Robert Johnson - Chess For Beginners: 2 in 1: The Complete and Easy-to-Read Guide for Newbies on How to Play Chess. Learn The Best Openings, Strategies, Tactics, and Fundamentals to Make Your First Checkmate Quickly.

I want to teach you how to do well in all three Chess's game stages, which are the opening, the middlegame, and the endgame. Firstly, what is a beginning, a middlegame, or an endgame?

The opening is generally the first ten or so moves of a game. Here both players are trying to get their pieces out and trying to grab space on the board.

Diagram. The Opening

The middlegame begins after the opening finishes, and both players have all their pieces out. This is generally where the fight starts. The players will start trying to attack each other's kings or push their pawns to gain space.

Diagram. The Middlegame

The endgame is, unsurprisingly, the stage of the game where the game is nearing its end. The endgame begins after the middlegame ends, and this is generally when the queens have come off the board. There are usually few pieces left on the board in the endgame, and the players will have to use their kings to attack and defend to win the game. The endgame is the essential part of the game, and if you want to improve at Chess as quickly as possible, you want to spend your time practicing endgames.

Diagram. The Endgame

First, before we discuss the middlegame or endgame, we'll have to start with the opening. Even though practicing endgames will help you improve at Chess much faster, if you play poorly initially and keep losing in the first ten moves of a game, you might never get to an endgame.

As we mentioned before, some people spend hours trying to learn opening theory, which means they try to memorize many opening moves. This is generally a waste of time, as even if you've managed to remember a bunch of opening moves and you play a better start than your opponent, once the introduction ends, you might have no idea what to do, so you'll just get thrashed in the middlegame and endgame. For example, what would you do if I told you to try to memorize the following moves?

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Bc4 O-O 8. Bb3 a5 9. O-O d6 10. h3 Nxd4 11. Bxd4 Bd7 12. a4 Bc6 13. Qd3 Nd7 14. Bxg7 Kxg7 15. Rad1 Nc5 16. Qd4+ Kg8 17. Bd5 Qb6 18. b3 Nd7 19. Qd2 Qc5 20. Kh1 Nf6

If I told you to try to memorize all of that, you'd probably either want to punch me in the face or start screaming at me. If you managed to remember that, then either you're a genius or have a photographic memory. And that was just one of the variations. You'd have to learn another 10 of those just to get anywhere.

In general, any decent chess player can play a solid opening without any problem - even if they are playing against an opponent who is a lot stronger than them. There are a few opening attacks and opening traps which people use to trick beginners into losing quickly. Still, once you learn the rules of playing a good opening and you learn how to avoid falling into the common opening traps, you'll be able to get through the door without any problems. Spending ages trying to learn lots of opening tricks and pitfalls so you can trick your opponents isn't going to help you much either, as once you come up against decent chess players, they are not going to fall for your opening tricks, and you'll just end up with worse positions.

So, our plan is straightforward. We're not going to spend too much time discussing the opening because we could improve at Chess a lot faster by spending our time learning the endgame or learning tactics, and we're not going to waste time trying to learn opening theory. Instead, I'm going to teach you the principles of opening play so that you understand how to play well in the opening, and you'll be able to do well in all opening situations. I'll then show you an opening plan to use in all of your games to play a solid opening. I'll then show you some of the common opening attacks and traps so you can avoid falling for them yourself (and you can use them against your friends if you know they suck at Chess). Finally, we'll take a look at some of the most popular chess opening plans, so you have a bit more choice if you decide you want to try a different opening plan and so that you know what's going on when you watch your friends play chess games.