the opening

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Control the Centre

Control the Centre

Activate Your Pieces

King Safety

Development

Don't Move the Queen Early

Don't Move the Same Piece

Twice

At the beginning of any game, white will most first. Players can either go into a game blind, playing moves based on logic, or they can memorise opening setups that have been used for decades.


It's important to note that because Chess is so old, it is nearly impossible to reinvent the wheel at such an early stage of the game. Almost every good opening has already been discovered.


But even if an opening setup already exists, that doesn't mean you can't stumble your way into it based on what we call "Opening Principles"


At some stage, you will have to learn opening theory. This is definitely not as daunting as it sounds, and will only take a few hours to properly learn. If you're interested, below is a YouTube video explaining how to learn any Chess opening.


Opening principles are things we can apply to opening positions in order to accurately transpose into the second phase of the game - the middlegame.


So, let's begin.

next chapter

Controlling central space is crucial in Chess. Think of control as a tree branch, if you control the centre, your control branches out to the sides too!

Activating your pieces is an absolute must. Not only in the opening, but every phase of the game.

Decision making is critical in Chess, and whether or not a single piece should be moved twice in a row is a big decision to make - sometimes costly.

The queen is the most powerful piece on the board, but the reality is it cannot take on every other piece alone. It needs support, so don't develop it too early.

Defend the king at all costs! Even if there isn't a threat on the king, sometimes it can be ideal to castle it to safety anyway. Better safe than sorry.

Full piece development is the final step in our opening. Once all of our pieces have left their home squares, we can begin to strategize…