The Best Chess Openings to Learn First
Eight openings worth your time, in the order they repay it - each one with the reason it is on the list and a board you play it on.
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Nobody can hand you the best opening in chess, because the strongest move order in the world is worthless in the hands of someone who does not know what it is for. What can be ranked is how much an opening teaches per move learned, how many of your games it covers, and how much memorisation it charges you for the privilege. That is the order below: the openings that give the most back first, from a three-move classic that explains itself to two heavyweights worth growing into. Every entry links a page where you play the line yourself against a board that answers.
| Opening | First moves | ECO | Best for | Style | Theory | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Italian Game | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 | C50 | White | Balanced | Light | Beginner |
| Sicilian Defence | 1. e4 c5 | B20 | Black | Aggressive | Heavy | Intermediate |
| Queen's Gambit | 1. d4 d5 2. c4 | D06 | White | Positional | Moderate | Beginner |
| London System | 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4 | D02 | White | Solid | Light | Beginner |
| Caro-Kann Defence | 1. e4 c6 | B12 | Black | Solid | Light | Beginner |
| Ruy Lopez | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 | C60 | White | Positional | Heavy | Intermediate |
| Scotch Game | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 | C45 | White | Aggressive | Light | Beginner |
| King's Indian Defence | 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 | E61 | Black | Aggressive | Heavy | Advanced |
Italian Game
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4WhiteBalancedLightBeginnerNothing else teaches this much in three moves. Pawn to the centre, knight at the centre, bishop aimed at f7 - the Italian is the opening principles turned into concrete moves, which is why it has been the first opening taught for four hundred years. It costs almost no memorisation and still reaches positions grandmasters play, and the plans it gives you (the c3 and d4 centre, the pressure on f7) turn up in half the other openings on this list.
Play this openingSicilian Defence
1. e4 c5BlackAggressiveHeavyIntermediateThe most played answer to 1.e4 at every level from club to world championship, and the only one that fights for the win from move one rather than for equality. Trading a wing pawn for a centre pawn leaves the two sides with different pawn structures and different plans, which is exactly what a player who hates draws wants. It is also the heaviest theory on this list, so take it as the defence you grow into.
Play this openingQueen's Gambit
1. d4 d5 2. c4WhitePositionalModerateBeginnerThe most principled way to open with 1.d4: offer a pawn on the wing to own the centre, and win it back with interest if Black tries to keep it. It is not really a gambit at all, which is the first thing it teaches - c4 cannot be defended. Almost every 1.d4 game in history starts here, so learning it opens the whole closed half of chess.
Play this openingLondon System
1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4WhiteSolidLightBeginnerThe one opening here you can learn in an evening. The bishop comes out to f4 before it can be shut in, the same six-move setup goes up against nearly anything Black builds, and the plans stay the same game after game. That is a rare and honest trade: you give up the chance to punish an opponent's move order, and in exchange you never leave your own preparation.
Play this openingCaro-Kann Defence
1. e4 c6BlackSolidLightBeginnerThe solid defence that does not pay the French's price. Supporting the ...d5 push with the c-pawn instead of the e-pawn leaves the light-squared bishop free to leave the pawn chain before it is locked in, which is the single most common complaint beginners have about a solid defence. Few forcing lines, few disasters, and a structure that keeps making sense into the endgame.
Play this openingRuy Lopez
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5WhitePositionalHeavyIntermediateThe deepest opening a club player can genuinely play. Bb5 does not attack a pawn, it attacks the piece defending one - a question about the e5-pawn that Black spends the whole game answering. It costs more theory than the Italian and gives back more: a century of model games, plans on both wings, and structures that teach you what a good bishop actually is.
Play this openingScotch Game
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4WhiteAggressiveLightBeginnerThe shortcut to a real game of chess. 3.d4 opens the centre immediately, the pieces come out with tempo, and by move six both sides are playing chess rather than reciting it. Perfect if you like the Italian's classical development but would rather not learn what to do against the Two Knights, the Hungarian and the Evans all at once.
Play this openingKing's Indian Defence
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3BlackAggressiveHeavyAdvancedFor the player who wants to attack with the black pieces. You hand White the big centre on purpose, fianchetto, castle, and then throw the kingside pawns at a king while White breaks through on the other wing - two races, one board. It demands more understanding than any other entry here, and it wins more games than any other entry here when the understanding arrives.
Play this opening
The honest summary is that any of these eight will do, and the wrong one is whichever you memorise without understanding. Pick the one whose description made you want to play it, open its page, and play the line against the board - the moves stop being a list somewhere around the third repetition.
Common questions
- What is the best chess opening for beginners?
- The Italian Game for White and the Caro-Kann or the Scandinavian for Black, for the same reason: all three are built out of the opening principles rather than out of memorised sequences, so every move you play has a reason you can state. Beginners lose games to hanging pieces and missed tactics, not to opening theory, and an opening whose ideas you understand leaves you room to see them.
- What is the best first move in chess?
- 1.e4 and 1.d4 are the two best, and engines rate them within a hair of each other. 1.e4 opens lines immediately and leads to sharper, more tactical games - which is why it is usually recommended first, since tactics is what improving players need reps in. 1.d4 leads to slower positions where a plan matters more than a calculation. 1.c4 and 1.Nf3 are perfectly sound and simply reach the same places by another road.
- How many openings do I need to know?
- One as White and one against each of White's two main first moves - three lines in total, and they cover every game you will ever play. What varies is depth, not breadth: knowing the first eight moves of the Italian, the plan behind them and the two traps in it beats knowing the first three moves of twelve openings, because the eighth move is where the game actually starts.
- Should I learn openings or tactics first?
- Tactics, by a distance - most games below 1500 are decided by a hanging piece or a missed fork, not by move ten of a main line. The reason to learn one opening anyway is that it gets you to move ten with a playable position and pieces on useful squares, which is what gives the tactics somewhere to happen. Learn one opening properly, then spend the rest of your time on patterns.
