Part I · First steps Chapter 10 of 40
How to start a game
The first twelve moves of a game, by the clock: the centre, the minor pieces, castling, connected rooks. Along the way you meet Scholar's Mate, Légal's Mate and the way Paul Morphy began a game.
What to know first: 6 · Castling and draws 8 · Piece values and trades
What you will learn
- start a game by the principles: a pawn to the centre, knights and bishops into play, castling, connected rooks
- spot the threat of Scholar's Mate and defend in a way that also develops a piece
- see when a king left in the centre and undeveloped pieces lead to a quick loss
3… Nf6 looks like a fine move. The knight comes out of the corner towards the centre and attacks the white queen on h5. White replies 4. Qxf7#, and the game is over on move four. You have met this mate before, at the end of the chapter on notation: there you read the record 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nc6 3. Qh5 Nf6.
Black did not lose for lack of opening knowledge. They made three sensible-looking moves and never asked what was threatening their king. This chapter is about the first ten or twelve moves of a game: what to do in them, what not to do, and how to stay out of the traps that wait for a beginner from the first minutes.
The start of a game is called the opening. After it comes the middlegame, and when few pieces are left, the endgame. Endgames are not new to you: in the previous chapter you checkmated a lone king. Now let us go back to the first move.
The opening has principles. They are not laws of the game, like the knight's move or castling, but advice tested over centuries of games: you may break them, but only if you know why. We will go through them in the order they come up at the board, by the clock of the game: the first move, the first pieces, the king, the rooks. Along the way you will meet the traps that beginners fall into most often, and at the end we will see how Paul Morphy began a game.
Move 1: the centre
From the first chapter you know that the centre is the squares d4, e4, d5 and e5, and that a piece in the centre reaches furthest. So the first move is almost always a pawn move into the centre. It has two benefits. First, the pawn takes a square that will be fought over and attacks the squares next to it: the pawn on e4 attacks d5 and f5. Second, it opens the way for the pieces that stood behind it.
With one pawn move White has opened the way for two pieces. 1. d4 does almost the same: it opens the diagonal for the bishop on c1 and the d-file for the queen. Moves with the edge pawns at the start of a game, by contrast, give almost nothing.
Which of these first moves does least for both the centre and the pieces?
The pawn on h4 is far from the centre and attacks no central square. It does open two squares for the rook on h1, h2 and h3, but a rook has nothing to do early in the game. 1. e4, 1. d4 and 1. Nf3 work for the centre in different ways, but all of them do.
One or two pawns in the centre are usually enough. Every pawn move is a move not spent on a piece, and in the opening the pieces are needed more.
Moves 2–6: the minor pieces
Bringing a piece from its starting square to a square where it works is called development. In the opening you develop the minor pieces, the knights and bishops. The rooks have nowhere to go yet: their own pawns stand in front of them. The queen, as we shall soon see, is too early.
Knights usually come out before bishops and go straight towards the centre: for White to f3 and c3, for Black to f6 and c6. A bishop often does well to see first where the pawns go, but a knight has hardly any choice. Where a knight should not go you know from the third chapter: a knight on the rim is dim.
White brings out the knight from g1. Why do players almost always choose f3 rather than h3?
From f3 the knight attacks eight squares, and two of them are in the centre: e5, where the black pawn stands, and d4. From h3 it attacks only four squares, g5, f4, f2 and g1, and to reach the centre it needs two more moves. A knight on f3 works from its very first move.
Bishops have a wider choice: the light-squared bishop on f1 goes to c4, b5 or e2, the dark-squared bishop on c1 to g5, f4 or e3. One rule helps at once: do not put a bishop in front of your own central pawn. A bishop on d3 blocks the pawn on d2, so it cannot advance, and while that pawn stays put it is hard for the bishop on c1 to get out as well. In the opening the pieces should open the way for one another, not shut one another in.
The opening is like a race. On each move a side brings out one piece, and the side with more pieces ready for the first clash is stronger. A move in this race is called a tempo. If you move one piece twice while the others stay at home, you have lost a tempo: in two moves you developed one piece instead of two.
Hence the rule: in the opening, one move per piece, until all of them are out. You break it when there is a reason: to capture an enemy piece, to escape an attack, to answer a threat. A move without such a reason is one your opponent will use to bring out another piece.
White has made five moves and Black four. How many pieces has each side developed?
White has the knight on f3, the bishop on c4 and the knight on c3 in play, and the king has gone to safety by castling. Black has one knight, on c6. The moves h6 and a6 lose nothing, but they bring out no pieces either: two moves went on edge pawns, and in this race White is three moves ahead.
Moves 2–3: the queen can wait
The queen is the strongest piece, and a beginner wants to bring it out first. In the second chapter we saw the other side of its power: if a cheaper piece attacks the queen, the queen has to move. For the opening this means the following: your opponent brings out pieces with an attack on your queen, and you spend moves retreating. Every such attack gains a tempo.
Black's queen has come out early into the centre. Which move develops a piece and attacks the queen?
3. Nc3: the knight goes to its best square and attacks d5. The queen has to move again, its second move, and Black has no pieces out yet. The engine, by the way, rates Nf3 level with Nc3: both moves develop a piece, and attacking the queen is a pleasant extra.
