Opening Principles

You know how every piece moves. You can set up the board, castle, promote a pawn, and recognize checkmate. You are ready for the next question — what should you actually do at the start of a game?

The opening is the most important phase of chess. The decisions you make in the first ten moves shape everything that comes after. Strong players do not guess their way through the opening — they follow a set of principles that have been tested over centuries of play.

In this course, you will learn those principles. Not as a list of rules to memorize, but as ideas that make sense — so that when you sit down at a board, you know exactly what you are trying to do and why.

By the end, you will have a clear plan for every opening of every game you play.