Week 11: First openings
12-week course · lesson plan for a 60-minute live group class · for the coach
Lesson plan · Worksheet · Large print · Answer key · 12-week syllabus
Learning objective
Students know three opening rules (control the centre, develop knights and bishops, castle early) and spot and avoid the famous early traps.
Before class (under 10 minutes)
Prerequisites: Weeks 1–10.
- Open "Week 11 demonstration".
- Have "Week 11 practice" ready in the Puzzles list.
Class plan, minute by minute
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 0–5 min | Warm-up Ask: “What are your first three moves as White?” Collect answers. |
| 5–20 min | Shared board: openings Load "Week 11 demonstration": the Italian Game, the Queen’s Gambit, the London System, the Ruy Lopez and the Sicilian. For each, name the centre pawns and the developed pieces. |
| 20–35 min | Puzzles on their own boards Puzzles → "Week 11 practice": famous opening traps. Mixed-level group: "Week 11 all levels". |
| 35–52 min | Play each other Pair students and start. Goal: castle within your first 10 moves. |
| 52–60 min | Review Review questions below. Preview: next week, endgames. |
Shared-board demonstration
In the lesson app: Lesson library → Week 11 demonstration: First openings.
Italian Game. Ideas: control the centre, develop knights and bishops, castle early.
Name the centre squares (d4, d5, e4, e5). Count the developed pieces for each side.
Queen’s Gambit. White offers a pawn to pull Black’s d-pawn away from the centre.
If dxc4, White gets the centre with e4 and wins the pawn back later.
London System. A simple setup: bishop to f4, pawns on d4, e3, c3, knight to f3.
A plan you can play against almost anything.
Ruy Lopez (Spanish). The bishop puts pressure on the knight that guards e5.
Compare with the Italian: same start, but the bishop goes to b5.
Sicilian Defense. Black fights for the centre from the side with the c-pawn.
Black does not copy White: a sharper game.
Puzzles on every student’s own board
In class: Puzzles → choose the set → Start puzzles. Each student solves on their own board while you watch every board live. A wrong move gets a reason or a hint (for example “look for a check”), and any checkmate counts as solved.
- Everyone: Week 11 practice: First openings (6 puzzles). The worksheet uses the same puzzles.
- Mixed-level group: Week 11 all levels: First openings (13 puzzles): the 4 easier ones first, then the practice set, then 3 harder ones. Each student goes at their own pace, so beginners stay with the easier puzzles while stronger students reach the harder ones.
- A whole group that needs more support: Week 11 easier: First openings. A whole group ready for more: Week 11 harder: First openings.
Check for understanding
- Name three opening rules. Answer: Control the centre, develop knights and bishops, castle early.
- Which square is weakest at the start, and why? Answer: f7 (f2 for White): only the king protects it.
- Why not bring the queen out early? Answer: It can be chased by smaller pieces, and you lose time.
Help for beginners
Play the moves of each trap on the shared board one at a time and ask what each side wants. The easier set repeats the fastest mate in different move orders.
For stronger students
"Week 11 harder": Légal’s Mate (two move orders) and the Englund Gambit trap.
Every position, answer and hint on this page is checked move by move with chess.js before it is published. Real-game puzzles come from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).