How far will knowing the best chess openings for beginners get you? 🤔Opening prep will help you, but there are also a number of tips we need to apply to other areas if we want to take down our toughest opponents. Sign up for GM Damian Lemos’ free Masterclass. ►https://ichs.co/2znPE7X
Chess openings occur in every chess game. You can’t avoid or sidestep them. Especially for beginners, it’s important to have a clear plan of what to do in the first moves. The opening phase builds the foundation for the rest of the game.
Knowing the openings you play not only helps you to avoid falling for cheap opening traps but also helps you to get a good position in the middlegame.
Today, we want to look at one of these chess openings – the Queen’s Gambit Declined. Most chess openings for beginners such as the Italian Game, the Ruy Lopez, the Four Knights Game and the Two Knights Defense all start with 1.e4.
As you probably already know, 1.e4 is not the only good first move in chess. Another great opening move you should be familiar with is 1.d4. Even though you may feel like there is not much difference between the two, they lead to very different opening systems with totally different strategies and ideas.
With both moves, 1.e4 and 1.d4, White occupies the center with a pawn right from the word go. However, there is a major difference between 1.e4 and 1.d4. The move 1.e4 liberates White’s light-squared bishop and queen. The move 1.d4, in contrast, liberates the dark-squared bishop and – to some extent – the queen. Moreover, after 1.e4, the king’s pawn isn’t protected, while after 1.d4, the queen’s pawn is defended by the queen.
These nuances change the opening strategy quite a bit. Each of these moves also forces Black to react differently. Most chess games between beginners start with the moves 1.e4 e5. However, after 1.d4, Black can’t simply play the move 1…e5. White could simply take the pawn with 2.dxe5 and Black would be a pawn down.
Whether 1.e4 or 1.d4 is better is often up for debate, but the truth is the best of these comes down to what positions you are comfortable with!
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