Answers.Body: <blockquote>
  <p>I'm ~600 rated on chess.com and many times I feel like I'm making mistakes/un-ideal moves in the openings that leads to my opponent having more opportunities for attacks, more mobility for their pieces, and more center control.</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>The thing is, you're probably doing this <em>during the whole game</em>, not just in the opening.</p>
  <p>Yes, you can prevent it in the opening by memorizing moves, but that only works as long as the opponent has memorized them too, and inevitably a few moves in you'll be on your own again.</p>
  <p>It's better to work on this in a way that works in the whole game.</p>
  <p>You already know what to do -- control the center, use all your pieces, make them as mobile as possible, prevent the opponent doing the same. So do that, and after each game, see how it went and how you could have done better.</p>
  <p>I like the osmosis method -- play through <em>lots</em> of games to get a feel for the game. There are lots of ways, not everyone likes the same -- get game collection books and play through all the games, or just download the latest TWIC PGN file and quickly click through lots of games in it, or watch Youtube videos or whatever. Whenever you notice something interesting, slow down and try to work out what's happening.</p>
  
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Answers.UserDisplayName: RemcoGerlich
Answers.Body: <p>As a beginner, you certainly <strong>do not</strong> need to <strong>learn opening theory</strong>.
  On one hand, you will not be able to profit from subtle strategical nuances in the position. On the other hand, your opponents are extremely unlikely to know any theory at all at this level and will play moves that you haven't studied, thus rendering all your efforts useless.
  The time you would spend on learning opening theory would take away precious study time from learning the fundamental concepts and tactics that you need to get better quickly.</p>
  <p>At the beginner level, the opening is not what decides the outcome of a game.
  What you <strong>must know</strong> are the <strong>opening principles</strong>, i.e. that you should strive to <strong>control the center</strong>, <strong>quickly develop your pieces</strong> and <strong>castle your king</strong> and what these concepts imply.
  For example, you should not make too many pawn moves or move already developed pieces twice, as this delays the development of your undeveloped pieces. Good opening moves (i.e. those that do as much w.r.t. these principles as possible) are usually theory moves.</p>
  <p>Every beginner's first opening should be 1. e4 e5:</p>
  <ul>
  <li>The open games are the most logical openings of all, and this is the reason for them also being the oldest. Both sides get central control and open diagonals for their bishops so that they can develop and make way for the king to castle quickly.</li>
  <li>Play is often tactical. Tactics are crucial for beginners to learn and easier to grasp than subtle strategical play (e.g. that often emerges in d4 openings).</li>
  <li>There are almost no move-order and transposition issues. The way you choose to play against e5 does not influence what you can play against the Sicilian (1. ..c5). This is very different from d4/c4/Nf3/g3 openings.</li>
  </ul>
  <p>In the very beginning, you don't need to learn the theory. Put a pawn in the center (e4/e5), get the minor pieces out, and castle.
  If you're Black and and White opens with anything but 1. e4 or 1. c4 (when you play e5), put your d-pawn in the center (1. ..d5).</p>
  <p>If you follow the opening principles, it will be easier for you to play. You will make less mistakes, as you'll have a strategically sound position and can react to the opponents ideas.
  Be aware that already in the opening you have to perform the blunder check in order to avoid mistakes, i.e. checking you did not hang any pieces or pawns and that your opponent has no meaningful threats after you make your move.
  The blunder check alone will easily get you from 600 to over 1000 Elo.</p>
  
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Answers.Body: <p>You should have a plan of development. This should be specific but flexible. It may be a pattern that you have seen in books (this is a Queens Gambit Declined-my QB usually goes to g5) but, especially if your opponent does not play by the book, you may need to make it up. In well-planned development each piece stands on a good square and has at least one other good square to go to. It does not stand on a square where a different piece would be more useful. You have no weak Pawns, but you will need to gain an understanding of why Pawns are weak. Has the Pawn position become stabilised? If not, what changes would you like to see? Does this move commit you to some future play and if so do you feel comfortable with that? Can you see areas of the board where you might be aggressive? Which
  pieces would you like to trade?</p>
  <p>You write of experiencing confusion because &quot;many erroneous moves feel natural&quot; and this is because you still have to develop an accurate sense of what is &quot;natural&quot;. The questions above are ones that will help. Mathematically, the number of possible moves may be twenty or so, but the number of natural moves may be very small. Your opponent will try to prevent them, but there may be a tactical reason why they can still be played.</p>
  <p>At your level, your opponents will often play unnatural moves. Sometimes this is just leaving a piece to be captured. Sometimes they are not following any good plan, and sometimes they are following a bad plan. When this happens, beginner books often show the unnatural move being &quot;punished&quot; by some decisive refutation. You should always look for such a move, at least briefly, but it may well not be there. Ignoring it and keeping to your own good plans is often the best response.</p>
  <p>Just overlooking a threat is a very common cause of loss, as others have noted. Care and attention will fix this, but then you may still fall to a double threat. Your opponent plays a move that attacks two pieces at the same time. Although you see both threats, you cannot prevent both.
  We speak of undefended pieces as &quot;loose&quot; because they are vulnerable to being one half of a double threat. At all stages of the game you need to be cautious about leaving pieces loose.</p>
  <p>I think that you are going through a very typical stage of normal chess develoment. If you can, play against live opponents and discuss your games with them. If you posted one or two, it might help us to zero in on your problems</p>
  
