Is It a Good Idea to Improve Your Defensive Skills?

I had to compensate it so much in the middle game. It was there for years, even in the mid 90s, that simply it was very clear that I was behind in opening preparation. And many games it happened that I was like, a verse position after move 8, 12 and then I had to put so much more energy into middle game to turn things around. That's not a question. On the other hand it does improve your defensive like, especially for young players,. When they don't have openings and they're forced to play from slightly worse or much worse positions, it really does help defensive skills. "That skill does, at some point, become very useful," he says