Chess Openings

The opening is the first thing every new chess player studies, and also the thing most likely to be studied wrong — memorised move by move without understanding why those moves are good. This guide covers the main opening families and the principles that tie them together, so you understand openings rather than just recite

Every serious chess database tags games with an ECO code — something like B90 or D30 — and most players learn to recognise a handful of codes for their own openings without ever understanding the system behind them. Once you do understand it, the code itself becomes useful shorthand. The five letters ECO splits all

Every improving player has done it: bought an opening course, drilled the first fifteen moves until they’re automatic, and then lost the game on move sixteen the very first time an opponent deviated. The moves weren’t the problem. The understanding was. Opening theory is really a record of accumulated answers to a question — what’s