Which opening to learn first

Hi all,

I am new to chess and have played a few games. I know how pieces move and can defend my pieces who are in direct attack by any other piece. I have heard that I should learn new openings but which one should I start with and what should be the order ?

Also if anyone has any other tips for me, I'm open to suggestions

After 2000 games mainly with white moving to e4 I'd suggest that's a good one. It's the most common, with E5 the most common response. It leads to an active open game usually. It's a double edge sword as most of your opponents use it as a mainstay however through e4 you can build solid foundations in all aspects. If your just starting out forget about your rating and treat every game win or lose as an opportunity to analyse what goes well, what doesn't and importantly why winning positions are created either side. For context I'm just now starting to explore a different black opening for any other white move than e4 , it's called kings Indian. It's confusing the hell out of me and I seem to get myself tideon knots however

Any new paths will give chall nges. I still enjoy e4 with white , and likely will open thousands of games with it still, the scope for variation from single openings is massive.

Chess Openings Resources for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/openings-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

Any opening except for the wayward Queen attack.

Just stop bringing your Queen out on move 2.

Well, welcome to the game! There are different ways of looking at openings. One way is to learn theory, that is, to try and remember long lines of moves that the best players of the game recommend as being best. The other way is to play a good opening by following a certain set of opening principles. I've always taught my students to go for the last option. In fact, applying opening principles well should be good enough for players even up to 2000-2200 rating. It's mainly the way I still play too. I'll address why learning theory isn't the way to go later. 

So what are these opening principles and how to use them? The opening principles are about controlling the center: this is the 4 squares that are directly in the center of the board (e4-e5; d4-d5). These squares are important because most pieces in the center of the board can do much more there than to the edge of the board. You can see this easily if you pick up a knight and put it in the corner first and then in the center. You'll see that a knight in the corner has much fewer squares to go to than a knight in the center. A knight in the center is also much more likely to be close to the action, wherever it is on the board, whereas a knight on the edge might be way too far away to have any impact. Bishops and queens also get a boost from being in the center, while rooks don't. They operate just as well from our last rank. That's why you would rarely see a rook leading the charge. So, clearly, that center of the board is the most important part of a chess board. 

The problem with just putting pieces in the center, though, is that your opponent can kick out your pieces with their pawns. That's why it's no good to open your games by just putting as many pieces in the center. 

So the first opening principle is to occupy the center with your pawns. That's why 1. e4 and 1. d4 are by far the most played opening moves. Ideally, white would love to play both these moves and really occupy the whole center. Then later he can move 1 pawn up a bit more, so that you create a safe square behind the pawn to put one of your pieces in (that's the whole goal of having the center after all). Black wants to prevent white from getting the e4 and d4 pawn center. The first few moves of a chess game often involve this battle. For example, white can start with 1. e4 and black responds with 1. ...c5, preventing white from playing d4 too.

Sometimes you will see players with black giving white the e4 and d4 center after all. This is a more advanced way of playing. This can only be done if black immediately tries to break up the e4-d4 pawn center afterwards. If black waits, it's usually just much better for white. An example is: 1. e4, e6; 2. d4 (success!), ... d5 (immediately attacking the e4-d4 pawn center). I don't recommend playing in this advanced way just yet. Just make a pawn move on move 1 that will prevent white from getting the other pawn in the center too. 

To recap: the first opening principle is to get control over the center with a pawn. White's goals is to get e4 and d4 in the center, black wants to prevent white from getting this center (and if he fails, he needs to attack it immediately). This is the first thing you do in the opening and in the moves after it, you should still be on the lookout for possibilities of white getting the e4-d4 center.

After the first 2 moves getting a pawn to control the center, you need to develop your pieces, that is: you need to move them off their original squares. The goal is to develop all of them, preferably towards the center of the board. The more to the center of the board they are developed, the better they will be later on, so don't keep your pieces behind (with black this is more acceptable, but you should still try and get them out towards the center as much as you can). You need that pawn in the center, as this will prevent your opponent from harassing your pieces with their pawns. 

