Best Openings for beginners

There are different ways to answer.

For example if you're a "Russian schoolboy" and you're going to use systematic training to become a GM before you're 18, then you should play classically with the Spanish and/or Queen's gambit as one or both colors.

The other extreme is pick some random trick opening on youtube that might help you win some quick games until your rating is high enough that everyone knows that trick (I suppose the first trick people learn is the 4 move checkmate).

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The advice I'll give you is in the middle of those extremes since you're probably not a professional player in the making, but you're also more serious than wanting a stupid trick opening.

As white the Scotch and Vienna gambit are nice (pick one) and against c5 the Alapin. GMs have played these (most often the Scotch) so they're all real openings, but also beginners as black are likely to mess up early and give you really nice positions... as you get better your opponents wont mess up like that anymore, but that's ok because the openings are good even if your opponent knows them.

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Against c5 the Alapin is nice since you can play it against any kind of Sicilian.

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As black you'll have to be a little more conservative IMO. After 1.d4 I'd recommend 1...d5 followed by 2...e6, 3...Nf6, 4....Be7 vs pretty much anything white does, and against 1.e4 maybe the Caro or French (1...c6 followed by d5 or 1...e6 followed by d5) simply because you're putting a pawn in the center early, developing, and castling.

All of these openings are playable way past my level. They start to become less popular at the very-very top, but no one is going to laugh at a 2700 GM (3000+ on chess.com) for playing a Scotch, Alapin, or French now and then.

And maybe it's worth pointing out a common theme... in my recommended openings for white I'm showing mistakes where black is giving up their pawn presence in the center. As black I'm recommending you place and maintain a pawn in the center (d5 e6, or e6 e4, or c6 e4).

And the fun trick is, even after your opponents are savvy enough to play 3...d6 in all of the above positions (from the habit of trying to maintain a pawn in the center) even though this will be a reasonable move for them, it's still not the best move. So even when your rating is in the teens (13xx to 19xx) you'll still have opponents occasionally messing up.

I would recommend openings with active piece development and central control. These would be openings such as Ruy Lopez, e4 e5, Sicilian.

I will consider the advice of GM Daniel Naroditsky and IM Andras Toth when making these recommendations.

The Ruy Lopez is perfect classical development and will teach you a lot about the game.

White places a pawn in the centre, develops a knight, develops a bishop and is ready to castle. It's one of the most perfect openings.

I will 2nd that Naroditsky also recommends the Vienna Gambit and Four Knights Scotch. Four Knights Scotch can be a good way of freeing up your pieces and getting an active open game.

Against e4, e5 and c5 are the best for this kind of active play.

e4 e5, and then the Giuoco Piano. Neo-Arkhangelsk vs Ruy Lopez can be a good choice. Toth recommends the Schliemann as a good beginner weapon against the Ruy Lopez.

Naroditsky's main recommendation for beginners is the Accelerated Dragon as it's a somewhat open position with natural piece development.

Black develops a knight and the bishop to the long diagonal with a strategy of dark square control. I would however recommend that you may as well play the Dragon (not accelerated) as it disallows the Maroczy Bind.

Against the Sicilian. the Alapin is a recommendation by both Naroditsky and Toth for those who REALLY don't want to learn Open Sicilian.

At lower levels, many people will make the mistake of playing Nc6 and d6 as pointed out by paper_llama. However, as you progress more people will know how to play against the Alapin and you can end up in very equal positions without much active play.

The recommendation by Toth is that players do move on to Open Sicilian as soon as possible. This is essentially playing the Sicilian like a Scotch.

This is the absolute main line and the best way of challenging the Sicilian, particularly for a player who likes active piece play and attack.

Ooh, I hadn't seen the 4 knights scotch recommended before. I like that recommendation, nice.

Nothing wrong with any of the others, but I'd seen them before.

What I like about the 4 knights scotch is 2...Nc6 is the most common move, and then boom, 3.Nc3 basically forces 3...Nf6 and you get your opening... and not only is it an early force (not quite as quick as a scandinavian or trompowski) but it's (relatively speaking) uncommon... so it's one of those situations where you're getting it in, let's say, 50% of your games as white, but your opponent's are getting it in 1% of their games as black. All that plus the position has some dynamics, so ways to play for a win, but also sound enough to be played against GMs. Good stuff.

I really like it when a Scotch game transposes into Four Knights Scotch, had a lot of fun with this line so far.

Probably not the soundest way but its so sharp I can't help myself.

You could just play it on Four Knights Scotch too ofc

If you are playing Vienna game trying to go for the gambit, what should you play if your opponent plays 2...f6?

Bc4 will make it hard to castle because f6 lets the bishop see g8. Then just develop and play f4 or d4 (one of the two pawn breaks).

So for example the next few moves might be Bc4 f4 Nf3 0-0 fxe Ng5 and now you have 3 pieces combining on f7 (bishop, knight, and rook).

Of course black gets to move too, and you can't just play moves blindly, but those moves give a basic idea.

Yes, it can be a good way to get a comfortable, familiar position. Yasser Seirawan describes the Scotch as having "a gambit style of play". White has open lines for the pieces and develops quickly and often wants to castle queenside to immediately bring a rook to the semi-open d-file. Also if opponent plays the Petrov then you can just transpose as well.

Open Sicilian is virtually the same concept of play. This is very reminiscent of an English Attack actually.

I play e4 e5 Nf3 Nc6 as black, so I have to have something for this, yeah.

5...Bb4 is by far the most popular move.

But by using the main scotch move order, you can get something similar via the old move 5.Nb5

This is actually a totally playable line for black called the Schmid Defence. It's a funny line.

Yeah Bb4 is the most popular but Bc5 is one example where white can castle queenside (and it's good). It depends on black's play.

Sorry I meant 2...Nf6 not f6. Mistyped

2...Nf6 is the move shown in the original diagram.

Oh yeah, f6 would be terrible move by the opponent. 2. ...Nf6 3. f4 is main line Vienna Gambit. 2. Nc6 3. f4 is also the Vienna Gambit but it's different.

This is main line but you will probably find that a lot of people accept the gambit. In the Nf6 lines, accepting the gambit is just a bad move because white just plays e5.

Even in the main line, opposed to the main line in the master's database I have noticed in the player database a lot of players are playing it like this.

It kind of looks like a French but without the pawn on e6. This is actually still ok for both sides.

Nc6 and it basically transposes into some type of King's Gambit. Accepting is the main line.