1.e4, e5 2.d/f4....then what???

This is a question concerning black and white positions. The first being the topic line above...what's the best play when opponent plays side to side pawn pushes on either the first 2 or 3 moves(say a closed or open knight maybe between the 2 pawn moves maybe) and the question goes the same if I am white, if I play an e4 and he matches and I play n f3 and he pushes another pawn on the same side as my knight. What is the good and bad of trying to set up c/d d/e or e/f pawns in the open and what is the best response? Is it best to match the second pawn as well? W/ a mirror locked up square in centre?...also maybe even a bigger question is I don't have a good example necessarily but I get caught having to move my kingside knight from the c file because I let the opposing d pawn either pass or has captured my d pawn. I really want to keep tempo in the open and certain responses by my opponent throw me off my general plan(for example getting into an early pawn swap with the knights and as black he trades queens and I can't castle after having to recapture his w my king...I know this is just thrown together and I didn't really look hard at the coordinates before posting to see if they are exact but my prose should make a little sense. I'm a few months into playing chess for the first time and I'm progressing pretty quickly I think but a lot of these problems have come as I recently was advised to go to e4 instead of d4 by teacher and its thrown my view if the board for a small loop in a few games. Sometimes I end up down a pawn but nothing big, it's not rocket science, I just get thrown off by certain openings or responses to my own... just want to cure my ill. Thx for any help. -Matt

As a general rule, you should make 1-2 pawn moves in the opening, not more, then you should start developing pieces and then castle. This looks pretty simple, but a lot of players, mainly beginners,(do not take it personally) start pushing pawns from the very beginning. This looks impresive in the opening, but you are not gonna checkmate a "decent" opponent right out of the opening. In the middle game and pretty much in the endgame all these advanced pawns can become weaknesses = easy targets = lost endgame.

Anyway I have a kinda personal rule with regards to gambits: gambits are gambits, not gifts. So if you are "given" a pawn in a gambit and you decide to take it, do not put a lot of effort to hold onto that pawn - just give it back and develop your pieces. Trying to hold onto a pawn given in a gambit while your opponent keeps on developing pieces will not end well for you.

HTH.

I think it's generally believed that after 1. e4 e5 2. f4 (the King's gambit) you should take the pawn, but after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 (the Queen's Gambit) it's probably better to decline by instead defending your pawn.. there are several ways to do it; I don't play 1... d5 so I won't comment. Also 1. e4 e5 2. d4 (center game/danish gambit/likely transpose to scotch) you should take, and 1. d4 d5 2. e4 (Blackmar Deimer?) you should take. but there's nothing wrong with declining the King's Gambit with 2... Bc5 is the best way, or 2... d5 actually offering you own pawn back (you don't have to defend the pawn in this case (unlike declining the Queen's Gambit because after 2... Bc5 if White plays 3. fxe5 you have a won game,) or accepting the Queen's Gambit. It just depends which way you want to play. In general accepting a gambit you'll want to know some theory or you'll get beat a lot in prepaired lines before you learn it.

Also after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f5 this is known as the Latvian Gambit. The most common move is probably best is 3. Nxe5. There's a lot of theory and Black is barely holding a draw most of the time. You can also play exf5 accepting the gambit, or something like Nc3 holding the center. All of those lines should be good for White as long as you don't fall for any traps. In general if you're worried about any of these lines you can look them up by name, or if you don't know the name by googling the moves in quotes "1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f5" for example, in order to find the name, then you can look them up. Something like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvian_Gambit generally has fairly relyable information, at least enough for you to start playing these lines.

I don't know about the rest of your question. If you can be more specific about the positions you're asking about, like list the exact moves, I might be able to tell you where you're going wrong. (I mean after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4, 3... d6 defending the pawn is not such a great move because White can take twice on e5 and trade Queens stopping castling, or White can push the pawn on and harrass the knight, at which point I don't really think Black is doing *that* badly... these are reasons why Black should play 3... exd5 in that position even though following general principals capturing and releasing central tension is generally not good; you just have to look at each concrete variation... but I don't even know if this is a position that's giving you trouble. (This is a Scotch Game or Scotch Gambit; you can look those up too.))