How to be better at Chess Openings

Learn to identify your mistakes, or in the meantime, let someone higher rated identify them for you.

This is an example from one of your games:



Some things to learn: 

1. In d4 openings you usually want your c pawn on c6 or c5 here. The opponent gave you an opportunity to play c5 and you would have a stronger position. You fight for the center and you also open the diagonal for your queen.


2. In the first image you traded your developed bishop for your opponents undeveloped Knight. Don't trade active pieces for inactive ones, unless you have a tactical reason to do so. You spent 2 moves with your bishop and you have nothing to show for it and your opponent improved the position of his rook slightly.

3. After this, you moved your f-knight for the second time when it isn't doing something worth the move. You are already behind in development and needed to just play e6 immediately to start developing further.


4. You then blocked your own bishop with your queen which makes developing it even harder.

5. You castled into the enemies attack while he has a rook already staring down at that side of the board - when you are very behind in development.

6. You allow him to double your pawns in front of your king which creates quite a few weaknesses; Doubled pawns, A-pawn is isolated, your opponent has an open file to work with and squares A6 and C6 are no longer protected.



If you fix some of these mistakes over time and it becomes habit, you will find yourself doing much better. I hope this helps you a bit and I hope you improve. 

Thank you for taking the time to give such a detailed response! Super grateful

I can see the inaccuracies you've pointed out.

Would you recommend studying some popular openings and choosing one opening to play for both black and white? 

You should definitely have some main opening ideas that you aim for. But try to do the following:

Get a plan against 1.e4 and then as black get a response to 1.e4 and 1.d4. That should be a good start. For example. I myself play 1.c4 (English opening) and against 1.e4 I play the Caro-Kann and I play a similar setup vs 1.d4 (semi-slav).

Most of your games as black you will play against e4 or d4. If you play e4 most of your games will be against the sicillian, french and Caro-Kann. Don't feel overwhelmed. Just pick the main ideas and then branch out and try to enjoy the ride. It's rewarding to improve.

Openings are not that important at lower levels. The most important thing is to follow opening principles.

If you have a bit of time, you can find here most of the things you need to know for now about openings:

https://www.chess.com/blog/nklristic/surviving-the-opening-first-steps-to-chess-improvement

All that being said. It is important to analyze your games. If you do that with an engine, you will see if you really messed up in the opening and you will incorporate a better move for the future. Along with that, you are a premium member and have access to opening explorer (even if you weren't, there are free alternatives online). After you play the game you can check where did you deviate etc. That way you will learn openings without simple memorizing but by playing games and making corrections as you go along.

Yup, don't memorise. Try to just have general principles and ideas.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-principles-of-the-opening
https://www.chessstrategyonline.com/content/tutorials/how-to-start-a-game-of-chess-opening-principles


There's lots of resources online. The internet is a goldmine for chess knowledge.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-for-beginners-the-opening2

check out that link. there are some interesting articles and videos that will help you to improve your opening play.

In your daily games you are also allowed to use the opening explorer. This will help you to get a better understanding where to place your pieces and to reach a decent position.

Thanks all for your help!

I almost always play queens gambit when I'm white, and usually French when black. However, one of my main issues is that whenever someone plays a move that doesn't necessarily 'follow the rules' of the opening I'm playing, I panic and wonder if they've made a bad move that I should be capitalising on, or if they're setting something up and I can't see it.

I do often use the opening explorer but I feel like I'm not learning that way as the move counts as a 'book move' and yeah I just don't feel like I'm learning to think for myself that way.

That's something that I try to practise. I look at the book moves when I study the openings and I also look at master games but it's important to try to understand why certain moves are played. Sometimes it can be hard, but it's definitely a skill that needs to be developed. It takes time though, don't ever feel rushed. You can always ask on the forums or message someone you trust and ask them why certain moves were played and so on. As long as you have a plan to develop you should be fine.


Sometimes the best way to capitalise on your opponents poor moves is to just play normal good moves and slowly build an easier position where the tactics favour you.

