Hey, chess lovers and enthusiasts, we are now in the penultimate lesson of the intermediate guide to chess mastery. So far, we have gone through 12 lessons, and adding this lesson we are about to look at makes it 13. This means there is only one lesson left to go. If you missed any of the previous lessons you can check my blog to catch up on them.
So what do we have for today's lesson?
It's know your opening.
As I have said previously, a chess game comes in three stages:
- Opening
- Middlegame
- Endgame
And every stage is as important as the next stage.
In the opening stage, you need to know your opening well as they can be an advantage for you heading into a game against an opponent of equal strength or weaker. Even at the grandmaster level of playing chess, opening style, and repertoire are taken seriously as a single mistake in the opening stage of the game could lead to long-term game suffering and eventually a loss.
Here are some tips that could be of help when choosing an opening and mastering it.
Tip 1: Make sure the opening you choose follows opening principles.
There are a lot of chess openings out there but only a hand few of them are played often. This is because these openings tend to follow opening principles making them easy to play and even memorize. Openings like the Ruy Lopez, Scotch Game, Queen's Gambit, Vienna game, English Opening, and others all follow the principle of controlling the center by placing a pawn or using other chess pieces. They all require swift development of your pieces and early on castling of your king. Things like this are what your opening should entail.
Tip 2: Learn the key ideas of at least the first 15 moves
Openings always spring between 1 to 15 moves and in some cases even less, like 10 moves. Learn the reason behind playing each move and gradually you will master them over time. Don't cramp the moves rather master the ideas but also master black's response as well if you are learning an opening for white and if you are learning an opening for black, master white's response as well.
Tip 3: Watch a lot of games where the opening you have learned is played
Another way to improve your chess is by watching games, not just your games but games played by other players and strong ones precisely, especially grandmasters. Look at how they use the opening you are trying to learn to win games, learn from their ideas and mistakes as well, where they made an error, and if it is too hard to spot the error, use a chess engine to find the idea. This is how personal learning in the game of chess takes place.
And Lastly keep it simple
Always look for openings that are simple to master like e4 or d4 openings, they tend to be played more often because of their simplicity in understanding the key ideas.
Then when you find that opening you like, play it often with friends over the board or online, and learn from your mistakes and ideas for better understanding, and gameplay next time.
That's a wrap for this lesson and see you in the last lesson of the intermediate series.
I am @samostically, I love to talk and write about chess because I benefited alot from playing chess and I love writing about chess.
♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