Openings?

Ok, so I am new here, All my previous chess experience has been self taught, or playing against friends. I've never played against stragers before, and I have never read, or had any knowlage of any formal chess styles or common moves or aything. I am interested in learning alot more about traditional openings. I have not the first clue about openings, I just tend to move a few pawns out and try and make some threats with my bishops and Queen. I have heard some people say you should always move the knights out first, but I like my bishops, and have usually played with this tactic.

 I am looking for advice basically, where can I learn more about opening moves, and what errors can you see in my opening tactic I usually use above! I am sure there are many!

Thank you for your time 

What you describe sounds like what's called the Scholar's Mate:

The exact moves vary from game to game, but that's the general idea. This may work for you against low level players and your friends, but when you start playing serious opposition on the internet, you'll get beat a lot trying this. This might be good, though, since you'll learn from the experience.

As for what to do instead, here's an article on general opening principles to follow:

http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman53.pdf

--Fromper 

Thanks! I probably sound quite simplistic  playing moves like that, but thanks anyway, the article looks like an interesting one, I hope I can learn something from it, after all, thats what I joined for, to learn and have fun! :)

EDIT: actually, another point, I keep getting confused by all the abbreviations used to point out chess moves, I sort of understand what they all mean but find it extremely hard to visulise unless I have a board out in front of me. When learning or playing chess online do you find it easier to have a board out next to you to help you visulise ?

chairman> in that variation what would be the drawbacks for black if he were to play Qe7 instead of Nf6 apart from hsaving a more open king its still a playable position.

What are the drawbacks of 3...Qe7? Well, on e7 the queen temporarily prevents the development of Black's dark-squared bishop and she's vulnerable to a knight on d5. A likely continuation is 3...Qe7 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Qd1. Black is fine! White's wasted two tempi moving his queen and Black can meet Nd5 with Nxd5.

I assume you're talking about algebraic chess notation. It's much simpler to work with a board, either physical or electronic, when working through games. As you become more experienced you will find that it's easier to visualize a series of moves without having to look at the board, but this takes time and practice.

If you only "sort of" know what the algebraic notations mean, my first piece of advice is to learn the system cold. It looks intimidating, but it's actually easier to learn than the mechanics of the game itself. Once you've done that, try the following exercize: whenever playing a game, notate each move. This is easiest on a board with algebraic markings on it, such as a standard tournament mat, but you'll quickly get the hang of doing it without extra visual aids. (Chess.com does this for you, so in lieu of that, try to predict the notation of each move before you make it, then see if you're right. Likewise, figure out the notation of your opponent's moves after they are made but before you look at the "moves" window.)

Once you have a full transcript of the game, try to recreate it by yourself on a board. If the result makes sense and there are no ambiguities, you'll know you got it right.