Soon after you dip your toe into the fascinating waters of chess, you begin hearing or reading about “openings.” It can feel like every other chess course for sale online and every other YouTube lesson is about one opening or another. They have fascinating names, like the Queen’s Gambit (the King has one as well), the Ruy Lopez, the Sicilian Defense, the Caro-Kann Defense, and on and on. Curiosity about these names is one way that chess begins to hook you. Fortunately, you can learn about their origins and more in two books by Nathan Rose.
Wikipedia will tell you that the opening refers to the “initial stage of a chess game” and “usually consists of established theory.” Theory? That’s a bit scary-sounding for the beginner. Hopefully you will go from there to a sensible book or chess teacher. Either will set you straight on the subject of openings right away. A good teacher will say that despite the mountains of material on the subject out there, beginners should not spend much of their precious chess study time memorizing openings, which usually involve multiple “lines” (that is, if your opponent does X in response to an opening move, you should do Y, but if she does this, you should do that, ad infinitum).
My teacher, Amanda Ross, handles the issue of openings with her beginning students as follows, and it worked well for me. She teaches you the principles of opening, which are to activate your pieces (moving knights before bishops) with an eye toward controlling the center of the board; not to move any piece twice (unless there is a pressing need to do so); not to move the Queen out too far too early; and to get your king to safety. Following these principles often results in an opening called the Italian Game, or Giuoco Piano, but the important thing for beginners is that you approach it by learning the principles behind it rather than memorizing the abstract notation (e4 e5, Nf3 Nc6, Bc4). As a beginner, I was greatly relieved to be able to sit down at the board, know what my first few moves were and why, and be able to execute them rapidly. Alas, now I feel anxiety at the beginning of the middle game instead. That’s chess for you.
Amanda urged me to stick with this opening until she let me know that it was time for me to choose my own opening from a range suitable for beginners. My own opening! That sounded so grown-up and accomplished. Until this time I had watched with envy as one of my classmates opened games using something called “the London system.” As an American in the Midwest whose teacher and online classmates were (mostly) in London, accents and all, the “London” moniker made it seem fated, and that it was called a “system” gave it a certain mystique and the sound of chess mastery. Decision made. Little did I know, however, that playing the London system can subject one to annoying comments out in internet chess land. Some call it “boring.” But it’s perfect for beginners because it has a smaller body of theory than many other openings, and it can be played against any black defense. I’m not bored by it, and I will let my teacher decide when it is time to expand my opening repertoire.