How to become a good player in chess - Mintcustard

I had a tough time finding good information to get me started in Chess, so I copied things down as I went. Here are the best tips I could find:  

Chess

Opening Principles: IMBacon

• Control the center squares – d4-e4-d5-e5.
• Develop your minor pieces toward the center – piece activity is the key. Centralized piece control more squares.
• (King Safety)
• Connect your rooks. There should be no pieces between your Rooks.
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The objective of development is about improving the value of your pieces by increasing the importance of their roles (Piece Activity).  Well-developed pieces have more fire-power than undeveloped pieces and they do more in helping you gain control.

Now we will look at 5 practical things you can do to help you achieve your development objective.

They are:

• Give priority to your least active pieces.
• Which piece needs to be developed (which piece is the least active)?
• Where should it go (where can its role be maximized)?
• Exchange your least active pieces for your opponent’s active pieces.
• Restrict the development of your opponent’s pieces.
• Neutralize your opponent’s best piece.
• Secure strong squares for your pieces.

Don’t help your opponent develop.

There are 2 common mistakes whereby you will simply be helping your opponent to develop:

• Making a weak threat that can easily be blocked
• Making an exchange that helps your opponent to develop a piece

Pre Move Checklist:

• Make sure all your pieces are safe.
• Look for forcing move: Checks, captures, threats. You want to look at ALL forcing moves (even the bad ones) this will force you look at, and see the entire board.
• If there are no forcing moves, you then want to remove any of your opponent’s pieces from your side of the board.
• If your opponent doesn’t have any of his pieces on your side of the board, then you want to improve the position of your least active piece.
• After each move by your opponent, ask yourself: "What is my opponent trying to do?"

General Ideas.

• Stop playing blitz, and bullet.  Play longer time controls of at least G45, or longer.  
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• Follow Opening Principles:
• Control the center.
• Develop minor pieces toward the center.
• Castle.
• Connect your rooks.
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Study tactics...tactics...tactics.  One of my favorite quotes is this: "Until you reach Master, your first name is tactics, your middle name is tactics, and your last name is tactics”.
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• Double Check your moves.  Before making a move, ask yourself: "Are my pieces safe?"
• After your opponent moves, ask yourself: "What is my opponent trying to do?"
• Analyze your games WITHOUT a chess engine, then have someone stronger go over the games, or post them online for review.
• DO NOT memorize openings. Learn and understand the pawn structure, and piece placement for the opening you wish to learn.
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• Learn Basics Mates:
• K vs. KQ
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• K vs. KR
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• K vs. KRR
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• Learn Basic King and Pawn endings.
• KP vs. K
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• Opposition

Knights

One trick people use to be more aware of knights is realizing they only attack one color at a time (and every time they move that color changes). For example it's not possible for a knight to attack two pieces if they're on different colors, and if a knight checks your king, and you move your king diagonally (meaning you stay on the same color) then that knight can't check you again on the next turn.

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Of course a very common target for knights is c2, f2 on white's side and c7, f7 on black's side. That's where they can fork your rook and king, or rook and queen. Whenever a knight gets close to your position check those squares and check if your king, queen, and/or rook are the same same color.

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Of course not every piece on the same color can be forked, some are just too far away. To help your eyes get used to the knight's pattern I think it's useful to put a knight on an empty board, then then place two enemy pieces on different squares that are attacked by the knight, and just experiment a bit with that.

Lastly I'll mention the rook pawns. A good way to keep an enemy knight out, but costs a tempo so use sparingly.

Endgame Theory (IMBacon)

Some more chess endgame principles:
1. Get your king close to the action – ideally in front of your own pawns.
2. Cut the enemy king off from the action when you can.
3. Rooks should be placed behind passed pawns – your pawns or your opponent’s pawns.
4. Advance your good pawns to increase your chances of creating a passed pawn.
5. Attack your opponents weak pawns to force your opponent’s pieces into defensive positions.
6. Place your pieces on squares where they restrict the mobility of your opponents pieces.
7. If you have a material advantage, it is good to exchange pieces but keep pawns. Exchanging pawns increases your opponent’s drawing chances. The less pieces there are on the board, the more important the pawns become.
8. If you have an advantage, you should leave pawns on both sides of the board so that your opponent will be forced to defend on both sides of the board.
9. If you have one bishop, put your pawns on the opposite colour squares – this way you can control squares with your pawns which the bishop can’t control.
10. The bishop pair (two bishops) are usually very powerful in the endgame, possibly worth at least an extra pawn.
11. The best piece to block a pawn with is a knight. This is because the knight also attacks the squares from where other pawns can protect the blocked pawn.
12. Passed pawns should be pushed forward and supported by all your pieces. Remember – promoting a pawn can often be as good as checkmate since you will be able to force a win with a new queen.
13. Passed pawns on the edge of the board is a key advantage since you can use it to distract your opponent’s pieces (or king) away from other targets.
14. A bishop is usually slightly better than a knight when the action is on both sides of the board. However, when the pawns are only on one side of the board, the knight can be more useful since it can reach both the light and dark squares.
15. Bishops on opposite colour squares tends to often lead to a draw even when one player has an extra pawn or two.
16. Create threats on both sides of the board. This may cause your opponent’s pieces to become overloaded with defensive tasks and give you an opportunity to promote a pawn by a tactical combination.

Written By - @Mintcustard