Chess Tips to Think About
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Transcript of Chess Tips to Think About
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7/24/2019 Chess Tips to Think About
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http://www.101chesstips.com/middle-or-sides.jsp
1. Offense or Defense?
If you are new to the game of chess you
need to understand that a balance between
attacking and defending needs to be
achieved. Many inexperienced players are
quick to go on the offensive and look for the
quick crushing defeat of their opponent.While being able to pull this off is
impressive and good for the ego, the
likelihood of a quick offensive win against a
more experienced opponent is unlikely and
a bad decision.
The flaw with the all out offensive assault is
that an experienced opponent will see the
gaping holes in your own defense.
Experienced players sit and wait for this
type of inexperience to show itself. Think ofchess as a war in which you must defend
your capitol (your king) while at the same
time taking your opponents capitol. An
army that simply runs into battle with
bravery and no defensive protection may
appear as courageous, but they also oftensuffer a crushing defeat quickly.
A balanced approach is the best when
playing chess. Depending on your playing
style you will likely lean in one direction,
either offensive or defensive. Try to focuson this balance and keep your king protected
while slowly applying your offensive
strategy. At times the best offensive strategy
is to wait for your opponent to begin an
offensive front and to find the flaws in their
attack. Doing this gives you the wonderfuladvantage of finding their gaping holes in
their defense, instead of them finding your
gaping holes. Keep working on improving
your defensive skills, as this will lead you to
victory more often than an all out offensive
assault. Allow your opponent to make the
mistakes instead of you and you will find a
great deal of success in your game.
2. God Save The Queen?
The old saying of "God save the Queen"
does not always apply when playing chess.
While some would argue that keeping the
queen at all costs will be the difference
between winning and losing, there are others
who will tell you that a winning game of
chess is all about sacrifice no matter how
painful. Some players will spend the whole
game trying to protect their queen and will
never consider sacrificing this piece during
the game. Being ultra protective of your
queen can lead to your downfall in a gameof chess.
It is important to allow some of your other
pieces to begin the attacks and to keep the
queen in reserve until an opportunity
arrives, but keeping her at all costs is a
mistake that many players make. Being the
most versatile piece on the board the queen
can lead to great offensive attacks.
Willingness to sacrifice and trade a queen
for a queen will help you to achieve the
bigger goal of winning the game against
your opponent.
Allow your other pieces to initiate theattacks and bring the queen in to limit the
possible movements of your opponent. Try
to not waste moves by being overprotective
of your queen, because ultimately you only
get so many moves in a game and it is
important to make each move count.
Wasting movements of your queen, or any
other pieces will provide your opponent
with an advantage. Try to make every move
count during your game and do not be afraid
to sacrifice the queen for a queen, or to
sacrifice other pieces when it will provide
you with an advantage. The phrase "Godsave the Queen" applies in politics, but does
not always apply when playing to win in a
game of chess.
3. Bluffing
Bluffing is generally thought of in relation
to playing poker, not chess, but it does apply
to the game of chess albeit ineffectively
applied at times. Many opponents will
attempt to place pieces in an open space on
your side of the board with no real intent of
sacrificing the piece. This is particularly truetowards the beginning of the game when
your opponent is trying to feel you out. An
opponent may run a bishop or knight out to
your side of the board as an attempt to
establish an offensive front.
If you ignore this piece and allow it to sit
out there while executing your own plan,
then you are giving your opponent anadvantage. Find out if your opponent is
simply bluffing and trying to feel you out.
Many times if you challenge this piece, your
opponent will retreat quickly instead ofstanding to fight. Similar to a game of
poker, your opponent wants to see what typeof player you are. They are trying to see if
you are an aggressor or a protector of your
pieces. Call this bluff from your opponent to
find out how badly they want to keep this
piece out in the middle of the board.
If you simply allow this piece to sit in
waiting as an aggressor, then you are giving
your opponent the advantage. In a worst-
case scenario you will simply trade a bishop
for a bishop, or a knight for a knight. This isstill a good protective move by you because
leaving that piece sitting out there
unchallenged will prove to be a thorn in
your side throughout the game. Challenge
every piece that comes onto your side of the
board and determine how strongly your
opponent feels about keeping that piece
there, or if they will simply cower and
retreat.
4. Keep from Blocking Yourself
In the game of chess it is very possible to
beat yourself and to block your pieces in
with poor planned moves. While this is asimple concept that may seem obvious,
many players will make this error. For
example, moving your bishop in front of
your pawn in the very early stages of the
game will generally result in retreating that
bishop so that the pawn can be freed. This is
a waste of precious moves. Any move that
has no purpose or strategy is a bad move.
You only have so many opportunities to
move pieces throughout the game so it is
important to make each move count and for
each move to be a part of your overall
strategy. Waiting for you opponent to makethe first mistake is your first mistake.
Another blocking error is when you have
two pawns next to each other and you use
one pawn to take a piece that is in front of
the other pawn. Now you end up with one
pawn directly in front of the other. The
opens a file (vertical spaces) on the board
and seriously weakens both of those two
pawns. Your level of vulnerability to attack
has just increased dramatically. In addition
to this, the pawn that is the furthest forward
is most likely undefended. This has createda sort of traffic jam for your pieces on the
board and will haunt you as the game
progresses. An experienced opponent will
exploit this open file that you have created.
Always try to be thinking ahead as to what
your next few moves should be. Thinking
ahead will help keep you from blocking
yourself in and from making the avoidablecareless mistakes.
5. Middle or sides?
There are many different opening strategies
in chess that you can use. Much of thisdepends on how you approach your chess
game, whether you are aggressive or more
defensive in your play. Two of these
opening strategies are called open or closed.
An open strategy refers to beginning the
game with your pawns that are located infront of your king and queen. A closed
strategy refers to using the pawns on the
sides, in front of your rooks or knights.
An open strategy is a much more offensivestrategy. Using this strategy you and your
opponent will begin to trade pieces rather
rapidly. You and your opponent will have
many open lanes that can be used to attack
one another. This can lead to a quick defeat,
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for you or your opponent. If you are a risk
taker and like offense more than defense,
then this is a strategy for you to consider.
A closed opening strategy is just the
opposite. A closed opening of moving the
pawns on the sides of the board result in a
defensive game play by both you and your
opponent. A closed strategy also limits much
of the movements that you can make withyour more versatile pieces.
Perhaps if you are a beginner to chess you
should utilize the open strategy to help you
learn how the offensive game works in
chess. If you are a more experienced player,
then the closed strategy may serve you well
since you already know the offense. If you
are a more experienced player a good
defense will lull the inexperienced players
right into your traps. Regardless of whether
you are new to chess or have been playing a
while, continue to focus on finding a goodbalance for yourself in regards to offensive
and defensive strategies.
6. Skewering and Pinning
Skewering and pinning are essential and
favorite moves for many chess players.
These are rather basic strategies that often
lead to a win. Knowing how to utilize them
will help you to improve your game. Your
opponent will be forced into situations of
either losing their highly valued piece or
being placed in check. This gives you theadvantage because you are now dictating the
game and your opponent is simply trying to
survive your advances.
The skewer refers to threatening a highly
valued piece such as the queen. Your
opponent will likely move that queen and
leave a free and open attack to a lesser-
valued piece such as a bishop or knight.Picture placing a protected bishop so that it
threatens a queen, if that queen moves out of
danger the knight is exposed. Your opponent
will almost always move that queen, thusallowing you a free victory over the knight.
Always take advantage of this. Do notskewer unless you do in fact intend on
taking the piece with lesser value.
