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Opening Principles Part 1
Chess Openings

 First 10 – 15 moves.
 Goal is to reach comfortable middlegame.
 White is slightly better on move 1 and tries to maintain the advantage.
 Black tries to “equalize” and eliminate White’s advantage of moving first.
 Dozens of great openings but only one good opening plan – control the center.
 There are thousands of opening books out there but most are useless for lower rated players.
 Focus on understanding and applying opening principles.

Opening Principles

 The best plan in the opening, assuming that both sides are making acceptable moves, is controlling
the center. Why control the center? It’s quite simple. Chess pieces are flexible and mobile in the
center. Central squares tend to be useful throughout the game. Centralized pieces can
simultaneously act as attackers and defenders. By controlling central squares, we prevent our
opponent from using these squares.
 The most important opening principle besides controlling the center is developing pieces
immediately in an effective manner. Develop pieces with a purpose and choose developing moves
wisely. It is good to plan developing moves ahead of time. Remember, developing just means
improving a piece by moving it from its starting square to a better square. Pawn moves don’t
count as development but they are moves that enable development while controlling important
squares. Making a few pawn moves is necessary. However, remember that a turn spent on moving
a pawn is a turn not spent on developing. Don’t make too many pawn moves in the opening.
 Castle by move 10 or so. In many open positions, castling immediately is a must. It is sometimes
safe to delay castling in closed positions but even if not for king safety, castling should still be
done to activate a rook.
 Develop your pieces in a manner that maximizes center control and quickly enables castling.
 From these core guidelines, we can deduce other principles. For example, it is unwise to
unnecessarily move the same piece twice as that neglects development of a new piece. Rooks and
the queen should not be developed to advanced squares early as they will become targets and
get chased back since it’s usually bad to trade a major piece for a minor piece. Hence, your
opponent will gain tempo on your pieces and get a lead in development.
 Remember that every move has a drawback – one turn. Use time wisely on the board and on the
clock! Wasting one or two turns is often enough to give the opponent a serious advantage.

With that said, these are principles. They are good guidelines. However, there are many situations when
the opening principles are not enough. The specific situation on the chess board, the dynamics, matter
more than principles. The principles are there to guide you during the opening; they help you reach a
comfortable middlegame. However, it is possible for your opponent to blunder and give you tactical

© Chess University, Inc. 2017

chances right in the opening. It would be dreadful to miss a tactical opportunity due to being on auto-pilot
with opening principles. Don’t take any stage of the game casually. Analyze forcing moves (checks,
captures, and threats) each and every turn because by definition, tactics are forcing moves. Always do a
basic tactical diagnosis. Make sure no pieces are hanging and follow the analytical thinking method.
Complement all of this with the opening principles. Blindly following opening principles without thinking
is not the right way to approach opening play. I cannot stress this enough. I have had many students who,
upon learning opening principles, switched off their brain in the opening and just developed pieces. I’ve
also had students who have responded to tactical threats from their opponent by just castling and
resigning a move later because they hung a piece.

Opening principles are there to guide and enhance your thinking, not replace it.

Opening Tactics

When we talk about tactics, we are referring to something that is forcing. Tactics exist in openings just
like they do in middlegames and endgames. Always analyze forcing moves. If you analyze forcing moves
each turn for both sides, you will not miss simple tactics. Tactics that are common in the opening include
forks, pins, and double attacks.

Exercise: White to Move

Black just played …Nf6 and it is now White’s

turn to move.

If we approach this position using only

opening principles, then several moves
come to mind such as Be2, Be3, Bg5, etc.
However, we must apply the analytical
thinking method and look for basic tactics
and forcing moves for both sides. Dynamics
come first.

What is White’s best move? Black’s knight

on f6 is not tactically justified. It is an
example of unstable development. White
can play e5 and kick that knight back to g8!
We harm Black’s development this way.
After e5 Ng8, we can continue developing
with moves like Be3 and enjoy a strong
position.

© Chess University, Inc. 2017