Important tip for beginners who want to learn openings
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Feb 22, 2021
0
#2
😆 I especially like the opening theory of “ I'm a newbie and I have no idea what that is “ 👍🏽
I've been studying the Emms book and I played against a queen pawn opening. I scared me because i know nothing about queen side openings. (I'm a total newbie and seriously do not know what I'm doing) but I followed the basic principles ended up with a checkmate in 15 moves. It helps that my opponent blundered, but by using basic principles I was in a position to capitalize on blunders.
Feb 22, 2021
0
#4
SamiBlue116 wrote:
😆 I especially like the opening theory of “ I'm a newbie and I have no idea what that is “ 👍🏽
Hey -- I worked hard on that. (Well, actually, that part came easy! ;-) )
Chess Openings Resources for Beginners and Beyond...
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/openings-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond
Mar 10, 2021
0
#7
A nice 8 minute video that explains opening principles -- I suspect anybody under 800 or so would benefit:
Chess Basics: Opening Principles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kURU67G98O8
Big tip for beginners who want to learn openings
You've probably heard it before -- learn opening theory before you try to learn openings, because, particularly if you're a beginner, your opponent isn't going to be playing any standard openings anyway.
I started learning opening theory with John Emms' book: discovering chess openings.
I thought it might be useful/instructive to go through an opening using principles from his book.
So, I'm going to pretend I am white, and I know nothing about specific openings, but I do know the principles. Here's how a game could go:
1. d4 -- I only know e4 openings and I want to play something different.
1... Nf3 -- I have no idea what that is, I've never started a game with d4
2. c4 -- I want to cover the center squares and I can't play e4 because his knight is already attacking it
2... g6 -- I'm a newbie, I have no idea what that is
3. Nc3 -- I figure now that I have pawns out, it's time to bring out my knights. I'm trying to decide between Nc3 and Nf3, and I decide that since Nf3 would block my pawn, and Nc3 does not, I'll play the latter
3.... Bg7 -- I'm a newbie and I have no idea what that is
4. e4 -- I can grab more center space with pawns, and now that I have a knight on c3, this is safe
4... d6 -- I'm a newbie and I have no idea what that is
Congratulations! I just played a perfect opening against black's King's Indian Defense, even though I had no idea what it was. Up through here, there are 24,000 games in chessbase with this opening.
How did I do it? Using basic opening theory, without memorizing a single thing.