What are the best principles that any normalfag should remember?

Trade up material (p=1, b=n=3, r=5, q=9), godly positioning notwithstanding.
Keep knights away from edges.
If you can make a battery, make a battery.
Have a plan for your king's escape.
Forks forks forks forks forks.

>What else should I be doing that isn't memorizing openings which I cbf with?
More important than openings are endgames.
Most piece combinations have a simple algorithm for checkmate during the endgame.
Memorize every single one, they come up pretty much every single game.
You'll look really, really stupid if you fuck up the endgame.

After you've got endgames down, start workings on openings.
You only need one at first, but you should recognize all of them.

Oh, and (when possible) avoid even trades while you're behind.

>>50459251

For chess?

You have three underlying principles in the opening. You want to, in no particular order

A) Get your pieces (not pawns) off the back rank
B) Control central squares
C) Keep your king somewhere safe.

Obviously, these interrelate somewhat. If you have a huge development lead, your king is probably safe wherever it happens to be; if you have to keep parrying attacks at your king, you're probably too busy to control the center, etc.

You don't need to keep your pieces all supporting each other, only if your opponent is threatening a square.

Also, in general, not an opening principle, but the more squares an individual piece can move to next turn, the stronger it is. Try to maximize that while minimizing your opponents.

Trade pieces when you're up material, trade pawns when you're down; that tends to maximize endgame chances.

>>50459699
>If you can make a battery, make a battery.
What's a battery?

>>50460364

Not him, but when you have your heavy pieces (rooks and queens) all aligned on a single file, or less commonly, a row.

I believe the term comes from an artillery battery, a lot of heavy guns trained on a single point to pulverize it.

>>50459251
Openings aren't that important at a low level. Play the London system, it gets comfortable, playable positions with white. If you're at true beginner level, learn basic mates in the endgame as well as simple king and pawn endings stuff (very simple, like king on e4 pawn on e2 black king on e6). As for very basic advice, listen to >>50459699 (though, I'm a 2160, don't even recognize most popular opening beyond 3-4 moved) and especially >>50459786
is good advice. I'm not fond of overly general rules, but the ever-repeated lines about not moving the same piece twice in the opening and trying to be castled by move 10 hold some weight at lower levels.

>>50460412
Also can have a B+Q battery, when they're lined up on a diagonal, fairly common would be a position with Q on a1 B on b2 rooks on c1 and c2, good pressure.

>>50460467

Oh, really? Every time I've seen the term used it's been with rooks or rook and queen. I didn't realize it could apply to a diagonal.

>>50460522
Yeah, that's more common, but a battery is just "a formation that consists of two or more pieces on the same rank, file, or diagonal." Confirmed it through Wikipedia to make sure I wasn't just being dumb.

>>50459699
I have fucked up the endgame. I can vouch for the fact that it makes look like a massive tool

>>50460795
Don't feel bad.

I once had a Queen+King v. Queen+King+Rook, where my opponent accidentally exposed their Queen.
And I missed it. While exposing my Queen. During a tournament. That I drove hours to.

>>50460836
I do that shit all the time in quick games. I'm a near-master level player. Chess is hard.

>>50460891
Oh, forgot to ask, what was time control? Were you low on time? I once lost a game to a 2300 up an exchange and three pawns in a nearly completely simplified ending in a 5 hour game, with 20 minutes on my clock, and money if I'd won.