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A Collection of Chess Wisdom

The Opening
Collected & Organized by Kelly Atkins

"Your only task in the opening is to reach a playable middlegame."

Lajos Portisch

In the opening, work to: 1) control the center; 2) develop all your pieces to effective squares; and 3) safeguard your king. Every move in the opening should contribute to one or more of these three opening objectives. If it doesn't, it is probably weak or an outright mistake.

Don’t play the opening casually or automatically, no matter how well you think you know it. Make sure you understand what’s going on. If your opponent plays a strange looking move, take some time to analyze it. Fight for the initiative right from the start.

If your opponent plays an unusual move, try to understand it before responding. Answer all threats.

The best way to avoid falling into a trap is to develop your pieces to useful squares where they will not be in any immediate danger.

An attempt by White to play “Black with a move in hand” can always be resolved by the opponent into easy equality if one can only find the way. But when faced with the problem over the board without having studied it or previously met it, the way is not always easy to find.

Proper development does not concern itself merely with placing the pieces where they are effective for attack. It is equally important to interfere with the range of influence of the opponent's pieces.

If your opponent shocks you with a surprise move in the opening, don't panic and answer too quickly. Take a deep breath and try to analyze the new move in an objective manner. In most cases, the new move isn't any better than the normal move. Its main strength usually lies in its surprise value.

Don't be intimidated if your opponent is an expert in a particular opening. Play reasonable moves, and you should reach a reasonable position.

By all means, choose an opening that you believe will unsettle your opponent, but be sure not to unsettle yourself in the process.

The purpose of pawn moves in the opening are to control the center, release pieces, defend your piece and pawn formation, and restrain opposing pawns and pieces.

Try to establish an ideal pawn center (both center pawns safely abreast on the fourth rank), and support your pawns with pieces.

Prevent your opponent from castling if possible, or force him to give up some other concession in order to castle.

Make only two or three pawn moves in the opening, and maintain at least one central pawn to avoid being overrun in the center.

Play to gain control of the center. Attack central squares (d4, d5, e4, and e5) with pawns and pieces.

Develop pieces rapidly and safely toward the center, and develop with a threat when possible, to limit your opponent's options. Defend by developing a piece when possible.

Look for ways to develop with threats.

Develop each piece to its most effective square – strong, safe squares on which your pieces have scope, mobility, and aggressive or defensive prospects – and do so efficiently, without moving the same piece over and over.

Aim your pieces at the center, the opposing king and at weak points in your opponent's position.

Develop all your pieces in the opening.

To facilitate castling, develop pieces first on the side where you intend to castle.

Develop rooks to open files, especially central files.

Develop the queen, but not too early, and usually close to home to avoid harassment by opposing minor pieces and pawns.

Avoid time-wasting pawn grabbing of wing pawns, especially with the queen, at the expense of development and position (center pawns are generally worth capturing).

Move each piece only once in the opening – do not waste time moving the same piece multiple times, leaving other pieces undeveloped.

Castle early, usually on the kingside.

Avoid prolonged symmetry in the opening. Imbalances in the position are necessary to create winning chances.

Do not lose material without adequate compensation in the opening.

Occasionally, play gambits – sacrifices of material (usually a pawn or two) to gain a lead in development, control the center, seize the initiative, and open lines for attack – for fun, and to sharpen your tactics.

Play both king- and queen-pawn openings, and play gambits occasionally.

If you accept a gambit, expect to play some defense – and be prepared to return the extra material to improve your position after using the initiative to create weaknesses in your opponent's position.

Learn and play standard openings and defenses, which suit your style, whether tactical or positional.

Specialize in only a few openings and defenses. Build an opening repertoire and play it consistently, until you know and understand thoroughly, and feel comfortable with it against anyone, and anything they can throw at you.

In serious games, play openings and defenses you know well. Practice other openings and defenses in casual games or against a computer.

