Submitted by: PDiA16hR Pedia

I’m going to discuss with you today regarding the three principles to opening strategy. When we receive for the game we’re always like, what can we do? There are a lot of pieces. Im not sure how to begin.” Well let me offer you the three steps that will help you to create a strong and confident opening.

The very first thing we will need to understand is these four center squares. They are considered an excellent square because this is the location where the core of the board is, the control center. For example, if I have my knight in the center of the board, my knight can control up to eight different squares, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. We are able to observe that this is the very strong place for my knight. If I have my knight on the side of the board it can only control up to four squares, 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Therefore, my knight is stronger in the center whereas most pieces are stronger in the center of the board. So at the start of the game you need to think about the center control. First thing we can try to do is get our pawns in the center. Very important to try and get our pawns to control the center. The next important step that we need to give attention to is piece development.

Now I like to think about my pieces since they are working for me. I need to give my pieces a job. If they are sitting back here they are not happy and they are not doing anything. So my next step is to bring my pieces out and have them working for me. Usually we bring out the knights before the bishops. So I can bring my knight to F-3 and my other knight to C-3 and then I’m bringing them towards the center. Notice how I didn’t bring my knight to H-3, which could not be a good choice towards the center.

Next, I would like to bring my bishops out, again on the center controlling the center squares. The next thing that we always be considering is king safety, very important. I like to consider the king like a baby. The main reason I consider the king a baby is that we always want to protect our babies just like we always want to protect our king. Therefore, the simplest way to protect your king at the start of the game is to castle. We have now two places, two strategies we can easily castle. You can either castle on the king’s side or on the queen’s side.

Right away I noticed that I can castle on the king’s side. To castle I move my king two spaces and then bring my rook to the other side and now my king is stuck behind a little fortress or, to keep with the theme of a baby, a crib and it is protected and safe. Just to review, the three important principles are controlling the center, piece development, and king safety. Those are the three things that we can do at the beginning of the game to go into the middle game confidently.

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