Why Openings are Important
Submitted by
samsonasu on Thu, 02/28/2008 at 8:46am.
My uncle Jim and I used to play chess when I was a child. He played in college, and would relentlessly beat me back then but we haven't played for years. When I found chess.com I immediately thought this would be a good chance to try my luck with a few years of (life) experience.
The lesson I learned from this game is that the opening can really set the stage for the entier game, especially when one player makes a few critical mistakes. I lose my Knight early in a silly blunder that I could've overcome if not for other poor play that led to a tripled pawn file. In retrospect I probably would've been better off playing a more conservative defense against someone I knew was better than me, but no regrets. We've started the second game and I'm fairing much better playing as white.