Chess 101: Surviving the Opening

Do you seem to lose chess games within the first ten moves or so? Do you have trouble figuring out where to place your bishops and knights so that you can castle quickly and get on to the middle game? You are not alone! Hundreds of folks just like you get frustrated when playing chess games and falling for tricks early on, or just not developing correctly, resulting in a horrible game.

Rule number one, is develop ALL your pieces before doing anything! Get the knights out first in most cases, and get pawns to the center squares if at all possible, unless you are more of a hypermodern player, but that is usually for more advanced chess. Controlling the center is all important in chess, and when you can do it effectively in more of your games, you'll be much more satisfied as a player.

Get the bishops OUTSIDE the pawn chain. A "bad bishop" is one that owns little or no squares. Knights can hop about and find holes of their own, but bishops are limited to one color square, so it is in your best interest to get them to a place where they have the longest range attacking power. Many people like to fianchetto their bishops in chess, or put them on the long diagonals.

One thing beginners get into trouble with is castling. Alexander Alekhine, the 4^th chess champion of the world, is noted for saying "Castle early, castle often." It's true, the whole object of chess is to attack the enemy king, so it makes sense to get him as safe as possible, as SOON as possible. If your king gets caught in the middle, many times you are in for a brutal, miserable chess game.

The most obvious and quickest way to castle is to develop the kingside bishop and knight first so that you can castle kingside, using only four or five moves as opposed to castling queenside, which can take substantially longer in some games. The point though, is to castle whenever you get the opportunity unless your opponent blunders so bad in the opening that you get a quick mate without the need to worry about your own king safety.

The best rule of thumb, especially if you don't know any book openings or have very limited knowledge, is to THINK about every single move. Consider WHY your opponent just pushed a pawn or relocated a piece; if you understand the why, you'll most likely find the how. Defense is just as big a part of chess as attack, and you will not win very many games if unable to defend well. Also, think about your own moves deeply. Understand the order of which you bring out your pieces, the squares you control and the squares you leave behind.