Opening principles - material

Hi !

in last week's lesson, we focused on how to deal with space in the opening, mostly how to control the center and support it with the Knights.

Today, we are going to look at the material, how to use your pieces in the best possible way during the opening ?

 This lesson can be found in its interactive format in the Chess Trainer app for free.

 After controling the center, the next question arising in the opening is how to develop your pieces harmoniously. This is the topic of this post.
We will see which pieces should be developed and how they should be moved with a few examples. Let's go !
One of the most important primciples of the opening is to try to develop your pieces so that they threaten something or make it difficult for your opponent to develop.

The answer is Nf3 of course:

Generally, try to develop the Knights before the Bishops ( it is generally easier to see where your Knights should go as they have less choice of good squares than Bishops).

Another important principle: do not move a piece to a square that can easily be attacked by your opponent and consequently drive your piece to another square.

After e5, the Bishop has to move away from the d6 square to another square that could have been the original destination.

 

The last advice on moving your pieces is to put your Rooks on open files.

To summarize these principles:
- Develop your pieces so that they threaten something
- Develop Knights before Bishops
- Do not move your piece to a aquare which can be attacked
- Put your Rooks on open files

In the next lesson, we will see how to deal with time in the opening.
Time for training now ! Why not downloading Chess Trainer to try a few tactical puzzles ?

Get the latest Chess Trainer news in your inbox

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name