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Chess Opening Principles - Master the Fundamentals with a GM
Rating: 4.6 out of 5(475 ratings)
5,609 students

Chess Opening Principles - Master the Fundamentals with a GM

The #1 Course Every Beginner Should Start With
Last updated 10/2023
English

What you'll learn

  • The three main opening principles you should follow.
  • Why the commonly given opening advice to “castle early” is not a good idea.
  • The four most common mistakes made by beginners in the opening.
  • The philosophy behind chess openings and gambits.
  • Which are the two weak squares at the start of the game.
  • How to punish your opponents when they deviate from opening principles, and much more…

Course content

1 section36 lectures1h 51m total length
  • Introduction1:53
  • The ultimate goal in chess0:52
  • Story of my friend2:10
  • What are the best squares for the pieces3:28
  • The center and the downtown4:31
  • 3 best setups6:06
  • Example 19:46
  • Example 27:30
  • The two principles0:31
  • Don't bring your Queen out early3:39
  • The exception3:18
  • Don’t move the pieces twice4:48
  • Just follow the principles7:04

    Apply opening principles by avoiding moving the same piece twice to grab the center; develop pieces, castle, and open lines to threaten the king, as demonstrated in the Scotch Game.

  • Egoistic development1:48
  • Senseless moves with pawns2:18
  • What we've learned so far0:35
  • The unequal value of pawns1:10
  • The philosophies of the openings5:41

    Master how openings develop pieces and fight for the center across major lines, from the Petroff Defense and Sicilian to the Queen's Gambit, Italian Game, Scandinavian, French Defence, and Nimzo-Indian.

  • The ideas of gambits2:26
  • Why "Castle early" is bad advice0:40
  • Castling1:21
  • A trick for winning a tempo5:15
  • When to castle opposite side1:32

    Castle opposite side to unleash a pawn push against the king, using a central advantage for space and piece development, and coordinate g4, h4, and f5 for a strong attack.

  • Don't castle just for castling3:31
  • The King in the center2:53
  • The takeaways0:31

    Master the third principle: take care of your king by evaluating castling, avoiding early castling, and using long castling to gain tempo when it improves king safety.

  • The worst move1:40
  • The Knight sacrifice on move 3!8:32
  • A common mistake beginners make2:06
  • What about f4 move?2:06
  • f2 and f7 weaknesses4:13
  • c2 and c7 weaknesses2:24
  • Summary1:07
  • Congratulations!1:02
  • Your next move2:11
  • See you soon? :)0:29

Requirements

  • Knowing chess rules
  • Enthusiasm and love for this beautiful game
  • Have a good mood

Description

ACTUAL STUDENT REVIEWS

“An invaluable resource for players new to the game, as well as the more experienced ones just wanting to fill in any gaps regarding their Opening fundamentals.” - Kevin Denny

“The best basic chess lesson I've seen online!” - Dave Browne

“Terrific. Gets straight to the core instruction that early-stage players need. Best I have experienced on the topic of 'openings'.” - Roland Kennedy

“Excellent course, clear and concise explanations with examples. A must course for beginners and possible intermediate players.” - Johnathan San

“This course has helped me so much with my openings. I am a beginner and only have a rating of 300. I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn how to start a game of chess.“ - Sam Baker

These are just a few of the hundreds of reviews I’ve received since publishing this course on my website.
And now, I’m very excited to share it with you on Udemy.

WHY DO 99% OF CHESS LOVERS HIT A PLATEU VERY QUICKLY?

During my journey to the Grandmaster Title and subsequent coaching over 10 years, I observed that one of the most common mistakes beginners make, and about 99,9% of them make it, is diving into openings without understanding the opening principles.

As a result, they memorize move sequences but lack a profound understanding of what they’re fighting for and the purpose of their moves. Not surprisingly, when their opponent deviates from the scripted moves (which happens frequently), they have no clue what to do next.

“After watching these videos, I realized how silly my openings were.” - Anirudh Gazelli

THE WAY INTO THE 1%

Conversely, when you deeply understand the opening philosophy, the objectives of the opening phase, optimal piece development, critical squares, castling decisions, and more, you’ll understand any opening you’ll learn in the future much easier. You’ll know how to punish your opponent's mistakes, and you’ll never be like, “Hm.. what’s next?”

With strong fundamentals, you’ll be able to go much higher than anyone, who skipped this important step and quite soon found themselves hitting a plateau.

As Michael Jordan said, "Get the fundamentals down, and the level of everything you do will rise."

HOW I’LL HELP YOU BUILD YOUR FUNDAMENTALS FUNDAMENTALLY

In this course, I’ll take you on a journey to build a solid foundation of opening principles, so that, based on it, whatever openings you learn in the future, you’ll understand it better and learn more easily.

If you're already familiar with some openings but lack a solid grasp of the underlying principles, no worries – we'll fill in those gaps.

“I've been playing chess for a couple of years and was aware of the opening principles, but this really went to the next level in cementing them!” - Matt Teer

“This was incredibly helpful. There were several principles I already used, but I did not know why. This was the first course that actually explained the reason why very well. Thank you!” - Aaron Chapman

The good news is mastering these opening principles will be very easy. They’re not numerous, and they are very logical.

At the end of the course, I’ll also recommend resources where you can learn strong and data-proven openings for White and Black.

But first, let's learn the fundamentals fundamentally.

See you inside the course :)

With best wishes and love,
International Chess Grandmaster,
Avetik Grigoryan


Who this course is for:

  • For beginners and intermediate players who lack of knowledge of opening principles
  • This course is NOT intended for titled players with a rating exceeding 2,000, but they still can refresh their knowledge and see things from other perspectives