Chess: Typical Openings (Part 2)

Eade, James. “Selecting Your Strategy: The Principles of Play.” Chess for Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, 2016, pp. 191–225.

In my first blog, I talked about typical openings and how you should control the center. This time I will be revisiting those ideas but also expanding on them. Controlling the center or centralization is something that gives you a positional advantage. According the James Eade, "A positional advantage isn't the same as a material advantage or an advantage in pawn structure. This type of advantage provides a player with a more subtle edge than other advantages and can evaporate quickly as a result of inexact play" (Eade 201). This means that controlling the center only gives you a minor advantage but nonetheless it is still an advantage, which means it will help you win. In my first post I only mentioned that you should control the center, but here are some common openings with steps

This is the French Defense. After white moves a pawn to e4, black moves a pawn to e6 . This means black will contest for d5, controlling part of the center.

This is the Indian Defense. After white moves a pawn to d4, black moves a knight to f6. This means black will control the center squares d5 and e4.

This is the Ruy Lopez or "The Spanish Game". After a double king pawn opening (white pawn to e4, black pawn to e5), white moves their knight to f3 (to capture the black pawn), then black moves their knight to c6 (to capture the white knight after it captures), and then finally white moves their king's bishop to b5 to threaten the black knight to retreat, taking control of the center.



The next topic is how to control the center, development is the key. Development is the "rapid mobilization of chess pieces" and technically either side isn't developed until all the pieces have moved off their original square. To control the center during the opening, it's not a good idea to exchange pieces or to try and check the enemy's King. Instead save the opening moves for development, try to get all the pieces to the most optimal position (Eade 210). However, it is not worth it to develop a piece to it's optimal square if the piece will get contested and be forced to move back. Overall, to control the center it's necessary to remember the few principles of opening play. Don't exchange pieces, avoid moving to squares where the piece will be driven off, and try to develop all your pieces.

Question: How much about your subject have you learned so far?