Before suggesting an opening let's first talk about what a beginner needs.

There is no expert in the world that will tell you that a beginner needs to study openings , if you find one , he is no expert.Beginners need to understand how to think and they need to study end-game and middle-game.

But there is a problem.Study alone isn't enough, they need games and every game starts from the opening.To gain an experience in middle game it is necessary to learn to survive on the opening and that is easier said than done.

I have won countless games against beginners without even thinking because of opening traps.Especially 1.e4 is a nightmare.It was for me so I bet it is for most of you.

This is highly controversial.You have to survive the opening without studying it.Is it possible?It is possible if you play clever avoiding highly analysed openings.

And now the questions start , let me answer them before you do them.

"But highly analysed openings are the good openings.Right?"

Wrong!!!Highly analysed openings are the complicated openings not the best openings.

"But these are the openings Kasparov played so they must be the best openings".

What Kasparov or anyone else played should be the least of your concerns right now.Kasparov's needs are not the same as your needs(not even close).Kasparov understands perfectly every aspect of the game so he needs highly complicated openings to demonstrate his ability to handle every kind of position better than his opponents.He also needs complicated positions to expolit his ability his ability to calculate far ahead in chaotic positions.But Kasparov and all great players started from simple openings and simple lines.They didn't born playing Najdorf or King's Indian defense.

"Ok , I will avoid everything thast is not complicated, how about 1.b3?It's simple and not highly analysed".True , it is simple , with no traps at all and no need of memorisation of long complicated lines.But(in chess you are going to see this word a lot) you need openings that produce reach in strategic concepts positions.You need to understand chess and not the opening.The opening should be only the bridge that will transfer youto middlegame safely, nothing more.

"So if I play 1.b3 Iwon't understand chess".You will but in a slower rate and with significant gaps in your chess knowledge that ultimately will kick in forcing you to change to more rich openings.

We reached a conclusion:

We need safe and easy to learn openings that produce positions that will help you understand the important concepts of chess as fast as possible.

That is what we will try to do.It must be noted here that these are not my suggestions.It's Botvinnik's suggestions and that must mean a lot since he is the best teacher ever appeared in this part of the Galaxy.

These openings were suggested by Petar Trifunovic(he was the coach of Greek Chess team) in a series of lectures he gave for young talents(yes, I was once a talent, no laughs please).Needless to say that I was a Raider(rookie) of the Lost Ark(perfect opening) back then and Trifunovich helped me to understand that I was looking in the wrong direction.

Having kept these lectures I will just share them with you.My only interference is that I enriched them with some more modern examples from tournaments.

It must be noted that the instructive value of these openings is priceless.Once "mastering" the positions they produce you will realise that moving to more complicated openings is surprisingly easy.Also the "transformation" chances are countless as there are a lot of "Descendant systems"(as Trifunovich used to call them) that you will easily understand once you understand the "Ancestor or Father system".

p.s.1 I want to remind everyone that when I say beginners I don't mean to insult anyone and I mean those who feel beginners.I don't regard myself as an expert but I had the luck of having more serious training from very high level teachers.My only aim is to share that with you.

p.s.2 Please keep this forum "clean" from questions or any other post.I will open a forum for opening questions.

Tottenham Hotspur FC.

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