It's extremely important to develop all of your pieces and to do so as fast as you can. That means that in principle you only move every piece once, up until you've developed all of your pieces. Of course, if your piece is under attack, you have to move it. But you shouldn't go for an early attack with a piece that you've already developed. Just focus on the undeveloped pieces first. That also means that you have to watch out with every move you play. If you play a pawn move or develop a piece to a certain square, always ask yourself: what does this mean to the other pieces I haven't developed yet? If it means that they can't be developed easily, try and find a better solution that will make it easy for the other pieces to be developed too. Don't get your pieces and pawns in the way of your other pieces. Lastly, make sure you don't develop your queen too soon. 

To recap: the second opening principle is to get your pieces out as quickly as you can. Aim them towards the center. Play with each piece only once when you still have other pieces to develop and make sure that every move you make doesn't get in the way of your other pieces. 

The third opening principle is to get your king safe. Because the center of the board is often where your pawns will be advanced and because the center is so important to battle over, lines open quickly in the center. You don't want to have your king in the center when this happens, it's too unsafe. That's why you should try to get your king safe as fast as possible. Getting your king safe means that you'll castle. It doesn't matter really which way, although castling kingside is quicker (there's only 2 pieces that need to get out of the way first opposed to 3 towards the queenside). Castling also gets your rooks into the game. In the sense of developing your pieces, I would consider castling purely a king-move. Your rook usually still needs to be brought into the game after castling, unless it lands on an open file or you castle queenside. 

To recap: the third opening principle is to castle. This gets your king safe and gets the rook into play. Usually the rook will still need to be developed further according to the 2nd principle. 

These 3 opening principles are all that you need to play a good looking opening. Usually the game starts out with trying to achieve the 1st opening principle, and the 3rd you do as fast as you can. For the rest it's just following the 2nd principle. It doesn't mean, however, that the 1st opening principle isn't important anymore after the first few moves. If you can find a way for white to get the e4-d4 center a little bit later on anyway, it's likely a good idea to try (even if that delays your development a bit). 

Of course it is also important to not give away any material. That means you should defend your pawns when they get attacked. Sometimes a player will part with a pawn willingly, to try and be the first with multiple pieces out, but that's pretty advanced play. Also it means that you shouldn't fall into opening traps. There are 2 ways to learn opening traps: let them happen to you once or twice and then remember or actively look online for traps that you can find. That's the only reasonable study you could do about the opening right now, where the focus should be on getting the opening traps that could happen in your openings and then trying to prevent them from happening. 

When you play the opening based on opening principles, you don't have to learn theory. There are a few reasons why studying theory isn't something lower rated players (even up to 2000-2200) have to do. Firstly, if you play by opening principles, you'll usually be playing the theoretical moves anyway. Strong players don't do anything that special the first 6-7 moves. Their moves are all based on the 3 opening principles. Opening theory usually 'starts' at move 12 or later. Secondly, you and your opponent might have learnt a specific line of moves to play, but the moment either one of you plays a different move, you'll be out on your own. That's where you won't have any problem if you follow the opening principles, but won't know what to do if you just learn moves by heart. Thirdly, learning theory is a lot of dull work, as it would mean cramming tons of lines into your head. Fourthly, even pretty good players might not understand why a certain move is made in an opening. That means you might not understand the position you end up in and won't know what to do. That's likely much worse for you than a move based on opening principles that you would understand. And lastly, opening theory aims to get a small advantage for white, while black tries to get an equal game. In lower rated games, the advantage will swing much more by blunders than the small advantage that could be gained if you executed opening theory perfectly. 

I hope this post helps you to get a better understanding of the opening. Don't worry too much about studying the opening, as this is a mistake too many people make. It's much better to play with opening principles and focus your attention on training your tactics and learning a little bit about the middlegame if your aim is to get better at this game. 

@1

"I have heard that I should learn new openings"
++ No, you should not. Just play and analyse your lost games.
Always play the same openings so as to accumulate experience.

"what should be the order ?"
++ A) a defence for black against 1 e4, B) for black against 1 d4, C) an opening for white

"which one should I start with"
++ Simplest and best for beginners as well as World Championship Candidates:
A) 1 e4 e5 B) 2 d4 d5 C) 1 e4

The Scholar's mate and the Wayward Queen - Patzer opening. I've met people who call themselves intermediate, without knowing those openings. I kicked their asses quickly.