Unpublished Work © 2026. Alex Povazh. All rights reserved
* In the opening pawns often move first. Then move knights followed by bishops
* Lichess/chess openings
* Diagrams with computer-suggested responses for black against white’s very first moves
* White pieces. The 2. Qh5 hijack attack 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5
* 2835 Magnus Carlsen 0 vs 1 Shamsiddin Vokhidov 2480, 2018, Dec 26, World Rapid Championship, rapid, C20 King’s Pawn Game: Wayward Queen Attack (2. Qh5!?)
* Training coordinates on LICHESS.ORG (a reminder)
* 1. e2-e4. “Best by test”. Bobby Fischer. GM David Bronstein reveals dark secrets of 1. e2-e4
* Some of the most popular opening moves as starters for a beginner player
* Black. Scandinavian Defense 1. e4 d5. Introduction to Masters database & Lichess database
* White. Ruy Lopez or Spanish Game (aka Gaugamela Opening) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5
* Masters database & Lichess database
* Saving your opening ideas and studies on LICHESS.ORG. Top menu – LEARN – Study
* Closed Game, Open Game, Semi-Open game as your starters * Center Game (Open Game) 1. e4 e5
1970s chess set by Ausma, Riga, Latvia
Your goal is to survive the opening stage and organize your pieces for an attack on your opponent’s king. All this is done to achieve the main goal of chess to bust the other guy on the 8th (playing white) or the boss on the 1st (playing black). The numbers here indicate the ordinal numbers of the ranks (the horizontal lines of squares). So it turns out that a player with white pieces always has a first move advantage that can seriously affect the black’s king circumstances. Because of the game advantage of white, the player with black pieces has to initially counter white’s threats and wait for a convenient moment to seize the game initiative.
In the opening pawns often move first.
Then move knights followed by bishops
Playing black pieces you are supposed to play defensive chess, until your opponent with white pieces allows you to seize the initiative in the game due to their ignorance of the Opening Basics. Getting your opponent trapped in one of your home-prepared ambushes is another way to quickly win a game, but right now we are talking about Opening Basics (not the Opening Theory!).
In this article we are talking about piece coordination, the routes for minor and major pieces of both white and black pieces rather than the vast Opening Theory (the book of the very first moves in a game of chess). Piece coordination at the very beginning of a game. Coordination, instead of putting pawns and pieces on vacant squares! In its core, piece coordination comes down to the official proclamation saying play with all of your pieces. In order to meet this requirement you need to orchestrate your pieces the most effective way right here and right now. Playing black pieces you need to deal with your opponent’s center activity as well as to orchestrate your pieces for the best defense. Every opening has some pieces hanging out on a chessboard and asking questions like what the heck we are supposed to do? Talking to your pieces means you remember them, you are tunnel-vision free.
I believe that you noticed that white’s d-pawn has already moved forward and therefore the bishop there on d3 does not block its forward movement, not being an elephant in a china shop (a store that sells delicate porcelain or ceramic dishes). Otherwise, the given bishop will block the air for the friendly dark-squared bishop on c1 and will slow down development of the white pieces. Thus, white would lose their hypothetical first-move advantage and the initiative in the game, because white will have to remove their elephant from the china shop and move it to another place, while the opponent playing black will take advantage of this gross mistake and rush to develop their pieces on the opponent’s expense.
Only experienced chess players can exploit such mistakes, but you, a beginner, can learn this by analyzing the position on a computer.
It puts pressure on the light-colored center squares, as well, as defends the f3-knight from black’s light-squared bishop attacking it from g4. The Bf1-g2 welcomes the white’s king to castle 0-0 providing very good protection for the king… but this setup is rather too passive for white. It can be used, for instance, in a game against a stronger opponent on blacks, although burrowing into a hole or building defensive structures is rather too passive chess, it’s something to avoid: you’ll never learn to play dynamic chess and attack your opponents… Black can easily cork the center thus the g2-bishop would be out of the action at the opening and middlegame stages.
