Really need some advice

As embarrassing as it is to me if one were to go and watch my most recent games, one could see that I have a really hard time in the opening. I struggle with opening principles the most and I can't seem to get them down. I'm either trying to develop my pieces and forgetting about King safety or I'm simply not finding the Right Moves. I can't pinpoint exactly why I'm struggling right now. My frustration at this point is less about losing and more about making the same mistakes. I can't seem to avoid them. The last game I played I only won because I got extremely lucky. The first game I played tonight I thought I played at least decently. But seemingly there's no in-between for me. I either play really well or I play horribly. I'm wanting to pick the brains of my friends in this chess community. I'd like to know your thought processes and approach to the opening, because it seems like that is where my games are lost most of the time. Anyway, good vibes to everybody. Lots of love.

Are there any particular openings that you struggle with? Do you have a set of openings that you like to play or do you play anything?

I really like the Italian opening. That is definitely my preferred opening at this point in time. I know the London opening but I don't know how to utilize it. And I'm also not versed in the theory of the Queens Gambit even though I know the first few moves and when played against me I prefer to decline it.

I just had a look at your last defeat https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/49365579895

It had nothing to do with the opening at all, you were doing better going into the middlegame and you just needed to sac your bishop to win his Queen and the game.

 Oh wow.... I cannot believe I missed that. That makes me horribly sad now. 😔😔😔

Missing a tactical trick is okay, maybe you will get it next time. But 15. - Be5?? is a horrible blunder even for a complete beginner (which you are not). Also, your time management is atrocious. The positions between moves 12-22 are very complicated and tactical, and you are blitzing out semi-random moves with barely any thinking (5-10 seconds per move).

You have a pretty high tactics rating, so you could play much better if you tried.

Agreed. After analyzing my games, it's stands out to me that I need to SLOW DOWN. My brain naturally runs a million miles an hour and I have to figure out how to keep myself in check, pun intended. 🙃 But yes. If I had taken my time and observed the position, I undoubtedly would have seen that tactic. Thank you for your input, buddy. 

So I looked at your last three defeats, and yes you do have trouble applying the opening principles in the game. You know them, but don't have apply all of them consistently in the game at the same time. KevinOSH is partially right as in that your not applying all the opening principles is not your biggest issue. Your biggest issue is tactics. You either drop pieces because you don't see that they can be just taken, or miss the tactic all together. Tactics are the thing that you need to focus on improving the most. The 1000 level there is a jump in the tactics ability of most the players, and in order to reach that you need to be able to see the tactics. Focus on not dropping pieces, and calculating an entire tactic through before playing the tactic. That will help you the most. 

When it comes to the opening as you know from the 5 things you need to focus on: 1 Development 2. Controlling the center (space) 3. Pawn structure 4. King  safety 5. Material. When it comes to material don't chase winning material. Only go after wining material when you will win at least a minor piece, and you have been able to calculate the tactic out completely. As you get better you learn more when you can break the first part of it, but that is a good general rule for anyone under 1100. Also make sure that your opponent can't counter attack (may have set you up with a trap) before going after the material. When it comes to pawn structure at your level the main thing is to try and avoid doubled pawns when possible. Having doubled pawns is not the end of the world, but is not ideal usually. The other three areas to focus on in the opening are where the bulk of your thinking go to. It looks like you always try to control the center or at least fight for it which is what you need to do. Where you usually break down is on development and king safety. Based on your last three loses You don't develop all your pieces before you usually start attacking, or get distracted defending. The key to navigating this part is that you should always look for a way to meet a threat while also developing a piece or castling when possible. A perfect example of this is in your game against mRSahilsingh on move 8 you played g3 which it does stop the threat of Qxg2, but is actually not a good move at all the best move is O-O. This is because you defend g2 while also castling at the same time. So in this instance you would have met a threat while also meeting to other opening principles ie. king safety, and development (you developed the rook, and are one step closer to completing development). In your game against Ulmar53 your biggest mistake is the you went for an attack that doesn't do anything move 11. ... Ng4 doesn't do anything they just move their queen away, and threat is gone to the queen. You then follow it up with Nxf2 which just drops the knight for a pawn. So you moved the knight three times, and all you have to show for it is being down 2 pawns. That is why it is recommended to not move a piece more than once in the opening unless you are preventing it being dropped (and you can't prevent that while also meeting one of the opening principles), or it is the only way to meet a threat. On move 11 you could have castled or developed your bishop. Both would have been far better than Ng4. 

