Opening principles to follow for players just starting out

Opening is the first part of the game and many things later are determined by how you play in this phase. Coming out badly from the opening means you might suffer for the rest of the game. But please note that until you gain around 1700- 1800 in elo there is no need to go further in chess theory. Only some sound principles will be needed to play the opening successfully.

#1 Develop your pieces quickly
This is rule of thumb and applies to most openings. In a training I once was taking part in we were not allowed to use more than 8 moves to develop all pieces. That’s a good rule of thumb to give to your student’s if you’re a trainer. All you’re pieces are fully developed when you’re rooks are connected. Another good rule of thumb is to move your pieces only once in the opening.

#2 Take control over the center with pawns
Taking control over the center means controlling the four central squares d4, e4, d5, e5. Often white tries to do that with placing pawns on d4/e4 and black trying to the same with pawns of e5/d5.

Black to move

A position from a game of mine. I was playing black here and as you can see I was doing quite badly letting white take full control over the center and play the 7 best moves you can play in the opening (e4,d4,Nc3,Nf3,Bf4,Bc4,0-0). And after just 3 more moves I had to resign. The shortest game I ever have played in a real tournament and quite embarrassing as I at that the time considered myself to be a quite decent chess player (I had 1900 in elo).

#3 Put the king in to safety
Many of the classical games from the 19^th century, the Romantic chess area, was decided right from the opening were one side didn’t manage to put the king in to safety in time. A pawn wasn’t worth anything and you gladly sacrificed 1 maybe 2 pawns in order to get ahead in development and then mate your opponent’s king. The game I just showed you is a great example of this, 11 moves and then I had to resign. You know in order put to your king in a safe place you need more than just making 0-0 (even though making 0-0 or 0-0-0 often gets your king out of trouble).

#4 Develop knights before bishops
At least one knight should be developed first. There is a simple reason for this: Depending on where you place your knights and your opponent places his/her knights your bishops belong on different squares.

#5 Don’t develop your queen to early
Many beginners think that because the queen is there most powerful piece (which it is) they have to bring it out and attack their opponent as quick as possible. Often times this strategy will only backfire. Here is an example of when this strategy doesn’t work:

White to move

As we can see the queen is standing in the middle of the board. Now it will reveal itself why the queen is so exposed. 1.Nc3! Developing a pieces and also gaining time because black has to move the queen again. And that breaks the 1th principle of not moving the same piece twice in the opening. 1… Qe5+?!  A bad move because the check is only temporary and white will soon gain extra time developing pieces and hitting the black queen at the same time. 2.Be2 Simply develops the bishop and prepares Nf3. 2…Bg4 Making use of the pin. 3.d4! Again hitting the black queen and making an important developing move (3.Nf3 would have been meet by Bxf3 when white has to compromise the pawn structure with gxf). 3…Bxe2 4.Nxe2 Qa5 5.0-0 (Diagram below)

Black to move

Please, take a moment to compare white’s position to black’s. White has made 3 developing moves and put his king to safety. Black on the other hand has not gone any further than in the last position with the exception of the missing light squared bishop. You’d be surprised if I tell you how many games online I have played white in this position. But the score isn’t surprising at all.