| Hundreds, if not thousands, of books have been | | | | You should then Castle as soon as possible, preferably |
| written on chess openings. In chess, for beginners the | | | | on the Kings side. This helps protect your King from |
| natural instinct will be to buy a chess openings book | | | | attack and release the Rook into the center. |
| and commit specific openings to memory. When the | | | | 4. Connect your Rooks |
| chess beginner then tries to apply a specific opening in | | | | Once you have Castled you should then move the |
| a real chess game they usually become unstuck as | | | | Queen to allow your Rooks to connect and have free |
| their opponent makes a non-book move. It is best to | | | | movement on the back rank. Move your Queen with |
| learn good opening principles first this will then allow | | | | caution though, as another principle in the opening is not |
| you to adapt your openings based on your opponents | | | | to over expose your Queen. |
| moves. | | | | 5. Build a Solid Structure |
| 1. Control the Center | | | | Do not be tempted to attack until your pieces have |
| The first principle is to control as much of the center of | | | | been developed. Your aim in the chess opening is to |
| the chess board as possible. The key squares are d4, | | | | build a solid structure from which you can then attack |
| d5, e4 and e5. This will occur naturally for white with | | | | your opponent. By following these principles your |
| most openings, the two most common opening moves | | | | chess pieces will have more freedom of movement |
| being the Queens pawn move to d4 or the Kings | | | | and be less vulnerable to attack. |
| pawn move to e4. | | | | Once your are comfortable with these ideas you can |
| 2. Develop your Pieces | | | | then learn a chess opening or two and if your |
| Moving your Queens or Kings pawn first then controls | | | | opponent does not follow the book moves you can fall |
| either d5 or e5, it also allows room for movement for | | | | back on these principles as a what to do next. |
| the more major pieces. Bringing in to play the second | | | | A chess opening I would recommend would be the |
| principle of developing your major pieces, starting with | | | | Scotch Game ECO C44. This is a simple chess |
| your Knights followed by the Bishops. You may need | | | | opening that leads to an open game. It derives it's |
| to move another pawn to develop your Bishops fully. | | | | name from a correspondence chess match between |
| Moving your Knights to either c3 or f3 will help protect | | | | Edinburgh and London in 1824. Though not as popular in |
| your advanced pawn and also control more of the | | | | the modern chess game it is used by chess |
| center of the board. | | | | Grandmasters as a surprise alternative to more |
| 3. Castle Early | | | | common modern chess openings. |