This is how the Scandinavian Defence begins, a real opening in which Black gives up a tempo on purpose and knows what they get in return. Openings by name are the subject of the third part of the course. For a beginner a simple rule is enough: the queen comes out when the minor pieces are out.
Move 4: Scholar's Mate
The early queen has a temptation of its own: a quick attack. The best-known such attack is aimed at f7. In the starting position the pawn on f7 is defended only by the king. If a queen and a bishop attack it together, the queen takes it, the bishop defends the queen, and the king cannot take back.
This mate is called Scholar's Mate. It wins against people who have only just learned the moves, but against a player who sees the threat the attack fails. Black can defend, and then it turns out that White's queen came out too early.
Why is Scholar's Mate delivered on f7 and not, say, on d7?
The pawn on d7 is defended by the king, the queen on d8, the bishop on c8 and the knight on b8. The pawn on f7 is defended by the king alone: the bishop on f8 and the knight on g8 cannot reach it. So two attackers beat one defender. White has the same weak spot: the pawn on f2.
Now defend Black yourself. White has repeated the attack: bishop on c4, queen on h5. Attacking the queen with a knight does not work: you have seen the move 3… Nf6, and it does not defend the pawn on f7. There is a move better than simply defending the pawn.
Black to move, and the board is turned towards Black. The queen on h5 and the bishop on c4 are aimed at f7. Block the queen's path to f7 so that you attack it at the same time.
3… g6: the pawn steps on to the diagonal h5–g6–f7 and blocks it, and it attacks the queen at the same time. The queen has to move, and Black gains a tempo. 3… Qe7 also defends f7: the engine rates it a little lower, but it holds the pawn too. But 3… Nf6 is mate in one.
But the attack does not end there. The queen retreats to f3, and again two pieces look at f7: the queen along the f-file, the bishop along the diagonal. Here you want to calmly develop, and the move Bg7 seems natural. But first think about what threatens you.
Black to move. White has played 4. Qf3 and again threatens Qxf7#. Defend in a way that also brings a piece out towards the centre.
4… Nf6: the knight blocks the f-file between the queen and the pawn and goes to its best square. Now only the bishop attacks f7, and the king defends it. 4… Qe7 defends too, but then the queen comes out before the knights, and the engine thinks this move slightly weaker. 4… Nh6 also defends f7, but the knight goes to the rim, and there, as you remember from chapter 3, it is poor.
And now let us see what would happen after the natural 4… Bg7.
4… Bg7: the bishop came out on the long diagonal, all by the principles. But the queen on f3 and the bishop on c4 still look at f7.Development does not cancel defence. Before every move, even the most useful one, look at what is threatening your king right now. In chapter 8 we asked two questions: what is hanging on the other side, and what will hang on mine. In the opening a third question joins them: what happens if the opponent captures on f7?
Moves 4–8: the king to safety
A king in the centre stands on the lines that will open first: the central pawns are exactly what gets traded in the opening. So after development comes the second task of the opening, castling. It takes the king to safety behind the pawns at the edge of the board and brings a rook out of the corner at the same time. Players usually castle within the first eight to ten moves, and more often short, because that needs only two pieces to be developed.
In how many moves can White prepare and make short castling from the start of the game?
First a pawn move, e or g, to free the bishop, then the knight and the bishop come out, and on the fourth move you castle. For example 1. e4, 2. Nf3, 3. Bc4, 4. O-O, as at the start of the game in chapter 6. All of these moves develop pieces too.
The shelter rests on the pawns in front of the king. Remember the fool's mate from the first chapter? There White moved the f and g pawns themselves and opened the diagonal to their own king. The f-pawn is not touched in the first moves without need: only the king defends it, and behind it the diagonal h4–e1 opens.
Which pawn move early in the game weakens the white king most while it stands on e1?
After f3 the diagonal h4–g3–f2–e1 is open all the way to the king: the queen from h4 gives check at once, and White can block only with g3. That is how the fool's mate began: White added g4 and so took that move away from themselves. On top of that, the knight on g1 loses its best square, f3.
What happens to a king that lingers in the centre can be seen in a trap from Petrov's Defence. After 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 Nxe4 4. Qe2 the white queen attacks the knight on e4 and stands on the e-file facing the black king. Between them are two knights, Black's on e4 and White's on e5. If the black one leaves, only the white one is left. The right answer, for example, is 4… Qe7: queen against queen, and the file is closed. But Black simply moved the knight away, 4… Nf6??, and missed the threat. Recall chapter five: if a piece leaves a line along which another piece looks at the king, you get a discovered check.
White to move. The queen on e2 looks along the e-file at the black king, and the only thing in the way is White's own knight on e5. Move the knight away so that the queen gives check and the knight itself attacks the black queen.
