Well lets begin with the basics, I'm assuming at this point that you have some basic understanding of chess rules and chess notations. If not then please click on the appropriate links to learn more about those two subjects and return to this section later. The basic plan of an opening after moving e4 or d4 also known as moving your king's or queen's pawn is to fight for control of the center. The idea behind this is simple; if you have control over the center you can develop your pieces faster to whichever side of the board the action is meaning you have greater control over the board. Accordingly e5 or d5 moves by black are reaction moves that try to thwart whites effort to control the center of the board. I reccomend playing symmetrically (example: e4,e5 or d4,d5) during openings for players learning chess. This does not create an advantage but you can avoid several traps by using this sound but cautsious play.

   So now you ask, I've moved my center pawns what do I do now? The next step is to develop your minor pieces. The recommended move order is to develop your Knights first, usually to f3 or c3 as white and f6 and c6 for black. Taking on these squares are key moves because they develop the Knight and immediately fight for the key center squares (e4,e5,d4,d5). Now for developing your other minor piece the Bishop. My preference is to always develop my kingside Bishop first, the light squared bishop for white and the dark squared bishop for black. This allows you to castle on the next move if the Knight has also been developed. Generally I always ponder four thoughts before I move my Bishop.

1. Look for open lines, a bishop flourishes in open games they are fast and lethal from long range and can put tremendous pressure on you opponent.
2. Threatening or Pinning, if you can develop your bishop to a square that threatens your opponent or pins down a piece due to the possibility losing a greater valued piece then you can force a reaction that gains time for you or as it is called in chess a tempo.
3. Can I develop my bishop to a square that will improve my position? This involves a strategic plan were you are perhaps limiting the Bishop’s value on the board in an attempt to gain some other type of advantage. An example would be protecting a key square even if it hampers the movement of your Bishop.
4. Finally one of the most important questions you should ask yourself before moving a Bishop or any piece in general. By moving this piece will I be weakening my position or allowing my opponent to gain an advantage in any way? If the answer doesn’t favor you then go back to the drawing board and find a different move.

   After developing the minor pieces it is time to develop your major pieces. Rooks are battering rams of chess they destroy anything in front or to the side of them. Rooks flourish on open lines much like the Bishop and are best placed on open or half open files. Often times after early center pawn moves the middle is left open or partially open, placing a rook on these open or partially open files can be advantageous. One thing to be cautious of is that you can properly control the file. The most common reaction to placing a Rook on an open file is that your opponent moves his Rook to the same file and challenges your control.

   Its now time to develop the queen the most powerful piece on the board. With the obvious strength of the Queen you will want to use her as much as possible. But beware, your opponent if allowed will make every attempt to threaten your Queen and try to trap her. This gains time for them due to the necessary reaction since you can’t afford to lose your most valuable piece. Not even to mention if you are careless you may lose your queen.

  Now for the King the most valuable piece on the board. Simply said if you lose your King you lose the game. The best way to develop your King is to make it as safe and defended as possible. This brings us to castling, now if you are not familiar with castling I will describe it briefly. If unobstructed the King and Rook switch sides of the board, if you castle kingside the King move two squares to the right and the Rook moves two squares to the left. If you castle queenside then the King moves two squares to the left and the Rook moves three squares to the right. Other key conditions of castling are that the King can’t be in check or go through check while castling, and that the King and Rook used during castling have not previously moved. Now to determine which way to castle. The logical decision is to castle to the kingside, to castle to your queenside you must develop one additional piece the Queen. It just takes more time to bring your king to safety. Of course this is not always the case, as you will learn, sometimes-castling queenside is not only better but is needed to win the game. This will become more apparent as you play more and gain experience. I will continue this section further with more detailed analysis of specific openings at a later time. Thank you for reading this and I hope it helped your understanding of openings.

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