Lesson 4: Middlegame Tips and Tricks
For people who haven't played Atomic chess before, I'm including these lessons to help you along. I would recomend getting a little used to the moves and mates that can happen before playing. If you don't, just remember: the best way to win is to capture a piece next the King and blow him up, like this
If you haven't seen my last lesson, check it out here.
Lesson 4 a.
It's good strategy to hide powerful pieces next to many opposing pieces, like this
Black cannot capture the Queen without blowing up some very important pieces.
That way, the opponent will lose in trade-offs.
Lesson 4 b.
If your Rook can take an open file, go for it. Rooks can be very powerful in middlegames.
Queenside Castling is a solid option. Now the Rook can hassle the King.
Lesson 4 c.
Flanking your Knights is a great way to sneak past defenses.
Knights in the Middlegame often come as a suprise.
Lesson 4 d.
Strategically plan sacrifises. If you can targt the king, do away with a more powerful piece.
If the White Queen sacrifises herself to the Pawn, opening up a file for the Rook, targeting the King. In a few more moves, Black will be done.
Lesson 4 e.
Try the sneaky Queen-Pawn technique.
Move one.
Move 2: block the attack.
Move 3: Target the King.
As you can see, had we not let the pawn pop up, we would never had been able to target like that.
It's a pretty good idea to keep your Queen around for the middlegame, as with a decrease in Pawns, the Queen has much more mobility.
I hope you enjoyed this lesson and it taught you something. Let me know in the comments if you have any ideas for revisions and/or lessons. Play Atomic chess online here https://www.chess.com/variants/atomic and stick around till next Wednesday, where I will be posting Lesson 5: Endgame Strategies. Have fun, play chess, and see you next week!
