- Development is the opening task of getting your pieces off the back rank and into the game.
- Develop your minor pieces first, towards the centre
- Get your King out of the centre by castling early on
- Hold back your Queen until or unless it can't be bothered by the enemy pieces. The Queen is the most powerful piece but therefore the most valuable, and she has to run away when attacked by a less valuable piece.
- Try to move each piece only once until you have developed every piece (when your Rooks are connected)
- If you are ahead in development, start a fight while you still have the larger or more active army on the field (Morphy-Benford) by opening lines or attacking the King. Conversely, if you are behind in development, keep lines closed until you have caught up.
- Poor development can lose you the game (Morphy-Benford). You can fall behind in development by:
- Moving a piece that is already developed (Horwitz-Bledow)
- Wasting time with pawn moves (Horwitz-Bledow)
- Getting your Queen kicked around by minor pieces and pawns (Suhr-Selman)
- Starting well but then getting distracted by starting an attack too soon or trying to steal a pawn (Neumann-Dufresne)
- ... or any combination of these sins (Horwitz-Bledow, Suhr-Selman)
Click [...] to see list of games
[Event "blindfold simul"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1851.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Morphy, Paul"]
[Black "Bonford, P."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C52"]
[WhiteElo "2500"]
[Annotator "opening: rules"]
[PlyCount "47"]
[EventDate "1851.??.??"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4 Bxb4 5. c3 Ba5 6. d4 exd4 7. O-O dxc3 8.
Ba3 (8. Qb3) 8... d6 9. Qb3 Nh6 10. Nxc3 Bxc3 11. Qxc3 O-O 12. Rad1 Ng4 13. h3
Nge5 14. Nxe5 Nxe5 15. Be2 {[#]} f5 $2 {loses the game: Black is cramped and
wants to open lines to get his pieces out but the only player who can use the
open lines is White. The finish is very striking} (15... f6) 16. f4 Nc6 17.
Bc4+ Kh8 18. Bb2 Qe7 19. Rde1 Rf6 20. exf5 Qf8 {[#] wait for it...} 21. Re8
Qxe8 22. Qxf6 Qe7 23. Qxg7+ Qxg7 24. f6 (24. f6 {[#] Black resigns; for those
like me who can't see to the end from here as well as Morphy could blindfold:}
Qf8 (24... Qxg2+ 25. Kxg2 Bxh3+ 26. Kxh3 h5 27. Rg1 {1-0 (27) Morphy,P-Bonford,
P New Orleans 1858}) 25. f7+ Ne5 26. fxe5 h5 27. e6+ Kh7 28. Bd3+ Kh6 29. Rf6+
Kg5 30. Rg6+ Kf4 31. Kf2 {e.g.} Bxe6 32. g3#) 1-0
[Event "Berlin Casual Games"]
[Site "Berlin"]
[Date "1837.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Horwitz, Bernhard"]
[Black "Bledow, Ludwig Erdmann"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C53"]
[Annotator "opening: sins"]
[PlyCount "28"]
[EventDate "1837.??.??"]
[EventCountry "GER"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Bb6 5. d4 Qe7 6. d5 Nd8 {[#] a good time
for White to castle} 7. Be2 {the first sin: moving a piece twice before
completing development} d6 8. h3 {a second sin: wasting moves with pawn pushes}
f5 9. Bg5 Nf6 10. Nbd2 O-O 11. Nh4 {[#] the third sin: moves a piece twice and
opens the f-file} fxe4 12. Nxe4 {[#]} Nxe4 13. Bxe7 Bxf2+ 14. Kf1 Ng3# 0-1
[Event "Berlin"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1863.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Neumann, G."]
[Black "Dufresne, J."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C30"]
[Annotator "opening: rules"]
[PlyCount "33"]
[EventDate "1863.??.??"]
[EventType "rapid"]
1. e4 e5 2. f4 Bc5 3. Nf3 d6 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. Nc3 O-O 6. d3 Ng4 {? moves a piece
twice - not good, but not fatal} 7. Rf1 Nxh2 {[#] this is the real culprit} 8.
Rh1 Ng4 9. Qe2 Bf2+ 10. Kf1 Nc6 {[#] Black has a pawn, but White has an open
h-file, the attack, and the move} 11. f5 Bc5 12. Ng5 Nh6 13. Qh5 Qe8 14. Nxh7
Kxh7 15. Bxh6 g6 16. Qxg6+ fxg6 17. Bxf8# {brutal 1-0 (17) Neumann,G-Dufresne,
J Berlin 1863 EXT 2014 [ChessBase]} 1-0
[Event "corr"]
[Site "corr"]
[Date "1930.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Suhr, B."]
[Black "Selman, I."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A52"]
[PlyCount "29"]
[EventDate "1930.??.??"]
[EventType "tourn (corr)"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[SourceTitle "Corr 2000"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2000.04.19"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2000.04.19"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 Ng4 4. Nf3 Bc5 5. e3 Nc6 6. Bd2 Ngxe5 7. Nxe5 Nxe5
8. Bc3 {a great square but a loss of time}
8...Qe7 9. Qd5
{The start of a mistaken quest to make trouble. Trouble does happen, but for White!}
9...d6 10. b4 c6 11. Qe4 f5 12. Qf4 g5 13. Qg3 f4 14. exf4 gxf4 {The Queen is trapped e.g.} {0-1} 15.Qxf5 Nd3++ 0-1