Chess openings on lichess
Diagrams with computer-suggested responses for black against white’s very first moves
All the variations above (except the English Opening 1. c4) avoid a direct fight for the center by whites and do not allow for the fastest mobilization of white’s pieces, do not strive to maintain the white’s initiative that a player on white pieces has as a given. All the variations above offer either a slow development of white pieces or strange ways to leave the already well-known opening lines and offer the opponents on blacks to play chess and show their capacity from the very first moves of the game. Blacks get the opportunity to start capturing the center first. This is exactly what the computer recommends (gray arrows in the diagrams).
Chess is a fight in an open “field”. For a beginner, this is where the simplicity ends. However, you can simplify the task of mastering your chess always starting the game with the same first move: 1. e2-e4 (when you play with white pieces). By employing the same move in every other game, you narrow down the framework of the information you’ll have to study. On blacks it could be 1… e7-e5, because you need to learn the Open Game’s dynamics: whites begin the game most dangerous move for blacks; blacks accept the challenge.
Move pieces on the Analysis board on LICHESS.ORG, read position evaluations given by the engine (top right from the Analysis board) and pay attention to the names of the openings you are trying to play and its ideas on the left.
1970s chess set by Ausma, Riga, Latvia
Some of us gain experience in chess after thousands of wild games played and several years of having fun on chess portals… or experience never comes and as a consolation I consider myself just not cut out for chess. The thing is that some of us are capable of knowing and understanding, but we are not capable of doing better until the chickens come home to roost. Quite a few people are blessed with the memory and talent to analyze and combine & synthesize new information, to consolidate it and organize the information in the form of visual patterns have been learned.
In most of cases our progress and development goes like this: I learn a stuff and keep it in my head… then things explode and I go on a plateau of a higher level. I stay on my plateau for some time, then go higher on a new plateau. It is always a plateau (long or not so long). Most of us move along plateaus, short or long, and then, with time and effort spent on getting better in chess, climb to a new plateau… or fall to a plateau below the previous one. When admins on a chess portal see a guy going up exponential without plateaus, it means the guy is most likely a cheater.
My stats on lichess (JoeDavidLavante)
IM Faustino Oro stats on lichess
The sooner we, regular Joes, realize the need to learn, the sooner we move beyond beginner ranks. Beginner players just look for a vacant square to put their piece on the chessboard, they play irregular pawn moves in the very beginning of a game. They grab the queen and move it around the board the way people enjoy driving a luxury car. The opponent, in turn, tries not to lose and responds to the threats the rambling around queen keeps producing. If the playing black pieces opponent already knows how to deal with queen’s early high jacking, then the player on blacks would grab the game initiative and get better in development making use of queen’s erratic movements on the board. Somewhere there appears an opportunity to start thinking about your moves, but this is a tiring business thus it is no longer just an entertainment that chess is considered to be.
One of the Opening Basics says the center of the board is very important so when you are on whites you want to go for the center control from the very beginning of a game (hypermodernism). It is not a must, but the most logical way to make use of your first-move advantage you have when you play white pieces. Playing black pieces you want to fight back your opponent’s control of the center: Ruy Lopez, Dutch Defense…, or deal with it in one of the indirect ways (Sicilian Defense, Caro-Kann Defense, French Defense, modern/Pirc Defense… (whether the Sicilian Defense or the French Defense deals with white’s 1. e4 in a direct or indirect way is a dispute among theorists and a personal point of view, it is none of our business yet).
Regardless of experience and rating, all chess players make mistakes and this is what keeps afloat the classical game of chess with classical setups. Nice and bad surprises, emotions, thrills, bad blood and joy, agony and resurrection, magic and unimaginable turns of tides, illogical ideas beating logical thinking, where appearance is famously far and away from essence… It is all chess, the game we love.
White pieces. The 2. Qh5 hijack attack 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 known as the King’s Pawn Game: Wayward Queen Attack
In modern chess, everything is possible. Check the lichess.org’s data below (Jan 2026):
According to the lichess.org Masters database Hikaru Nakamura with white pieces played 2. Qh5 five(!) times: 0-1, ½ – ½ , 0-1, ½ – ½ ,
1-0.
What about lower-level players on lichess?
Below is the famous game, playing against Opening Basics, MAGNUS ALMIGHTY lost to the Uzbekistani NM Shamsiddin Vokhidov. Play this game on lichess.org Analysis board with the engine toggled on!
