Chess Basics: Beginners guide to opening moves in chess

Chess is a mind game. It is also the only game where there is no room for luck or chance. You determine the fate of the game by your moves and nobody can change the result of the game other than you. So it is essential that you adopt some basic opening principles of the game, especially related to chess, so that you can have a better chess strategy against the opponent.

Hereunder, I present the general principles or thumb rules which every chess player needs to bear in mind if he or she has to become an expert in the field

1. Develop as quickly as possible.
2. Occupy the center.
3. Have a general plan.
4. Control the center.
5. Prevent opponent from reaching his objective.
There is possibly another rule, although I would consider it more of an unwritten rule because of its being self-evident. That final rule being 'do moves that succeed in as many of the other rules as possible.' I think that the rules may need some clarification so I'll give a basic understanding of each rule.
What does it mean for a piece to be developed? Does it mean if the piece has been moved it is developed? If a knight is moved from c1-b3-a1 the knight has moved, but is it developed? Another definition I have heard is if the piece is in front of pawns it is developed. However, most chess players have seen something called 'fianchetto', meaning that the pawn in front of the where the knight starts is moved allowing the bishop to move one square, placing it on a long diagonal. In that case the bishop is still behind pawns in a sense. To me, being developed means that the piece has more squares to move to, and thus is more powerful than where it was originally placed, while allowing the rooks to enter to game. Although, none of these definitions quite suit the meaning of what it is to be developed, hopefully the reader, after having read them, may grasp his/her own meaning.

The center is the 4 squares in the center of the board (if you cannot imagine a board without one I'm sorry) and normally the 12 squares surrounding them. If a piece is in those squares, and we pretend it is the only piece on the board, the piece has more squares to move to. Well, okay the rook has the same number of squares no mater where it is and the king doesn't need to be within that area to have full power, but the rook is generally not shoved into the center as a general rule, mainly because the opponent's bishops and knights will attack it, because there's a basic point system based on the general effectiveness of the pieces. Each piece is worth so many pawns, knight 3, bishop 3 or 3.5, rook 5, queen 9, and king=checkmate. Again, that rule is general, it is not always correct according to the position, sometimes a knight is better than a rook sometimes a pawn or 2 are as good as or better than a bishop, knight, or rook.

Even if you have all of your pieces in the game and you own the center, if you do now know what to do with it, why does it matter? If an army has twice as many tanks, three times as many foot soldiers, and better technology, but does not know what to attack, what use is any of that (your own views of war being whatever they may be you should be able to understand this, if not imagine a soccer/football team with all the best players but all of them being told to not get the ball by the coach, that team although better fitted for winning will not win).

Do NOT simply memorize moves. You MUST understand why the moves are being made. One way, see what happened later in a game where the moves were done. Another way, look at many games and try to view some underlying purpose on your own. If you can find a book or website that explains the purpose of the openings moves, which personally I have found it rare where the underlying plan is explained, try it out and see if it works in your games or figure out if the information is wrong or you did something wrong.