Pinning refers to threatening a piece that is
blocking a file to the king. In other words
that piece cannot move, because if it does sothe king would be in check and that would
be an illegal move. Imagine you have a rook
in the same file as your opponent's king, but
your opponent has a knight in the file. That
knight cannot move because again thatwould be an illegal move. You are not
allowed to place yourself in check. Now you
have a choice to take that knight with either
your rook or with another piece. Always
take advantage of this and capture your
opponent's piece. This is a strategy that
experienced player's use to successfully win
games on a consistent basis.
7. Castling
Castling is a move that you should not
overlook when playing chess. Generally it is
better to have castled within the first twenty
moves in a game. Castling helps protectyour king from intruders. Some think of it as
actually the king retreating into the castle
where he is safe. By castling you do not
have to be as concerned about the kings
vulnerability. A king is a very poor offensive
piece and a king copes poorly with direct
attacks. Castling offers the king the
protection that he so desperately needs.
Another good reason for castling is that it
allows your rook to develop more quickly.
Often without castling, it takes a long seriesof movements to simply develop your rook.
Exercise caution though not to move the
rook to far away from the protective role it
has with the castled king. The downside of
castling is that if you attempt to move your
rook out for an attack and you have not yet
moved any of the three pawns in front of
your kind, he can be trapped into a back row
checkmate. Always try to have a piece that
can go in and block a check if the king is
trapped behind the three pawns.
If, after castling, you find that you need tomove your protective rook, then it is a good
idea to move the pawn that is closest to the
edge of the board up one space. This allows
an escape route for your king to prevent the
back row checkmate after castling. The side
that you choose to castle on usually depends
more on opportunity than preference.
Choose wisely and evaluate the side that
seems least vulnerable to your opponent'sattacks. Use castling as a defensive method,
just does not allow it to trap your king
without protective help.
8. Put your Pieces to Work
Some approach chess with an extremely
defensive mentality. This works in some
situations and not in others. Being too
defensive leads to your primary pieces being
stuck on the back row and being of little
offensive value. This is particularly truewhen your queen, bishops, and rooks are
trapped behind the line of pawns. To win a
game of chess you need to develop your
back row pieces at some point. A plan of
how you are going to develop them willoffer you a strong advantage.
Think of your primary chess pieces as
sleeping soundly in the comfort of the
barracks before the war begins. If those
most powerful soldiers remain there, they
cannot thwart your enemy during the war.
Develop these primary pieces in the manner
that the game progresses. Typically this
means that bishops move from the back row
quickly followed by knights, the queen, and
finally the rooks. The rooks typically move
out when the middle game is starting, or the
midpoint of the match.
Too often inexperienced chess players do
not get their primary pieces off of the back
row soon enough and those pieces are
rendered ineffective. A worse scenario is
that they are trapped on the back row and
left rather defenseless. Think of the rook
being in its opening position with a knight
beside it. If the pawn in front of the knight
has moved forward your opponent's bishop
easily, and freely takes that rook through the
semi open file. Allow the powerful pieces
from your back row to work for you, not
against you. Allow them to be offensive aswell as defensive and you will have moved
towards achieving that all-important balance
in your chess game.
9. The Power of the Pawn
Many in chess underestimate how powerful
their pawns can be. Pawns are similar to the
foot soldier in a war, while not as awe
inspiring as the tank or the heavy artillery,
the foot soldiers ultimately win the war. It is
the same with pawns in chess also. One very
rarely, and rarely know about moves by apawn is called En Passant. This move can be
used only when an opponent moves his
pawn forward two squares on its initial
movement. When this happens, the
opposing player has the option to take the
moved pawn "en passant" as if it had only
moved one square. This option, though, only
stays open for one move.
Allowing your pawns to move forward in
small multiple groups can give you an edge
as well. It is much more difficult for your
opponent to defend against differentapproaching attacks than just one large one.
If you are on a battlefield and have a limitednumber of troops, it is easier to defend when
the enemy comes in one large group. It is
much more difficult to try and defend
against multiple fronts. This is the same in
chess when the pawns are advancing into
opposing territory.
Keep in mind that towards the end of many
games all that is left is pawns, the king, and
perhaps one of your primary pieces. At this
point in time pawns become criticaldefenders and offensive pieces. Combine
that with the ability to trade them in for a
queen when you reach the 8th rank (other
side of the board), pawns become all
important. So do not allow your pawns to
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simply be thrown away as unimportant since
they can help you a great deal in the end.
10. The Double Threat
One of the favorite moves in chess is being
able to threaten two pieces at the same time
with your one piece. This forces your
opponent to decide which piece to sacrifice.
An example of this is placing a bishop indiagonal file that threatens to take two
pieces. Whichever piece your opponent
moves, you will be able to take the other.
Another example would be placing a rook in
an open file so that it threatens both a knight
and a bishop. If your opponent moves the
knight, you can take the bishop, if your
opponent moves the bishop then you can
take the knight.
This is a move that will definitely assist you
in winning games. This move only gets
better when you are able to threaten twopieces with a pawn. A variation to this move
is to utilize a knight so that it places the king
in check and the king must move so that it is
out of check, allowing you to be able to take
a rook or bishop etc. A knight is a wonderful
piece to use in creating a double threat
because of its versatility and due to the fact
that some inexperienced players simply
overlook the available moves that your
knight has in front of it.
Defending against the double threat consists
of two strategies. First is the option ofretreating so that both of your pieces are
defended by one another. This is not always
an available option though. The second
defense is to threaten a highly valued piece
that your opponent has, generally a queen. If
you are being threatened with a double
threat and can threaten your opponent's
queen, your opponent is likely to defend that
queen before taking advantage of the doublethreat they have laid out.
11. The Trade Off
Trading pieces of equal value in chess is a
normal during the progression of the game.Sometimes though a chess player wonders
when it is appropriate to trade off pieces and
what pieces are relatively equal. The
obvious trade off would be a bishop for a
bishop, a rook for a rook, but what about a
bishop for a knight? Is this a good trade off?To answer this lets look at the values of the
pieces. Typically the pieces are ranked from
highest to lowest as follows: queen, rook,
bishop, knight, and pawn.
The relative value of the knight and bishop
can change during the games progression. In
the beginning of the game the knight is
more valuable than the bishop due to the
knight's ability to jump over a crowd.
Towards the middle game the bishop
becomes more important due to his ability to
cover the board. A rook is generally not
much of a threat in the beginning of the
game, but is often critical to the end game
since is can attack open files quite easily.
Keep in mind that the value of a piece will
change with the progression of the game.
Deciding whether or not to complete theavailable trade off is not always an easy
question to answer. The final answer is that
it depends on the game situation that you are
in Trading off pieces with your opponent
should add to your overall strategy instead
of being done just for the sake of clearing
spaces on the board. The only general rule
in regards to trading pieces is to always
trade up. If you can sacrifice a bishop for a
rook, do it. Sacrificing a knight for a queen
is always a good idea. Think out the benefits
that the trade off will provide then decide
whether or not to do it.
12. Three Types of Draws
Stalemate is not the only draw that can be
achieved in the game of chess, although it is
the most well known. The other two types of
draws include the fifty-move rule and the
three-fold repetition. If you are looking for
the win then you want to avoid draws as
much as possible and have the game result
in a checkmate instead of a draw.
A stalemate is when it is your opponent'sturn, but they have no legal moves that they
can make. This means that the king is the
only piece that can be moved, but it cannot
be moved into check. Remember that it is
illegal for a king to place himself in check.
This results in the draw by way of stalemate.
Neither player wins the game.
The fifty move rule is when there are nopawn movements and no captures for fifty
consecutive moves. If a pawn move or a
capture takes place, then the count resets to
zero and begins again. Upon reaching fiftymoves either player may claim a draw and
again no one wins the game. Typically thishappens when both players only have one or
two pieces left on the board.
