Black’s plan involves using quick development of their pieces to control the center instead of using pawns. Black is putting pressure on white indirectly using the bishop and trying to make the move pawn to e4 impossible. Īfter the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 we have a position that might remind you of the previously mentioned Ruy Lopez. The opening is an offshoot of the Indian Defense first played by Moheschunder Bannerjee and Mir Sultan Khan. Unlike the others on this list, The Nimzo-Indian is a relatively new opening developed by Aron Nimzowitsch in the early 1900’s. This is due to its flexibility and its strict adherence to opening principles. The Nimzo-Indian is arguably the strongest opening for black. With 2…e6 black agrees that the center is not worth a pawn and a complex battle begins with black already on the defensive. Oftentimes black will decline the offered pawn with the move 2…e6 (known as the Queen’s Gambit Declined). Sometimes a sacrifice of a pawn is justified and history has shown that the Queen’s Gambit is a sacrifice of the highest quality. The Queen’s Gambit occurs after the moves 1.d4 d5 2.c4-with this move (pawn to c4) white tempts black to win a pawn with 2…dxc4, which would allow white to take complete control over the center of the board with the follow up 3.e4. Fun fact: this opening featured in 32 of the 34 games during the World Championship match between Capablanca and Alekhine. Not just a Netflix show! The Queen’s Gambit is also an opening that controls the center but this time, white will sacrifice one of their pawns (known as a gambit).
The idea behind the bishop move is to attack the defender of the e5 pawn and sometimes if black isn’t careful, white can take the knight on c6, leaving the pawn on e5 defenseless. The Ruy Lopez starts with the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5-after the light-squared bishop moves to the square b5, we have The Ruy Lopez on the board. This is an opening that has been in the arsenal of every World Champion. The Ruy Lopez is an opening that revolves primarily around a long-term plan to control the center-our first opening principle. This opening was first written about in the Göttingen manuscript (the oldest work about modern chess) and is named after a 16th century Spanish monk. Some of the oldest and best openings are incredibly logical and sound. Learning these openings will not only help you improve your overall chess game, but they will also take you all the way to becoming World Chess Champion (a realistic goal for all of us). Best Chess Openings to Learn For BeginnersĪs a beginner, you should learn chess openings that follow the major opening principles closely. Here, black has broken all three opening principles and white is completely winning just twelve moves into the game.
Here we have an image of good opening principles versus bad opening principles: Leaving the king in the center of the board will usually lead to his downfall. Usually keeping the king safe means castling and avoiding pushing the pawns on the side where your king is. So king safety will always be first on your list of priorities. If the king is checkmated, then you lose the game. There really is no excuse to play passive chess. You can’t fight a war without an army, so don’t leave your pieces at home! Getting your pieces off of your back rank doesn’t just help you attack, it also helps you defend better. Putting pieces on the edges of the board restricts their movement and often excludes them from play. Controlling the center of the board (the e4, e5, d4, and d5 squares) allows your pieces to be flexible and dominant. This was the very first thing I learned about chess.