This is a quick guide to a video series:
In this series, PlayfulSquirrel aka IM David Pruess plays the first 10-15 moves of a few chess games, and shares his thought process along the way. I recommend you start a student without much experience off with Danny's Rules to the Opening, and then let them watch this series of videos to see those ideas in action. As the student has a better idea of opening principles, they should start guessing the PlayfulSquirrel's moves while watching, to compare what they would do with what a master does.
Not what you were looking for? Back to the Video Series Guide.
Here are links to the videos in this series:
How Masters Think: The Opening: lays out a simple thought process for opening play.
How Masters Think: The Opening 2: continues to emphasize the very few things you need to focus on in the opening. also issues a challenge to all the kids on chesskid.com!
How Masters Think: The Opening 3: having repeated our first three concerns a couple times, IM Pruess now adds a fourth thing for the young chessplayer to think about during the opening phase of the game.
How Masters Think: The Opening 4: we see a very short fight that will help the student to think about capturing and getting captured at the start of the game; and then an extremely principled kid who seems on his way to completing his development without any errors...
Next up for the student who is enjoying learning about opening play: some more practical examples with the "Oooooops: Opening Disasters" series. Or they can watch more of these videos:
How Masters Think: The Opening 5: Includes a warning about weakening the king's position and wasting time in the opening; and a clever way to hold your ground and develop your rooks!
How Masters Think: The Opening 6: A wise-for-their-years chesskid develops their kingside and castles. Will they bring out the pieces on the queenside in time to defend the Playful attack against their castled king on the kingside?
How Masters Think: The Opening 7: The PlayfulSquirrel returns, this time at the request of a ChessKid user. Will this kid be able to develop all of his pieces, castle, and not lose his army within the first 10-15 moves in order to claim the delicious prize? There's only one way to find out!
This series is ongoing, and we will continue to add more videos to it! Any chesskid should feel free to challenge one of our teachers if they want to have a game of theirs featured in a video.