Hi, I'm going to tell you a little about what happens to me.
Chess has always interested me, but it was 1 month ago I have started to study it "strictly"; However, I feel that I have had some gaps in my study, because today, browsing a bit in the Forum, I found a message that said that know openings basic principles in general is more important than studying a specified opening. Delving a little, to get some elements that must be taken into account, as the Centre and the development of the parts; but it would be great, and I say, very helpful, that someone with good experience in chess explain me a little on this topic.
A greeting! And thank you.
The reason you should be trying to acquire general knowledge is that such knowledge is applicable in many situations. It will also help you understand specific opening lines, the reason behind every move and therefore help you remember the specific moves.
In the opening you're trying to do 3 things:
1, Activate your pieces - activity is the main principle of chess
2, Control the center - pieces in the center generally provide more activity
3, Castle (connect the rooks) - get your king out of the center where it can be attacked
I don't know how you study openings, but I find useful to search for games in that opening by strong players and study those games. Opening and middle game plans are strongly connected and games like these could explain why certain pieces belong to certain squares and how to play the game out even to the endgame.
If none of that works, Chessable is always an option.
The centre is the key. If one player controls the centre, he can attack and defend at the same time and the other player cannot keep up.
White normally plays one to three pawns in the centre. Ideally e4 and d4, often d4 and c4, sometimes e4 and f4, sometimes e4 and d3. Black has less options, usually e5 and d6, d5 and c6, d5 and e6, d6 and c5, d6 and c6, d6 and e6. The pawns control the centre, take squares from opposing knights and enable the bishops to come out.
The knights usually go to their natural squares c3 and f3, where they control two central squares.
It is less clear where the bishops should go. b5, c4, d3, e2, g2, h3. That is why the bishops generally should be developed after the knights. Especially strong is the so called fianchetto where a bishop is developed by g3 and Bg2. From that position the bishop controls two centre squares e4 and d5, while all other positions control at most one central square.
Once knights and bishops are in play, it is good to castle. Most often castle king's side o-o, which is easier to achieve (2 pieces to clear instead of 3) and where the king is safer than on c1 after o-o-o.
Once the rooks are connected by castling, they can occupy an open file or a file that is expected to open.
The queen is the most powerful piece, and therefore should be developed last but not least. If the queen comes out too soon, the opponent can gain time by developing pieces that attack the queen, so that she must flee.
#2 and #3: Your right. These are the principles, but a some point a player has to chose a specific opening repertoire. (Mine is, for example, Ruy Lopez+Nimzo-Indian+Caro-Cann). You can browse the internet for different openings and try them all out. Then you intensely study then ones you like. There are few things one can do wrong, but one of them is to pick a random opening and play it without any deeper knowledge. I hope you find it useful.
-#MikaAlka
#4 I disagree: you can go a long way, say up to FIDE 2300 with only general principles and experience acquired through playing. Intense study of openings does not make you any better. In terms of usefulness the time were better spent with the intense study of endgames particularly rook endings. You cannot reach FIDE 2000 without endgame knowledge.
I also advice natural openings. On 1 e4 reply 1...e5, on 1 d4 reply 1...d5.
I made always a leap forward when I knew some openings well, including ideas for the middlegame as well as some concrete lines. You have to know where the pieces in YOUR openings belong. That's why tons of practicing (blitz) games is needed. Theory alone is nothing, but if you know your openings well you can have decent middlegames even against GMs and sometimes gain something countable.
Yes, that is one of the virtues of blitz. a FIDE 2400 player I know says he always plays 100 blitz games with a new opening before playing it over the board.
From personal experience I can tell that decent middle game even against a GM is possible without knowing the opening well. Just play carefully and think about every move.
In my personal experience best approach would be to start with endgames, this will improve your tactical understanding of the pieces, after that get into the opening, basic principles to follow are:
1. Dont move the same piece twice.
2. Develop knights before bishops.
3. Castle, then move queen to connect rooks.
4. Always exchange pawns toward the center and not the sides, so you can get a strong control of the center.
5. Dont release pressure of the pinned pieces.
6. Exchange pieces when you have material advantage.
These are very basic and very general though, you need to study a lot of games to get a better grasp and then follow your own style, and your own openings that you enjoy playing.
*Tip: Check legendary Mato Jelic youtube videos also.
Really thank you all!, I have understood everything you have explained to me hehe. A time read everything, try to apply the principles in a real game.
So those who want to analyze and tell me that I did it.
5 b4? just loses a pawn. After 3...Bc5, 4 b4!? = Evans Gambit makes sense to speed up 5 c3 and 6 d4 for the centre, but after 4 d3 it is an error to play 5 b4 as the pawn goes to d4 in 2 steps. Good moves are 5 o-o, or 5 c3, or 5 Nc3. 5 o-o puts the king in safety and activates the rook, 5 c3 takes away centre square d4 from black, 5 Nc3 develops the knight and controls centre square d5. Your opponent should have taken your pawn 5...Bxb4.
Your move 8 d5 looks not so good. It blocks the diagonal of your bishop on c4 and it opens the diagonal for the black bishop on b6.
9 o-o? loses a pawn: you could protect it with 9 Nbd2. Black got greedy and took another pawn 10...Nxc3?, which allowed you to trap his knight, but if he had just gone back 10...Nf6 you have no compensation for your lost central pawn.
Hope this helps you.
