Chess Game Tips and Tricks - Best Opening Moves for Beginners

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Chess

The online chess trend that is booming in 2021 has sparked the interest of many people who rarely, or have never played chess before. Maybe one of them is you. Chess is not a game limited to ‘smart people’ only, but it is still a fairly difficult game. For some, the hardest part of chess may be the first turns.

Therefore, today I want to talk about opening moves in chess.

Note: This article uses a lot of chess notation to show an opening example. Use the article in the following link as a reference.

Principle

Some of you may have heard terms like Sicilian Defense or Scotch open. The terms above are a few of the names of the opening moves, which I will discuss after this. However, before we cover that section, we need to discuss a more important part: principles and understanding in a chess opener.

The most important thing in early game Chess is controlling the center of the board. You want to use your first moves to threaten the mid-board squares. To achieve this goal, you must move the right pawns, so that they can pave the way for other troops.

With that in mind, let’s get into the opening moves.

The Italian Game

e4 e5
Nf3 Nc6
Bc4

The Italian Game is the most basic opening move I’ll cover in this article. The essence of The Italian Game’s opener is to use the first pawn and horse to threaten mid-board, then advance the white square elephant to its strongest position. From Bc4, the elephant can control the center of the board, and threaten black pawns that advance to d5.

Sicilian Defense

e4 c5

If The Italian Game is the simplest opener from the white side, then Sicilian Defense is the most basic opener from the black side, especially if you want to play aggressively. Often chosen as a response to 1. e4, Sicilian Defense is an opener aimed at threatening d4 pawns, and exchanging elephant pawns for more valuable queen pawns.

The French Defense

e4 e6
d4 d5

The French Defense is one of those strategic openings that every chess beginner should learn. By advancing the d5 pawn, black can threaten the white e4 pawn, while d5 is protected by the e6 pawn and queen. However, even though this opener is strong, the c8 elephant will be quite difficult to advance, because it is covered by the e6 pawn.

The Ruy Lopez

e4 e5
Nf3 Nc6
Bb5

The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest classic openers in chess history. The opener is named after Ruy Lopez, a Spanish bishop who wrote one of the first books on chess. The Ruy Lopez is an opener similar to The Italian Game, with the same two moves between white and black. The difference is in the elephant, which goes one step ahead.

By placing the white elephant in b5, the position of the white elephant has no reach which is the same as Bc4. However, Bb5 positions the elephant to threaten the dark horse, placing more pressure on the opponent’s center. The Ruy Lopez can also be regarded as a more aggressive version of The Italian Game.

The Slav Defense

d4 d5
c4 c6

The Slav Defense is an opening similar to The French Defense, where the movement of the black pawn aims to protect the d5 pawn. The difference is in the white movement on the first turn. The French Defense is a black response unlock against 1. e4, while The Slav Defense is a black response unlock against 1. d4.

Closing

The five basic opening examples above are intended to help new players understand the principles early game chess in more depth. Keep in mind that in chess, understanding is more important than memorization. You don’t need to memorize the five openings above — they’re just examples of early turns in competitive chess.

I would like to thank the author from Chess.com for helping me in writing this article. I hope everything I wrote above can help you in getting started with chess, or enjoying chess more deeply.

You can play chess online for free through Chess.com.

To read articles about online chess and other interesting content, please read other articles from me, Jothias Edbert. For further information and other inquiries, you can contact us via [email protected]