(Really) basic chess opening theory

I guess I’ll start this series off with basic opening strategy.

The central thesis of the opening is to develop your pieces (E and D pawns, knights, bishops, rooks, and queen) and to castle your king.

start of the game

moving the central pawn 2 spaces up to develop the bishop and to control the center of the board

In this position, white has developed their bishop and knight and is about to castle while black is not developed at all

The point of this is to bring your pieces out so it can attack key squares later on in the middle game.

It’s important to note that the pieces should control the center of the board because the center is where they have most squares to control (if that makes any sense?)

Okay, one sec, let me make a quick detour about what is the center of the board

Center of the chess board

There are four squares in the middle of the board — which is called the center.

Pieces in the center of the board have most mobility, meaning they control the most amount of squares.

super powerful central knight controlling 8 squares

super weak knight, on the edge of the board, controlling only two squares

Okay back to what I was saying.

Once you have the opportunity to castle, you most probably should.

That’s because the king in the center of the board is the most vulnerable to attacks, and if you lose the king, you lose the game.

castled king is VERY important

Okay, now that we have castled, it’s time to move the other pieces, like the knight and black-squared bishop.

Right now, the black-squared bishop is trapped behind the pawns, so it would make sense to move the pawns so you can move the bishop.

white has developed all their bishops and knights and has castled

After the knights and bishops have been developed, and the king is castled, it is time to move the queen and rooks.

most ideal final opening position

You’ll notice that all the pieces are developed and facing toward the center.

After you have developed all your pieces, what do you do now?

That’s a very important question that I felt was never addressed properly when I first started playing chess.

I’ll tell you what you do now… You use your pawns to open up the position and use your pieces to attack key squares.

the C7 square and F7 square are awfully weak, and black is unable to defend both at the same time if white attacks them with their knights.

Black defends c7 but white attacks f7 too. An example of the two knights attacking both c7 and f7

black tries to defend the attacks, but white has a clever sacrifice to open the position

This is known as a “double attack” (tactical motif) — threatening checkmate and threatening to win the black knight

black defends checkmate but loses his knight, which was the best option

Here, you want to open up the position by using your pawns

this position, white is clearly much better and winning

Black’s king is so limited in squares that it’s about to be checkmated

and checkmate

This game was very unrealistic because black didn’t develop any of their pieces throughout the game, but I showed this to highlight how important development is in chess for you to win the game.

Realistically, both players will follow chess opening theory. When this happens, it often leads to “theoretical openings.” I’ll cover theoretical openings in other articles because there are so many and all of them are so detailed.

Final note, it is important to understand the core underlying principles of the opening in case your opponent doesn’t play “by the book”, which happens all so often when playing against beginner chess players.

In summary, the basic opening principles in chess is:

1. Develop your pieces toward the center.
2. Castle your king.
3. After all your pieces are developed, use your pieces to attack weak squares and your pawns to pry open the position.

*Important note: As a general principle, develop your pieces in the order of least to most valuable — pawns first, knights second, bishops third, and queen or rooks last.

I hope this was helpful in understanding the opening, and if you have any questions, you can message me on twitter. https://twitter.com/PeacefulChess