When I use this tool, which by the way is amazing, I see that a few moves are not there. Now I am fairly stupid when it comes to chess. My Rank so far is 844(playing for two months in chess). But I have to ask, are the moves that chessmaster suggests in the openings the best possible moves? Should I just trust for now that I am getting top notch advice?

And when you use the openings reference tool does the "3dot" thing on each piece mean that is the best move or merely the most popular. Like Alekhine Defense,whites(1.e2,e4) response from black is (Ng8, Nf6) is only given dot. Does that mean it is just workable move that is unpopular, or is it second rate to the 3 dot move of (c7, c5)?

Thanks in advance.

First thing that has to be said is that there is no "best opening". Or at least nobody has found it yet.

From grandmasters perspective there are openings that offer more chances to fight for an advantage than others, and some openings have been completely refuted. But from amateurs perspective ANY opening is perfectly OK (as long as you don't give away material for nothing).

You shouldn't memorize openings and then play them from memory, you should just play "normal" moves that comply to basic opening principles:

- you should control the center
- develop your pieces
- don't move the same piece twice in the opening
- don't bring your queen out too early
etc.

Now these are just principles, not dogmatic rules that must be followed to the letter. Sometimes you have to do the oppopsite. Knowing when to do it and when not, thats what chess skills are.

Also important is that you just have fun. A lot of times I play on purpose a move that I know I shouldn't have, just to see what will happen. I'm not talking about throwing the pieces on purpose, I'm talking about making a move that is not in accordance with the "opening theory".
For example, after: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e5
everybody will say that white should play 5.Nb5. And I know that. But I play on purpose 5.Nf5 - just letting my opponent prove that it's not a sound move


Sometimes you will win because your opponent just won't know how to play against it, and sometimes you will lose because of that. But at least you will know from your experience why that move is not good. It won't be because somebody told you that it is not good, but because you will see that you get a bad position because of it. And thats learning.



About the dots. Dots tell you how the moves are weighted and in what frequency the moves are going to be played (but keep in mind that Chessmaster personality uses CMX.obk book and not Reference.obk book). Lets say that in some variation four moves are in the opening book with the following weights:
1st move: 25 (1 dot)
2nd move: 100 (3 dots)
3rd move: 0 (0 dots)
4th move: 50 (2 dots)

In this case first move has a aproximately 25/(25+100+50)=14% chance of being played by the computer. 2nd move has aproximately 100/(25+100+50)=57% chance of being played by the computer, third move has 0/175=0% chance and 4th move has aproximately 50/175=29% of being played by the computer.
Moves are weighted accoring to popularity (on high levels), which is equal to "soundnes". Chessmaster won't play some funny-not-so-sound openings.