I haven't played many games so far but the ones I have I seem to end up a pawn or a piece down after the opening every time. Obviously this makes the rest of the game a bit tricky! What are the best steps to take to avoid this happening?

pick an opening that you like and continue to work with it until you understand all the nuances involved with it. then you should be able to "survive" until the middle game with at least an even shot at a win.

there are the "opening rules", witch are very important for understanding the basics.

if you do not know them then in summary:

castle early enough.

develop peices for centeral controll.

do not move a peice twice/too many pawn moves unless needed.

now... that applies only to the so called natural moves. to avoid losing matereal in the opening you must do two things:

1. look in databases for opening traps (simply copying moves from there is just mean), so you would know if you are walking right into one and how to defend from it. also check out the first few moves (as many as youcan remember) of the popular openings you tend to play and others might play.

2. the fact that the game is in the opening stage doesn't meen you can't make mistakes, not all moves in the opening are natural developing moves. you must pay attention to tactics, especialy pins and pawnstorms. and react in the right way (it's pretty tough to do so, but sometimes you might just be smart enough to play the good opening moves by yourself!), so you need to pay attention to the game even in the opening.

hope i helped...

Tips to avoid traps in the opening.

Develop your entire army from the back rank.

Avoid early captures or exchanges.

If something looks to good to be true...it probably is :)

Learn the Pirc Defense as black.  Very solid and easy to learn and is playable against any white opening

First of all you have to stop hanging pieces and pawns. The number one thing you need to do is to learn how to analyze a lot of variations before making each move. Use the analysis board: click the moves tab then click 'analysis board'. Now jot down somewhere all the candidate moves. You should have at least three every move, but sometimes you can have 8 or more decent looking (to you) moves you might try. Start playing through each and try to refute each one. Try to play as your opponent. When you get to a point where you want to start over or try a new line, hit current position then step through the lines you just played if needed. Branch off where appropriate.

During your openings put your pieces on good squares. You don't have to attack something with every move. Develop them and try to line them up at lanes and squares you think the battle will be fought. When it's time to go, go! Defense is as important as attack. A well developed piece is better at defense than an undeveloped one. But as suggested, learn as many opening principals as you can. There are many.

Enjoy.

thanks all. ill take those points on board but what i still don't understand is how you get to know an opening if your opponents don't stick to the plan and play the normal moves that follow from that opening if you understand. onwards and upwards!

Practice my friend, PRACTICE. xD

Pretty  good standard advice except for the Pirc recommendation. For one, a

beginner shouldn't be learning a hypermodern opening when he has yet to

thoroughly grasp the classical opening principles. Second, when the student identifies

a weakness, the right path is to confront it and turn that weakness into strength.

This means, for example, that if one is being out-combined and losing material

a lot then the student should seek out combinative positions rather than avoid

them. Deal with the weakness in practice exercises as well of course. I'm 1800 USCF and will probably never outgrow this advice--the

exception being for "important games" where a good result has weight.