The three-fold repetition says that if the
exact same position occurs on the board
three times during a game, either player mayclaim a draw. Sometimes this is done on
accident, other times it is forced by placing
an opponent in check over and over again.
Think of being able to take a picture of the
board three different times during a gameand the pictures come out identical to each
other.
Try to avoid these draws so that you are able
to come away with an official win. Avoid
these by watching out for them and being
sure to look for every opportunity to place
your opponent in checkmate.
13. The Strategic Sacrifice
The strategic sacrifice is a strategy of
getting out of losing a primary piece to your
opponent. At times your opponent is going
to be attacking one of your primary piecesand that primary piece of yours is
unprotected. If you have no way for you to
protect that primary piece against the
ensuing attack, or no option to retreat, then a
strategic sacrifice may be in order. An
inexperienced player may simply allow the
threatened primary piece to be captured and
move on, but this does not have to be the
case.
When you find yourself in this situation you
may be able to threaten one of youropponents primary pieces on the very next
move. If you are able to do this it is a good
idea since you cannot retreat and cannot
move a piece to protect your threatened
piece. For example, you can slide your
bishop up to attack his unprotected rook.
This places your opponent in a difficult
situation. Your opponent must decide if he
wants to save his primary piece that you are
threatening, or go ahead and take your
primary piece that he has threatened. Of
course, he may decide to take your primary
piece anyway, at which point you take hisprimary piece. This results in a
compromised loss for you in that you at
least gain one of his pieces instead of none
at all. If you moved correctly, perhaps your
bishop is now only one move away from
protecting your original piece assuming
your opponent decided to protect his
threatened piece. This is a good way to keep
the pieces on the board more even if you dofind yourself in this type of situation during
a game.
14. Hidden Attacks
If you can utilize the element of surprise in agame of chess you are at a great advantage
over your opponent and have a winning
edge. However, surprising more experienced
players with a hidden attack can be tough to
do, but may be worth the try. A hidden
attack is one which your opponent does notsee coming and is unprepared to respond to.
Implementing a hidden attack on an
opponent's king is particularly effective.
A hidden attack is one where you have aprimary piece, such as a rook, that is not
threatening your opponent at all. In front of
this rook you have one of your knights in
the same file. Your opponent may be
concerned about where you will be moving
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that knight, but not concerned about the
rook due to its position on the board. This is
where you can make your hidden attack.
Move your knight so that the rook is now
threatening one of your opponent's primary
pieces or even your opponent's king. If it
appears to your opponent that you are going
after, say their queen, your opponent may be
focused primarily on that, and not realize
that you are actually threatening their kingthrough a hidden attack.
It is important in chess to not telegraph your
strategy if at all possible. This means
concealing your threatening strategy by way
of making it appear that you are simply
defending your own pieces. The best
defense mechanism against falling victim to
hidden attacks is to analyze the entire board
and think broadly. If you can see what
options your opponent has in he next two or
three moves, instead of just the very next
move, you can do a good job of defendingagainst hidden attacks.
15. Understanding the Three Stages of a
Chess Game
There are three distinct stages to the game of
chess that you need to know in order to be a
winning chess player. These three stages are
the opening, middle, and endgame. Each
stage has different goals and objectives.
The opening you want to get a rapid
development of your primary pieces. Youalso want to safe guard your king, generally
by castling. It is in this phase of the game
that you want to try and achieve dominance
over the middle four squares of the board.
Generally the opening lasts between ten to
twenty moves roughly.
The middle game is when you begin to
coordinate your primary pieces and attackyour opponent's weak spots and open files.
The goal is to win primary pieces from your
opponent or even be able to checkmate your
opponent. The middle game isapproximately from the end of the opening
phase until around move forty.
The end game is when you use your
remaining primary pieces to take advantage
of the weaknesses that you created in your
opponent's defense during the middle game.
The endgame often concludes when one ofthe players is able to move a pawn to the
other side of the board and thus turn that
pawn in for a queen. This is then followed
by a checkmate or a resignation. Strategy,
not tactics are what need to be considered inthe end game.
Although there is no official start or end to
the different stages of the game you need to
have an understanding of where you should
be focusing your attention. These are
general guidelines as to what the stages are
and goals to accomplish during each stage
that successful chess players have been
using throughout the history of chess.
16. Four Move Checkmate
If you are new to chess you need to
understand one of the oldest tricks in chess,the four move checkmate. It is quite simple
to make quick work of less experienced
player by this method. Due to its fast speed,
the inexperienced player will never see it
coming. Therefore it is important to be able
to detect the proper board positions of the
pieces in order to properly defend one's
king.
Characteristic of the four-move checkmate
is the board positions of the Queen and
Bishop. If you see your opponent moving
their Queen and Bishop early in the game,it's a big sign that they are setting up for the
four-move checkmate. Also, do not be
fooled into thinking that this checkmate
should be done in four moves either.
Oftentimes, even players who know about
the four-move checkmate are defeated by it
because their opponent was able to disguise
their intentions with distracting moves. You
should always be on the watch when your
opponent's Queen is attacking the King's
Bishop Pawn.
If you are white, moving the king pawnforward two squares followed by black
moving their king pawn forward two
squares start the process. Then white moves
king bishop to attack blacks king bishop
pawn. If black does not see this coming
white places its queen in a position to attack
blacks king bishop pawn. If black does not
defend the coming attack then white has
checkmate the next move by taking blacksking bishop pawn with the queen.
To defend against this attack black could
have simply moved the knight in front of theking bishop pawn. Another defense is to
simply move the king bishop pawn forwardone square. Either of these methods is
acceptable.
17. Use Your Moves Wisely
Becoming a better chess player is not simplylearning about advanced strategies, it also
includes learning about all aspects of the
game including wasted moves. In the game
of chess you only get so many opportunities
to move your pieces and advance yourstrategy, so it is important that you use all of
your moves as wisely as you can.
A wasted move is one that accomplishes
nothing for you in the way of strengthening
your position. If a move does not improve
your defense or your offense it is wasted.
Some inexperienced players will waste
moves while waiting for their opponent to
make an error and this is a poor strategy.
Sometimes a player will move a primary
piece forward without providing and
defense for that piece. Then when the
opponent threatens that primary piece, the
inexperienced player simply moves thepiece back to where it was. This
accomplishes nothing and wastes two
moves.
In becoming a better chess player the player
who can control the board, especially the
center of the board, has an upper hand in the
game of chess. An experienced player
understands that they need to make every
move count and that each move should be
accomplishing something either in the way
of offense or defense. A very good player is
able to use a move to help defend, attack,and control the board all at the same time.
Try not to allow your opponent to have
moves that are more effective than yours
causing you to waste moves. Since chess
does not allow you to make many mistakes
against an experienced player, try not to let
wasted moves be one of the mistakes you
make, particularly since it is a preventable
error.
18. Utilizing Your Bishops
In playing chess you must learn of all the
little intricacies that come along with the
game. One of these to learn is what is called
an unopposed bishop. An unopposed bishop
is one whose counterpart on the opponent's
side has been taken. In other words, if you
have your dark square bishop and your
opponent does not, then you have an
unopposed bishop. The opposite of this istrue if you have lost one of your bishops and
your opponent still has theirs that is on that
square color.
The danger of an unopposed bishop comes
in many forms. The primary way that anunopposed bishop is dangerous is that if you
are being attacked by an unopposed bishop
you cannot block with your own bishop or
trade out pieces with your own bishop of
that color. Also if you have opened files, or
semi open files, on your side that are open toattack, the unopposed bishop can exploit
these quite easily. If your opponent has an
unopposed bishop then your opponent can
also use its to start taking down your pawns
and your primary line of defense. If you hadnot lost your bishop of the same square
color this attack would be much more
difficult for your opponent to carry out.
