Menu

The Purpose of the Opening

Other articles

Written by: anonymusrobot   For: Beginner

Chess masters say that the game of chess is divided into three sections:
1.The Opening
2. The Middlegame
3. The Endgame
Chess is a war game, and even the stages of the game are very similar to war.
In the first stage of war, what happens? Troops arrive to various sectors and prepare for
battle.
In the second, the troops raise their guns and fire at the enemy army.
In the third, most of the lives have already been lost, cities have been won, and this
third stage is the realization of those advantages.
In chess, it's much the same.
In the middlegame, both sides carry out various plans and capture many of the
opponent's pieces and sometimes even checkmate the opponent's king.
In the endgame, most pi[e]cees will have been exchanged, and you will often have some
kind of advantage (or disadvantage). For instance, in this position, white has an extra
rook:

But what about the opening? The purpose of the opening is to get your troops (pieces) into the game. Not that pieces mean knights, bishops, rooks, or queens, and not pawns.
This principle is called "The principle of development". We must develop our forces to
good squares.
In the next example,both sides have the right idea, but they go about it in the wrong
way:

Although they have carried out part of the development of the pieces (rooks, knights,
and bishops), they have done it in a disorganized fashion. The pieces have no future on
those squares! For instance, look at white's knight on h3--this piece has no squares to
go to!
This is like in war: Your opponent is firing on your country, and you send all of your
troops to the North Pole to fight the battle there!
You must attain maximum activity for your pieces. Because of that, chess masters have
developed two rules of the opening:
  1. Develop your pieces to good squares
We have already covered that, but take a close look at the next one:
  2. Control the center with your pieces and pawns.
I consider this the most important rule of the opening! Just compare the following two
diagrams:

In the first example, the white knight was on the horrible square a1, where it controlled
a total of 2 squares. In the second example, the white knight was on the excellent
square e4, where it controlled a total of 8 squares.
When in the center, your pieces control more squares then they do on the sides of
the board.I'm sorry, but I've forgotten to explain where the center is! The center is the four
squares d4, e4, d5, and e5.
Control those four squares and you are guaranteed a good opening. Here is an example
of how Grandmaster Opening where both sides control the center squares:

As we can see, both sides have developed their pieces to good squares, and will
continue their development with something like Qe2 and Rad1.
Both sides played excellent opening moves, and the guns are drawn to start the fight in
the middlegame.
To summarize: Develop your pieces to active squares where they control the center.I wish you good, interesting chess games and hope that you will no longer be clueless
about what to do in the first stage of this complex game!