So you have a lot of time during this coronavirus pandemic, and you decided you wanted to improve your chess games. Great! Now where do you start?
If you said you needed to memorise a lot of opening theory, perhaps think again. First and foremost, brush up on your chess principles. Things like what to do in the opening (develop your pieces and safely castle!), what to do in the endgame (activate your king!), etc.
Only once you master the principles should you think about learning some openings, but I recommend you start out slow.
What do I mean by this? Learn a few openings and play it over and over again. Don't go learning about the Ruy Lopez then the Queen's gambit then the Reti opening, stick to as few as possible! Below is what I like to play.
99% of the time, when playing with white, I will play 1. d4 followed by 2. Nf3. I never, ever play 1. e4 (King's pawn opening) or 1. Nf3 (Reti opening). Why? Because e4 and Nf3 often leads to a very long theoretical struggle, and I just haven't managed to learn the theory yet. Against e4, black has many responses including Petrov's defence, Berlin defence, Giuoco Piano, Morphy's defence against the Ruy Lopez, Scandinavian defence, Sicilian defence, etc. Better stick with an opening with far fewer replies - 1. d4 is usually met by 1... d5 or 1...Nf6, and my response will always stay the same.
When playing as black, you should have a solid opening for at least 1. e4 and 1. d4 by your opponent. Against e4, I like to go for the Sicilian defence. Against this defence, white can go for many options including the Closed Sicilian, the Alapin Variation and most commonly, the Open Sicilian. Against the Open Sicilian, Black can go for multiple variations which including the Najdorf, Dragon, Sveshnikov (B33), Taimanov (B46), and more. This opening is one of the most solid openings against 1. e4 and to quote Agadmator himself, if you need to win with the black pieces, you go for the Sicilian
