A Beginner's Guide to Spotting Mistakes in the Opening
Openings are the building block for a chess game. The better or worse your opening is, the more it'll affect the middle and endgame. So it's important to have a good opening repertoire, but how do you know if the opening you and your opponent play is better, worse, or balanced? Today I will be taking a look at one of your games and tell you how well you did in the opening. Let's begin!
After the move 1. e4, your opponent plays Nf6, known as the Alekhine's Defense. In response to the knight attacking your pawn, you play:
Qh5. Is your brain a peanut? Let's call it a pre-move. This queen move is rather reasonable, it attacks the f7 pawn. You though, being the absolute moron you are, "accidentally" blundered your queen on move 2. This is a good example of not pre-moving in the opening, and black will respond by taking the queen. Let's take a look!
What? Anyway, your opponent missed the free queen, however taking a pawn in the process. So far, black is better in the opening. You should either go home and get some rest, attack the knight in the center, or develop a piece. This is how you deal with being down material, you need to activate your pieces faster than the opponent, and/or create counter-play. Let's see how you respond.
Perfect! Just as we said, when you're down material, try to create counter-play, or develop your pieces faster than the opponent. The bishop on c4 attacks f7, creating a checkmate threat, nice job! Black needs to defend the f7 pawn, or interpose your pieces. If you don't know what interposing is, Google it, forehead. Let's watch how black responds!
c5? Is that a mouse-slip? What the hell? Ok... Your opponent chooses to play the absolute worst move in the position. Not defending the f7 pawn or causing interference will lose black the game. You definitely found checkmate in 1 move very easily, please. Let's see!