The best chess openings for beginners (and the ones to skip)

7 min read

Here's the thing nobody tells you when you start: your opening isn't why you're losing. You're losing because you hang a knight on move 14. I did it for years.

So the "best" opening for a beginner isn't the sharpest or the trendiest. It's the one that puts your pieces on good squares, keeps your king safe, and lets you play actual chess by move 8 instead of reciting theory. Here are the four I'd hand any beginner, and the ones I'd quietly take away.

Play the Italian Game as White

Start with the Italian Game. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4. Three moves, and you've already developed a knight, pointed a bishop straight at f7 (the softest square in Black's position), and lined up to castle next move.

It drills the stuff that actually matters: fight for the center, develop toward it, castle early. No memorized traps. And if your opponent blunders, that bishop on c4 punishes it for free.

Or the London System, if you hate memorizing

Don't want to think about what Black plays? The London System is a setup, not a line: d4, Bf4, e3, Nf3, Bd3, c3, against almost anything. Bishop out before you trap it behind your own pawns, solid chain, castle, then push.

It's a little boring. That's the whole point. Boring wins beginner games, because boring doesn't hang pieces.

As Black, just answer 1.e4 with 1...e5

Against 1.e4, play 1...e5 and steer for the same open, classical positions you already know from the White side. You'll meet the Ruy Lopez and the Scotch Game, and honestly, good. Those two are the best teachers in chess.

Against 1.d4, the Queen's Gambit positions are calm and logical. You won't get mated in 12 moves. You'll get a normal game where the better player wins, and early on you want exactly that.

The openings to skip (for now)

The Sicilian Defense is the most popular answer to 1.e4 at every level above yours. It's also 25 moves of razor theory where one slip loses on the spot. Come back to it around 1600. Before that it just punishes you for not having memorized the Najdorf.

The King's Gambit is a blast and I genuinely love it, but it gives away a pawn and cracks open your own king. You'll win a few brilliancies and lose more scrappy ones. Fun, not a foundation.

• Random gambits from a 40-second video. They work once. Then a prepared opponent refutes it and you've learned nothing.
• The Caro-Kann and French Defense are solid, just less instructive than open 1...e5 games right now. Pick them up later.

The actual secret

Pick one White opening, one answer to 1.e4, one answer to 1.d4. Play them for 100 games. Don't switch every time you lose. You lose to tactics and blunders, not because "the Italian wasn't working." Fix the blunders and your rating climbs no matter what you open with.

Every opening I linked has its own page with the moves on a board and the ideas in plain English. Start with the Italian Game, or browse the whole openings library.