This will be useful if you play against an opening at state and do not know what to do. I can't teach you how to defend against every opening out there, so my strategy is to teach you to prepare for openings you are most likely to see at state. But if you encounter something unexpected, here are the general things you need to do in any opening

1. Put a pawn in the center - In just about every opening, and every game of chess, the first thing you need to do is take control of the center, and you do this by putting a pawn on one of the 4 center squares (which are e4, e5, d4, and d5). Putting a pawn in the center also makes it easier to follow the 2nd opening principle which you can see below.

2. Develop your pieces - Bring your knights and bishops into the game, and put them on good squares. With knights, you usually want to avoid the edge of the board. My first coach always said, "knights on the wall will fall." Try to develop your pieces closer to the center if you can.

3. Castle early - Get your king to safety and out of the middle of the board. Castle quickly, protect your king, eventually, you also get to move your rook to the center.

4. Play smart chess - that means, don't hang any pieces! Don't give away your pieces for free, and don't give them away for other pieces that are less valuable. Like, don't take a pawn with your knight if they are just going to take your knight without any consequences. Play smart by putting your knights and bishops on good squares, castle early to protect your king and don't give up control of the center.

5. Don't move a piece more than once in the opening - unless you absolutely have to, you should not move the same piece more than once in the opening. That's usually bad. Generally, it's within the first 10 moves that you should avoid moving the same piece twice unless you have to.

6. Do not bring your queen out early - Nope. Don't do it. It's almost always bad. The best example of why is the 4 move checkmate, which we discussed previously and saw how it's just bad chess. Unless it is part of your opening plan (like in the French Defense) or unless it will improve your position, do NOT bring your queen out in the opening.

7. Connect the rooks - This has to be done after you have put a pawn in the center, developed your knights and bishops, and castled. Now you can move your queen to a safe square, connecting the rooks, and that's good. You then would look to put those rooks on good squares. Here is a game where you might see the rooks getting connected.

8. Develop Plans - By now you have done pretty much everything you need to do in the opening, but it's not enough to win the game. While you develop pieces and castles, you need to also be developing plans for what to do on the move after, and the move after that, and so on. Basically, while playing through the opening, while developing pieces, make sure every move has a purpose, a reason for the move being played. Think of why you are moving them out, and where they should be put. This applies not only to the opening but to the entire game. But it's important for the opening. See, you can't just make the moves because I told you they are good. You have to think through each move and think about why it makes sense.

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