safe openings please

im still a begginner and when i try openings i do know, i get my butt handed to me, so i was wondering if anyone knew some safe openings. thank you in advance

I don't think it's the opening that is the problem. Have you considered getting a basic book on tactics? Sounds like your problem is tactical if anything.

thanks for the reply. my problem is that when im playing i cant get a good pawn formation. that means i dont get a chance to do any tactics :....S

Ditto.  "Winning with the......."  (whatever) openings books suck a lot of players into wasting valuable time studying openings when what they really need is LOTS of practice on tactics.

You do not need to know any openings at 900.  Trust us, rote memorization of opening lines will not prevent your defeat.  It will only lead to your defeat LATER (when you get out of said opening lines)

Just follow openings principles.  Otherwise the fastest route to improvement is playing more games, learning tactics, and dabble a little bit in strategy, openings (you have dabbled enough), and endgames (know how to force a win in rook + king vs rook endgames).

 Playing games doesn't help after a certain point when you do not know of tactical things like decoy, deflection, overloaded defenders etc. I'm willing to bet he does not know these things yet by the looks of it. That is the first thing he needs to do. READ and THEN play

"Playing games doesn't help after a certain point"

AT 900???

Seriously?  I actually crippled myself by using too many puzzles, I ended up falling for simple tactics, executing a tactic and leaving myself in a bad position, and not knowing how to get into a position where tactics arise because of my narrow minded chess study.

Openings? Bacon_army I looked at some of your games and openings are truly irrelevant at this point. You need to learn to see the board and the moves available to you better. -- You simply must stop playing 5 minute chess and start playing slow chess if you want to improve. 5 minute chess will not improve your ability to play good chess.

i suggest rubin fine's "ideas behind the chess openings" and his endgame manual.  though the other posters are correct when they say you need tactics more than openings at this point...that being said your question still needs an answer...as black the french is a fairly safe opening against 1.e4 as is the carro-kann, but i would start with basic open game principles (1.e4 e5 2.nf3 nc6).  against 1.d4 the KID (kings indian defence) is a very complex opening but the structure can be used in a variety of situations and at that level your opponent probably wont be versed in theory, QGD (queens gambit declined) is a defence you should be familiar with too.   basic opening principles-  1. develop knights before bishops, 2. dont move your queen out to early, 3. dont make to many pawn moves, 4. dont move the same piece to many times without justification, 5. castle early, within the first 10 moves is a good guideline, 6. control the center, 7. dont go pawopening violations your opponent makes with impunity...i think just about everyone would agree with those general ideas but ill add a 10th that some people might disagree with dont start your game by moving any pawn that's not e, d, or c unless its the g pawn and only move it one square...follow those rules and you should be able to last 10-20 moves against just about anyone n hunting at the expense of development, 8. dont attack prematurely, and 9. punish any

I agree with JG27Pyth, you don't have enough time to learn from a game in 5 minutes.  Play a couple of 1 or 2 day per move games also and use the tools available to you here on chess.com, like the Book Opening, Game Explorer and the analysis board.

All the posters are giving you some good advice.  Let go of your preconceived ideas and think about what they are telling you.  Good luck.  By the way, when you get good at chess, maybe you can give me some help...

omg thank you for the input, i do know the tactics by the way

skewer is attacking the king and killing the piece behind it, pin is using a lower valued piece to threaten a higher. absolute pin is preventing a peice from leaving the king because its under threat. overloaded defender is a defender whos defending two pieces so you exploit this by attacking it or luring it away with a capture. i have read the crap out of these tactics because i started stduying chess for school and have wrote a lot about them, is just when im playing i cant seem to use them, and i freaking fall for em a lot

Knowing what the tactics are isn't enough, you have to drill the patterns in until you can see them over the board.  After practicing for a while you'll find alot of the simpler tactics just jumping out at you without having to even think about it.

It appears you need some organised learning. an excellent beginners book that will get you far in advance of 900 is "Guide to Good Chess" by CJS Purdy. Get the 12th printing or later. (which is telling us something). This is an extremely highly regarded beginners book and will lead you in the right direction and save you a lot of time. that means take the time to work through it thoroughly. A solid foundation upon which to build is well worth it even if you already know some of what it contains. It is very modestly priced. Apparently Bobby Fischer thought very highly of CJS Purdy's writings.

Oh another thing. Don't play blitz games, you'll learn nothing.

TORRE ATTACK

I used to worry that I wasn't good in the openings. Now I play better because I stopped worrying that I can't memorize opening moves, and instead concentrate on getting all my pieces involved in the the action, trying to position them where I can manuvere them around with flexability, looking for  pins & forks that I can use, and opponents pieces that might be unguarded. Since I've concentrated on this & not the openings, I have been playing the best chess in my life (and I'm 56)

I agree. Get Purdy's "Guide to Good Chess."

Remember that tactics generally happen when your pieces are on good squares, so you might want to think about "Where is a good square for my piece? and why?"

I would also recommend "Weapons of Chess: An Omnibus of chess strategy"

good sqaures and a great book to read, just what i needed to make my day... thanks guys/gals alike