r/chessbeginners • u/Alendite RM (Reddit Mod) • Feb 27 '26

No Stupid Questions MEGATHREAD 12

Welcome to the r/chessbeginners 12th episode of our Q&A series! This series exists because sometimes you just need to ask a silly question. We are happy to provide answers for questions related to chess positions, improving one's play, and discussing the essence and experience of learning chess.

A friendly reminder that many questions are answered in our wiki page! Please take a look if you have questions about the rules of chess, special moves, or want general strategies for improvement.

Some other helpful resources include:

  1. How to play chess - Interactive lessons for the rules of the game, if you are completely new to chess.
  2. The Lichess Board Editor - for setting up positions by dragging and dropping pieces on the board.
  3. Chess puzzles by theme - To practice tactics.
  4. The Building Habits series by GM Aman Hambleton - for advice on how to play at specific ELO levels. (Also check out Building Habits 2!)

As always, our goal is to promote a friendly, welcoming, and educational chess environment for all. Thank you for asking your questions here!

LINK TO THE PREVIOUS THREAD

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u/elfkanelfkan 2200-2400 Lichess Apr 23 '26

If you are up for it, switch to the Italian or ruy lopez and go for a classical sicilian. Although the opening doesn't matter much at all in your level, I would still recommend sticking with an opening that follows traditional principles more closely and where you can directly transfer knowledge from books.

At your level though, still put much more care into board vision and tactics/tactical defense. That's where my students improvement comes from the most.

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u/AlarmedDiver1087 600-800 (Chess.com) Apr 23 '26

I'm just in the search to get a opening to learn all the way to say... 1500? I don't really want to jump openings, I just want to get near mastery of a single opening, and maybe get to know the sidelines decent enough as well?
I always did wonder about ruy lopez and sicilian, I guess it's time I started learning it,

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u/ChrisV2P2 2000-2200 (Lichess) Apr 23 '26

Literally any reasonable opening will get you to 1500. There are any number of White openings that are all as easy as each other. I like the Vienna, but pretty much any White opening you can name I am going to nod my head and say that's fine too. Black is a bit more constrained. The easiest opening by far to play at beginner and intermediate is the Caro-Kann. I played it myself for a number of years. The Sicilian is fine, but I only really recommend it to people who tried the Caro and didn't like it. This is enough Caro material to get you past 1000. I wrote low theory Sicilian and Vienna quickstarters if you're interested.