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Basic Opening Strategy

General Principle #6: "Combine Developing Moves with Threats."

General Principle #7: "Don't Waste Moves."

General Principle #8: "Don't Block the Development of Your Other Pieces."

Here are a few more opening tips:

Combine Developing Moves with Threats: This puts your opponent on the defensive and gives you the initiative (that is, allows you to dictate the course of events). Consider the following series of moves [click here for an interactive board]:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 White develops a Knight and threatens Black's e5 pawn. Black's most common follow-up is 2...Nc6, protecting the e5 pawn. Then with 3. Bb5, White develops a Bishop and again threatens the Black e-pawn, although indirectly this time (the threat is Bxc6 followed by Nxe5). Black's most common follow-up is 3...a6, "putting the question to the Bishop." (Notice that ...a6 is a threatening move, but not a developing move.) White most often responds with 4. Ba4, maintaining the threat against the Black Knight and the possible follow-up of Nxe5.

Notice that White's second and third moves were developing moves which also involved a threat. This put Black on the defensive: instead of acting, Black was merely reacting. Contrast the moves above with 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3. White's second move is certainly not bad, but probably not the best. Although it's a good developing move, it doesn't threaten anything. This gives Black the flexibility to make any number of moves (likely candidates include 2...Nc6, 2...Nf6, and 2...Bc5). If White isn't careful, soon Black will be the one making the threats!

Don't Waste Moves: This seems obvious, but it's surprising how often it happens in amateur games. Every wasted move is like a free turn for your opponent, and before you know it, your opponent could end up with an advantage in development and / or central control. Consider the following series of moves [click here for an interactive board]:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. Bb5. White decides to transpose into something like the line above, but takes two moves to put the Bishop on b5 when it could have been put there in just one. After 4...Nf6 Black is ahead in development.

The lesson: Don't take more moves to do something than you need to. Make every move count!

Don't Block the Development of Your Other Pieces: Before you develop a piece, make sure that it won't inhibit the development of your other pieces. Consider the following series of moves [click here for an interactive board]:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6. Instead of reacting to White's threat against the e5 pawn, Black creates an equal threat against the e4 pawn! This confuses White, who meekly replies with the substandard 3. Bd3. It's true that this develops the light-squared Bishop and protects the e4 pawn, but it also blocks the potential advance of White's d-pawn, which will limit White's influence over the center and will make it difficult to develop the dark-squared Bishop. After 2...Nf6, White should have at least considered 3. Nc3: this would have protected the e4 pawn and developed a Knight without interfering with White's development or central pawn advances. Another brief example: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Qf6. True, the Queen does protect the e5 pawn, but she prevents Black's kingside Knight from developing to its most natural square at f6. (And of course, it violates the principle of "Don't develop your Queen too early.")

To put it another way, make sure that each developing move takes into account and is harmonious with the potential development of the other pieces.

Next: Basic Middlegame Strategy