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Bishops are not always considered to be
highly valuable pieces by inexperienced
players, but they can have a dramatic impact
on the game due in part to their ability to
span the entire length of the board from
corner to corner. An unopposed bishop
becomes even more effective in the
endgame with its ability to threaten the
opponent's king without having to guard
against the opponents bishop of the samecolor square.
19. King of the World
The king that is hunted throughout the game
by your opponent may appear weak, but can
have some offensive value during the
endgame. During the middle game the king
should be in hiding because your opponent
still has many of their offensive pieces that
can easily checkmate you. As the game
progresses towards the end game you may
have no choice but to bring your king intothe battle as an offensive piece.
During the middle game you have probably
castled already and your king is safely
tucked away behind pawns with a rook to
his side. Moving the pawns from in front of
the king during the middle game is a
mistake. It is a mistake because it creates
open or semi open files for your opponent to
attack the king. Towards the end game
though, the pawns will likely have to be
moved. The primary reason for this is that if
you bring your rook, that was guarding theking, into battle your king is in a dangerous
position.
Picture the positioning in your head, three
pawns in front of the king, the king in the
corner and no pieces to the king's side. All
your opponent has to do is slide a rook or
queen down to the back row and you are in
checkmate, unless you can block this. Thiscreates a situation where, for defensive
purposes, you need to begin moving the
pawns forward to offer a lane of escape for
the king.
In the endgame, the king becomes a strongpiece. With reduced material, mate is not an
immediate concern anymore, and the king
should be moved towards the center of the
board. The king can block your opponent's
king quite well and even capture pawns
when played correctly.
20. Pony Up
Knowing when and where to use your
knights can be the difference betweenwinning and losing. Knights are very
versatile with their ability to leap over other
pieces on the board. The knights are the
only pieces that can accomplish this
important feat. Much of the strength of the
knight depends on where it is positioned on
the board.
It is important to spot gaps in your
opponent's position where a knight cannot
be attacked because your opponent's pawns
have already moved past that position.
Knights are generally easily chased away
with pawns. Once you find a gap in your
opponent's defense you should place youknight into that position. A knight that is not
facing any immediate threats and that
cannot be attacked in one or two moves by
the opponent's pawns (since the pawns have
already moved too far forward) is a valuable
asset in the game. An unchallengeable
knight on the fifth row is a strong asset, and
a supported knight on the sixth row usually
decides the game.
Generally it is a bad idea to place a knight
on the edges of the board or in the corners of
the board because this dramatically limitsthe moves that the knight can make. It is
similar to placing the knight into a cage with
only one way out. Knights are generally
most beneficial towards the center of the
board.
It is also important to keep in mind that a
knight is one of the best pieces to deliver a
fork. A fork is where a piece can threaten
two pieces at the same time. Your opponent
has to decide which of the two pieces that
you are threatening to sacrifice. Knights can
be very sneaky in delivering a fork.
21. End Game Ideas
Once most pieces have been exchanged off
the board and the end game is reached it
becomes impossible to mount direct attacks
on the king. When this happens the focus of
the game switches to attempting to bring a
pawn to the eighth rank and promote it to aqueen and at the same time preventing your
opponent from doing so. The promoted
queen, provided the opponent does not
immediately capture it, is enough to bringvictory.
If only one pawn is left then both players
should attempt to direct their kings in front
of the pawn in order to keep the other king
away and ensure, or prevent, the pawn's
promotion.
In endgames that involve only kings and
pawns, the concept of opposition is
important. By moving to a square which is
horizontally, vertically or diagonally two
squares away from your opponents king,you gain an advantage because it forces
your opponents king to give way.
A king and one minor piece is never enough
to force a win and thus the game will be a
draw. A king with two knights against a king
is also insufficient to force a win; however,
since this inability is partly a result of poor
timing inherent in the knight's awkward
moves there are circumstances where a win
can be forced if the opponent also has a
pawn. Although a king and three knights
versus king is also sufficient for a win, such
a situation rarely occurs because, for such a
position to arise, a pawn must have beenpromoted to become the third knight
whereas most players would usually choose
to promote the pawn to become a queen to
quickly end the game
22. Doubled Pawns
Doubled pawns leads to a weak game for
the player who has them. Doubled pawns
can is defined as having two pawns directly
in front of one another. This is the result of
an earlier capture. What is worse is that
these doubled pawns often become isolatedpawns. Isolated pawns are unable to be
guarded or defended by another pawn. If
you have two pawns in the same vertical file
without an ability to guard them with each
other, then you have a major weakness that
will most likely haunt you later in the game.
These doubled and isolated pawns are just
waiting to be picked off by your opponent.
You opponent may elect though to simply
ignore them since they are of very little
threat unless they reach the back rank and
get promoted to queens. This is easilyavoided by blocking their path with a pawn
of your own. The other disadvantage of
having doubled your pawns in the game of
chess is that you have also opened a file that
your opponent can use to mount an attack
onto your back row.
The best thing that you can do is to try and
avoid doubling up your pawns in thismanner. In order to avoid this mistake you
must utilize careful planning from the
beginning of the game. Using other primary
pieces to be able to capture attackers thatyour opponent sends out will help you avoid
the double pawn weakness. At times it maybe unavoidable to double up your pawns,
but being aware of the disadvantage it
presents and being able to recognize this
will help you in your game. Also you should
know that you could exploit this double
pawn mistake in your opponent and that ifyour opponent makes this error that you are
at an advantage.
23. End Game Goals
The primary goal of the end game is to
achieve checkmate against your opponent.
There are other goals that must be
accomplished in the end game to make this
possible though. One of these goals is to
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develop and centralize the remaining pieces
that you posses. Using a rook to control one
of the central vertical files is essential since
it limits the movements of your opponent's
king. Also you may consider moving your
own king towards the center of the board
since by the end game there are relatively
few pieces left on the board to threaten your
king. Controlling the center of the board is
important throughout the entire game ofchess, regardless of what phase of the game
you have reached.
When it is possible to do a balanced
exchange with rooks you should do so. It
does take away your rooks, which are quite
powerful, but it also eliminates your
opponent's rooks. Eliminating your
opponent's rooks will make it much more
difficult for your opponent to place you in
check. If the opportunity presents itself try
to attack a weakness in your opponents
position so that your opponent cannot use apiece. An example of this is a pin whereby a
piece cannot be moved or else your
opponent would be placed in check.
Other goals in the end game include
advancing your pawns further down the
board to penetrate and weaken your
opponent's defenses. The other reason that
you want to do this is so that you can
ultimately promote a pawn to a queen by
reaching the back rank. At the same time
look for opportunities to capture more of
your opponent's pawns as this continues toweaken their defense and prevents your
opponent from promoting a pawn to a
queen.
24. Middle Game Tactics
After the opening comes the middle game,
somewhere around move twenty usually.
This is where you and your opponent set offto do battle in the game of chess. A trade off
of pieces, sacrifices, pins, skewers, etc
characterizes the middle game. The goal of
the middle game is to capture more of youropponent's pieces that your opponent can
capture of yours. The methods that you useto capture your opponents pieces are
referred to as tactics. Tactics are immediate
plans, usually completed in a few moves,
while strategy refers to longer-term plans in
the game of chess.
Utilizing tactics in the middle game boils
down to trying to capture your opponent's
pieces for free or by sacrificing low valued
pieces. Capturing opponent's pieces for free
means that you can capture them withoutlosing the piece that you used to take it.
Sacrificing for a lower valued piece could
be characterized by capturing a bishop or
knight with a pawn. Being able to capture
your opponent's pieces for free or by a low
valued piece sacrifice gives you a great
advantage in the game.
