Opening repertoire for A Beginner

OK, TACTICS is the first step toward playing decent chess but PLAYING CHESS is of course important. The Gurus tend to stress that Opening studies is for experts.

Still, the Beginner would like to have a fair start when playing chess i.e. reasonable first moves that lead to a decent middlegame.

So, as long as you stick to intuitive opening moves, is there much of a difference? Suppose the Beginner uses some pretty simple guidelines such as:

"Use your pawns to grab some space in the middle"
"Protect your pieces"
"Develope your pieces"

How much difference does it make? +/-0.25??


[i]I am looking for some comforting taps on my shoulder: "Yeah, just play. You're OK." I have used databases a lot in my games and that has been a success story.[i]

The purpose of the opening is to get yourself to a playable middlegame - so whatever moves make you feel comfortable (and hopefully, don't violate the general opening principles) will be fine. It's hard to put a numeric value on what you're "losing" by not playing book lines and instead going on general principles alone. In general it'll be very little, but at some points you will fall into known traps that leave you much worse.

But for a beginner, just playing the opening on principles is fine. Focus on more important things - like you said, tactics (namely not dropping pieces and making counting errors to start with).

Edit: Looking at your games, you're not a beginner in the sense I was thinking, so kindly disregard my comments, for the most part. 🙂

Originally posted by sydsad
OK, [b]TACTICS is the first step toward playing decent chess but PLAYING CHESS is of course important. The Gurus tend to stress that Opening studies is for experts.

Still, the Beginner would like to have a fair start when playing chess i.e. reasonable first moves that lead to a decent middlegame.

So, as long as you stick to intuitive opening ...[text shortened]... u're OK." I have used databases a lot in my games and that has been a success story.[i][/b]

"Knights before bishops"
"Don't drop pieces"
"Castle early"
"Don't expose your King"

There's quite a few maxims, but making it up as you go will only get you an advantage against other beginners. Beginners here don't need to study openings yet, just use databases and get an idea for the principles. Then just play.

GM Amir Bagheri said he learned the Colle and Bird as a young player and he especially liked the Colle because it enabled him to get through the opening without falling into trouble in unfamiliar territory and opponent’s often played into inferior end games. He still plays them on occasion today.

Originally posted by masscat
GM Amir Bagheri said he learned the Colle and Bird as a young player and he especially liked the Colle because it enabled him to get through the opening without falling into trouble in unfamiliar territory and opponent’s often played into inferior end games. He still plays them on occasion today.

Most opening "experts" disparage the Colle on the grounds that it is too passive and that Black can quickly equalize.
While "objectively" (whatever that means) Black can probably equalize if he knows his stuff, it is still a good opening for White because it leads to familiar positions. If you understand the position and your opponent doesn't, then even if Fritz 9 says the position is "equal", then as White you really have an advantage.
BTW, GM Susan Polgar sometimes plays the Colle and has a DVD about that opening.

If a beginner is going to spend time learning opening theory, then I would suggest they focus on learning the most common traps to avoid falling into any. There are some really trick variations in the first 10 moves that can definitely lead to huge material loss or even checkmate. Once you understand what not to do, everything else should be a little easier to graps IMO.

Originally posted by 93confirmed
If a beginner is going to spend time learning opening theory, then I would suggest they focus on learning the most common traps to avoid falling into any. There are some really trick variations in the first 10 moves that can definitely lead to huge material loss or even checkmate. Once you understand what not to do, everything else should be a little easier to graps IMO.

Good advice! There is a new book out called "Encyclopedia of Opening Blunders." I don't remember the author(s).