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Answers.UserDisplayName: Philip Roe
Answers.Body: <p>After many in depth recommandations, I want to recommand to you to not look at openings, but at miniatures.</p>
  <p>The youtube channel by Mato Jelic has a nice series about these type of games.
  The older videos are very short. About 3 minutes, and always have a general theme.</p>
  <p>So you can follow many games in a short time, get an idea of how openings play out and how to attack or spot tactics. Also you learn what might go wrong.</p>
  <p>I think I benefited a big deal of these types of videos.
  Also I can recommand chess lectures by Ben Finegold. He is funny, and also uploads videos which are suitable for beginners.</p>
  
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Answers.UserDisplayName: Cornman
Answers.Body: <p>As a beginner, you need to learn and study openings. At higher levels like advanced player, opening has no value cause all initial moves are basic book moves and no opening is bad enough to lose (of course except Fool's mate) because chess is most likely a draw (which would be proved in future).
  Best is to use YouTube to learn few openings and then keep playing them and and you will get the rhythm and then improvement will be only further requirement.
  All the best!</p>
  
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Answers.UserDisplayName: Sparsh Sharma
Answers.Body: <p>My suggestion for new or lower rated players follows from advice from GM <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Finegold" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Benjamin Finegold</a>:  &quot;<em>Stop giving away your pieces</em>.&quot;</p>
  <p>Learning openings is fine, but at lower levels games are usually decided by who made the last serious blunder or who made more of them. So, learn openings if you're excited by them. <a href="https://chess.stackexchange.com/questions/40077/should-i-learn-openings-as-a-beginner/40079#comment64910_40079">Reviewing opening principles such as quick development, central control, castling</a>, etc., are probably more much important than specific lines at this point.</p>
  <p><strong>Concept:</strong> To improve, make fewer mistakes. Don't hang your pieces. Make sure you always take free pieces when your opponent gives a piece away. Don't blunder and allow simple tactics. Always spot and capitalize on tactics your opponent allows.</p>
  <p><strong>Practical Tips:</strong>
  I suggest drilling basic tactics to oblivion to increase your board vision, along with analyzing your own games without an engine (w/ stronger player, or use engine after you've made your own attempt first). Play lots of games. Find one mistake in each game to consider where you went wrong and fix that.</p>
  <p>The general consensus from my research into this question is that it is better for lower rated players to drill easier tactics to perfection than spending to much time on tactics/puzzles that take you more than ~5 minutes to figure out. Beyond that is still valuable, and will improve your calculation, but it isn't as efficient for improvement.</p>
  <p>Consider working through</p>
  <ul>
  <li><a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Everyone-s-First-Chess-Workbook-Fundamental-Tactics-and-Checkmates-for-Improvers-738-Practical-Exercises-Paperback-9789056919887/249260230" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Everyone's First Chess Workbook</a>. Dramatically increase your tactical vision.</li>
  <li>Steps 1–2 from the <a href="https://chess.stackexchange.com/a/39879/26335">Chess Steps</a> method (including the Plus, Extra, and Mix).  All about the basics and board vision.</li>
  </ul>
  <p>The Perpetual Chess Podcast has some additional <a href="https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/book-recommendations" rel="nofollow noreferrer">recommendations</a> for those under 1000 rating.</p>
  