When playing more experienced opponent's
it will be much more difficult to find free
pieces or to sacrifice lower valued ones for
higher valued pieces, however everyone is
liable to make a mistake during a
complicated game of chess. Awareness of
the entire board and the openings availablefor you to attack is a must in the game of
chess. Capturing more of your opponent's
material than they can capture of yours will
help you to ultimately win the game and to
do so with ease. Always be on the look out
for your opponent's unguarded pieces.
25. Chart Your Progress
Every chess player, no matter how good or
how bad, has strengths and weaknesses in
their game of chess. Whether you are an
absolute beginner or a seasoned veteran in
the game of chess there is room forimprovement. One way to improve your
strengths and to eliminate your weaknesses
is by simply keeping track of your games.
This includes wins and losses as well as
types of openings you use and endgame
strategies that you use.
If you use one certain opening sequence and
lose every time you use that sequence it may
be time to look for a new opening sequence.
This may also mean that you need to
practice and study your opening sequence in
greater detail. It is likely that youropponents are often exploiting the same
weakness over and over again. The same
ideas apply to your endgame strategy. If you
find yourself in similar situations over and
over again and continue to fail, then you
need to study your game and look at
alternative endgame strategies.
Athletes, business professionals, andbasically anyone who wants to be successful
at something use this kind of reflection to
see where they are making mistakes and
where they can improve. Use this critique ofyourself as a way to improve your chess
game. Take the time to write down theopenings you are using and the endgames
and compare that to your wins, losses, and
draws. You may even go so far as to create a
chart with opening scenarios and endgame
strategies listed in columns and wins and
losses listed in rows. Then you can quicklysee from the chart what combinations work
best for you. Understanding yourself and
your approach to the game of chess can only
help you to continue to improve.
26. Deflection
Deflection is a psychological term used to
describe a coping mechanism that people
use to avoid dealing with troubling feelings
or situations. People do this by being able to
alternate from one topic to another so that
they do not have to deal with either topic in
depth. Ok, so what does this have to do with
chess? In chess deflection will win you
games plain and simple. Players will often
use a piece, especially queens, to guard or
protect two separate pieces at the same time.
This is where the term deflection comes in.
Also sometimes called an overworked piece,
deflection is a tactical theme in which one
player has a piece that must remain on a
square that it is on, either because it defends
another piece, or because it blocks a threat.
If this guarding piece were forced to move,
the opponent's position would crumble. The
reason it is sometimes refers to as the
overworked piece is because this defending
piece is forced to do too many things at
once, defending two pieces. By meeting one
threat, the other threat is left unattended to
and thus leaves this piece at its opponent'smercy.
For example, if a bishop is guarding a queen
and is in place to prevent a back row mate
from a rook, you can simply move the rook
to the opponent's back row and place the
king in check. This forces the bishop to
move to block the check leaving the queen
that the bishop was defending completely
unguarded and available for the taking. Seek
out deflection that your opponent is using
and exploit it. This becomes an even better
tactic towards the end game because thechances of your opponent having a single
piece defending two is much higher.
27. Master an Opening
To become a better chess player you need to
be able to have one good opening when
playing white and one good opening when
playing black. There are many differentopenings that you can use, choose one that
is the most comfortable for you to use. Once
you have selected your preferred opening
begin to practice and then practice somemore. The opening that you decide to use
for white and the one you decide to use forblack do not have to be the same opening
sequence, however they can be if you so
choose.
Become a master at the opening, or
openings, that you have selected. One goodway to master these is to play against a
computer chess program that will exploit all
of the flaws in the opening that you have
selected. No matter what opening sequence
you choose there will be some weaknessesand flaws that go along with it. If you do
utilize a computer program to assist you in
this you can gradually increase the difficulty
levels within the program. By doing this you
will gradually learn most all of the outcomes
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of your opening sequence and the common
problems that can arise with these opening
sequences.
In addition to this, find people who are close
to your skill level and use these openings
when playing against them and play against
these opponent's frequently. Once you feel
you have the opening sequences down
pretty good then add a timer. Force yourselfto run through these openings with similar
skill level players at a rapid pace so that it
can become second nature for you. If you
follow these suggestion then you will
certainly become a force to be reckoned
with in your opening sequences and you
will have an advantage over your
opponent's.
28. Chess Notation Part 1
Chess notation is simply a method to write
down and record your game. Learning chessnotation will help you in many ways. One
way that it will help you is that it will
provide a history of what you did in the
game and how your opponent reacted. This
will allow you to recreate the game in the
future and to study what you did right and
what you did wrong. Chess notation is what
allows us to review the games of the
greatest chess players in the world. Without
chess notation we would not be able to
recreate those games. Chess notation also
can clear up any confusion during a game
about which moves have or have not beenmade. Chess notation is a must learn for
anyone who wants to become a serious
chess player.
There are a variety of chess notations, but
we will use the simplest method here. First,
turn your chessboard so that the right hand
corner of the board, as you and your
opponent face it, is the light color square. Ifthe squares are white and green, then the
right hand corner of the chessboard is white.
If the squares of the chessboard are red and
black, then the right hand corner is red.
Now you can begin setting up the pieces andalways remember that the queen goes on her
own color (white queen white/red square). A
common term for the horizontal squares is
"ranks" and the vertical squares are referred
to as "files". You will need to know these
terms in order to grasp chess notation.Ranks are labeled with numbers, and files
are labeled with letters. Next we will learn
the identifications of the different squares.
29. Chess Notation Part 2
Many different chess books, chess websites,
and other types of chess training methods
rely on you understanding chess notation.
Chess notation helps to standardize how
moves are recorded and how a game
progressed. Let us look at how chess
notation identifies the different squares on
the board.
Your ranks are numbered from the white
side of the chessboard to the black side. The
back row with the white queen, not the one
with the pawns, is considered rank 1. The
white pawns are on rank 2 and so forth. Thismeans that blacks pawns are on rank 7 and
blacks primary pieces are on rank 8. The
files, or vertical rows are lettered A through
H. The first file letter is A, which will be the
furthest left hand file for the player playing
white, if you are playing black the A file will
be the file furthest to your right. Think of
the chess squares as having a first and last
name such as A1 or B7 with the letter being
the first name and the number being the last
name.
By doing this type of labeling, or chessnotation, we can track the moves of all the
chess pieces and the orders in which the
moves are made. To notate your chess game
you must write down where the piece was
and where it is moved to each turn. If we
were to move the white pawn in front of the
white king two spaces ahead, the move
would read e2 - e4. The hyphen means the
word "to". This signifies that whatever chess
piece was on e2 now has moved to e4. This
system of chess notation is probably the
easiest to understand for most people.
30. Chess Notation Part 3
Understand that you will be writing down
move 1 for both white and black. This
means that in a grid, like the one below,
whites first move is next to the number one
and black first move is also in the number 1
row. Now that we have started looking at
chess notation lets see how a typical layoutof chess notation appears.
A typical layout of a notated game will look
like this:
Mike TomWhite Black
1. e2 - e4 e7 - e5
2. f1 - c4 b8 - c6
3. d1 - h5 g8 - f6
4. h5 x f7 #
The "#" sign means checkmate (chess game
over). Sometimes a "++" sign is used and
means, "game over" also. A single "+" sign
means that a check was made. The white
queen has checkmated the black king in theabove chess game. She has threatened to
take the black king with check, and he is
unable to escape from his position on the
chessboard, therefore it is mate. The king
cannot take the white queen for the king
would then be in check by the white bishop.
In the short form of chess notation, the
letters B, N, R, Q, and K are used before the
chess notation to identify which chess piece
is being moved. Each letter replaces the first
move and hyphen in the chess notation. The
bishop uses the letter B, the knight uses N,
the rook uses R, the queen uses Q, and theking uses K. No capital letter in chess
notation indicates a pawn is being moved.
