Consequences of Not Applying the Opening Principles in Chess

Today, I will speak about one of the most fundamental concepts in chess: the ABC of a chess game, the first thing a chess coach will teach you as a beginner: the Opening Principles!

In case you are just starting to learn the secrets of chess and you are not yet familiar with them, here are the basic principles of the Opening:

• Rapid and effective development of pieces, which means placing them in useful squares
• Control of the center
• King's safety
• The queen should be the last piece to be developed
• Don’t make unnecessary pawn moves
• Don’t move the same piece more than twice unless necessary
• Connect the rooks after developing the queen

Before I go deeper into this topic, I want to highlight that the great José Raúl Capablanca was a defender of these principles. He described the opening in one of his books as "the process of developing the pieces so they come into action as quickly as possible."

So, Habibi, why don’t you want to listen to Capablanca and instead try to do a checkmate in the opening? Not cool!

We are not like this the whole time actually . At the beginning of our learning process, we tend to apply them, but this usually only lasts for the first few weeks. Later, as we start playing better and understanding the game a little bit more, we often decide it’s time to start ignoring them.

For this reason, this week I won’t talk about the principles of the opening as such, because we all know them. Instead, I will discuss the consequences of ignoring them. And what better way to do this than through examples where good players lost their games due to neglecting these basic principles?

In these examples, we will see what can happen if you develop the queen quickly without developing the rest of your pieces. We will also analyze cases of poor development, where pieces are not placed on the best squares. Additionally, we will explore the consequences of losing control of the center and examine what could happen if we forget about defending the f2/f7 squares.

Let’s start with the examples now:

I just want you to think carefully about the potential consequences of ignoring opening principles. Sometimes it might be okay, but don’t get used to it.

Finally, I'm finishing this post with a position from one of my students. He’s really proud of it and, according to the engine, has an advantage

However, I nearly had a heart attack today when he showed it to me! After years of teaching him, this is what I get.

Anyway, he’s around 1800 in rapids, so he knows what he’s doing, but it was fun and totally reinforces what I’m saying today!

Be cautious, and see you around!

I wish you a lot of checkmates