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Answers.Text: `Find one mistake in each game to consider where you went wrong and fix that.` Great advice, finding 5 or so mistakes in every game seems like too much to take in and work on. Thanks.
Answers.UserDisplayName: AVS
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Answers.Text: @AVS That's the idea. If you can handle 2, find 2, etc.  But starting with 1 is accessible.  I often find a position where I went wrong and try to determine what was it I didn't understand or see that led me astray.
Answers.UserDisplayName: SecretAgentMan
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Answers.Text: This is good advice. Regarding the opening, I'd add that it will be useful to learn and understand the opening principles (quick development, central control, castling).
Answers.UserDisplayName: Hauptideal
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Answers.Text: @Hauptideal Agreed re: principles. Updated to answer to include that nuance.
Answers.UserDisplayName: SecretAgentMan
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Answers.CreationDate: 2022-07-03T00:35:14.800Z
Answers.Text: More concrete than Finegold's advice: always look out for "Checks, Captures, Attacks!" (credit GothamChess)
Answers.UserDisplayName: qwr
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Answers.Text: That first link doesn't work for me (https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/9056919881) - possible because I have a pi.hole on my network?
Answers.UserDisplayName: David Waterworth
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Answers.Text: @DavidWaterworth should be fixed now, though original link works fine too.  A search engine will work otherwise.
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Body: <p>I'm very new to regularly playing chess while actively trying to improve (only ever played here and there casually before).</p>
  <p>I'm ~600 rated on chess.com and many times I feel like I'm making mistakes/un-ideal moves in the openings that leads to my opponent having more opportunities for attacks, more mobility for their pieces, and more center control.</p>
  <p>It's hard to see where I'm making mistakes in the opening, since to a beginner like me, many (erroneous) opening moves seem natural, and analyzing doesn't seem to help because the engine moves and lines are too complicated for me to really learn from. The issue with memorizing openings and their variations is that at this level, there is a lot of variance in the responses from opponents that I haven't prepared for.</p>
  <p>Should I spend time memorizing some openings anyway?</p>
  <p>If yes, what is the ideal way to learn an opening? Is it a good idea to only play games as white when trying to learn a white-pieces opening?</p>
  
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Comments.Text: I always look at the masters database after every game. Normally the masters moves seem more intuitive to me than the engines, and I find myself slowing remembering them in future games without dedicating time to memorize them.
Comments.UserDisplayName: yesennes
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Comments.Text: Do not look at openings, but opening traps, so you do not fall for them, or can use them yourself. The first thing to learn in chess is what chess really is. Many beginners think like this: When I do this, my opponent does this. But in reality you have to always assume that when you know something, your opponent knows the same as you. So you do not play against your opponent, but actually yourself, always trying to find the "most unlikely move" to bring you in a bad position. The first thing to learn is to focus on the game, keeping track about the moves, and do not make serious blunders.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Cornman
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Comments.Text: This is achieved at a rating of 1400-1600 I would say. After that you can benefit from learning openings. Also do not play bliz chess at the beginning. A time controll of 15 minutes is best, I would say.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Cornman
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Comments.CreationDate: 2022-07-05T07:05:40.390Z
Comments.Text: My general advice, considering starting part of the game, is to learn mostly opening principles instead of openings themselves. At this stage it is better to look at the chess game as whole, rather than diving in specific opening, that later could become out of fasion or not represent your interests.
Comments.UserDisplayName: TaskerBliss
Tags: <opening><learning>
Title: Should I learn openings as a beginner?
ThreadText: # Should I learn openings as a beginner?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2022-06-30)
  
  I'm very new to regularly playing chess while actively trying to improve (only ever played here and there casually before).
  
  I'm ~600 rated on chess.com and many times I feel like I'm making mistakes/un-ideal moves in the openings that leads to my opponent having more opportunities for attacks, more mobility for their pieces, and more center control.
  
  It's hard to see where I'm making mistakes in the opening, since to a beginner like me, many (erroneous) opening moves seem natural, and analyzing doesn't seem to help because the engine moves and lines are too complicated for me to really learn from. The issue with memorizing openings and their variations is that at this level, there is a lot of variance in the responses from opponents that I haven't prepared for.
  
  Should I spend time memorizing some openings anyway?
  
  If yes, what is the ideal way to learn an opening? Is it a good idea to only play games as white when trying to learn a white-pieces opening?
  
  **Tags:** opening, learning
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: I always look at the masters database after every game. Normally the masters moves seem more intuitive to me than the engines, and I find myself slowing remembering them in future games without dedicating time to memorize them.  
  > **username_2**: Do not look at openings, but opening traps, so you do not fall for them, or can use them yourself. The first thing to learn in chess is what chess really is. Many beginners think like this: When I do this, my opponent does this. But in reality you have to always assume that when you know something, your opponent knows the same as you. So you do not play against your opponent, but actually yourself, always trying to find the "most unlikely move" to bring you in a bad position. The first thing to learn is to focus on the game, keeping track about the moves, and do not make serious blunders.  
  > **username_2**: This is achieved at a rating of 1400-1600 I would say. After that you can benefit from learning openings. Also do not play bliz chess at the beginning. A time controll of 15 minutes is best, I would say.  
  > **username_3**: My general advice, considering starting part of the game, is to learn mostly opening principles instead of openings themselves. At this stage it is better to look at the chess game as whole, rather than diving in specific opening, that later could become out of fasion or not represent your interests.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 6 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_8 on 2022-06-30. Score: 23 | Accepted answer
  
  My suggestion for new or lower rated players follows from advice from GM [Benjamin Finegold](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Finegold): "*Stop giving away your pieces*."
  
