Three golden rules of the opening

 

We know that the centre is important since you have to put your piece as active as possible. That is why we try to control the centre in the opening.

 

—> rule one: pawn(s) in the centre.

If we look at the diagram above we see how the white pieces are developed.  The knight on a3 has little chance to play. The bishop on b2 looks at his own pawn. The knight on e2 is standing in the way of his own bishop.

 

—> rule two: develop your pieces, in a way that they look at the centre but not standing in eachothers way.

 

Try always to play with all your pieces because you shall need each one in the battle. The queen and rooks are mostly the last pieces that get developed.

 

At last it is important that the opponent cannot come close to your king. We have to put our king therefor somewhere safe.

 

—> rule three: bring your king into safety, if possible with castling because then the rook gets developed.

 

Some game examples

Game one

1. e4 – e5 2. Nf3 – Nc6 3. d4 – Bd6

Black saw that his pawn on e5 was attacked twice and only defended once. He wants to defend and at the same time develop a piece. A good reasoning but his bishop on d6 is not standing good since now the d7-pawn cannot play.

 

This has two disadvantages:

- The d-pawn cannot have any influence in the centre

- The pawn on d7 obstructs the bishop on c8

 

Game two

1. e4 – e5 2. Be2 – Nf6 3. d3 – Bc5 4. Bd2 – d5

White has played cautiously. The two bishops are developed, like described by golden rule two, but the placement of the pieces is not advantageous. They are doing nothing. We say that the bishops are passive.

 

recommendation: moving a piece is not enough. Pieces have to stand active so that they attack or have the possibility to attack.

 

Game three

1. e3 – e5 2. Qf3 – d5 3. Nc3 – e4 4. Qf4 – Bd6

 In this game the white Queen entered the game on move two. That is not smart. Black can attack the queen easily, she always has to dodge the attack. In the position above the white queen is in a sad position, she can not find a safe square anymore.

 

recommendation: never bring the queen to quickly into the game even if this looks like and attack.