HT Games
Things You'll Need
Instructions
With the White Pieces:
The first thing on the agenda is to decide whether you want to control the center with pawns or pieces. If you are newer to the game of chess and would like to try a classic approach, I highly recommend e4, which is the King’s pawn pushed 2 squares, or d4, which is the Queen’s pawn pushed two squares. This stakes your claim on the center squares immediately, and Black will spend some time figuring out how to undermine it. In both e4 and d4 openings, it is very easy to develop your army quickly, and usually with an edge!
If you have a bit of experience with chess and find that sharper games where things can get very tactical and very messy is more your style, you may want to give one of the Hypermodern openings a try. Popular in the 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1950’s, these openings aim at controlling the center squares with pieces instead of pawns; this style sort of dares the other side to overextend themselves while trying to maintain their own center. Moves like 1. Nf3 followed by 2. b3 after any black move, with a plan to play your black bishop to the b2 square and control the long diagonal can lead to HIGHLY sharp and brutal attacks. I recommend openings like this to players with more experience, however. They can get very complicated, and one wrong step could lose the whole game very early.
With the black Pieces:
As with the white pieces, you have the choice of playing classic or Hypermodern styles. A classical and popular reply to 1. e4 for beginners is 1.e5. This move not only stakes some claim in the center, but also frees up your Queen and Bishop early, which can lead to quicker development and swift attacks. The most popular reply to 1.e4 is 1.c5, The Sicilian Defense. While this move is extremely solid and sound, there is tons of theory to learn, and many different variations possible, making it one of the more complicated openings of chess. As with 1.e4, 1.e5, playing 1.d5 against 1.d4 is a safe way for beginners to lay claim to the center, with a smaller risk of horribly misplaying and losing the game early, as opposed to some of the hypermodern openings. If you are met with first moves other than e4 or d4, however, it’s easy to feel lost and not know what to do. If you see such openings from White as 1.Nf3, 1.c4 or 1. b4 for instance, keep with the theme of trying hard to get pawns in the center. Meeting odd openings with 1.d5 or 1.e5 is many times still the best reply, and will force white to either attack your center or attack on the sides of the board, and thus you may enter lines you recognize from classic e4 or d4 openings. Always remember those center pawns.
For more advanced players looking to play a sharp Hypermodern style without claiming the center with pawns, opening moves like 1.Nf6 will often cause the game to go in odd directions where a good tactical eye could win the whole pot. 1.Nf6 works well against either of the classical openings, e4 and d4. Against 1. e4 it is known as Alekhine’s Defense, and may result in an exciting, mixed up game where pieces and pawns are all over the place. The idea is to entice White to overextend his center by chasing the Knight around for a while. If you play 1… Nf6 against 1.d4, you can either play the Nimzo-Indian positions with e6 and d5 after white plays the mainline c4, or you can push g6 and place your black Bishop on g7, going into KID, or King’s Indian Defense lines. Playing 1.Nf6 against d4 can always be helpful because it prevents the immediate e4 by white, and therefore gives black time to get castled and safely developed.