  Learning openings is fine, but at lower levels games are usually decided by who made the last serious blunder or who made more of them. So, learn openings if you're excited by them. [Reviewing opening principles such as quick development, central control, castling](https://chess.stackexchange.com/questions/40077/should-i-learn-openings-as-a-beginner/40079#comment64910_40079), etc., are probably more much important than specific lines at this point.
  
  **Concept:** To improve, make fewer mistakes. Don't hang your pieces. Make sure you always take free pieces when your opponent gives a piece away. Don't blunder and allow simple tactics. Always spot and capitalize on tactics your opponent allows.
  
  **Practical Tips:**
  I suggest drilling basic tactics to oblivion to increase your board vision, along with analyzing your own games without an engine (w/ stronger player, or use engine after you've made your own attempt first). Play lots of games. Find one mistake in each game to consider where you went wrong and fix that.
  
  The general consensus from my research into this question is that it is better for lower rated players to drill easier tactics to perfection than spending to much time on tactics/puzzles that take you more than ~5 minutes to figure out. Beyond that is still valuable, and will improve your calculation, but it isn't as efficient for improvement.
  
  Consider working through
  
  * [Everyone's First Chess Workbook](https://www.walmart.com/ip/Everyone-s-First-Chess-Workbook-Fundamental-Tactics-and-Checkmates-for-Improvers-738-Practical-Exercises-Paperback-9789056919887/249260230). Dramatically increase your tactical vision.
  * Steps 1–2 from the [Chess Steps](https://chess.stackexchange.com/a/39879/26335) method (including the Plus, Extra, and Mix). All about the basics and board vision.
  
  The Perpetual Chess Podcast has some additional [recommendations](https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/book-recommendations) for those under 1000 rating.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: `Find one mistake in each game to consider where you went wrong and fix that.` Great advice, finding 5 or so mistakes in every game seems like too much to take in and work on. Thanks.  
  > **username_8**: @username_0 That's the idea. If you can handle 2, find 2, etc.  But starting with 1 is accessible.  I often find a position where I went wrong and try to determine what was it I didn't understand or see that led me astray.  
  > **username_5**: This is good advice. Regarding the opening, I'd add that it will be useful to learn and understand the opening principles (quick development, central control, castling).  
  > **username_8**: @username_5 Agreed re: principles. Updated to answer to include that nuance.  
  > **username_9**: More concrete than Finegold's advice: always look out for "Checks, Captures, Attacks!" (credit GothamChess)  
  > **username_10**: That first link doesn't work for me (https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/9056919881) - possible because I have a pi.hole on my network?  
  > **username_8**: @DavidWaterworth should be fixed now, though original link works fine too.  A search engine will work otherwise.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_4 on 2022-06-30. Score: 11
  
  > I'm ~600 rated on chess.com and many times I feel like I'm making mistakes/un-ideal moves in the openings that leads to my opponent having more opportunities for attacks, more mobility for their pieces, and more center control.
  
  The thing is, you're probably doing this *during the whole game*, not just in the opening.
  
  Yes, you can prevent it in the opening by memorizing moves, but that only works as long as the opponent has memorized them too, and inevitably a few moves in you'll be on your own again.
  
  It's better to work on this in a way that works in the whole game.
  
  You already know what to do -- control the center, use all your pieces, make them as mobile as possible, prevent the opponent doing the same. So do that, and after each game, see how it went and how you could have done better.
  
  I like the osmosis method -- play through *lots* of games to get a feel for the game. There are lots of ways, not everyone likes the same -- get game collection books and play through all the games, or just download the latest TWIC PGN file and quickly click through lots of games in it, or watch Youtube videos or whatever. Whenever you notice something interesting, slow down and try to work out what's happening.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_5 on 2022-07-01. Score: 6
  
  As a beginner, you certainly **do not** need to **learn opening theory**.
  On one hand, you will not be able to profit from subtle strategical nuances in the position. On the other hand, your opponents are extremely unlikely to know any theory at all at this level and will play moves that you haven't studied, thus rendering all your efforts useless.
  The time you would spend on learning opening theory would take away precious study time from learning the fundamental concepts and tactics that you need to get better quickly.
  
