Chess Opening Principles: What to Do in the First Ten Moves

The three goals of the opening

Chess has countless named opening lines, but at beginner level it matters far more to understand what the opening is trying to achieve than to memorise names. Most good openings pursue three goals together: occupying or influencing the centre of the board, bringing pieces off the back row to squares where they can join the fight, and moving the king to safety. If you check your first ten or so moves against these three goals, you can avoid falling badly behind even without knowing any lines.

• Occupy or influence the centre
• Bring out the knights and bishops
• Castle to keep the king safe

Why the centre

The four central squares, e4, d4, e5 and d5, and the area around them are the most important part of the board in the opening. A piece in the centre attacks more squares than one on the edge. A knight, for example, can reach up to eight squares from the middle of the board but only two from a corner. Holding the centre also lets you move pieces quickly to either side of the board. That is why many openings start by advancing a central pawn two squares. You do not have to occupy the centre with pawns; some openings aim at it from a distance with pieces, but for beginners, starting with a central pawn is the easiest approach to understand.

The order of development

The basic rule is to develop knights and bishops first. These pieces do almost nothing on their starting squares, and a single move each puts them on squares aimed at the centre. Rooks only become effective once the board opens up, so they move later. In the opening, it is better to bring out a new piece each move than to move one piece several times, because every extra move with the same piece delays the others. Capturing an opposing piece or escaping a threat are, of course, exceptions. Moving too many pawns also slows development and can weaken the squares around your king.

Why not to bring the queen out early

The queen is the strongest piece, so it is tempting to bring it out early and attack, but leading with the queen in the opening usually costs you. Your opponent can attack the queen while developing knights and bishops, and because the queen is valuable you must move it away each time. Your opponent gains time by developing while you lose time shuffling the same piece around. There are short traps where a quick queen attack wins, but against correct defence they leave your development far behind. It is safer to use the queen once most of your other pieces are out.

Castle early

If the king stays too long on its central starting square, it is easily exposed to the opposing rooks and queen once the central pawns are exchanged and the files open. So players usually castle fairly early, after bringing out one or two knights and bishops. Castling tucks the king into a corner behind its pawns and brings a rook towards the centre, opening the way for it to connect with the other rook. After castling, avoid moving the pawns in front of the king carelessly, as they form the wall that protects it. Once all the pieces between the two back-row rooks have moved and the rooks defend each other, the opening is broadly complete.

Piece values and exchanges

When deciding whether to trade pieces, players commonly count a pawn as 1, a knight and a bishop as 3 each, a rook as 5 and a queen as 9. The king has no value because losing it loses the game. By this measure, giving a knight for a rook is a gain and giving a bishop for a single pawn is a loss. These numbers are only a starting point, though. In a closed position the jumping knight is often more useful, while in an open position the long-range bishop tends to be better, so real value depends on the position. Even when the points are equal, look at whose pieces become more active after the trade.

Traps beginners fall into

The quick defeats beginners suffer in the opening mostly aim at the same spots. At the start of the game, White's f2 square and Black's f7 square are defended only by the king, so a queen and bishop aiming at that square together can sometimes deliver checkmate within a few moves. Carelessly moving the pawns in front of the king can also allow checkmate with a single queen move. Once you understand the idea, these traps are easy to stop.

• Watch for a queen and bishop teaming up on f2 or f7
• Do not move the pawns in front of your king without reason
• When the opposing queen comes out early, first see what it attacks
• Gain time by developing pieces that chase the opposing queen

How to study openings

At beginner level, rather than memorising long lines from many openings, it works better to choose one opening you will play often as White and one as Black and understand the purpose of the first few moves. Falling badly behind in the opening is usually caused less by not knowing the line than by blunders that lose a piece or endanger the king. So the habit of checking, every move, what your opponent's last move attacks and whether any of your pieces are undefended comes before opening knowledge. After each game, look back at how well you achieved the three goals in the opening.