Moving the white knight from g1 to f3 in
chess short form notation would read Nf3.
When a capture takes place, the letter "x" is
used to indicate the capture. For example,
exd5 means that the pawn on e4 just took
the piece or pawn on d5.
31. Join a Chess Club
Joining a chess club can offer a tremendous
amount of help in improving your chessgame. Joining a chess club allows you to
compete with many different players who
are at a variety of skill levels in their chess
game. Joining a chess club also allows you
to discuss the dynamics of the game with an
opponent's after a match and hopefully learn
from your mistakes and to continue to
improve your strengths. This benefit can be
fully utilized by using chess notation during
your game so that you and your opponent
can recreate the moves and learn from them
afterwards.
Another benefit to joining a chess club is
that you get to practice frequently.
Practicing and then practicing some more is
probably the best way to improve your
chess game. Players in your chess club can
educate you about various strategies such as
gambits and end game ideas. Fellow chess
club members can also help you keep up to
date with the latest news in the world ofchess and tournaments.
Finding a chess club is as easy as looking
one up on the Internet. Many communitieshave chess clubs; even the smaller
communities often have chess clubs. Thereare also on line chess clubs that you could
join. Try to find a friendly, not overly
competitive, chess club so that you can
enjoy yourself and learn at the same time.
Remember, the game of chess is supposed to
be fun. Chess clubs often times compete intournaments as well. These can be a great
deal of fun as you advance your chess skills.
Go find yourself a chess club today and
begin enjoying the socializing and otherbenefits that are offered by joining a chess
club.
32. Chess Etiquette
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There are some official and unofficial rules
of etiquette in the game of chess. The
general theme of chess etiquette is to be a
good sport and to be respectful. Some of the
more common official rules of etiquette are
as follows:
Every game must begin and end with the
players shaking hands.
Between the two handshakes, no talking is
permitted. "Check" need not be said. Players
are responsible for noticing where all of the
pieces on the board are located, and what
threats are pending.
Never do anything to distract any other
player in the tournament, especially your
opponent.
Always use the "touch move" rule.
If an illegal move is made, the tournamentdirector should be summoned. In a
tournament using a "Sudden Death" time
control, the other player receives an extra
two minutes when one player makes an
illegal move.
Never gloat over a victory, or become
despondent or hostile following a defeat. It
is always best to analyze the game with your
opponent, after the game ends, and in a
different room from where you played.
Leave the playing room quietly when you
finish so as not to distract the other peoplewho are still playing.
Never comment on a game that is in
progress, whether the game is yours or one
that you are just watching.
The tournament director has the authority
to punish breaches of etiquette, and may add
or subtract time as a sanction. In extremecases, players may be forfeited for violating
the rules and spectators may be banned from
the site.
These rules of etiquette generally apply to
tournaments, but it is always a good idea tofollow these. Being a good sport in chess
and having fun generally makes for a better
chess player.
33. Pay Attention
Staying focused and paying attention during
your chess game is critical if you intend to
win. While this may sound elementary,
many players often do lose focus during a
game and lose. When I was a very youngman I went to a chess club meeting for the
first time. I lost many games rapidly and
was not at all considered a serious player. In
the final match that I had that night, I played
a much more experienced player who was
said to be one of the very best in the club.
While I played him in our game I was very
focused on the game and looking for any
advantages on the board I could find since I
knew I was outgunned. As the game
progressed other members of the club came
over and began to talk with my opponent.
See, he was playing a young kid who hadnot even come close to winning a game all
night. The distraction that my opponent
faced with the conversation from other
players allowed me to ultimately win the
game. He simply was not paying attention,
had be been focusing on the game he would
of most likely won. I was quite pleased that
he was distracted and unfocused during the
game.
So the moral of the story is to stay focused
on your game so that you do not make
simple mistakes and do not underestimatean opponent. Everyone has a chance to win
and lose a game. It is noteworthy that during
tournaments it is improper to have
discussions with players who are currently
playing a game due to the level of
distraction it brings. Staying focused simply
helps you to keep your head in the game
where it belongs.
34. Gambits
I am sure that by now you realize that chess
is game of give and take. Depending on thegame situation you may be more inclined to
sacrifice pieces and in other situations you
may fight very hard to keep all of your
pieces. However, there are a number of
chess openings that are referred to as a
gambit. The word gambit stems from the
Italian 'gambetta' which means to set a trap.
The term gambit was also used by Italians to
describe a wrestling move. In chess agambit is simply sacrificing a piece to
achieve a better position on the board.
Typically in a gambit it is a pawn that issacrificed, but there are times where perhaps
a bishop or knight is the piece that issacrificed in the gambit. The idea is that the
player who sacrifices something gains
something in the process such as time or
active piece play. Let's look at the Danish
gambit as an example. In this white loses
two pawns, but is able to place bishops at anadvantage looking to your opponent's
kingside.
There are numerous gambits that have been
proven and tested time and again. Some ofthese gambits are more effective than others.
An opponent may or may not choose to
accept the gambit that you are offering. Your
opponent may be familiar with the gambit
and elect not to take your sacrificial pieces
to keep you from having an advantage. It is
up to you to decide if it is in your best
interest to use a gambit or to accept a gambit
during a game. It would be wise to research
many of these gambits and to become
familiar with using them in games. There
are numerous Internet sites that describe
gambits in detail as well as a variety of
books on the topic of gambits.
35. Have Your Game Analyzed
A unique way to work on improving your
chess skill is to record a typical game of
chess that you have played with chess
notation and then submit that game to a
grandmaster or other high-ranking chess
player. There are a number of grandmasters
that offer this as a service, for a fee, and will
provide you with detailed feedback about
how you can improve your game. The
experience and knowledge that these proven
players have can be invaluable to a beginneror intermediate chess player. The down side
of this is the costs that are incurred by
utilizing their services.
A less expensive way to do this is to record
your games, through chess notation, and to
ask a friend or member of a chess club that
you are a member of to analyze your moves
and give you feedback. While these people
are not grandmasters they may very well be
able to show you mistakes that you make
that can be easily corrected. The idea behind
this is to have more sets of eyes (and brains)looking at the various options that you could
have used.
People use feedback from more experienced
people in various facets of their lives.
Whether it is a parent of a baby asking
another parent how to take better care of
their child, or a business student asking for
feedback from a CEO, feedback from thosewho know more about a subject than we do
is one of the very best ways to learn. People
often get stuck in ruts and in a game of
chess we get stuck in ruts as well. Havingothers analyze our game may be one way to
help break the bad habits that we tend to fallinto.
36. Long Term Thinking
Playing chess is a thinking persons game
and the longer we have to think aboutsomething and analyze it, the better results
we usually have. Some people thoroughly
enjoy speed chess (also known as blitz
chess) in which each person usually has five
minutes each to complete the game, for atotal of ten minutes. Other players loathe
this type of rapid game and like to take their
time to think more deeply about their
possible moves and options. The more
rapidly a game progresses the more likely
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you and your opponent are to make
mistakes.
If you are one who prefers the games that do
not have a short time limit then
correspondence chess may be for you.
Traditionally the idea of correspondence
chess was to mail your move back and forth
with an opponent. You send them your first
move, by way of chess notation; they sendyou their response move, and so forth. With
the advent of technology and the Internet,
this can easily be done through email.
The appeal of this correspondence chess is
that you could literally have hours, days, or
even weeks to consider your next move. By
spending a great deal of time deciding upon
your next move you can dramatically
improve your chess game. Your opponent
will also have that length of time to consider
their move and this often results in a very
well played game by both participants.Correspondence chess allows you and your
opponent to develop better strategies and the
tactics to carry out those strategies.
