1 e4 - An Opening Repertoire for Beginners 1...e5

When you first start playing Chess the idea of playing 1 e4 can seem intimidating due to the vast amount of responses there are for black. For that reason, when I first started playing, I steered clear of 1 e4 settling for simplier opening ideas for White. Though my progress in my first two years of Chess had been good, I do regret not jumping into the deep end with 1 e4 straightaway. I think playing 1 e4 from the beginning will improve the progress a player can make, especially in the first few years of playing Chess.

So I've started to play 1 e4 and am in the process of putting together an 1 e4 Opening Repertoire that I can use as a foundation to develop as a 1 e4 player over the coming months and years.

This repertoire has been put together with the help of Neil McDonald's book Starting Out 1 e4. This repertoire picks up some of Neil's ideas. I have simplified them and also made some small adjustments to try and keep some consistency through the Opening. I have tried to present the information in a way that I would have found useful when I just started playing.

This is the first of 3 blogs covering my 1 e4 Repertoire. 1 e4 c5 and 1 e4 Other Responses will follow shortly. 

As you will see this is literally, just the beginning. Most lines only going as far as the 6-7 move. That being said this section still requires that you will need to learn about 100 positions and that may rise to 300 by the time the Repertoire is complete. That is the challenge that lies ahead. I recommend Chess Position Trainer to help you learn your openings. It is very good.

So let's get started. After 1 e4 e5, White replies 2 Nf3. First we look at perhaps the most common response you will get, 2...Nc6.

I hope you found something useful in this blog and I will post the next part of this repertoire asap.