know stuff for - the basic idea being that you ignore anything which is rare enough that you're very seldom going to face it, anything which you don't expect to have to face because of the choices that you make, and anything which you think you can deal with by following general principles or by using general ideas that you know from another variation.
For instance, you might look at the Steinitz Defence Deferred - 1 e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 d6. Filtering to your level and time controls you might find that you face e5 45% of the time, Nc6 65% of that, a6 25% of that and d6 10% of that. That's about 0.73% of your games as white that you'll actually get those four moves, assuming you play into it every time. You might think that that's often enough that you want to think about it. On the other hand, looking at the main lines you might reckon you can probably wing it based on general principles (centre, development, king safety) if your opponent plays "normal Steinitz Deferred stuff", because it's fairly solid but doesn't really theaten anything.
One line in the Steinitz Deferred that looks scary is the nutty line after 5 0-0 Bg5 6 h3 h4, on the other hand maybe Bg5 only happens 10% of the time and h4 30%, which brings you down to like one game in 5000, which means you probably won't have to worry about it. Conversely, if you're playing at a level where opponents are more booked up and you think you might actually have to deal with this line enough that you care about it and it looks scary enough that you'd actually want some preparation if you had to face it then you can either bit the bullet and learn some theory, or pick a different 5th move that removes the possibility. And if you do play 5. 0-0 then anything that comes after 5. c3 you obviously don't need to worry about, so that's another branch of the tree crossed off.
After all that you'll find that there are probably still a bunch of variations that you care about. You might decide that the amount of theory you need to survive the really trappy lines plus the number of different structures that you need to have some understanding of in order to come up with sensible plans is still more than you want to have to deal with, in which case you might want to pick a simpler opening, eg the Italian or Scotch. Or you might decide that it's now looking manageable, in which case go for it.
"... As a first step in mastering the Ruy Lopez, you need a solid, simple repertoire that will allow you to play practice games with your new opening without fearing nasty surprises. ... 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 d3 ... This should be by far the most common position you reach after 3 Bb5. Until, that is, you feel ready to branch out from 5 d3 to other, sharper variations. ..." - The Ruy Lopez: Move by GM Neil McDonald (2011)
web.archive.org/web/20140627022042/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen153.pdf"... I am not a big fan of weaker players memorizing lots of opening lines they will never play. However, it is quite a different issue to spend a small amount of time learning how to play your openings a little better each time they occur. A long journey begins with a single step. ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2005)
web.archive.org/web/20140627023809/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman50.pdf"... By looking at entire games, the aspiring player learns about openings, middlegames, and endgames all at one fell swoop. Playing through annotated games spurs improvement as the reader learns how good players consistently handle common positions and problems. ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2007)
web.archive.org/web/20140627062646/https://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman81.pdf
