Memorizing openings is a waste of time unless/until you have a shot at good enough to make a living playing chess - about 1000 people and most of them live in poor countries where cost of living means they don't need to earn much to live.
Not really. there is some but a lot of it is how this pattern looks in different places on the board. You never see a text book endgame so you have to see how to win no matter where the pieces hapyen to be.
I'd play some Go but I have almost no one to play with casually. And since I play for fun, online isn't so good.