A game startingThree ideas for every opening: take the centre, get your pieces out, and put the king somewhere safe.

You can move everything now. Time to see how a game really starts. The four marked squares — d4, d5, e4 and e5 — are the CENTRE of the board, and that is where the fight begins. A piece in the centre reaches more squares (remember the knight?), so whoever owns the centre runs the game.

These are the first six moves of a real game — the start of the Italian Opening, played for over four hundred years and still today. Step through it and read why each move was made.

Learn to play