Chess openings for beginners

The opening principles

• Fight for the centre. Start with a centre pawn, such as 1.e4 or 1.d4.
• Develop your pieces. Bring out knights and bishops before you move the same piece twice.
• Castle early. It keeps your king safe and brings a rook into play.
• Do not bring the queen out too soon. It becomes a target and you lose time.
• Connect your rooks. When your minor pieces are out and you have castled, your opening is done.

Good first openings for White

• Italian Game: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4. Quick development and natural plans.
• Queen’s Gambit: 1.d4 d5 2.c4. White offers a pawn to gain the centre.
• London System: 1.d4, then Bf4, e3 and Nf3. The same simple setup against most replies.

Good first openings for Black

• Against 1.e4: answer 1...e5 and develop with ...Nc6 and ...Nf6, following the principles above.
• Against 1.d4: answer 1...d5 and develop your pieces before you start an attack.

Choose one answer to each first move and stay with it for a while, so you start to recognise the positions.

Opening traps to avoid

• Scholar’s Mate: after 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Qh5, do not play 3...Nf6?? because 4.Qxf7 is checkmate. Defend f7 with 3...g6 or 3...Qe7.
• Fool’s Mate: 1.f3 e5 2.g4?? Qh4 is checkmate. Do not weaken the squares around your king early.

If a trap catches you, it is a good moment to stop and look at what happened.

Practise openings with E4

E4 includes opening training. Pair it with daily chess puzzles to practise the tactics that come up right after the opening. If you are just starting out, see our plan for how to learn chess.

What’s free

The Free plan includes one daily puzzle set, five coach messages a month and a plain-language review of every game. Paid plans are not billed yet: everyone starts on the Free plan, and any prices you see are launch estimates.

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