Strange(?) opening by computer (beginner level) Below is the beginning of a game I played against the 8 year old Magnus Carlsen (yes, I'm a beginner). I'm white.

My opening moves are similar to that of a Spanish opening (but not quite), but I don't understand black's moves here. As far as I can see, there are only negatives (except the queen is threatening b2 if the white bishop is moved). Does this opening have any pros? The reason why I'm asking is that I've noticed that "Magnus" often plays moves that are good if played against a worse player, but rarely moves that are just plain bad (except some major blunders). I win probably 75% of the time against 8 year old Magnus, thus we're almost at the same level.

As far as I know, the most important principle during the first phase of the game is:


Control the center
Activate the pieces
Perform a castling move


My question is: Does black's opening here have any advantages against a beginner or is it simply bad? Is black just "hoping" white will forget about the queen and move the bishop (or some other blunder I'm not seeing)? Am I doing something bad in this opening? What would a be a good next move for white?

[FEN ""]
1. e4 e6 2. Bc4 c5 3. d3 Nh6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Nf3 Qb6 6. O-O a5
Well, to be honest, it's not a very good opening by either of the players.
While you haven't made any real mistakes, there were chances for black to seize the initiative.

In The French defence, you hardly see black taking the initiative. Black always hopes to sit tightly and looks for counter attack, usually on the queenside. i am not a huge fan of your move (2.Bc4)(Better was 2.d4). The bishop has no future on c4. Well, yes it controls the d5 square but Black could simply have moved (3..d5) instead of that horrible (3..Nh6) and your bishop would have moved twice in the opening 5 moves. Not a good sign. Black's opening here is almost terrible. White gains a substantial advantage and with logical play should win this game without much trouble. 

A good move at this stage would be 7.Bxh6 which doubles up black's pawn on the h file and a future Qc1 would mean that the pawn would always be upon attack by enemy forces.