1.
Rapidly Develop All Pieces
The main goal of the opening is to develop pieces
and reach castling as quickly as possible.
Opening is complete when one or both players have
their rooks connected.
The player, who finishes the development first,
gains the initiative.
2. Develop Knights Before Bishops
While Bishops can control several squares from
their original position, if there are no pawns
abstracting their way, Knights dominate only their
neighbor squares and take longer to reach
opponent’s field because they are less mobile
pieces.
3. Don’t Move The Same Pieces Twice During
Opening
Try to place your pieces at the best possible squares
at the first move.
It is a waste of time to move the same pieces more
than once during opening and it may cost you the
initiative in the game.
4. Don’t Make Unnecessary Pawns Move During
Opening
Pawn moves should be restricted during opening
because the time involved in these moves could be
applied to develop another pieces.
Generally, moving pawns is suitable when the
players aim to open diagonals for the Queen and
Bishops or to occupy the center.
5. Don’t Check if not Necessary
A check that can easily be defended by the
opponent is unnecessary.
Most of the checks during opening can easily be
defended by moves that favor development.
6. Do not Open the Position if You are Late in
Development
An open position always favors the flock with more
pieces in play and therefore, should only be
provoked by those with a development advantage.
7. Place the Queen Behind the Line of Friendly
Pawns
Since the queen is a very powerful piece, it is also
very vulnerable to the opponent’s constant attacks.
Therefore, it’s convenient to place it behind a pawn,
preferably on the second rank so that the first one is
free for Rook development.
8. Avoid Trading a Developed Piece for a not
Developed
Generally, it’s a bad deal to trade a well-positioned
piece for a bad-positioned one.
When you trade one of your developed pieces for
ones, you waste your time. The same is true if you
trade a piece that has moved a lot for one that your
opponent moved only once.
9. Castle As Quickly As Possible
The King’s safety is one of the most important
things to care about during opening and middle
game.
The king in the center will always be very
vulnerable to the opponent’s attacks especially in
open positions.
Castling means placing your Kind comfortably
behind a pawn blockade and allowing development
of one of your Rooks. Then, the Rooks may rapidly
occupy an open or semi-open files.
10. Kingside Castling is Safer Than Queenside
Castling
Kingside castling places the King away from the
center and safer behind a rank of protected pawns;
furthermore it’s a quicker move than Queenside
castling since only two pieces have to move before.
On the other hand, castling on the opponent’s
opposite side may be very interesting to create more
attacking opportunities.
11. Try to Prevent the Opponent from Castling
If your opponent is waiting too long to castle, try to
keep enemy King even longer in the center.
One of the most common ways to do so is to control
one of the squares serving as passage for the King.
Most of the times it’s worthwhile to sacrifice a
pawn in order to keep the King in the center.
12. Dominate as Much Territory as Possible
The player who has an advantage in space enables
greater mobility to friendly pieces and therefore,
transfer pieces from one side to another with more
flexibility.
On the other hand, the player in a more restricted
position finds it difficult to maneuver pieces which
might be fatal if they are requested to defend the
King.
13. Advance Pawns in Order to Conquer Space
Although advancing pawns is the main resource to
restrict the opponent’s position. This rule should be
considered carefully because farther the pawns are
from base position, it is harder to defend them.
Furthermore, each position advanced by a pawn
creates weakness at its adjacent squares, which may
be occupied by enemy pieces.
14. Place Your Pawns In The Center
The center of the chessboard consists of e4, e5, d4
and d5. The expanded center is also includes the
squares that form the c3, c6, f3 and f6 rectangle.
Pawns are the best units to create the center because
differently from pieces, they are not vulnerable to
attack of enemy pawns.
15. Keep Your Pieces as Close as Possible to the
Center
In the center, a piece controls more squares than
anywhere else on the board. The Knight, for
instance may moves to 8 different squares from
the center while it has only 2 options when
placed in corners.
The control of the center is also important
because it enables pieces to move rapidly from
one side of the board to other side and if your
pieces move faster than your opponent’s, you
have greater chances to create successful attack.
16. When Trading Pawns, try to get yours close
to the center
If two of your pawns can retake the opponent’s
piece that previously captured one of your pieces, it
is recommended to move the pawn that at the end,
will be closest to the center, since center pawns are
more important than lateral ones.
17. Control the Center Before Attacking
Successful attacks on the wings depend mostly on
center control. Therefore concern yourself with a
strong and stable center before starting any lateral
attack.
