Basic Openings

Back in history, if two countries were at war, it was common for the armies to line up on opposite side of a plain before beginning to fight.  (Wars are very different nowadays.)  Here is an example from The Art of Battle for a battle from over 2000 years ago.

To win the battle, a commander had to mobilise his troops to be ready to attack, or defend, as needed.  His troops must not just sit in their tents and wait for things to happen!

Chess is a war game with White and Black having equal armies (otherwise the game would not be fair).  The players must quickly move their pieces from their starting squares to the best possible positions to attack or defend - this is called developing your pieces.  In chess, the first 10 or so moves are called the Opening and there are thousands of books about opening theory!  Grandmasters of chess will have learned hundreds of special, named openings, but that is far too much for Improvers!!

Instead, here are some general ideas that will help you to obtain a good position from the opening, ready for the battle to follow . . . 

1. The opening is a race to see who can get their pieces out first.
2. Pieces are stronger in the centre of the board, so try to use your pawns to occupy and attack central squares, to control the centre and keep your opponent's pieces out.
3. At the start, the Bishops and Queen cannot move at all.  So, e2-e4 and d2-d4 are favourite first moves for White, as they open up diagonals for the B's & Q, and they fight for the centre.
4. The Knights can jump the pawns in front of them and the natural places to move them are c3 & f3, where they attack the centre. (Moving a Knight to a3 or h3 is not usually a good idea, as it is weaker at the edge of the board.)
5. Decide on the best square for your Bishop and go there in one move.
6. Do not move your Queen out into the open too early - it might be chased around and trapped.
7. Move your King to safety at the side by castling.
8. Your Rooks are the slowest pieces to develop but after castling, they can join forces and attack down the centre on the board. (Experience shows that it is not a good idea to try to develop Rooks at the edge of the board by playing a2-a4 or h2-h4 followed by Ra3 or Rh3.)

1. and 2. are the most important ideas in the list above - develop quickly and control the centre.

In the following diagram, White has achieved their opening objectives but, of course, Black has moves as well and will be trying to stop you!

 [White ""] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/3PPB2/2PB1N2/PP1N1PPP/R2QR1K1 w - - 0 1"] * 

There are more opening tips from Dr.Dave at DJCA Opening Tips.

It is often not possible to develop your pieces in the opening in the way that you want.  Your opponent might be attacking you and trying to upset your plans (and you can do the same to them).  It is not worth losing a piece to follow one of the ideas above!  However, if there are no threats to you that you can see, then following the opening tips will help your game.

Once you have gained experience by playing lots of chess games, ask Dr.Dave (our openings guru!) at the club for advice as to which are the most suitable grandmaster openings for you to think about first.  There will be some information on specific named openings in the Experienced section of the Coaching tab.