Chess opening

About the opening

The opening is the first phase of the game and in which both players develop their pieces and engage them in battle.

A harmonious developing of the pieces in this phase of the game will lead to a good game for you further on. This is why you should be familiar with the basic concepts that rule the game and the ideas behind the openings.

Even from the 15th century a series of openings have been studied like : The Spanish game, The bishop's Opening, The French Defense, mostly opened and semiopened games. With time closed and semiclosed openings started to by analyzed. This kind of openings lead to a positional game and at least some notions of strategy were required in order to play the game. This days there are many books and publications written solely on this subject.

If you are a beginner it's a good idea to start out with learning just a few openings. It's also a good idea if those openings lead to opened and semiopened games; while playing this kind of games you will be able to develop your tactical sense. You should start studying closed and semiclosed games after you have learned a few notions of strategy.

A set of rules you should follow

The main idea behind all openings is to develop your pieces as harmonious and as fastest as possible and in the same time to disturb your opponent's positional development.

There are a few general rules you should follow when developing your pieces:

• Make one of your first priorities the control of the center of the board using the pawns and your other pieces.
• When moving the pawns you should have in mind a good structure for them. This is very important as the pawns dictate where your strongest squares are (Remember : the squares that are under the control of the pawns are your strongest ones).
• Don't move the same piece more than once in the opening unless it's necessary. This way you won't lose any precious tempo and you will focus on developing your pieces.
• Don't get the queen too fast in the game
• Activate the knights first and then the bishops
• Choose the best square for a piece and move it directly there. Don't waste your time by doing some intermediate moves.
• Castle as soon as possible
• Don't move too many pawns in the opening
• While deciding your move choose the one that is more active, that threatens something or that puts the opponent in difficulty
• Don't sacrifice a piece without a clear motivation.