When you become a master chess player, the first few moves of the game become so mechanical that these first few moves are often referred to as openings. Each opening has its own particular name that is given to it. In some cases the name given is obvious, such as naming the opening after the actual piece that has been moved and in other cases the opening is named after a person in chess history who first used the opening in match play during a tournament. After you have played the game of chess long enough you basically know most, if not all the openings. After that, it's simply a matter of choosing the openings that you like best and play them. Of course in some cases you are forced to play a certain opening because of a move that your opponent makes. In this article we're going to review some of the more common openings.

Before we do that, we need to know how the pieces are set up. The pieces are set up on the two back rows of the chess board. The 8 pawns are set up in the front row. Behind them from left to right are the queen's rook, queen's knight, queen's bishop, queen, king, king's bishop, king's knight and king's rook. The black pieces are set up to mirror the white pieces. In other words, the kings are facing each other and the queens are facing each other.

Probably the most common opening for the person playing white is the Kings Pawn opening. This is where the player playing white moves the pawn in front of the king 2 squares forward. Of course, this opening is also dependent on the response from the player playing black. If he moves his king's pawn 2 spaces in response, then this is a true king's pawn opening. But, if he moves his queen's bishop's pawn 2 squares forward in response, then what you now have is what is called a Sicilian Opening. And there are variations of this opening depending on the moves that follow.

King's pawn openings are usually used by chess masters who want more conservative play. They're not looking for a wide open and wild game. They are basically looking for a methodical game that they hope they can develop into a winning endgame (more on endgames in a future article) and ultimately checkmate the king or force the opposing player to resign.

For those looking for a game with a little more action and dynamic, these players usually play the queen's pawn openings. This is where white moves the queen's pawn 2 squares forward on the first turn. The most common reply to this is for black to move its queen's pawn 2 squares forward as well. Because of the way this opens up more pieces to move, as opposed to the king's pawn opening, this leads to a more active and exciting game. These games are also much more difficult to play, especially for the novice player.

These are the most common openings. There are many more that we'll be getting into in future articles as well as some advanced strategy.