The best chess openings for beginners

How to choose a chess opening

A good opening for a beginner does three things: it brings the pieces out fast, it fights for the center, and it gets the king castled. It should also ask for little memory. You will meet many different moves from your opponents, and an opening you understand beats a line you learned by heart.

Then pick for your style. If you like to attack, choose openings that open the center early. If you like calm games, choose a system you can set up against almost anything. You need three openings, not one: one with White, one against 1.e4 and one against 1.d4, the two first moves you will face most as Black.

The best openings for beginners with White

• The Italian Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4). The bishop aims at f7, you castle fast and open the center with d4 when you are ready. The classic first opening, with clear plans.
• The London System (1.d4, Bf4, e3, Nf3, c3). The same setup against almost anything Black plays. Very little theory, a solid position, and a good choice for blitz.
• The Scotch Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4). You open the center on move three. Open positions and active pieces from the start.
• The Vienna Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nc3). With 3.f4, the Vienna Gambit, you hit e5 at once. For players who want to attack.
• The Queen’s Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4). A strategic opening for players who like plans and do not mind learning lines.

The best answer to 1.e4 for beginners

• 1...e5, then the Two Knights Defense against the Italian (3...Nf6). The most natural reply: you take your share of the center and develop. Know the Fried Liver line: after 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5, play 5...Na5.
• The Caro-Kann Defense (1...c6 and 2...d5). Solid, few weaknesses, good endgames. The bishop on c8 comes out before ...e6.
• The Scandinavian Defense (1...d5). You challenge e4 on move one and get the same simple structure nearly every game.
• The French Defense (1...e6 and 2...d5). A solid pawn chain and counterplay with ...c5, for patient players.

The best answer to 1.d4 for beginners

• The Queen’s Gambit Declined (1...d5 2.c4 e6). Keep the pawn on d5 and develop: ...Nf6, ...Be7, castle. The most classical defense, and very hard to break.
• The Slav Defense (1...d5 2.c4 c6). As solid, and the bishop on c8 stays free to come out to f5 or g4.
• The King’s Indian Defense (1...Nf6, ...g6, ...Bg7, ...d6). You let White take the center, then strike back with ...e5 and attack on the kingside. Sharper, with more to learn.

Openings beginners should avoid

Some openings are not bad, they are just bad for learning. The Najdorf Sicilian and the Grünfeld ask for long, precise lines, and a beginner who forgets one move is often lost. Early queen attacks like 2.Qh5 win quick games against players who do not know them, but a defender who knows ...g6 and ...Nf6 chases your queen around while developing, and you learn the wrong habits. Start with an opening whose ideas you understand, and go deeper once you know why each move is played.

Should you change your opening?

Not after a few bad games. Every opening loses games, and most losses at club level come from tactics in the middlegame, not from the opening. Change when the same thing keeps happening: you are worse after 15 moves in most games with the same opening, you do not know what to do once the opening is over, or you never get the kind of position you enjoy.

Before you change, look at your real numbers: your score with each opening, and the moves where your games go wrong. Chess X-Ray reads your recent chess.com or Lichess games and finds the opening positions where you keep playing the same losing move, for free. Often a single move to fix is enough, and you keep an opening you already know.

If you do switch, change one side at a time. Learn the first five moves and the main idea, play it in rapid games rather than bullet, and review every game you lose in it.

How to learn a new opening

1. Learn the first five moves and, more than the moves, the idea behind them.
2. Learn the one trap everybody falls into, for both sides. Each card of the tarot shows it when you turn it over.
3. Watch one short video, then one longer one, and play ten games with it.
4. Review your losses and find the move where the game turned. That is the next thing to learn.

Frequently asked questions