Hi all,

Congratulations on participating on the first ever AMEX tournament and thank you for the enthusiasm (or those of you have it 😊)

While waiting to the second tournament, I would like to bring to your attention some ideas that might improve our game in the initial phase of the game (the opening) as incorrect play there tends to quickly snowball into a losing game.

First of all, note that the there are three main objectives to be pursued in the opening:

Develop pieces at squares optimal or at least suitable for their functions
Ensure king’s safety
Gain either direct control of the center (by having pawn presence there) or indirectly influencing it (by having pieces attacking it)

You will note that checkmating your opponent or gaining material advantage are not in the list. Generally, the only case where these tasks are achievable in the opening is when your opponent blunders. And while you are encouraged to go ahead and capitalize on your opponents’ mistakes, early-stage aggression “just because” would be ill-advised as it would come in expense of points 1,2 and 3. For instance, parading your queen in your opponent’s face is not particularly intimidating, wastes time as it retards your development, gains time for your opponent as it enables him to develop while attacking it and might even get the poor bitch trapped at the end.

The fundamentals of the opening come from two directions. First is a set of core theoretical principles. The second is the so-called “opening-book”, a set of predefined moves in specific orders that build the two parties’ game (such as Italian game, Spanish game, Queen’s gambit, Sicilian defense, etc.) There are many of these, more than 20 are the main lines alone and I will not be bothering you with them. Look them up at your discretion but you do not need to memorize them at this point, just take a look at the main lines.

Much more important than these, and what I wanted to bring to your attention are the principles structuring these openings. If you take one thing from this text, take the following - In no particular order, these principles go like this:

Do not move the same piece twice
Do not play the queen too early
Do not develop pieces in a way that your opponent can attack them with pawns, thus gaining time and space on you (develop with tempo).
Enable and execute a castle with expedience!
Knights are developed before bishops.
Position rooks on opened files
Connect the rooks (after castling, clear the back rank from pieces, other than the king and the rooks)
Do not move pawns (or be extra-careful moving them) on the side where you have castled, where you intend to castle or where you are being attacked
Capture towards the center

Note that the above points are not absolute and should be considered within the current position. Obviously moving the same piece twice or developing the queen could be preferable if attacked or if you spot a mistake from your opponent that could warrant an early-stage attack.

One last thing. Do not be overly materialistic. Pieces are means to an end and their value differs greatly in the context of different positions. For instance, do not go grab pawns, while your king is about to get decimated or an enemy knight is about to fork the shit out of your back rank. Also note that “Gambits”, or intentional pawns sacrifices, are a common tool in the opening. It aims at gaining development, time, space or attacking prospects in expense of a temporary sacrifice. If your opponent offers a gambit, you can reject it or you can accept it but if you accept it, you are highly discouraged to try to protect the extra pawn that you end up with. This will lead to you deploying your pieces in a sub-optimal fashion, waste your time and thus play right into your opponent’s idea.

Let me know if any of the above needs further detailing or argumentation – I would be happy to help.

Good luck in the next tournament!

AMEX Chess League

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