When you say a player does not follow the rules of the opening, do you mean they do not respond to 1.d4 and 2.c4 with the Queen's Gambit Declined?  Like they play the Nimzo-Indian or King's Indian or Dutch?

If so, think about the whole point behind the QGD (from Black's perspective).  After 1.d4, Why did Black play 1...d5?  It is to avoid the big center with 2.e4.  If White gets in both d4 and e4 and neither is contested (in the French, after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5, control of e4 is contested), White gets a big advantage.

After 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3, white has a piece that contests e4 and Black must watch out for e4.  3...Nf6 adds another piece to the control of e4.  Etc.  So the fight is over e4.  Often times, since White cannot easily get a hold of e4, he works around it, and tells Black "If you sit there holding d5, your supporting pawns cannot advance, and you will suffocate.  If you play ...c5 or ...e5 to break White's center, you weaken d5.  So often Black will play ...dxc4 (but not until you move your f1-Bishop, to make you waster a move), so that he can follow with c5 or e5, which opens up e4 to White.

So now that we understand the fight is over e4, we see why 1...Nf6 and 1...f5 are often played.  They are the only 2 moves that prevent 2.e4 besides 1...d5.  Take the Nimzo-Indian.  1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3.  White has the threat of 4.e4.  He can play 3...d5, which reaches the same position as after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6.  However, instead of adding a piece to the control of e4, you can take one away from White.  3...Bb4 is known as the Nimzo-Indian Defense.  Black pins the Knight to the King so that it no longer controls e4, and prevents 4.e4 because it would now just drop a pawn.  Black accepts that White will have the Bishop pair in return for control of the light squares, slowed down development for White, and a dynamic imbalance of N for B.

The King's Indian sees Black allow e4 (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 (3...d5, stopping 4.e4, is known as the Grunfeld) 4.e4.  But now, Black sees that White can no longer put a pawn on c3 or e3, and so d4 is weakened, and Black takes control of the d4-square after 4...d6 5.Nf3 O-O 6.Be2 e5 7.O-O Nc6 8.d5 (Notice that Black now controls (not occupies, controls) the d4-square.  If Black can safely get a Knight there, White is often in trouble.

This is why everyone talks about understanding openings and not memorizing them.  Notive how the 3 examples I gave - QGD, Nimzo-Indian, and Kings Indian - all fight for control of one of White's central squares.  For the QGD and Nimzo, it is e4, putting White pawns on dark squares (d4-e3) and weakening his control of the light squares.  With the Kings Indian, and White pawns on c4/d5/e4/f3 eventually, White's dark squares are weak and he has control of the light squares.

So now that we see what Black is looking to do, you can get a better idea of what you need to do as White.

In the Queens Gambit or Nimzo-Indian, you are fighting for control of e4.

In the King's Indian, since your pawns are past d4, you do not fight for d4, but rather, you play for c5 and trade on d6.  Then you attack d6 and try to infiltrate at the c7 point.  Black, of course, will attack the Kingside and try to checkmate you.  So White has to valance attack and defense, and in most cases, if he avoids the mate, he is significantly better.  Black's wins will usually come via quick attack in the Kings Indian.  Understanding long term vs short term advantages is also vital!

Hope this helps.

When I was a beginner, I bought and read the book "Winning Chess Openings" by Yasser Sierawan.

I found it extremely helpful, as Sierawan taught a variety of openings and principles in a very comfortable, gentle manner. It was challenging enough to be interesting, but still simple enough to understand.

I eventually moved on to more advanced books (and if you continue on your chess journey, you'll likely do the same), but at your current level, I think you would get a lot out of that book, and your opening play would almost certainly improve as a result.

Best of luck!

+1 the best way to learn is to analyze and try not to make the same mistakes that’s how I learned my main openings.

If you’re looking to work on your chess openings, I’ve got a suggestion that’s been super helpful for me: AiChessCoach.net. It’s this free site where you just enter your Lichess or Chess.com username, and it pulls in your latest games (up to 1000) automatically. It analyzes your openings in a way that actually feels useful, pointing out recurring mistakes and suggesting specific moves to work on. It’s simple but seriously effective if you’re aiming to improve!