  At the beginner level, the opening is not what decides the outcome of a game.
  What you **must know** are the **opening principles**, i.e. that you should strive to **control the center**, **quickly develop your pieces** and **castle your king** and what these concepts imply.
  For example, you should not make too many pawn moves or move already developed pieces twice, as this delays the development of your undeveloped pieces. Good opening moves (i.e. those that do as much w.r.t. these principles as possible) are usually theory moves.
  
  Every beginner's first opening should be 1. e4 e5:
  
  * The open games are the most logical openings of all, and this is the reason for them also being the oldest. Both sides get central control and open diagonals for their bishops so that they can develop and make way for the king to castle quickly.
  * Play is often tactical. Tactics are crucial for beginners to learn and easier to grasp than subtle strategical play (e.g. that often emerges in d4 openings).
  * There are almost no move-order and transposition issues. The way you choose to play against e5 does not influence what you can play against the Sicilian (1. ..c5). This is very different from d4/c4/Nf3/g3 openings.
  
  In the very beginning, you don't need to learn the theory. Put a pawn in the center (e4/e5), get the minor pieces out, and castle.
  If you're Black and and White opens with anything but 1. e4 or 1. c4 (when you play e5), put your d-pawn in the center (1. ..d5).
  
  If you follow the opening principles, it will be easier for you to play. You will make less mistakes, as you'll have a strategically sound position and can react to the opponents ideas.
  Be aware that already in the opening you have to perform the blunder check in order to avoid mistakes, i.e. checking you did not hang any pieces or pawns and that your opponent has no meaningful threats after you make your move.
  The blunder check alone will easily get you from 600 to over 1000 Elo.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_6 on 2022-07-01. Score: 4
  
  You should have a plan of development. This should be specific but flexible. It may be a pattern that you have seen in books (this is a Queens Gambit Declined-my QB usually goes to g5) but, especially if your opponent does not play by the book, you may need to make it up. In well-planned development each piece stands on a good square and has at least one other good square to go to. It does not stand on a square where a different piece would be more useful. You have no weak Pawns, but you will need to gain an understanding of why Pawns are weak. Has the Pawn position become stabilised? If not, what changes would you like to see? Does this move commit you to some future play and if so do you feel comfortable with that? Can you see areas of the board where you might be aggressive? Which
  pieces would you like to trade?
  
  You write of experiencing confusion because "many erroneous moves feel natural" and this is because you still have to develop an accurate sense of what is "natural". The questions above are ones that will help. Mathematically, the number of possible moves may be twenty or so, but the number of natural moves may be very small. Your opponent will try to prevent them, but there may be a tactical reason why they can still be played.
  
  At your level, your opponents will often play unnatural moves. Sometimes this is just leaving a piece to be captured. Sometimes they are not following any good plan, and sometimes they are following a bad plan. When this happens, beginner books often show the unnatural move being "punished" by some decisive refutation. You should always look for such a move, at least briefly, but it may well not be there. Ignoring it and keeping to your own good plans is often the best response.
  
  Just overlooking a threat is a very common cause of loss, as others have noted. Care and attention will fix this, but then you may still fall to a double threat. Your opponent plays a move that attacks two pieces at the same time. Although you see both threats, you cannot prevent both.
  We speak of undefended pieces as "loose" because they are vulnerable to being one half of a double threat. At all stages of the game you need to be cautious about leaving pieces loose.
  
  I think that you are going through a very typical stage of normal chess develoment. If you can, play against live opponents and discuss your games with them. If you posted one or two, it might help us to zero in on your problems
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2022-07-12. Score: 0
  
  After many in depth recommandations, I want to recommand to you to not look at openings, but at miniatures.
  
  The youtube channel by Mato Jelic has a nice series about these type of games.
  The older videos are very short. About 3 minutes, and always have a general theme.
  
  So you can follow many games in a short time, get an idea of how openings play out and how to attack or spot tactics. Also you learn what might go wrong.
  
  I think I benefited a big deal of these types of videos.
  Also I can recommand chess lectures by Ben Finegold. He is funny, and also uploads videos which are suitable for beginners.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_7 on 2022-07-13. Score: 0
  
  As a beginner, you need to learn and study openings. At higher levels like advanced player, opening has no value cause all initial moves are basic book moves and no opening is bad enough to lose (of course except Fool's mate) because chess is most likely a draw (which would be proved in future).
  Best is to use YouTube to learn few openings and then keep playing them and and you will get the rhythm and then improvement will be only further requirement.
  All the best!
  
  
  ---
  
  