Introduction
When you are learning the best ways to start a game it is vital that you understand why a move is the best in a particular position and how to exploit inaccurate moves by your opponent rather than learning openings parrot fashion. Rueben Fine in his classic book "The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings" states that there are 2 fundamental concepts in the opening:
1. Quick Development
By quick development we don’t just mean rapidly getting your pieces out into play. Pieces need to be placed on active squares in arrangements that allow them to work together. The correct positioning of your pieces depends upon your opponent’s deployments and there is therefore no perfect configuration of your pieces.
2. The Centre
This consists of the 4 crucial squares at the geometrical centre of the board i.e. d4, e4, d5, e5. Extending beyond the key central squares we can map out a larger centre (c3-c6-f6-f3) of 16 squares. By controlling or occupying this area of the board with pieces and pawns it is easier to conduct your pieces for an attack on the queenside or kingside flanks. Pieces are more powerful when placed on the central squares e.g. a knight in the centre controls 8 squares but only 4 when at the edge of the board and only 2 when placed in the corner. If you had two free moves in the opening you could do worse than d4 and e4 occupying the centre and letting the bishops out.
With every move in the opening one needs to ask:
How does it affect the centre and how does it fit in with the development of my other pieces and pawns?
Ten practical tips that can be derived from these two fundamental concepts are given below but unfortunately moves in the opening that appear "natural" will sometimes lead you into opening traps so some study and familiarity is necessary. It cannot be stressed enough though that to become a strong player you will need to thoroughly understand the two fundamental concepts and the openings that you play rather than just learning "main lines" by rote.
For instance let us pretend that you have opened a game with the excellent move 1.e4 and your opponent replies with 1…f6. You won’t have come across this reply in an "openings book" because it is so poor. If though you understand that black has neglected the centre, deprived his king’s knight of it’s best square and weakened his king’s position you can easily punish your opponent’s poor play.
10 Practical Opening Tips
Many games between beginners are lost by not sticking to these ten rules! The experienced player will though be aware of many exceptions: