There are no "safe openings" for anyone. I think the reason why beginners are pointed to "e4" openings is because this line offers the more popular, analysed, known, familiar variations that are easily accessable.
Good luck in your chess.
ps first Trinidad and Tobago player I've seen on this site...nice.
the safer the opening are for you, the safer for the opponent:)
There are no "safe openings" for anyone. I think the reason why beginners are pointed to "e4" openings is because this line offers the more popular, analysed, known, familiar variations that are easily accessable.
I disagree. 1. e4 isn't recommended to beginners because it's analyzed or familiar. That would matter to masters, not beginners.
1. e4 is recommended to beginners, because it usually gets accompanied by d4 or f4 within the first 5 or 6 moves, which forces a trade of center pawns, opening up the center and making for a tactical game. Since beginners really need to learn tactics first and foremost, this forces them to do so in a way that "safer" openings won't.
If Your definition of a safe opening probably means
- "an opening where I will not be crushed quickly" :
Look at a few systems that tend to produce closed + slow + positional games. Examples are 1.d4/Nf3/c4 type setups. You cannot escape tactics no matter what opening you play, though in these types of games at the beginner level, there are fewer quick kills that your opponent can take advantage of, as compared to 1.e4 types of openings.
- "an opening where the right moves happen to be natural looking moves that I notice first (thereby avoiding having to study too much theory)"
If only such openings existed. :) Though, you could start be looking into systems like the French or the Giuco Piano where the plans for Black/White are relatively easy for a beginner to pick up on and you tend to get a feel for what each piece should be doing. Though, as the earlier post indicated, some of these "safe to follow the plan" openings will get you murdered quick if you don't have the tactical aptitude to back you up.
Realize that the opening is merely a means to get to (or should I say survive to) a playable middlegame with atleast an equal position.
These are certainly not magic bullets that will win or lose chess games for you. Ultimately, the quality of your chess playing decides things at the amateur level.
As a personal example => I got my tail handed to me at a recent tournament by a USCF 1850+ player and during the post-mortem discussion, I realized he had no clue about the c3 sicilian (which I played) but found good, solid moves all through the game and won.
You can't learn tactics if you avoid them. Start with the classical openings: Ruy Lopez, Italian game, Scotch game. I never heard of a coach who would advise his novice student to start with 1.d4.
what's are safe openings for a beginner? and why?