Best Basic Opening Principles

Whats interesting is that Petrosian won and lost more when he played 1 e4 and had fewer draws. Maybe he should have played 1 e4 more often ?

Maybe, but then again, he would have had to play about 450+ more games with 1.e4 for us to have an accurate rate of win, I think. Petrosian didn't seem to have problems with draws though, and I think 1.c4 and 1.d4 are still great options for players that don't prefer the ruthless attack.  

One opening principle that I havent seen mentioned...rooks love open files.   Also, dont block in your bishops before you have too (good rule for beginners, even if advanced players stray from it at times.)  And lets not forget, dont try to get your rook in the game too early.  True beginners love a4/h4 followed by RA3/H3.  It usually loses the exchange for them, but the point is that rooks, like queens, should generally not be moved to early, apart from castling.  

But really, the basic opening principles are not hard, the time-honored advice has already been mentioned, its good stuff, but only get you so far.  My 1000ish 8 year old can develop all her pieces relatively logically with E4 (if the opponent replies with E5 anyway), it often looks like the 4 knights game, with probably the bishop usually on C4.  Its the middle game which is the stumper for her.  

Depending on the strength of your students, you could supplement the general opening principles with examples.  Bishop D3 blocking the d-pawn and the dark bishop, early queen move allowing development of knight with tempo, etc.  Examples are always good.  

Forgot another basic one...dont trade a developed piece for an undeveloped piece. 

Hey guys, most I know about chess I've learned by playing so I went looking for some guidelines and came across this post. If someone of you can add some general principles for playing after the opening I think that it would help new players.

I'm thiking of stuff such as control open files, how to attack a castle (pawn storm?), trade pieces to simplify when you feel uncomfortable (thinking of illsuited knights and bishops) etc.

Nice!

1. Do not get mated (in the first dozen moves)..

2. Do not lose your queen.

3. Try to get an advantage.

Wait are you meant to develop your knights first?

I just do either depending on the situation and my mood.

Why is that important?

Also when I first heard the advice "connect your rooks" I didn't know what it meant. Perhaps a less jargon-ey way of saying it is "castle, and remove any remaining pieces between your rooks so they can 'see' each other".

Thank you very much for the opportunity. I frequently THINK that among the basics for beginners is: 1) studying basic endings, 2) a short opening repertoire, (2 openings with white and 2 with black), 3) a lot of tactics and 4) playing in tournaments.

Hi!

I think most of the guidelines go down to 3 fundamental opening principles:

Centre Control,

Development of the Pieces ,

and King´s Safety.

Good luck!

Dont lose your pawns. Avoid blunders!

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

Lajos Portisch