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What about more traditional beginner's lines, such as 1.a4 h5 2.Ra3? Should they skip those and go directly to 1.d4?
Mar 19, 2013
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#4
You should NEVER study rook-pawn openings like a4, h5, etc. The first principle of the opening is to control the center with a pawn. I teach it like this:
Principles of the Opening
1) Control the center with a pawn.
2) Bring out at least one each of Knights and Bishops, getting ready to castle.
3) Castle quickly.
4) Finish bringing out all of the pieces including the Rooks and Queen. Rooks usually stay on the back rank but go behind pawns that have moved, to open files, half-open files or files that may become open or half-open soon. Queen should stay on your half of the board. Frequently the Rooks occupy e1 and d1 - the central files.
5) Attack after bringing out all of the pieces.
This is mostly copied from GM Akobian.
The most important thing for now is for you to memorize the basic principles of the opening. There is no point in doing rote memorization of specific lines until you're at least 1900 OTB.
My advice for your opening move is 1. d4 or 1. e4; I highly suggest to refrain from using 1. c4 and 1. Nf3 until you acquire sufficient experience with the latters.
Most importantly, you shouldn't be spending too much time on your overall openings skills after you know the basic principles. After that, you should move on to tactics.