Consider this as a method to improve your
game. If this is something that is not at all
appealing to you then there are a number of
people who will happily play speed chess
with you.
37. Think Ahead
Playing chess is all about having a goodsolid strategy developed in your game. In
order to develop and carry out your strategy
you need to be able to look at the board, the
pieces, and the situation in order to
determine the best strategy to use. Most
strategies will fail if you do not plan ahead.
Planning ahead, at least two moves, is
critical to becoming a winning chess player.
You can do this by carefully analyzing theboard and where the pieces are situated. A
more experienced player may even be able
to see likely scenarios that his opponent is
attempting to execute.
To plan ahead a couple of moves in chessmeans that you look at your available
options as well as your opponent's available
responses to the moves that you intend on
making. If you are able to do this you are on
the path to becoming a great chess player.
Some people have a tendency to simplyreact to the moves that their opponent
makes. These are the same people who wait
to see their opponent's strategy without
trying to implement one of their own. All of
us are probably guilty of doing this at somepoint, but taking control of the game and
being the one implementing strategies,
instead of the one reacting to them, gives us
an advantage in our games.
Being able to plan ahead a few moves and
to see what the next few moves your
opponent may make takes a great deal of
practice and generally comes with
experience. Being aware enough to try and
look for possible scenarios though will help
you to progress quicker in your game
development. Spend time during the game
looking for those scenarios and it will pay
off for you.
38. Watch Others
People are often so eager to jump into chess
and have heard over and over again that the
best way to improve their game is to
practice as much as possible. While this is
true another method that is often overlooked
is to watch others play chess. You can watch
other people in online chess games, at chess
clubs, tournaments, etc. Observing others
games will allow you to see situations that
have baffled you in the past and how othersreact to these situations on the board. This
will often provide unique insights since
many different people respond differently to
any given situation. While there may be
accepted standards in the chess community
of how to respond to a particular tactic, not
everyone will respond with that accepted
standard.
Watching those who are rated higher than
you, or those who are simply more
experienced at chess will provide you with
valuable insights. If you watch a game andsay "Oh, that is how you get out of that trap"
then you have already learned a valuable
piece of knowledge that your future
opponent's may not posses.
Do not limit yourself to simply watching
those who you feel are better players either.
Watch the games of lower rated, or less
experienced players. By watching thesegames you will see common mistakes that
new chess players make. Experienced chess
players often lose concentration and make
the same mistakes that the less experiencedplayers make. Watching these games will
also help prevent you from committingthese simple mistakes.
Continue to practice on a regular basis, but
also watch and learn from others. Learning
through the experience of playing is great
and watching others play is simply anothertool that you can use to improve your chess
skills.
39. Learn from Grandmasters
In today's technological world gaining
knowledge is easier than it has ever been.
Today on the Internet anyone can download
a copy of the chess annotation of games
played by chess grand masters. Sometimes
these are available for free and other times
there is a fee associated with gaining access
to these historical chess games among the
greatest chess players of all time.
Why would you want to look at a game that
was played twenty years ago by two grand
masters? The reason is simple, you can learn
a great deal from the experts. The grand
master ranking is often thought to be thehighest chess rating that a person can have.
If you can walk through a game and see the
moves, strategies, and tactics that experts
use in their game then you can dramatically
improve your game. Some of these grand
master games even come with a
commentary about which strategies and
tactics are being utilized so that you can
learn what the names are of the tactics and
strategies. The games that come with an
available analysis are especially beneficial
because someone has already spent the time
and energy to go through and detailmistakes that were made by each player in
the game.
Grand masters often spend years, or even
decades, perfecting their chess game and
have played against the greatest players in
the world. By doing this they have
experience and knowledge that we would
not be able to gain anywhere else. So take
advantage of today's technology and get
those annotated games and play them
through and learn from them, you will be
glad that you did. You should notice yourgame improving as well after having
analyzed a handful of games.
40. The Spike or Grob Opening
The Spike or Grob Opening line begins with
the strange appearing 1. g4. Most players
would not think of making this move in a
game of chess that they want to win. Itdamages king side pawns with an unguarded
advanced pawn. The Grob opening does
offer many tactical advantages for white
though along unusual opening lines.
After using 1. g4, follow with 2. Bg2 anddepending on your opponent's reactions, 3.
c4. These odd moves will send your
opponent's head reeling with trying to figure
out what in the world you are thinking. Your
opponent's may even think that you are
obviously inexperienced and will not eventake this opening, or you, seriously, which
gives an automatic advantage.
One difficulty with playing chess against
more experienced players is that they have acommon response to common openings.
Every time you use a certain opening they
will respond with a certain defense that has
worked for them in the past. This is where
the Grob comes into play, since it is so
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unusual for someone to use it, opponents are
often unsure of how to respond to it. The
Grob opening is particularly useful in speed,
or blitz, chess games.
The Grob is also effective in chess games
that are not timed. The Swiss
correspondence master Grob used his
namesake to win many different
correspondence games. In this case, a B-Class player defeated a strong master with
the Grob. Try out this unusual opening in
your games and see if you can make it work
for you. It does give you, as white, certain
tactical advantages whereby you can exploit
blacks responses when your opponent is
unsure of how to respond to such a different
opening.
41. The Classic Kings Pawn Opening
The classic kings pawn opening is a time-
tested opening that novice players can use tohelp them gain experience in the game of
chess. This is a great way to control the
center of the board and allows you to have
many avenues in which to mount an attack
against your opponent. At the same time it
also allows you to develop a very tough
defensive stance that your opponent may
have difficulty breaking through without
suffering a tremendous loss in pieces.
The kings pawn opening consists of first
moving both the D and E pawns forward
two spaces to D4 and E4. This is followedby bringing out both bishops to the sides of
the pawns at C4 and F4. The next step is to
move both knights out to C3 and F3.
Castling your king and rook on either the
kings side or the queens side follows this
move. Once this is done you can move the
queen to either E2 or D2. Now you can
move your second rook over to D1 or E1
depending on which side you castled to.
Of course all of this assumes that your
opponent will allow you the luxury of
moving your pieces into these exactpositions. Often times they will not give you
this opportunity, but if you have the chanceto execute even most of this opening, you
can place your self at a major advantage. All
of these pieces carefully compliment each
other in this opening scenario. You have
many different lanes in which to attack from
and have total dominance over the center ofthe board. Having control over the center of
the board is one of the basic tactics that
many players use in chess. Give the kings
pawn opening a try and see if it works for
you.
42. Chess Variants
Imagine getting a little tired of the
traditional chess game. If this ever happens
to you, or if you just want a new challenge
consider some of the many chess variants
that people are using today. There are many
new wild variants that you can play that can
actually help you to improve your
traditional chess game. Some of these
variants were originally made to help
beginners learn strategies and tactics in the
game of chess. However, some people
enjoyed the variant trainings so much, thatthey have begun playing them regularly.
Many of these chess variants, along with
their rules and strategies are widely
available on the Internet for those who are
interested.
Some of these variants include just using a
few pieces instead of the full compliment of
traditional chess pieces. Some of these
variants are used to teach children the basics
of chess, but before you ignore those
variants, they can be used by anyone to help
understand some of the more complexintricacies of the game of chess. Some of
these would be using only pawns on the
board to learn pawn forks and how to
advance while slowing your opponent's
advances.
There are other variants that only use
bishops as pieces, or only rooks, etc. These
variants can help you to master the
knowledge of how to best use these pieces
as attacking pieces and as defensive pieces
while at the same time experiencing a new
type of game that can provide you someenjoyment. While I prefer traditional chess,
I do recommend using these variant games
as a way to improve your overall chess
skills and knowledge of tactics that you can
use with the different pieces.