5. Nc6+: the knight has left the e-file, and the queen on e2 checks the king on e8. A check has to be answered, and the knight cannot be captured: it is not the knight that gives check, and after the capture the king would still be in check. Black blocks, for example 5… Qe7, and the knight takes the queen: 6. Nxe7. Any knight move gives check, but that is not enough. From f7 the knight would attack the queen too, but the king captures it and so escapes the check. The knight on c6 cannot be reached: the pawns on b7 and d7 attack that square, but such a capture would leave the king in check from the queen. Two things let Black down: the king stood on the same line as the white queen, and the queen on d8 was left under attack from the knight.
Openings that begin with 1. e4 e5 are the subject of chapter 21. The moral holds for any opening: while the king is in the centre, every open line towards it is a chance for tactics.
Move 7: Légal's Mate
One of the most famous traps bears the name of Légal de Kermeur, one of the strongest players in France in the 18th century and the teacher of François-André Philidor. By tradition he delivered this mate in Paris, but the record has come down to us in several versions. The year of the game and the move order are disputed, and Légal, they say, played with odds, without his rook on a1. So we show the trap in a teaching form, with all the pieces. It begins with the Philidor Defence, an opening named after Légal's pupil: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6.
4… g6: Black has only one piece in play, the bishop on g4, and this move added nothing. The engine marks it as an inaccuracy.A pinned piece seems to be tied up. But a pin to the queen does not forbid the move. Only a move after which your own king is attacked is forbidden, and you may give up the queen if you get more for it. Black took the queen: 5… Bxd1??. The two question marks are well earned.
White to move. Black has just taken the queen on d1. White has no queen, but all the minor pieces are in play, and the black king is still on e8. Deliver mate in two moves.
6. Bxf7+: the bishop takes the pawn with check, and the knight on e5 defends it. The king cannot go to d7, because the knight on e5 attacks that square, so only e7 is left. 7. Nd5#: the third minor piece checks from d5. The squares around the king are closed: e8 and e6 are attacked by the bishop on f7; d7 by the knight on e5; f6 by the knight on d5; d8, d6 and f8 are occupied by Black's own pieces, and the bishop on f7 is defended by the knight on e5. Three minor pieces delivered mate while Black's queen, both knights and the bishop on f8 stood on their own squares.
In old records Black also has a knight on c6, and there 5. Nxe5 simply loses a knight for a pawn: 5… Nxe5. In five moves Black has moved a pawn three times and the same bishop twice, and has not brought out a single knight. White has brought out three pieces in the same time. The best Black had on move five was to accept the loss of a pawn, for example 5… dxe5 6. Qxg4. Unpleasant, but the game goes on. By taking the queen, Black walked into mate.
Moves 8–12: the rooks connect
The minor pieces are out, the king has castled, and only the rooks and the queen are left on the first rank. The last step of development is to take the queen off that rank, so that nothing stands between the rooks. Such rooks defend each other and can switch along the rank to any file. They are called connected rooks, and for many coaches that is a sign: development is complete, the opening is behind you.
Which side has connected rooks?
Between a1 and f1 White has nothing: the knight went to c3, the bishop to e3, the queen to e2, and the king castled. Black's minor pieces are out too, but the queen on d8 stands between the rooks. Black needs one more queen move, for example to d7 or e7, and then a rook can go to d8 or e8.
Where do connected rooks go? To where a line will soon open: the central d and e files, along which pawns are traded in the opening. A rook on an open file is a strong rook, and chapter 31 will tell you more about it.
Let us put all the principles together. One or two pawns in the centre. Knights and bishops into the game, towards the centre, one move per piece. Do not bring out the queen before the minor pieces. Do not touch the f-pawn without need. Castle. Connect the rooks. And before every move ask what is threatening you. Let us see how all this looks in a game by a strong player.
Morphy's twelve moves
In the second chapter you saw the finish of the Opera Game: Paul Morphy against Duke Karl of Brunswick and Count Isouard, Paris, 1858. Then we began at move thirteen; now let us look at the first twelve. Black played the Philidor Defence, the very opening in which people fall for Légal's Mate.
Morphy broke one rule: the queen came out on move five and moved a second time on move seven. But both moves had a point. The first was a capture, the second a threat that Black had to spend a move on. The principles tell you what to do when nothing is happening. When there is a threat, it decides.
The position after twelve moves. Which of Black's pieces have not entered the game all this time?
The bishop on f8 is shut in by Black's own queen on e7. The rook on h8 has not made a single move yet: the easiest way for it to join the game is castling, but the same bishop on f8 stands in the way of castling. The king is in the centre, on the line of the bishop on b5. White, meanwhile, has developed everything and castled. How it ended five moves later you saw in the section on the finish of the Opera Game.
What's next
Now you know how to start a game: the centre, the minor pieces, castling, connected rooks, and not a single move without a look at the threats. That is enough not to lose on move four and to come out of the opening with your pieces developed. Play a few games against the bot and after each one count the move on which your rooks connected.
But principles tell you where to put the pieces, not how to win. Légal's Mate and the trap in Petrov's Defence are built on techniques that flashed past here: the pin, the discovered check, an attack on two targets at once. The second part of the course is about them, and it begins with the most common one, the fork: chapter 11. We shall return to the openings in the third part. Chapter 20 will go through the principles and typical mistakes, and after that come the openings themselves, with names and plans, starting with the open games.