Three jobs, not thirty move orders. Get a pawn to the centre, get the knights and bishops off the back rank, get the king castled by about move ten. A player who does that every game beats a player who has memorised twelve moves of theory and then drops a knight on move thirteen, and I have watched that happen at every club I have coached in.
The reason beginners think they need openings is that openings are the part of chess that has names. Ruy Lopez, King’s Indian, Grünfeld. Names feel like knowledge. They are labels on positions, and a label does not help you until you can see a fork coming.
The three jobs
Centre first. A pawn on e4 or d4 takes two squares away from the enemy pieces and opens lines for your own bishop and queen at the same time. There is a page on what the centre is and why e4, d4, e5 and d5 are worth more than a6 and h3.
Development second. Every piece still standing on its starting square is a piece not playing the game. Knights come to f3 and c3, or f6 and c6 for Black. Bishops go wherever they see something: c4, b5, g5, e2.
King safety third. Castling tucks the king on g1 and brings a rook to f1 in a single move. Games between beginners are decided by the king that stayed on e1 more often than by any other single thing.
There is a way to check all three at once, and I make students do it out loud. On move ten, count your pieces off the back rank, then count your opponent’s. Four against two is close to a winning position at club level whatever an engine thinks of it, because the side with four pieces out is the side that finds the tactic first.
One opening for White: the Italian
Play this every game with White for a month.
8 
7 
2 
a 
b 
c 
d 
e f g h 1 7 2 a b c d f g Six moves, nothing wasted. The pawn on c3 is preparing d4; the pawn on d3 holds e4 and lets the bishop on c1 out; the bishop on c4 points at f7, which is the only square in Black’s camp defended by nothing but the king.
Black mirroring you is not a problem. Symmetrical positions are not boring, they are level, and level is a fine place for a beginner to start thinking.
The one line you must know before you play the Italian is 3…Nf6 4.Ng5, when f7 is attacked twice and there is a genuine trap. It sits on the Italian Game page with a board. Learn that and you can play this opening for years.
What if Black does not answer 1.e4 with 1…e5? Do the same thing anyway. Against 1…c5, 1…e6 or 1…d6 you can still play 2.Nf3, follow it with d4 or Bc4, and castle, and you will have a sensible position by move seven. The three jobs never depended on knowing the name of what your opponent played.
If 1.d4 suits you better, the London System is the least demanding setup in chess: Bf4, e3, Nf3, c3, Bd3, Nbd2, castle. It is fine. It also teaches you very little, because you play the same six moves whatever your opponent does, and that habit costs you the day someone plays a move that deserves an answer.
The Black half
Against 1.e4, answer 1…e5. You get the Italian from the other side, or the Ruy Lopez, or a gambit you can decline politely. If you dislike the sharp stuff, 1…c6 (the Caro-Kann) and 1…d5 (the Scandinavian) are solid and there is a page on what to play as Black.
Against 1.d4, answer 1…d5, and after 2.c4 play 2…e6.
8 7 2 a b c d e f g h 1 7 2 a d e f g h 1 Black’s one awkward piece is the bishop on c8, shut in by its own pawn on e6. The standard cures are …b6 and …Bb7, or a later …dxc4 and …c5. Knowing that one problem is most of knowing the opening.
What to leave alone for now
The Sicilian. 1…c5 is an excellent move and the most successful answer to 1.e4 at master level, but the Open Sicilian is the most heavily analysed opening in chess and you will be out of your depth by move six against anyone who has read one article. The Sicilian page explains what you are missing and when to come back to it.
Gambits you cannot explain. If you cannot say in one sentence what the pawn bought, you are simply a pawn down.
Traps. The four-move mate works twice and then never again, and the queen raid that powers it loses time against anyone who has read how to defend against it.
And memorising. Twenty moves of anything is worth less than an hour of tactics, because your games are not being lost in the opening. They are being lost on move eighteen when a bishop on b5 pins a knight to your queen.
So: pick the Italian, play it ten times, and after each game find the first move you cannot explain. That move is your opening study. Then go and solve opening puzzles, where the position is already on move eight and something is already hanging.