43. Checkmate
Have you ever found yourself dominating agame, leading in pieces, and yet struggling
to put your opponent into checkmate? Have
you ever chased a king around the board,
frustrated that you could not find that allimportant checkmate position? Most chess
players will struggle with completing thecheckmate, especially early on in their chess
playing. Being able to checkmate is
essential and knowing some of the different
checkmates is needed in order to be a
competitive chess player.
Even if your opponent is outnumbered by
pieces, they may try to elude you in order to
get a draw. This is a very smart move on the
part of your opponent. There are many
different checkmates that you can use to endthe game. Placing a guarded queen next to
the king does one of the easiest checkmates,
or at least one of the most effective
checkmates. If the king has nowhere to
escape to, then you have successfully placed
your opponent into checkmate.
Another very common checkmate is to use
two rooks, or a rook and a queen. Either
way it is the same concept. Use your two
rooks to dominate files so that the
opponent's king is slowly forced over to one
side of the board. Simply continue to move
your rooks so that the king cannot moveforward from the files and you will have a
checkmate.
There are many more checkmate methods
that can be used and you should study and
learn those checkmates. Experienced players
spend a great deal of time learning the
various checkmates and it shows in their
games by their wins. The more checkmates
that you know, the better off you will be and
the easier it will be for you to win games.
44. Defend Yourself
When your opponent attempts to move
pieces onto your side of the board you must
challenge those pieces. If you allow your
opponent to move unchecked onto your side
of the board you are asking for trouble. If
you are trying to execute a certain opening
or gambit, it may still be wise to challenge
these trespassers that have come to your side
of the board.
You need to defend against these pieces that
come to your side of the board either byattacking them, trading, or finding away to
drive them away and make them retreat.
Any of these methods are good in defending
yourself against these trespassers. Letting
your opponent place pieces on your side of
the board and taking no action allows your
opponent to gain an advantage that he or she
will likely hold throughout the entire game.
If you ignore these pieces that youropponent has placed on your side of the
board it will allow your opponent to bring
even more primary pieces over to your side
of the board and will limit your possiblemovements.
It is especially important to attack these
pieces or drive them away when they are
placed in the center of the board.
Controlling the center of the board is one of
the basic principles in the game of chess. If
you see your opponent placing uncheckedpieces there you must challenge or attack if
you want to have a chance to win the game.
Often times if you are able to force your
opponent to retreat these trespassing pieces
you will gain a tactical advantage. You willhave the momentum, or tempo, on your side
while he or she is in the process of
retreating.
45. Simplicity
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Sometimes when playing chess we are
looking for the complex gambits or trying to
memorize openings. While chess is a very
complex game that requires many complex
strategies and tactics it is easy to overlook
some of the more simple principles of the
game of chess. Staying focused on the basic
principles of chess is much more important
than being able to rattle off the sequence ofyour preferred openings. Sticking with basic
principles will simply help you to win
games when your opponent's may be trying
too hard to carry out some ultra complex
tactic that rarely works.
One of the basic principles in chess is that
when your opponent gives up control over a
square you should move into that square.
There are only so many squares on the
board that you can safely move pieces into.
As the game progresses these available
squares become much harder and harder tofind. Therefore, if your opponent is
surrendering one of these precious squares,
you should move into it. By moving into
this free, or unguarded square, you will be
able to mount an attack much more easily.
The main thing to watch for when doing this
is to make try and determine if your
opponent is trying to set a trap for you.
Generally, even if your opponent is trying to
set a trap for you, it will be apparent. Most
of the time though moving into that
unguarded square will work to youradvantage. With only sixty-four squares on
the board, moving into that free and open
spot is helpful. Again, try not to get too
focused on the complexities of strategies
while forgetting the most basic principles in
the game. Successful chess players always
stay in touch with the simple and basic
principles.
46. Attack on the Kings Side
At Some point during the opening of the
chess game most players will likely attemptto castle. Castling provides the player with a
good line of defense for their king. Typicallythe player who has castled has at least three
pawns in front of their king, a rook on the
open side of the king, and one space
followed by the edge of the board on the
other side of the king. Most of the time it is
a good idea to castle because of theprotection it offers the king.
When playing against someone who has
castled their king, which will frequently
happen, it is a good idea to begin a strategythat allows you to attack your opponents
king side. In other words, attacking those
pawns that are protecting your king. If you
are able to, you want to slowly but surely
place your pieces on the opponent's king
side so that you can overwhelm the pieces
that are protecting your opponent's king.
Depending on the situation it may even be
worthwhile to sacrifice a piece in order to
disassemble your opponents pawns that are
protecting the king. You will have to decide
if it is prudent to sacrifice a piece or not
when attacking the opponents king side
defense.
Being able to dismantle your opponents
king side defenses, while at the same time
maintaining your own kings side defenses,
will give you a huge advantage in the game.
Chess players who are able to destroy the
opponents king side defenses and keep their
own defenses in tact usually win the game.
Use this as a strategy when you feel that you
are perhaps a piece or two ahead, or when
you have tempo going in your favor.
47. Play Against a Computer
One method to develop your chess skills
and experience are to play against a
computer opponent. The primary reason to
do practice against a computer chess
opponent is because the computer opponent
rarely makes major errors or tactical
blunders. Consider this, the computer
opponent does not get tired, distracted,
angry, etc. This makes for a very tough
chess opponent when you play against a
computer.
It is helpful to set the skill level of thecomputer opponent to a slightly higher skill
level than what you are at. However, this is
not an option against all computer
opponents. There are many different
websites on the Internet that allow you to
play for free against computer opponents.
Some of these Internet sites also allow you
to receive feedback from the computer
opponent as to how you could improve yourgame, or even suggested moves for you to
make during the game. Being able to win,
when playing against a computer opponent,
is quite an accomplishment. Although somepeople have a general disdain for playing
against computers, there is a great deal oflearning that comes for the human player
when they do play against a computer chess
opponent.
Take advantage of this technological age
that we live in and utilize these computerchess opponents as a way to drastically
improve your game and learn from your
mistakes. Computers will generally work
from a statistical formula that results in the
computer opponent making the move that isthe statistically best move. Often times these
computer opponents will provide you with
chess notation that you can print out. Using
the notation that is provided will allow you
to review your game and see where you
made mistakes in the game.
48. Zwischenzug
The German word zwischenzug means
intermediate move and it is a common tactic
that occurs in almost every game of chess.
Picture your opponent making a move that
directly threatens one of your pieces. Afteryou opponent has done this you are able to
follow up with the zwischenzug tactic.
When this tactic is used in the game of chess
you will make a move that poses an even
more devastating threat, instead of
countering a direct threat, which the
opponent expected you to do. Often the
move that you made will be a direct attack
against the opponent's queen or the king.
The opponent is forced to counter that threat
against his or her queen or king first and this
will ideally change the situation to his or her
disadvantage.
Just as easily as you can use this tactic, so
can your opponent's. Because this is a
common, well-known tactic you should
always watch out for a zwischenzug. Do not
assume that the opponent has to counter
your threats immediately, no matter how
great they may appear in your eyes. It is
good practice to always check whether your
opponent has a check or a move that can
threaten your queen. Conversely, anticipate
your opponent's threats and plan a
surprising. Zwischenzug.
Try to use this tactic when it appears to
work to your advantage and guard your
pieces against it, particularly guard your
queen and king against the zwischenzug.
This tactic is all about forcing your
opponent into making tough decisions. Your
opponent has to ask themselves for example
"do I take his knight with my bishop, orguard or move my queen?" these types of
situations generally will provide you with a
tempo advantage as your opponent retreats.
49. Do Not Fret
If you find yourself in a game where you are
trailing a two or three or even four pawns
behind there is no reason to worry too much.
The number of pawns that you have as