There are hundreds of named chess openings, and it’s easy to feel you need to learn them all before you can play. You don’t. At the beginner level, the best opening is one that gets your pieces out quickly, fights for the center and keeps your king safe. Learn the ideas behind a couple of solid openings and you’ll get good positions in almost every game.
This guide gives you a simple repertoire: one or two openings for White, one answer to 1.e4 as Black, and one answer to 1.d4. Each comes with a board you can step through and the plan to follow afterwards.
What makes a good beginner opening?
Before the specific moves, here are the three principles that every good opening follows. If you only remember one section of this post, make it this one.
- Control the center. The squares d4, d5, e4 and e5 are the most important on the board. Pieces in or near the center can reach both sides quickly.
- Develop your pieces. Get your knights and bishops off the back rank, ideally a new piece every move. Don’t move the same piece twice without a reason.
- Castle early. Tuck your king into the corner and connect your rooks.
Our Opening Principles unit teaches these three ideas with interactive lessons, and it’s the best place to start if you’re brand new.
Best openings for White
1.e4 and the Italian Game
If you play 1.e4 and your opponent answers 1…e5, the Italian Game is a perfect first opening. The moves are natural: the knight attacks the e5 pawn, and the bishop goes to c4, where it eyes the weak f7 square.
Why it works: every move develops a piece or supports the center, White castles by move six, and the position is easy to understand. The usual plan afterwards is to play h3, reroute the queen’s knight with Nbd2–f1–g3, and look for the right moment to push d4.
To go deeper, take the Italian Game lesson or browse games in the Italian Game explorer.
1.d4 and the London System
If you’d rather start with the queen’s pawn, the London System is a popular choice for club players. White sets up the same structure against almost anything: pawns on d4, e3 and c3, the dark-squared bishop on f4, and the knights on f3 and d2.
Why it works: you can play the same setup in almost every game, so you spend less time memorizing and more time understanding the middlegame plans. The trade-off is that it can feel a bit slow. That’s fine. Solid is good when you’re learning. The London System lesson covers the common traps.
Best openings for Black against 1.e4
1…e5: meet the center head-on
The most natural reply is 1…e5, mirroring White’s move. You get your own share of the center, and you’ll quickly meet openings like the Italian Game, the Scotch and the Ruy Lopez. Everything you learned from White’s side of the Italian is useful here too: develop the knights and bishops, castle, and play …d6 to support e5.
Just watch out for early queen attacks on f7. If you haven’t already, read our guide to Scholar’s Mate and how to stop it.
The Caro-Kann: solid and reliable
If you’d like something a little more solid, the Caro-Kann Defense (1…c6, then …d5) is a great choice. Black challenges the center at once and gets a very sturdy pawn structure.
Why it works: Black’s pawns on c6 and d5 are hard to attack, the light-squared bishop gets out early, and the plans are easy to follow. Try the Caro-Kann lesson or the Caro-Kann explorer.
Best opening for Black against 1.d4
The Queen’s Gambit Declined
Against 1.d4, a classic and trustworthy answer is 1…d5. If White plays the Queen’s Gambit with 2.c4, you can decline it with 2…e6, keeping a strong pawn on d5.
Why it works: it has been played at every level for well over a century because it’s so sound. Black develops naturally, castles quickly and rarely walks into an early disaster. Start with the Queen’s Gambit Declined lesson.
Openings to save for later
None of these are bad, but they can be tricky to handle while you’re still learning the basics:
- Very sharp, theory-heavy openings like the Najdorf Sicilian, where one wrong move can lose quickly. You’ll enjoy them more once tactics feel natural.
- Early queen adventures like 2.Qh5. They can win games against total beginners, but they break the opening principles and get punished by anyone who knows the defense.
- Gambits you don’t understand. Giving up a pawn for quick development is a great lesson in initiative, but only if you know what to do with that initiative.
How to learn your openings
Memorizing long move lists is the slowest way to improve. Instead:
- Learn the first five or six moves and the plan. Know why each move is played, and what you’re aiming for afterwards.
- Play them a lot. Use the same openings in every game for a few weeks. You can play a bot at any strength.
- Check your games. Our game review marks the moves that are still “book” and shows where you left known theory.
- Quiz yourself. The Opening Quiz helps you remember lines, and the openings explorer shows what strong players choose in each position.
When you’re ready to build a full repertoire, our lesson on building a repertoire shows how to fit it all together.