Experienced chess players begin their games relying on the knowledge they have acquired. Beginners make their first moves based on their own ideas right here and right now. Experienced players avoid creating problems for themselves by making wrong moves at the very beginning of a game, since such problems can turn against them. Beginners know nothing about the existence of those strategic pitfalls so they bravely navigate their games right into the dangerous waters of reckless moves in the very beginning of a game. In the world of beginner chess everything depends on whether their opponent senses the opportunity and finds winning refutations. In the world of experienced chess players, a reckless opening move will almost always be punished. Therefore, experienced chess players prefer to first SET UP their pieces on the board according to all the laws of a particular opening they are playing right now. Both players are watching carefully to see if the opponent makes a mistake and gives an opportunity to seriously damage position or even lose the game right there in the very beginning of the game. If for some reason an experienced player forgets, for example, the story of the Battle of Gaugamela i.e. the notorious f2 (for whites) or f7 (for blacks) weakness and gives an opponent a chance to land a hit, then the hit will most likely be landed…
Training coordinates on LICHESS.ORG (a reminder)
To improve your chess skills, you need to train your concentration. You need to develop the ability to mentally make moves on the chessboard, analyzing your options and your opponent’s responses to your moves just a few moves ahead to avoid missing tactical opportunities. Understanding your capabilities and those of your opponent on the board comes with gaining sufficient practical experience and knowledge.
A sad reminder. You still have little knowledge of chessboard coordinates? Then you can’t learn and play chess.
Type into your browser lichess training coordinates and learn all the hummocks on the swamp.
keywords: lichess coordinates training
Ways of engagement
Your opponent may not be able to use your gift, but you are voluntarily giving him the opportunity to practice it. Garry Kasparov loved to play this system with white pieces as a kid. You can see it on one of those Wikipedia images. Ten-year-old Garry is playing white pieces with the Ausma chess set.
This way of piece development by white can be used for different purposes: (1) fishing in muddy waters; (2) positional play: white avoids tactical clashes in the center of the board; (3) white is waiting for black to start playing active moves in order to intervene and seize the initiative; (4) a primitive misunderstanding, white’s lack of knowledge of what to do and how to play the very first moves of a game with white pieces (fight for the center control!).
One way or another, black can easily equalize at the opening stage and get a comfortable game. White can lose their game initiative given them by the right to play the very first move in a game. Black gets a chance to develop their forces with tons of comfortable lines to play at their disposal.
1. e4 e5
Above are Jan 2026 stats. On the left is the world’s top chess players’ database. On the right is the database of intermediate and advanced level game played on LICHESS.ORG. The White/Draw/Black (wins) percentage of the two databases is different and irrelevant: tons of Lichess.org database games are just a fun bullet and blitz. In the games on the left (the world’s top chess), both opponents knew what they were doing and followed their understanding of the requirements of a particular opening line… The games on the right are full of mistakes from the very beginning of a game. You acknowledge that when you toggle the Stockfish engine (2600+) working while shuffling those games.
Weak (exposed, vulnerable) king
White is +1.3 (1.3 pawn advantage). In the game above, black made a strategic error and doomed himself to a difficult defense. However, in this game, wins a tactically stronger human player. Computer playing on whites will undoubtedly build on its success and crush the computer playing with black pieces in an iron vice: computers do not blunder tactics, they play positional chess.
* **
In the game below the black’s fianchettoed bishop on g7 as the king’s guard is no guard at all but prey, because black’s most valuable pieces (the queen) is hanging undefended on e7 and becomes prey to the attacker because the longest dark-colored diagonal is X-rayed by white’s bishop from b2. If in the diagram below, black’s e7-queen were defended by another friendly piece, white’s tactical hit wouldn’t be a success.
1. e2-e4. “Best by test”. Bobby Fischer. GM David Bronstein reveals dark secrets of 1. e2-e4
Playing black pieces against the white’s 1. e2-24, I always felt, sort of, the unfairness of the situation. White’s pieces pile on the black’s king somehow too easily. I would get the answer only decades later from one of the books written by the chess Magician, the Chess Philosopher David Bronstein (1924 – 2006).