To put it in a more simply way for the opening when looking at moves in the opening is if your move does not accomplish at least one of the opening principle then it is probably not a good move. Only exceptions are to win material of at least minor piece, or to prevent losing material or checkmate. Also look to find moves that accomplish more than one opening principle at the same time. Those are usually great moves. 

I strongly recommend the book ”Discovering chess openings: building a repertoire from basic principles”

I think it would help you a lot.

When you learn a guitar start by learning a few songs and learning how to play the chords in those songs.  You also try to learn licks, etc.  In chess, it's about patterns.  Tactics.  This is not another oh just do tactics advice post, because I will say more.  It's about learning one motif, or tactic at a time, or maybe a lot in a few short exercises.  For the most part, in the beginning, stages.  It's also about, learning how to calculate.  Let me explain.

In this game, you pushed your e-pawn most likely because you knew the motif.  You knew you could win his queen, at least.  You ended up winning more in this game because your opponent made more mistakes.  

You didn't know the motif.  So your brain didn't even think about this move.  Instead, you played inferior moves.

So in a nutshell the reason why beginners make a lot of mistakes is that they don't know much about tactics.  You have to build upon that skill with each game, each tactics puzzle, and whatever else you use as a chess learning resource.

You can watch beginner videos that teach you basic development, but there are more general principles you need to learn besides that.  Most of these skills can be learned by just playing guess the move on master games.  Not a lot of people like that approach these days, but it is a solid one.  You learn about the ideas of the masters.  You should get an annotated book so it explains the moves.  You will need two boards to do this correctly.  One for the mainline, and the other for the sidelines.  And, as I said, learning motifs, as they come in games you play, and by doing tactics, among other learning resources.  

I will say from personal experience though, that one can play chess without any help at all.  That's what I did when I started.  Obviously, I progressed a lot slower, as it's over 20 years later, and I'm still 1600.  

What happens when you don't see the tactic or don't notice the strategy or motif?  You play dumb moves.  That's why beginners play dumb moves because they don't know the tactics or the strategy.  you get the tactics, and strategy, by going over one master game at a time, by playing and analyzing your games and doing more than just analyzing the moves.  you need to write down where you blundered the opening phase of the game if that did indeed occur, and you need to drill that later so you don't do it again.  

So in a nutshell, learning about chess is about learning different ideas or approaches to the game or just tactics and strategy (maybe sprinkle in some endgame strategy) ONE IDEA AT A TIME!  Until you know thousands of motifs, etc.

Your taking a long time to think about your moves, but you are not considering other options.  Did you consider taking with the knight here?  Taking his knight with your knight, instead of the bishop, wins the game on the spot because if he now takes your knight, you can fork his king and rook, and take his rook next move, and have the potential to save your knight based on the mere fact that after queen takes pawn and Rf1, and after you do a little dance with your king after a few checks, his king will be weaker than yours, and it will be hard for him to take that knight.  Of course, this game would have been a bit convoluted, because your king won't be able to castle, however, with best play, it's in the bag.  Of course, you have a lot to learn.

Let me quickly analyze different key moments in one of the games you lost.

That is the move you played.  That is probably what most people he plays against does at his level.  That's probably why he plays the scotch.  Of course, you know it's a fatal mistake because he doesn't have to take your pawn, he can push and drive your knight back.  You incorrectly moved your knight towards the center, but this lost you a pawn and created a weakness.  I'll explain the weakness later.