Patience is the byword in the opening and early middlegame, especially as Black. Best results are achieved by first building a solid, strong, active position – safe king, active pieces, strong center, and sound pawn formations – then seeking tactical and attacking opportunities.

If behind in development, keep the position closed. If ahead, open it up.

Try to prevent your opponent from castling. Keep it trapped in the center, especially in open games.

The books generally tend to exaggerate the value of a pawn center as such, If a pawn center really hampers the enemy pieces, it is advantageous; otherwise not. Things that count against a pawn center are: a) ample maneuvering space for enemy pieces, even though on a wing; b) a completely open file, which at any rate means freedom for rooks; and c) exchanges of pieces, especially minor pieces. Real control of the center is always advantageous, e.g., knights posted there and not vulnerable to pawns. But a pawn center does not always guarantee such control. All one can say is that it usually helps.

A pawn center is rarely advantageous to the player possessing it if the opponent has moved both his center pawns two squares. It is advantageous only while the opponent is saddled with a pawn at K3, K2, Q3 or Q2. Such a pawn impedes its own army.

Developing a knight away from the center is usually a bad idea. Remember, knights on the rim are dim.

In an opening where your only advantage is that your pieces are just a little less restricted than your opponent’s, the effect of a single exchange can be to equalize the game.

Openings in which White plays a Black formation with a move in hand nearly always have some slight theoretical flaw, and the problem is to find it in any particular case.

Make as few pawn moves as necessary. Pawn moves tend to create weak squares. Especially avoid them around your castled king’s position. When attacking, particularly in open positions, use pieces. If you don’t know what to do, make an intelligent piece move. Unless there is a specific need or reason, make pawn moves only to facilitate development in the opening, open lines for attack in the middlegame, or create passed pawns in the endgame. Every move spent moving a pawn is a move that could have been used to develop a piece.

Never play queen to Q-N3 early in an opening unless it goes there with a threat.

In any opening, it is usually all right for White to give up a clear tempo to isolate Black’s d-pawn. But if Black does it, he usually falls too far behind in development to take advantage of the isolation. The d-pawn then becomes more strong than weak.

It’s the possibility of a breakthrough that confers the initiative in the opening, not the breakthrough itself, which should be preceded by development.

When you’ve opened two diagonals for a bishop, but can only use one, there is a move gone to waste.

Develop purposefully, not just for development’s sake. Put pieces on good squares with the first move, and don’t keep moving them around without good reasons.

Try to develop with threats, but don’t threaten pointlessly or waste time doing so.

If you take your opponent “out of the books,” do it with a bold move, not a lukewarm one.

The importance of getting to a stage where your rooks can see each other is enormously greater in a position with open files.

In most situations, to advance a rook pawn one square to prevent a bishop from coming to N5 is a waste of a tempo. By waiting until the opponent has already placed him there before you “biff” the bishop away, you cause him to waste a tempo.

When one’s opponent has castled kingside, it is nearly always a good idea to pin his king’s knight.

In most cases, it’s a mistake to play bishop to king’s N5 unless the enemy has already castled.

In closed games, it is usually better to be a little behind in development than to develop quickly but awkwardly.

A good motto in the opening is: No unnecessary concessions!

In general, when a concession must be made in the opening, prefer one for which the enemy must concede the initiative.

The king is best placed on the side where he has the minority of pawns.

Early castling is dubious in a closed game.

When behind in development, don't open up the position.

Once an imbalance is created in the opening, one's further development must address that imbalance in some way.

When there is no special reason for accepting a gambit, decline it.

A Stonewall formation should never be adopted without a king’s bishop to strengthen the squares that the Stonewall weakens.

In any position that is at all open, you should castle quickly.

Philidor’s ancient principle that the bishop pawns should not be obstructed still holds true in most positions.

Pawn-winning strategy in the opening is always a gamble. It invites an attack, against which one error may spell ruin.

A non-developing move in the opening, however attractive, should always be regarded as guilty until is proven innocent. The moral: Suspect any non-developing move in the opening unless it forces a non-developing move in reply.