Wikipedia on David Bronstein: … “One of the world’s strongest players from the mid-1940s into the mid-1970s was described by his peers as a creative genius and master of tactics”. David Bronstein, indisputably the strongest chess player never to have won the World Chess Championship gave the answer on the big old question of mine: When a player on whites quickly throws the king’s pawn forward 1. e2-e4, the player on blacks responds with 1… e7-e5 taking a dangerous path… allowing the opponent on whites to drag the opponent on blacks in a close combat in critical for blacks circumstances. … because the chessboard (of the battle) has an axis of symmetry along the equator, and not a transverse axis from camp to camp. So, by responding 1… e7-e5 for white’s 1. e2-e4, black brings into battle not those pieces that are really needed to defend the black’s king, but those that are needed to defend the e5-pawn and the weaknesses that arose in connection with the defense of the given. Meanwhile, white attacks with precisely those forces that can be conveniently regrouped for a future attack on black’s king.
When playing with black pieces, before you respond symmetrically to the white’s 1. e4, you need to know absolutely exactly what you will do after your symmetrical response 1… e5! With your natural symmetry, you have accepted the challenge!
Should a beginner chess player avoid symmetrical response to white’s 1. e4? Absolutely not! Because you would never really learn the game of chess if you avoid the clash after 1. e4 e5 playing with black pieces… before trying the Sicilian Defense (1. e4 c5).
Having a computer at hand, you can argue that the Bronstein’s 1. e4 evil hypothesis is rather an old-chess theorization, the speculations from those distant times when there were no powerful computers, software and GUIs to accommodate everything so there was no clear answer to this question… and you are absolutely right! After 1. e4 e5 white is still only +0.2, the game is equal. These days we know that 1. e4 is no problem for black responding 1… e5, if they know what to do. White’s super-aggressive Italian Game 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 can be met by black’s same aggressive 3… Nf6 (Fried Liver Attack) or the moderate 3… Bc5 (Giuoco Piano). LICHESS.ORG Stockfish is your best friend and best training partner to answer whatever questions as well as improve your skills. In chess, you’re constantly required to make decisions and you can’t avoid responsibility for your decisions. This dilemma is both fascinating and terrifying. This duality is one of the reasons why chess is so appealing and attractive. Stockfish will show you all the moves and position evaluations, databases will provide you example games. But you first need to understand the concepts, and only then memorize the moves. This way, you’ll gain confidence in the decisions you make. Inevitable mistakes and forgetfulness will hinder your progress but fighting all these bogeymen is life itself, anyway. Welcome to the club!
Some of the most popular opening moves
as starters for a beginner player
You have a little idea of your talents and capacity, so I would like to introduce you quite a bunch of information for you to check. Go check the diagrams below and find an opening, which suits you best or you find interesting or you gravitate to.
Just look for what attracts you most right now, what kind of play you gravitate to. Your task is to choose one or several openings that are closest to you as a beginner chess player who has only recently learned how the pieces move. Your sincere self-assessment will tell you your choice. I want you to start playing sensible piece formations as soon as possible, wasting no time on amok chess. I want you to stop looking for squares where you can put your pieces just for fun.
You can check the openings below on LICHESS.ORG’s Analysis board without registration (top menu, TOOLS, Analysis board). There you can find games of grandmasters (Masters database) and local chess players (Lichess database). Go create an account on LICHESS.ORG in order to play the planet Earth and computer-analyze your games.
Black pieces
Scandinavian Defense 1. e4 d5
Considered to be the most directly challenging move available to black after white’s aggressive, grabbing-the-center 1. e4. The general goal of the defense is to prevent white from controlling the center of the board with pawns, effectively forcing an open game, while allowing black to build a strong pawn structure. Very dangerous for both white and black, full of tactical hits. Black can sometimes castle queenside (to the right side of the board) having their rook on the semi-open d-file at one go. The idea of this opening, the style can be compared with the frontal stance in boxing. If you are faster than your opponent (boxing) then it will give you an advantage. (Chess) you are confident in your strength and ready to fight both in the center and on both flanks of the board.
White pieces
Ruy Lopez or Spanish Game (aka Gaugamela Opening)
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5
An Open Game. Bobby Fischer associated the Ruy Lopes with milking the cow: slow building your advantage, maneuvers, etc. Ruy Lopez requires tons of experience and knowledge for both players but recommended for beginner players as it is one of the most popular beginning of a game and it has everything in it a beginner needs to learn. It is one of the oldest openings in chess history, as well. With its aggressive 1. e4, white challenges the black with very dynamic game to deal with. Tons of tactics from both sides. Very dangerous for a beginner on black pieces versus an intermediate player as it lets the white to get the most of their first-move advantage and give an opportunity to orchestrate a push in the center with chances to turn the push into the shove.
