How to study french easily?

How can I easily study chess openings?

• I am about a 1400 USCF rated chess player. I'm not proud of this! I study 500-1000 rapid fire/timed tactic problems suited to my level each week. Aside from needing improvement in all areas, I really feel disadvantaged in the opening. Up until now, I have never studied it! Other than my interpretations of controlling the center, actively developing pieces, and castling quickly I feel at a strong disadvantage to players around my level who have some rudimentary systems in place for the first few moves in the game. I want to do this as well, but I'm not sure how. I suppose I could chose from the millions of openings and then try to study resulting middle games, end games, and tactical motifs. It seems overwhelming. What I have are a few basic ideas that get me into the game, but I'd like to improve that just a bit. Can someone offer ideas on how to "study the opening." Or more specifically what about the opening I should be studying. I plan to continue my tactics, middle game, and end game study. I just want to balance it out with a small percentage of opening study.

• Answer:

  Check out the books that alec recommended in addition to "How to Play Good Opening Moves" by Edmar Mednis http://www.amazon.com/Play-Good-Opening-Moves-Chess/dp/0812934741 I'm not sure, it may be available as a download somewhere (free, I mean)... but it is an excellent book to learn opening principles, which is more important than memorizing opening lines of play. Best of luck to you!