Chess enthusiasts still debate
the merit of learning opening moves early in a player's chess career. While
many agree that learning openings shouldn't necessarily be the priority of
beginners and even those in more advanced club levels, they still recognize the
need for picking up a few opening moves and making them your own. Learning
specific variations and lines will take up much of your study time, which is
why it is important to select a program that focuses on the very things that
you need at the moment, while injecting other principles that might be useful
in the future, such as opening moves, endgames, tactics, and strategies.
Players would typically memorize
chunks of opening theory, but if you have limited study time, taking a more practical
approach to learning your chess openings should be in order. Some of the
most widely used chess openings you will likely encounter in your chess career
are as follows:
- The Ruy Lopez or Spanish opening is one of the oldest openings in the book, named after the 16th century Spanish clergyman and chess enthusiast who made a systematic study of this particular opening, even though the opening was known well before his time (it was listed in the 1490 Gottengen manuscript). The opening's potential wasn't developed until the 1800s when Russian theoretician, Jaenisch rediscovered it’s potential. This opening creates a potential pin for the D-pawn or the knight so that you can start an attack at once while preparing to castle.
- The Giuoco Piano opening, otherwise known as the "quiet game" is where white performs a mild attack using his bishop. When this opening is left without an appropriate follow-up, black can easily even up the game with a strong defense in this admittedly passive play. Nevertheless, it has great potential if used properly.