Ruy Lopez (or Spanish Game) opens up light-colored diagonals for the white’s queen and bishop and they can be coordinated on aiming the f7, the weakest spot around the black’s king. The white start action at the center of the board claiming control of the main crossroads for their pieces to operate most effectively. In the course of the game played by an experienced player on white pieces versus an intermediate player on black, things could go aggravating for the black.
Let’s check statistics of black’s responses to white’s 1. e2-e4 (lichess players) in the opening explorer
1… e5 (black’s response to white’s 1. e4) have been played in 40% of 1 491 633 690 games on LICHESS.ORG. White won 51% of games; 45% of games won by black.
1… c5 was played in 18% of games on LICHESS.ORG. White won 48% of game; black won 48% of games… and so on. I hovered over the light-colored bar saying 48% and found out that average rating of players responded with the Sicilian Defense (1… c5) to white’s 1. e4 is 1754 compared to 1541 for 1… e5. Stronger chess players (Masters database below) love Sicilian Defense more than intermediate and advanced ranks because Sicilian Defense creates imbalanced and dynamic positions with dangerous counterattacks against white’s 1. e4.
Now let’s check the Masters database
Grandmasters love Sicilian Defense (an Open Game). Once you scroll down both Databases you find example games with their ratings.
Saving your opening ideas and studies on LICHESS.ORG
***
By 1. e4 white claims for the control of the center of the board, it does tons of jobs you can see and remember if you take your time on absorbing the lousy image above.
The aggressive 1. e4 by white is the invitation to the famous Ruy Lopes (an Open Game) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6…
Closed Game, Open Game, Semi-Open game as your starters
Hundreds of chess openings are classified into five groups in the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings (ECO):
Volume A: Flank openings
Volume B: Semi-Open Games other than the French Defense
Volume C: Open Games and the French Defense
Volume D: Closed Games and Semi-Closed Games
Volume E: Indian Defenses (Semi-Closed Games, other than Grunfeld Defense and Old Indian Defense
A Closed Game and a Semi-Open Game (volume D) offer shut-down center with locked up pawns in the center. It leads to a slow development, positional chess with solid positions for black and less quick-kill schemes for white unless black runs into a trap. It often starts with 1. d4 d5. On the list there are London System setups, Queen’s Gambit Declined, Slav Defense, French Defense, King’s Indian Defense (KID), Nimzo-Indian Defense…
On the other hand there are Open Games offering quick actions, tactical battles and tons of opportunities for both white and black. It is up to you which type of a game to play but as a beginner you shouldn’t avoid dangers Open Games, otherwise you will never learn dynamics of chess, you will never learn close combat chess, street-fight chess…
How do you know what opening you are playing while widely moving pieces on the Analysis board? You can see it on the right from the board. Position evaluation is at your disposal on the top right (+0.2 on this screenshot).
1 Name of the Opening is being played on the board after 1. e4 e6 2. Nf3.
2 Masters database to check games with those moves. Games of the chess elite played in tournaments and matches.
3 Lichess’ players database. Games played on lichess.
4 Popular moves to play in this particular Opening. You can see them by scrolling them down (5)
5 Scroll it down to see statistics and learn ideas from tons of games(!) played employing this particular Opening.
6 Opening Explorer’s settings menu. It allows you to customize database filters, such as selecting specific rating ranges, time controls, and player levels for the Lichess database, or to toggle between the Masters and Lichess databases.
7 Opening explorer& tablebase. The integrated analysis tools providing insights from games and Syzygy endgame tablebases.
8 Practice with computer. It is your tool for testing openings, analyzing middlegame plans, or practicing endgames.
9 Menu. Click to toggle features such as analysis tools and configuration options.
10 Show threat. It is on display when Analysis is active. Displays red arrows highlighting opponent’s best response.
A beginner chess player can simply use Lichess tools to analyze their games and, most importantly, to gain confidence in the openings they choose for White and Black. These tools will help you both find surprises for your opponents and counter those of your opponents.