The Best Chess Openings for Beginners (And Why Memorizing Lines Is a Trap)

"What's the best opening for beginners?" is one of the most searched questions in chess — and one of the most misunderstood. The answer most people are hoping for is a name: "Play the Italian Game" or "Learn the London System." The real answer is more nuanced and far more useful.

Why Opening Choice Matters Less Than You Think

At under 1200 Elo, the opening is almost never why you lose. Here's what a typical sub-1200 game actually looks like:

1. Both players emerge from the opening reasonably well
2. One player makes a tactical blunder in the middlegame
3. That player loses material and eventually the game

The player who won rarely won because of their opening. They won because their opponent hung a piece.

Opening preparation is valuable — but it becomes valuable once you've already developed decent tactical vision and game sense. Before that, focusing on opening memorization is putting the cart before the horse.

What Beginner Openings Actually Need to Do

Instead of looking for the "best" opening, look for openings that:

1. Follow basic principles automatically — control the center, develop pieces, allow castling
2. Lead to positions you understand — simple, logical structures rather than sharp theoretical battlegrounds
3. Are easy to recover from — if you forget a move, you shouldn't be immediately lost

With those criteria, here are the best opening choices for beginners.

Best Openings for White

The Italian Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4)

The Italian Game is the most recommended beginner opening for good reason:

• It develops a knight and bishop in the first three moves
• It targets the weak f7 square with the bishop (teaching attacking ideas)
• The resulting middlegames are logical and reward principled play
• There's no forced memorization — understanding the ideas is enough

The Giuoco Piano (4.c3 d6) and Evans Gambit (4.b4) are interesting continuations to explore once comfortable with the basics.

The London System (1.d4 + 2.Nf3 + 3.Bf4)

The London is a solid, low-theory choice that's become extremely popular:

• Nearly the same setup against any Black response
• Develops all minor pieces to good squares naturally
• Avoids sharp theoretical lines
• Easy to learn because the plan is almost always the same

The downside: it can lead to passive positions if you're not careful. But for a beginner who wants predictable, easy-to-navigate positions, the London is excellent.

Best Openings for Black

Against 1.e4: The Caro-Kann (1...c6)

The Caro-Kann is one of the most solid responses to 1.e4:

• Black plays ...d5 next move, immediately contesting the center
• The light-squared bishop develops outside the pawn chain (avoiding the problem of a "bad bishop")
• Leads to sound, structured positions

It's slightly less common than 1...e5 but arguably easier for beginners because the positions are less double-edged.

Against 1.e4: 1...e5 (The Open Game)

Simply matching 1.e4 with 1...e5 is perfectly sound and leads to rich, instructive positions. The Ruy Lopez, Italian Game, and Scotch Game all arise from this, and studying these classic openings teaches fundamental chess ideas.

Against 1.d4: The Queen's Gambit Declined (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6)

Solid, classical, and used by world champions for over a century. The QGD teaches proper central defense and piece coordination. The structures are logical and the positions reward understanding over memorization.

The Trap: Memorizing Lines Instead of Understanding Ideas

Here's the mistake beginners make constantly: they watch an opening tutorial, memorize 10–12 moves, and go into games trying to "play the opening." When their opponent deviates (which happens on move 3 half the time), they have no idea what to do.

The fix: learn the ideas, not the moves.

For every opening you study, be able to answer:

• What is the plan for my pieces?
• What weaknesses am I trying to create?
• What pawn structure am I aiming for?
• What should I do if my opponent deviates?

If you can answer these questions, you'll navigate the opening well even when your opponent plays something unexpected.

Learning Openings Through Play

One of the best ways to internalize opening principles is to play practice games with engine feedback enabled — so when you deviate from the best move, you immediately see what the engine recommends.

ChessSolve shows real-time Stockfish arrows on your board as you play on Chess.com or Lichess. When you play a dubious opening move, the arrow to the better square appears instantly — not hours later in a review session. Over time, this live feedback trains opening instincts that stick.

A Simple Opening Repertoire for Beginners

Learn these three, understand the ideas behind them, and you'll have a solid opening foundation that won't hold you back at any level below 1400 Elo.

The "best opening" is the one you understand. Don't chase novelties or copy the lines of players 1000 rating points above you. Build a simple repertoire, focus on principles over memorization, and invest your study time in tactics — that's where the real rating points are hiding.