Easiest opening to learn for beginners ..

Colle. If you are just starting out, you should learn it. (Unfortunately, because of the efforts of just a few persons, this forum is now closed.) 


This blog/forum was closed ... for a long time, but it now open again.
01 September, 2016.

I did a nice lesson on this opening in 2005 ... 

http://www.worldchessacademy.com/learningchess02.htm

Read the whole lesson carefully ... and then play over the "re-play games." (The links are at the end of the lesson.) 

Thx the colle is my main opening and Its the one opening I never parted with.

There are quite a few broken links in the above lesson ... if I get enough demand, I will post the corrected links here. 

i was always told to just stick to the oppening principles instead of memorising specific oppenings untill i get to a serious level rather i should focus on endgame and strategy, would you agree with that?

FLchessplayer, with all due respect, it would seem that playing a system like the London or the Colle or the Stonewall instead of playing open games with more experimentation will lead to results in the short run but will ultimately stunt growth as a player.  Don't beginning players need to learn by making horrible mistakes in the opening and getting punished, rather than playing a solid but unambitious system that can get them safely into the middlegame with equality?  Also, what would you recommend that they play as black if they play Colle as white?  Teaching systems instead of just basic development at <1400 or so seems to be preparing students to fear open positions and tactics, not learn about the critical fight for the center until a later stage, and generally form habits of laziness and mechanical play in the opening.  Imho, it's generally better to just teach students basic principles of development and how to parry certain trappy lines (avoiding Nxd5 in two knights, not falling for four move checkmate or blackburne shilling gambit, etc.) and let them play open and tactical games so that they can learn how to take care of their pieces in a fray and develop as a player.

I would.

I find that if you just teach beginners "principles" they'll often end up with something like the Pianissimo in their games, or else something similar with d4/d5 instead -- the exact opposite of "open and tactical"!

The thing about the Colle is that it actually aims for an open game anyway, with the liberating e4. It worked well enough that it was good as a winning try among top players in the early 20th century. Inherent to the opening are some fundamental tactics and strategic patterns like the bishop sac on h7 and the attack with an e5 spearhead. On the other hand, the worst that can usually happen out of the opening is being left with a "straightforward" but open position, or maybe an IQP. More theoretically ambitious openings can be learned later when the player is stronger, and I don't see how learning the Colle will stunt anyone's growth more than learning the first few moves of mainstream openings and automatically going into stodge-mode as soon as an unfamiliar move is played, due to not really understanding the goals of the opening.

i think its pretty irrisponsable to be telling begginers to play an open game, they should learn to play chess in a way that fits their personality some people are not comfortable playing open games and to suggest to people that thats what they should be playing can somtimes be forcing them into a mould where they dont belong and will not enjoy the beauty of the game as much, i suggest you find out what kind of chess you are comfortable with and play as your personality wants, learn the open principles and try to stick with them, once you get comfortable with stratagy and endgame play then start studying oppenings but for now just concentrate on the principles of oppening and try to get to the middlegame with an even possition if you can the more you do this the better you will become.

Capablanca also had the Benoni reversed in his repertoire...

+1

I appreciate your comments ... however, this is all stuff that I have heard before.  

First of all, I have been teaching chess for like 35+ years. (I am 54.) Secondly, I live in Pensacola, FL ... not some large metropolis like New York City. And I vehemently disagree with many of the "standards" of chess teaching ... 

It was formerly taught that a student had to learn tactics and jump right in and start playing the Ruy Lopez. (And he would get slaughtered.) With all due respect, this is a boatload of traditional nonsense. With tools such as the Internet, on-line tactical training, chess books & DVD's, tactics programs, chess programs (like Fritz) ... there are many ways to learn tactics that were NOT even available in the 1700's. 

I teach the PRINCIPLES of chess ... basics, like the elements, the basic ideas and "rules-of-thumb" of the opening, etc. (See my websites for more information.) Most beginner students would like to have a chance to learn and play a decent game. I had one student ... many years ago, in the days of really OPEN tournaments (before class sections) ... play a 2400+ player. He lost, but thanks to the Colle, he was able to last past move 30. The next round, the 2400-player played an 1800 player ... and won in like 11 moves! The point? The beginner would like to be competitive as soon as possible! 

As I said previously, I have been teaching all my life. Many of the "norms" of conventional, traditional chess instruction ... strike me as absurd. I also teach ALL of my students is that it takes about two YEARS of serious instruction to get a handle on the proper way to play the openinsg and to formulate a personal repertoire. My "Training Page" ... is a good place to start and read and see some of my ideas and standards of chess teaching ... 

Mr. FLchessplayer I must sya I love your approach to coaching and believe its very understimated the way you describing things in the above post is just perfect and I won my very first tournament even though I myself was a begnnier (A U600 tourney) by following those approaches and I think your caoching should be the modern way to teach new players and wanted to ask is there anyway youd coach me.

Queenside Fried Liver, or maybe the Parham Attack. The Parham is better once you develop attacking, qsfl is good for all ages and levels.

the queenside fried liver is for morons, i win anytime anyone attempts it.

Really, please give me a move order to stop it?

how can i give you 1 order of moves there are many ways to attempt it.

There's not many different ways to attempt it, do a reverse italian game then Nb5...

for a start when white brings out his dark squared bishop just move a6 just dont bring out the queenside knight at that point like a moron and its easily defended and whilst white is so determined to inflict his silly oppening he over extends himself and black destroys white.