Opening Rules
“Move Every Piece Once Before You Move Any Piece Twice” – unless it is required by a tactic…. Believe it or not, most players absolutely cannot follow this guideline no matter how hard they try!
“It is usually MUCH better to take a piece that is doing nothing and make it do something than it is to take a piece that is already doing something and make it do a little more!”
“The player who uses his Rooks best probably wins the opening.” Alternately, “The main goal of the opening is to properly develop your Rooks.”
“A good metric is how many moves it takes for you to move all your non-pawns. 12-16 is normal. If you use a lot more than that, you are probably neglecting your development, likely your Rooks.”
“In the opening, if you can drive a Knight out of the center by attacking it with a pawn, it is usually correct to do so.”; similarly, “”If you can push a pawn up and safely drive a Knight out of the center, it is probably good to do so, especially if in doing so you don’t weaken any squares.”
“If you are White and your opponent does not stop you by his opening moves, set up the ‘little center’: e4 and d4″
Don’t develop your pieces to squares where they can just be efficiently attacked by enemy pieces of lesser value (often pawns) and therefore have to retreat.
“The King always moves two when you castle.”
“The best way to refute a gambit is to accept it.”
“If your opponent plays something you don’t know, don’t panic – just follow the general principles (like the ones on this page!)”
“Low rated players should play tactical openings to improve their tactics.”
“Moving just two pawns in the opening is usually not enough to give your pieces space; on the other hand, moving six or more pawns is usually too weakening and takes too much time.”
“Don’t put your Knight in front of your c-pawn in double d-pawn openings.” (In general, don’t block your break moves and put your Rooks behind your break moves).
“Castling is usually the most important move in any opening.” It is the only move which may save a tempo by moving two pieces at once!
*”Don’t start a fight until your King is safe!!” (especially if your opponent’s King is already safe) or “Don’t fool around until you are castled.”
“Don’t start a fight until either all your pieces are ready or at least you have a lot more pieces active than your opponent.”
*”Any opening that you know well is good no matter what its reputation.”
“For most players, it is not memorizing opening sequences that are important, but following good general principles that apply throughout the game and especially those in the opening.” Of course, the stronger you get, the more specific opening knowledge is helpful.
*”It is good for most developing players to play the King’s Indian Defense and the French Defense for a while, since you cannot avoid their pawn structures in many irregular openings anyway.”
“In the Ruy Lopez, the play is rich enough that the better player almost always wins.”
“Until you can develop ALL your pieces every game during the opening, you are not ready for intermediate play.”
*”Bd2 is usually bad for White in almost any opening unless it is tactically required.”
“Develop Knights Before Bishops.” (Note: This usually means the Knight before the Bishop on the same side, not necessarily both Knights before both Bishops).
“Don’t pin the adverse King’s Knight to the Queen before the opponent has castled.” (One of Lasker’s rules)
“Develop the pieces on the side you are going to castle before the pieces on the other side.” or as a corollary, “Develop the Bishop on the side you wish to castle before the other Bishop.”
“Don’t play your f-pawn up one (f3/f6) unless your opponent’s Queen is off the board, you are already castled, or are soon going to castle the opposite side. Especially avoid guarding the e-pawn from a pawn capture, e.g. 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.f3?! dxe4 4.fxe4?? Qh4+ 5.g3?? Qxe4+ and 6…Qxh1.
“Don’t prevent pins with h3/h6 and a3/a6 unless those are the only good squares for the Bishop; on the other hand, playing h3/h6 to prevent a Knight from harassing a Bishop on e3/e6 is often correct.”
“If a Bishop plays Bg5/g4 and is NOT threatening to take a knight (it can do so, but it is not a threat), it is often correct to hit it with …h3 or …h6 to force it to decide which diagonal it is going to stay on.”
“Don’t move all pawns onto the same color squares as this creates weak squares of the opposite color.”
“Put your pieces on the ‘right’ side of the pawns (usually meaning behind them!). For example, in non e-pawn (and many e-pawn openings, like the Ruy Lopez) openings, it is usually right to put your Queen’s knight behind your c-pawn, like c4/Nc3 or …c5/…Nc6.”
“A premature attack is doomed to failure.”
“The most important move of the opening is often castling.”
“If you opponent is castled and you are not, be especially aware about catching up in development, especially castling too, and not prematurely opening the center to his (big) advantage.”
“If you castle opposite sides and Queens are still on the board, the side that gets to the opponent’s King first with the most usually wins!”
“If you are already winning, try to castle on the same side as your opponent. Castling opposite sides tends to make the game sharp and minimize any material advantage.”
“Play the piece to the square where you KNOW it must go before you play another piece to the square where you think it might go. The extra move might help you determine to which square the latter piece should move.”
If you move a pawn to open up a diagonal for a bishop, then should you usually NOT move up another pawn to develop the bishop on the other diagonal. It should be developed on the original diagonal without wasting time to push the second pawn.
Don’t fall too far behind (in development) in the ability to castle. In particular, if you are opponent has the ability to castle or has already, make sure you can get your king out of the center too before it is caught in a crossfire of centralized rook checks.
Botvinnik’s rule: In slow games, use about 20% of your time for the first 15 moves. In fast games, use LESS than 20% of your time for the first 15 moves;
Botvinnik’s rule would not apply in exceptionally tactical openings or ones where you get out of the book in one or two moves.
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Related posts:
- Chess – Moving The Pieces
- Understanding Chess Move By Move
- Chess – An Introduction
- Understanding Chess Move By Move
- Learn To Play Chess Today
Filed under: Chess Opening
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