Chess openings for beginners/ kids

"... For players with very limited experience, I recommend using openings in which the play can be clarified at an early stage, often with a degree of simplification. To accomplish this safely will take a little study, because you will have to get used to playing wiith open lines for both sides' pieces, but you can't eliminate risk entirely in the opening anyway. ... teachers all over the world suggest that inexperienced players begin with 1 e4. ... You will undoubtedly see the reply 1 ... e5 most often when playing at or near a beginner's level, ... After 2 Nf3, 2 ... Nc6 will occur in the bulk of your games. ... I recommend taking up the classical and instructive move 3 Bc4 at an early stage. Then, against 3 ... Bc5, it's thematic to try to establish the ideal centre by 4 c3 and 5 d4; after that, things can get complicated enough that you need to take a look at some theory and learn the basics; ... Of course, you can also play 1 d4 ... A solid and more-or-less universal set-up is 2 Nf3 and 3 Bf4, followed in most cases by 4 e3, 5 Be2 and 6 0-0. I'd rather see my students fight their way through open positions instead; however, if you're not getting out of the opening alive after 1 e4, this method of playing 1 d4 deserves consideration. ... a commonly suggested 'easy' repertoire for White with 1 Nf3 and the King's indian Attack ... doesn't lead to an open game or one with a clear plan for White. Furthermore, it encourages mechanical play. Similarly, teachers sometimes recommend the Colle System ..., which can also be played too automatically, and usually doesn't lead to an open position. For true beginners, the King's Indian Attack and Colle System have the benefit of offering a safe position that nearly guarantees passage to some kind of playable middlegame; they may be a reasonable alternative if other openings are too intimidating. But having gained even a small amount of experience, you really should switch to more open and less automatic play." - IM John Watson in a section of his 2010 book, Mastering the Chess Openings, Volume 4

"... Beginning players will always get wiped out by more experienced opponents. ... the Barcza Opening ... [is one of the openings that] I recommend. ... White's four opening moves, 1. Nf3, 2. g3, 3. Bg2, and 4. 0-0, create the Barcza Opening. ... if White plays for d2-d3 and e2-e4, the opening becomes a King's Indian Attack (KIA). The KIA became my favorite because the ideas are quite easy to grasp. ... Certainly, by adopting the Barcza Opening as White, you will cut out a number of losses that you would experience by playing complicated classical openings. Your need to know the theoretical lines is reduced ..." - GM Yasser Seirawan (1998)

ex_submariner wrote (~5 months ago):

"If you can find a copy of 'How to Open a Chess Game', buy it!  Published in 1974 there are seven chapters, each by a leading grandmaster of the day ... The chapter 'Developing an Opening Repertoire' by Lajos Portisch alone is worth the price of the book. ..."

"... For white kingside openings Portisch recommended the Ruy Lopez exchange variation. ... For closed games as white he said play the King's Indian Attack and the English Opening.  Also the QGD. ..."

GM John Emms wrote an introduction to basic opening principles, Discovering Chess Openings (2006).

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf

"Throughout the book Emms uses excellently chosen examples to expand the readers understanding of both openings and chess in general. Thus equipped the student can carry this knowledge forward to study individual openings and build an opening repertoire.

Books of this kind in relation to openings are quite rare – and good ones even rarer. For beginning players, this book will offer an opportunity to start out on the right foot and really get a feel for what is happening on the board." - FM Carsten Hansen (2006)

Definetely Ruy Lopez and Sicilian Najdorf.

Despite Dvoretskys love for the KIA I might suggest it could hinder growth playing such similar positions and plans. I think without a grounding in classic games and the earliest openings it would be hard to understand

When I was beginning I bought books on Ruy Lopez, Alekhine and Caro-Kann.  I almost gave up chess.  Those books were forgotten on the shelf, and my chess didn't improve.  I missed the point at that time.

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:ghost

Whats up with this strange thread necromancy all the time in this forum.

I played the London in a tournament today and experienced exactly what is likely to happen to every beginner who plays it, and lots of people well-above beginner, too. I got a nice position and then struggled to understand how to proceed when the middlegame began. I came up with a plan that was not well-suited to the needs of the position and soon found myself defending a difficult position.

the one with the highest percentage used.

Hallo

Think: e2 (e7) has to move one or two steps for beginner, followed by knight and bishop, castle...

(tactical play goes over strategy, no doubt :-)

I am with DoctorStrange.