You played Be7...  you probably didn't notice that when you allowed the pawn trade you created a weakness, that was easily fixed, but again, instead of moving the knight to f6, again the correct move was to move the knight, not the bishop.  I said somewhere else you are not to just play the first move that comes to mind.  You must consider a "list" of possibilities, and your opponents reply to each one, until, you find your opponent's best reply.  After (what you should have done after Be7, Qxg7!, however, this doesn't win the rook, because of Bf6, so you will have to retreat with the queen.  Small things like this in a game, can help.  Or, can backfire, so be careful.  

This might have "possibly" happened later on, if you got careless, and castled without thinking about it.  Again, another motif for you and your databanks.

I believe with the knight move you were hoping he would take with the queen.  Dan Heisman calls this hope chess.  you have to calculate, not "hope" that your opponent makes a mistake.

You most likely thought you could take the rook in this sequence, however, when you play hope chess, it's easier for your opponent to see your mistakes, and play the right moves after the mistake has been made.  

Bishop takes was a mistake here, because it can be trapped.  Yet another motif for you.

Since you didn't think about your move, or about possible other strategies, like trapping the bishop, you used your general principles and played the rook to that square, but you forgot about the bishop.  Instead of calculating, you went for a general principle.  You should calculate every move, not just rely on principles.  They will serve you well sometimes, but if you are not constantly checking, where is his bishop pointing?  Or, What is that knight doing?  or, Is that a free pawn?  You have to think a lot when you play chess.  Notice the pawn structure, attacked pieces, and pawns.  Also, remember to do your counting always.  You think a lot about your moves, but, you're possibly thinking about the wrong things.  That's why you spend so much time on the clock.  I could be wrong because I am not a mind reader, and I left my crystal ball in my other pants.  

So, reacting to your opponent's replies correctly is key, which will take years to learn, by way of studying tactics, openings, middle and endgames, and going over 1 master game a day at least.  Don't take what I say as a word of a stronger player and I cannot be wrong.  No, think for yourself.  Do your research, possibly look for a coach if you can afford one, and practice practice practice.  you don't have to listen to everything I say.  you don't even have to listen to any of it.  This is not meant to be an all-inclusive plan, so don't take it as such.  you need more info than just this post, but this will help, a little, at least I hope.

Good luck with your chess!

Some good advice in this thread. Thank-you.

Pro tip 1 .. don't play the London please 🙏.. 

Well otherwise agadmator(Antonio Radic) will get you!!😁

And  even I came up with a nice way to play against it too. Bit agadmator is quite renowned so his word will be more popular. 

Pro tip two. Experiment with more than just the Italian. Otherwise you may become a 1dimensional player

Chess Openings Resources for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/openings-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

You have diamond. Do the lessons! Those will guide you and help you so that you understand why you do things a certain way from a theoretical view. I really believe that is what will get you past the plateau you are experiencing. You have done only 100 so far. There are hundreds more. Also keep doing puzzles. Study the end game lessons too. Those will give you an edge. Do a "blunder check" before each move. Ask yourself, "What threats does my opponent have against me on the very next move and the one after that?"

(Also, always look for an opportunity to make an intermezzo. This will take you to the next level.)

Best wishes.

#1
"I have a really hard time in the opening"
++ You make a mistake at some point. Usually that is because of not thinking enough.

"I struggle with opening principles the most"
++ The principles are to help you, not to struggle with.

"I'm either trying to develop my pieces and forgetting about King safety"
++ Never ever forget about king safety. Checkmate ends the game. Castle early and often.

"not finding the Right Moves" ++ Does it develop a piece? Is it aimed towards the center?

"making the same mistakes" ++ Analyse your lost games thoroughly.

"I only won because I got extremely lucky"
++ To win you depend on your opponent making a mistake. That is some luck if you want.

"I either play really well or I play horribly." ++ You probably play the same level all the time, but sometimes you get away with your mistakes and sometimes you get punished for them.

"the opening, because it seems like that is where my games are lost most of the time."
++ No, you lose games from tactical errors, not from the opening. Take time to think and play slowly and carefully. Never rush. Double check you hang no pieces or pawns.