The Opening Principles Of Chess

(If reading is not your thing check out our courses page to find a course on opening principles!)

There are of course openings in chess, The Queens Gambit, The Indian, The Birds opening and others, but, all of these openings, at least the majority of them, follow The Opening Principles.

The Opening Principles are useful to know because there will be times when you won’t know an opening your opponent plays and when you know “The Opening Principles” you won’t be totally helpless when playing.

#1 DEVELOP YOUR PIECES

This may be the most important of the rules because development of the pieces mean that when you’re ready to fight you won’t be caught unprepared.

Usually under normal circumstances you will develop your “Minor” pieces before your “Major” pieces.

The “Minor pieces include of your Bishops and Knights which are easier to get out faster than you “Major”pieces (Queen and Rooks).

Always try to develop/attack towards the center.

The center is key when playing chess.

This image shows what a perfect opening position would look like.

Pieces are developed nicely, white has TWO pawns controlling 2 of the central squares and defended.

Pieces are all attacking the middle squares and white has castled.

The interactive example on the left hand side shows how black moves their knight multiple times for so reason and how white gets a massive advantage.

#2 NEVER MOVE A PIECE TWICE:

If possible, never move a piece twice in the opening because doing so can quickly cause a falling in position or material.

In the opening you want to activate your pieces and think up plans to prepare for the middle game, by moving a piece twice in the middle game you allow your opponent to activate their pieces to the right places and allow your piece a higher chance to get kicked (attacked).

Most times the only exception to this rule is when it is strategically a good move or when it is a forced move.

#3 CASTLING ON THE EARLY SIDE:

Ok, if you don’t know the rules of castling here they are: You CANT castle out of a check or checkmate, you can’t castle through a check or into one and lastly you can’t have moved the king or the castling rook.

Now, castling is REALLY important because it gets your king to safety fast and out of the central files of the board so your king can’t be attacked fast by something like Scholars Mate or The Budapest Gambit.