How you open a chess game significantly affects whether you win or lose. Unfortunately, many beginner players don’t know this and make plenty of mistakes that make it hard for them to recover. Which are these opening mistakes you should avoid making?

Here they are:

Neglecting development

Every beginner book or video will advise you to develop your game as soon as possible. While most players know this, some ignore it in favor of a special attack. Don’t do this.

Remember that when you move your pieces early, you have a significant advantage as you can start attacking your opponent without compromising your king’s safety.

For you to properly develop your game, you need to do a number of things that include:

Don’t get greedy in the opening: Most players will grab an extra pawn that sacrifices 2-3 vital development tempos, which, as you can guess, gives their opponents a head start. Don’t do this and focus on development. Don’t rush to checkmate or win pieces.

Don’t move one piece multiple times for no good reason: You might be wondering what a good reason is, but we can say that this is the ability to win significant material. This means that unless you have a chance of winning a high-value piece, don’t move your pawns more than once.

You should note that even if you have higher chances of winning valuable pieces, be ultra-cautious as you might waste vital tempos as you attempt to do it, leaving you behind in the game.

Know where to develop the pieces: Sometimes, you might try to develop a game, but you don’t know the best way to go about it, which results in you losing. To know the proper way to go about it, invest in knowledge. Thankfully, you can use plenty of resources online and offline to your advantage.

Playing copycat

Copycatting is copying exactly what your opponent is doing without knowing why they are doing it.

While it’s good to copy a few opening moves as you don’t want to expose your good pieces, you shouldn’t copy all your opponent’s moves as you often sleepwalk your way into trouble.

Even if your opponent is highly experienced, don’t copy their moves—always have a plan.

After your opponent has made a move, ask yourself why they have done it and what you need to do to counter their move. Weigh your options, then choose the option where you don’t leave your piece exposed.

Launching an unprepared attack

You say a chess game is fully opened when the Rooks connect. And you should only consider attacking your opponent after fully opening the game. This means that you should develop the pieces, castle, connect the rooks, occupy the center and only then launch an attack.

Does this mean you shouldn’t launch an attack if you haven’t fully opened a game? Well, avoiding attacking your opponent’s pieces is good even if there are possibilities, as you often delay development.

This is because you will most likely have to retreat, which forces you to make unnecessary moves and lose the tempo.

To be safe, complete developing the game and only then launch an attack.

Failing to control the center

In chess, the center of the chessboard is like a hill, and whoever is the king of the hill has a better view of the board and can easily move the pieces and launch an attack.

While experienced players can open their games without focusing on the center, as a beginner, you should focus on the center, as it’s the best strategy for your skill level.

Does this mean you should move your pieces haphazardly towards the center? Absolutely not—you need to have a strategy.

You should move the different pieces to positions where they appear stronger. This calls for you to develop the Bishops diagonally, rooks on open files, and knights at the center.

As you move the pieces to the center, always think about how you plan to attack. If you will be attacking your opponent’s king from the short side, place the bishop on a long diagonal, then bring up a queen and knight. You also should place the rook in such a way that you can quickly lift it when needed.

Delaying or failing to protect the king

Protecting the king is simply castling, and it connects the rooks besides putting the king to safety. Some people delay or even forget castling due to ignorance or other reasons.

To be safe, protect your king as early as possible. Doing this lets you play with plenty of peace of mind, as you know your king isn’t exposed or vulnerable.

Moving your Queen too early

It’s not uncommon for beginners to search for “How to checkmate in 3 moves” and other tips. Most of the tips involve moving the Queen early in the game.

An experienced player might effectively do this and recover, but as a beginner, you shouldn’t move your Queen early in the game as chances are the Queen will be captured, and you end up losing the game.

Remember that you should concentrate on developing the game at the beginning of the game. When you start moving the Queen so that you can get a quick checkmate, you fall behind in developing your game, which increases your chances of losing.

Playing intuitively

The final opening mistake that many people make is playing intuitively. Here the player makes decisions based on their feelings rather than their calculations.

Chess isn’t a feelings game—it’s all about strategies, and you lose when you bring about feelings.

To stay in the game long, continually evaluate your position at least 2-3 moves ahead while considering the basic chess opening principles.

A closing note

These are the common opening mistakes to avoid in a chess game. To reiterate, focus on developing the game, don’t move the Queen out too early, don’t copy your opponent’s moves, and certainly don’t rush for a quick checkmate.

At the start of the chess game, focus on controlling the squares. You will have a chance for a brutal attack later.

Would you love to learn strategies to open your chess game properly? Check out this guide: https://www.chessable.com/blog/opening-guide/