There are various chess openings but the best opening is the one which you could play confidently. The very basic thing in improving your opening is first choosing the opening which suits your style.
If you like positional games – play the openings which are solid for both colors. If you like creating havoc in the position- play the openings which are aggressive in nature.
There are certain chess principles that you should follow no matter which openings you choose.
Let me show you how to improve chess openings!
Table of Contents
Only make pawn moves that help development
The basic fundamental idea of any chess opening is developing the pieces and getting your king to safety. In openings, you should only make the pawn moves that are helping your pieces develop.
Avoid playing any pawns moves on the side of the board eg. a,b file and g,h file as they are usually the ones that don’t help to develop pieces.
Too many pawn moves in the openings not only hampers the development but most of the time weakens the pawn structure. You should only move your pawns when your pieces are ideally developed and rooks are connected. Until then avoid making them.
Develop your pieces towards the center
To develop your pieces you need to move the pawns but where exactly to develop the pieces? While developing the pieces always develop them towards the center of the board these are e4-e5-d4-d5 squares.
Pieces are usually better placed when they are in contact with the center or are on the center squares. While developing your pieces remember to develop the Knight before the Bishop.
Since the knight is a short-range piece and the bishop is a long-range piece, the bishop can play from its initial position whereas the knight cannot.
Don’t bring the queen out early
When you are developing your pieces you should never bring your queen out in the opening.
I repeat, never bring your queen out early in the opening.
Most of the time the queen gets chased away like a dog by the opponent’s minor pieces.
This helps him complete his development with tempo and forces us to move queen over and over again, resulting in the loss of development.
Most of the time queen is flexible from its initial position. Develop your queen only when all the minor pieces are developed and your king has castled.
Each piece should be moved only once.
While developing your pieces make sure while placing them that they only move once. Never make the move with the pieces which are already developed. The golden rule over here is to develop each piece’s new move.
In the opening, time is of the essence and each move adds a considerable value to the whole game. Wasting time moving the same pieces most of the time is usually considered as a wastage of tempo.
Castle early in the opening
Now when the pieces are developed it’s time to castle and bring your king to safety. Since the pieces have started coming out the king tends to become vulnerable in the center of the board and might end up in a quick attack.
Preferably you should castle before the move ten. Castling helps you bring your king to safety and helps you bring one of your rooks towards the center, which is added benefit.
Connect your rooks
And the last part but also the most important- Connect your rooks! This is the moment when the opening part of the game is complete and we move toward the next part of the middlegame.
While connecting the rook you should make sure that the back rank the open and the rooks are connected in the center. Preferably they should be placed on the square of the e and d file.
