Don't memorize 5 openings. Pick ONE good opening for white, ONE for each of black's responses, and play them 100 times. Here's the menu.
Most beginner opening advice is bad. It's either 'pick the Sicilian Najdorf because that's what Magnus plays' (impossible to play correctly without memorizing 25 moves) or 'play e4 and develop pieces' (true but unhelpful when the opponent responds in unexpected ways). What you actually need is a SHORT list of openings that work at the amateur level, are easy to learn, and lead to positions you understand.
This article gives you that list. One opening as White, one against e4 as Black, one against d4 as Black, one against c4/Nf3 as Black. Total study time: about 2 hours. Total competitive viability: enough to get you to 1800 ELO without ever needing more opening theory.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4. The Italian Game — one of the oldest openings in chess, popular at every level from beginner to grandmaster. It's beginner-friendly because the goals are obvious: develop pieces, point them at f7 (the weakest square in black's position), castle, and look for tactical opportunities.
Standard plan: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.O-O Nf6 5.d3 (a quiet move that supports the center) 5...d6 6.c3 (preparing d4 if needed) 6...a6 (or 6...O-O) 7.Re1 (rook to the half-open file). All your pieces have homes. Your king is castled. You can play the middlegame from here.
Why it works for beginners: every move develops a piece OR castles OR prepares castling. There are no weird tactical traps you have to memorize. Black has many responses but most lead to similar middlegames. You'll feel comfortable in 95% of games out of this opening.
1.e4 e5. Mirror white's pawn move. Symmetric, classical, well-tested. From here, after 2.Nf3 (white's most common reply), play 2...Nc6 (the standard Italian/Spanish setup) and follow the same kind of development plan. If white plays 3.Bc4, play 3...Bc5 (Italian for both sides). If white plays 3.Bb5 (the Spanish), play 3...a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 and continue with Be7 and O-O.
Alternative: the Petroff Defense. After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3, play 2...Nf6 (attacking the e4 pawn). White typically plays 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 — and you've simplified into a quiet, drawish position. Boring, sure, but very hard to lose. Some grandmasters specifically use the Petroff as a 'must-not-lose' weapon.
Both options work. 1...e5 is more aggressive and produces more decisive games. The Petroff is safer but draws more often. Pick based on your personality.
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6. The Slav Defense. Solid, classical, hard to crack. Black supports the d5 pawn with c6 instead of with e6 (which would lock in the light-squared bishop). The move 3.Nf3 (white's most common reply) is met with 3...Nf6 4.Nc3 (or 4.e3) and you're in classical Slav territory.
The simple Slav plan: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 (taking the c-pawn since black can defend it with Bf5 or b5 later) 5.a4 Bf5 6.e3 e6 7.Bxc4 Bb4 (developing actively). Black has comfortable development, no weaknesses, and a clear plan: trade pieces, simplify into a draw or grind out a slow win.
Why it works: it doesn't lose. The Slav has been a top-level opening for 100 years specifically because there's no easy way for white to refute it. You'll play comfortable middlegames and lose mostly to your own tactical errors, not to the opening.
When white plays 1.c4 (English Opening) or 1.Nf3 (Reti), the simplest response is to play 1...e5 (against c4) or 1...d5 (against Nf3). Both transpose into territory that resembles your normal openings — c4 e5 looks like a reversed Sicilian, Nf3 d5 looks like a queen's pawn opening.
You don't need to study these in depth as a beginner. Just play opening principles: develop pieces, castle, don't move the same piece twice. After 5-6 moves you'll be in a structure that looks familiar from your other openings.
For each of the openings above, memorize the first 5-7 moves of the main line. That's it. Don't go further as a beginner. The next 20 moves will play themselves if you've learned the underlying principles (develop, castle, control the center).
Specifically:
Total memorization: maybe 20 unique positions. That's roughly 1 hour of study to know your opening cold for the rest of your chess career until you reach 1800.
Most beginners want to learn 5 openings because variety feels like progress. But variety dilutes your understanding. The player who plays the Italian 200 times knows every typical middlegame structure of the Italian — they can play the middlegame on autopilot because they've seen it so many times. The player who plays a different opening every 5 games has shallow knowledge of all of them and never gets the structural intuition.
Play your one chosen opening for 100 games. Yes, your opponents will see you play the same thing every time. They might prepare against you. Doesn't matter — the structural knowledge you gain from the repetition is worth more than the variety.
Italian as White, 1...e5 against e4, the Slav against d4, principles against everything else. Done.
"Help your pieces so they can help you."
— Paul Morphy