How to Develop Your Pieces: 7 Chess Opening Principles
· Strategy
Development means bringing your pieces from their starting squares to places where they work. It is the most useful idea a beginner can learn, because most quick losses come from the same cause: one player has all their pieces in the game, and the other still has theirs at home.
You do not need to memorise long lines to get this right. These seven principles will give you a good position against almost anything, and they explain why the famous chess openings are played the way they are.
1. Put a pawn in the centre
The four central squares, d4, d5, e4 and e5, are the most valuable on the board. A piece in the middle reaches more squares than a piece at the edge, and a pawn on a central square also opens lines for your queen and a bishop. That is why 1.e4 and 1.d4 are the most popular first moves in chess.
2. Develop knights and bishops first
Your knights and bishops are ready to come out early, and they are the pieces to move first. Your rooks need open lines that do not exist yet, and your queen is too valuable to send out alone. A sound aim is to bring out all four minor pieces in your first eight or so moves.
e4 e5 Nf3 Nc6 Bc4 Bc5. The Italian Game. Both players have taken a central square and brought out a knight and a bishop, and both are ready to castle after only three moves.
Notice how each of those moves does more than one job. The knight on f3 develops a piece and attacks the pawn on e5. The knight on c6 develops a piece and defends that pawn. Look for moves like these. You can see this position and its variations on the Italian Game page.
3. Move each piece once
Each move in the opening is a chance to bring another piece into play. If you move the same knight three times, your other pieces are still waiting, and your opponent has had two free moves. Move a piece twice only when you have a real reason, for example to win material or to save a piece under attack.
4. Do not bring your queen out early
The queen is your strongest piece, and that is the problem. Any lesser piece that attacks her forces her to move, so your opponent develops with tempo while you lose time. Here is a typical example:
e4 e5 Qh5 Nc6 Bc4 g6 Qf3 Nf6. White threatened mate on f7 and Black defended calmly. White's queen has now moved twice, and Black has two knights in play.
Early queen attacks like this catch beginners, so it is worth knowing how to meet them. Answer the threat, then carry on developing with gain of time.
5. Castle early
Castling does two jobs in one move: it takes your king away from the open centre and brings a rook towards it. As soon as pawns start to be exchanged in the middle, a king left on e1 or e8 becomes a target. Strong players usually castle within the first ten or twelve moves.
e4 e5 Nf3 Nc6 Bc4 Nf6 O-O. White has developed two pieces and castled by move four. The king is safe and the rook on f1 is ready to come to the centre.
6. Connect your rooks
Your development is finished when your rooks can see each other along the back rank, with no pieces between them. To get there, move your queen a modest distance, often just one or two squares. Then place your rooks on files that are open or likely to open. A rook behind pawns that have not moved does very little.
7. Do not grab pawns at the cost of development
A free pawn is worth taking if it really is free. It is often not free when you still have several pieces at home, because your opponent uses the time you spent to start an attack. Before you take, ask two questions: what does my opponent get to do next, and how many of my pieces are playing?
Common development mistakes
- Too many pawn moves. Each one may look useful, but pawns cannot move back, and the pieces behind them still need to come out.
- Blocking your own pawns. A bishop on d3 in front of a pawn on d2 shuts in the other bishop on c1.
- Knights on the edge. A knight on a3 or h3 reaches far fewer squares than one on c3 or f3.
- Leaving the king in the centre. One open file is sometimes all your opponent needs.
- Moving without a purpose. If you cannot say what a move does, look for one that brings another piece into the game.
How to practise
Pick one opening and play it repeatedly until the plans feel natural. On Pawn&Queen you can browse the openings and practise any of them against the computer, then play the computer at your level. Afterwards, go over your games and count how many moves it took you to bring out all your pieces. If your opponent got there first, you have found the first thing to improve.
These principles work in variants too. Even when your king moves like a different piece in Gangster King, the player with more pieces in the game usually wins.
Frequently asked questions
What does development mean in chess?
It means moving your pieces off their starting squares to squares where they control space and can work together, usually in the first ten or so moves.
Should knights come out before bishops?
Often, because a knight's best squares are usually clear early on, while a bishop's best diagonal depends on where the pawns end up. It is a good guide and not a strict rule: in the Italian Game above, Black could also have played the bishop move sooner.
When is it right to break these principles?
When you can see a concrete reason, such as winning material or stopping a threat. Principles tell you what to do when nothing tactical is happening, so always check for captures and threats first.