Fang: Simple Opening Advice

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  • Understanding is the key
  • More of the same
  • A few new ideas
  • Pay attention!


In chess, one of the biggest mistakes that I feel that beginning players make is to assign too much importance to the openings. They feel that better players are “tricking them” by being better prepared in the openings. So, they rush out and buy a book of openings and start memorizing them. While I feel that having an opening repertoire is useful for a more seasoned player, it is much more important for a beginner to understand the WHY of an opening. When you memorize openings without understanding why you are making the moves, the instant you venture into unfamiliar territory, you are likely to blunder. What I do recommend is to keep your eyes open and trying to learn from your mistakes.


Do you keep making the same kinds of moves and keep getting into bad positions because of them? I know it sounds obvious, but figure out what it is that you’re doing wrong and try not to do it anymore. Thinking about what concepts and ideas do work and what ones don’t work will help you all the way from beginner through master.


Now that I’ve encouraged you to experiment and discover openings on your own, I’ll try to give some general advice about what you should be trying to accomplish during an opening. Much of what I have to say is similar to the advice that I’ve given in the previous sections but it doesn’t hurt to reiterate it here.


  • Try not to take too many disks.
  • Try to head for the edges.
  • Try to limit your frontier.
  • Don’t play into X-squares or C-squares where you’re putting yourself in a dangerous position.


In addition to these basic concepts, there are a few new concepts I’d like to introduce here as well.


The first concept I’d like to introduce is the Sweet 16 – this term refer to the central 16 squares of the board:


FangDia-100.png In the opening it’s generally better to play a move into the Sweet 16 than another move elsewhere on the board. It also stands to reason that preventing your opponent from getting moves into the Sweet 16 is also a good thing. Disks played in the sweet 16 don’t let your opponent reach an edge (where they may try to edge creep). Additionally, disks in the Sweet 16 are less likely to remain frontier disks during the course of a game.
THE SWEET SIXTEEN


FangDia-101.png Another useful rule is that staying in the middle of

your opponent’s disks is good.

This is called staying central.

Notice that white only has two frontier disks (B4 and B4) in this position because white’s disks are central to black’s disks. As we discovered in the last section, having fewer frontier disks is usually a good thing.


Another good idea is to stay compact. Being compact means that you don’t want your disks spread out all over the place. You definitely don’t want spaces in between your disks because those squares are very likely places for your opponent to play to stay central to your disks. Notice how in the previous example all of white’s disks are in one big clump while black’s disks are almost cut in two by white’s disks. In the example, white is compact and black isn’t. Staying compact also tends to lead to fewer frontier disks.


FangDia-102.png FangDia-103.png One good way to stay compact, central, and to avoid having a lot of frontier disks is to play a move that reflips one of the disks that your opponent just flipped. For example, in the above diagram, white has just played to C3. Black responds by reflipping the disk at D4 by playing to C4. After this move, black is both central and compact.
BLACK TO PLAY BLACK PLAYS C4


Before I close out this chapter let’s take a look at a common mistake that I see beginners make very often that emphasizes the necessity of staying central and compact.


FangDia-104.png The diagram can be reached by playing E6, F4, E3 – we are 3 moves into the game. White has 4 options here, however, only one of them is any good.
WHITE TO PLAY


FangDia-105.png FangDia-106.png D2 and F2 – D2 and F2 only flip one disk but they have several other drawbacks. They’re not in the Sweet 16 and they’re not central either, in fact, either D2 or F2 will become frontier disks in typical continuations from this position. They aren’t compact – as white is leaving “holes” in his position for black to play into. After playing D2, white has a “hole” at D3 that is very tempting for black to play into. After F2, there is a “hole” at F3 that is very tempting to play into (though at the moment black can’t play to that square).
AFTER D2 AFTER F2


FangDia-107.png FangDia-108.png F6 – This move also only flips one disk, however, black immediately responds with F5 thus reflipping the disk that was just flipped. In fact, F5 is a perfectly quiet move for black and after playing F5 black is very central and compact while white is spread out along the frontier. Yes , black has more disks but because of where they are white’s position is not very good at all.
AFTER F6 BLACK PLAYS F5


FangDia-109.png D6 – This move flips two disks, which isn’t a lot in the grand scheme of things (it may seem like a lot because there aren’t many disks to begin with). While D6 does flip more disks than what the other moves flip, after D6 white is both central and compact while black is stuck on the outside. D6 is the clearly the best move in this position
AFTER D6


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