Winning Advice: How to Choose a Chess Move
Winning Advice:
How to Choose a Chess Move
Dear Silverdale Chess Club Members, Families and Friends,
There are at least 30 moves you can choose from when peering down over the chessboard at an average middle game position. As you gain experience, you learn to narrow that field and select the best Candidate Moves—and do it faster, more confidently, and with less calculation than other players.
However, chess coaches rarely explain how to choose a chess move. Instead they provide an avalanche of advice — about pawn structure. material advantages, best squares, and so on. “It’s easy,” they tell you. “Just pick the right move.”
It is not easy. But we can make it easier starting right now.
There are two basic types of Candidate Moves. The first are those that improve your position according to “General Principles.” For example: develop your pieces and improve their range. Try to control the center. Defend loose pieces and pawns under attack.
The second basic kind of Candidate Move type is Tactical. Moves that threaten to make a decisive check or capture. If your Candidate Move does not fall into either one of these two categories, you should take more time to consider it.
Let’s look at the ”How-To’s” for both...
Basic Positive Chess Principles List
Use this list to determine your next best Candidate Move. All of these concepts are based on the fact that they strengthen your position. They are, therefore, positive influencers for your Candidates. Let them win the game for your side, instead of for your opponent.
Control of the Center.
Strong outpost station
Superior development
Gaining space.
Greater space
Bishop-pair
Rook(s) on a open file
Rook(s) on a half open file
Rook(s) on the seventh rank
Passed pawn
Protected passed pawn
Outside passed pawn
Advanced pawn
Advanced pawn chain
Better king position (castled king)
Pawn Lever advantage
Knight on Outpost advantage
Bishop(s) on diagonal
Strong outpost station
Taking Control of useful open file
Qualitative pawn majority
Take control of a key square
Two Bishop Advantage
Taking the Initiative
Castled King
Gain a central pawn majority.
Gain a Queenside pawn majority.
Gain a Kingside pawn majority.
Make a plan and follow it and try to simultaneously try to stop the plans of the enemy.
Always play in the center because that is the most important area of the board.
Try to gain a spatial plus in the center.
Change bad bishops into good bishops,by moving pawns out of their way.
Basic Negative Chess Principles List
Use this list to thwart your opponent's advantages.
By gaining the initiative, attacking, damaging their pawn structure, taking away their space, limiting their piece movement, exposing their castled king, creating holes, creating weak squares and using outposts for your pieces, you are creating an imbalance in your favor and gaining the advantage.
What weaknesses are there to outmaneuver the other side?
---- Weak Pawns----
- Backward pawns
- Doubled pawn
- Isolated pawn
- Hanging pawns
- Hanging phalanx
- Crippled majority wing
- Blockaded Pawn
----Weak Positions----
- Weak squares
- Holes for outposts
- Exposed Castled King
- Compromised King-side protection
- Restricted Knight (Anti- Knight Moves)
- Lacking Initiative
- Bad Bishop
- Cramped position
9. Limited Piece mobility - Undeveloped Pieces
Making the Right Choice
Here are some good guidelines to use to help you decide on your candidate moves. Combine these positional guidelines with sound tactical combinations, endgame theory and a little strategy and you will have a winning formula that will be hard to beat.
- Damage your opponent's pawn structure.
- Improve your pawn structure.
- Gain space
- Gain control of the center and increase center control.
- Exploit king safety moves, either for you not to do or to your opponent.
- Bishops on the long diagonals to increase their influence.
- Rooks on open files or half open files.
- Develop strong outpost stations.
- Develop a passed pawn
- Develop a outside passed pawn
- Develop a protected passed pawn.
- Better King position (Castled King)
- Offside pawn majority
- Superior Development.
- Rooks on the seventh rank.
- Avoid weak squares.
- Fast development of all your pieces.
- Mobilize all of your pieces as rapidly as possible.
- Create an imbalance in your opponent's camp.
- Take control of weak squares, files and ranks.
- Don't move a piece twice before you have development of all your pieces.
- Don't place a piece so that it blocks the path of another piece or of
a center pawn.
- Don't move a piece to a square from which your opponent can drive it away with a move that furthers his own development and impedes yours.
(This is the same principle of not moving a piece twice in the opening moves. )
- Don't make unnecessary pawn moves that weaken your pawn structure.
- Avoid having your own pawns on the same color as your bishop.
- Always try to maintain at least one pawn in the center of the board.
- Avoid Backward pawns.
- Avoid Doubled pawns.
- Seek passed pawns.
- Seek a two Bishop advantage
- Limiting the mobility of pawns.
- Limiting the mobility of pieces. (Anti-Knight moves)
- Taking the initiative.
- Gaining tempo
- Using the principle of two weaknesses for an advantage.
- Avoid making imbalances in your camp.
- Always take towards the center.
Candidate Moves Based on Tactics
Playing it smart by following the best Principles of chess gives you a Positional Advantage. The good news is that positional superiority most often leads to the tactical opportunities to score a win.
Think of a principled chess move as a Snapshot of the chessboard overall. Tactical chess moves are Motion Pictures.
How? Tactics fall into two more categories: Combinations and Forcing Moves.
Combinations and Forced Moves
Every chess player, at one time or another, will use the following tools to achieve combinational ends.
Forcing moves, eg
A check
A capture
A threat that must be parried
A decoy
A deflection
A discovered attack, a discovered check or a discovered attack on the queen
Forcing moves create a “chain reaction” that gains critical tempos, or tempi, which can facilitate an unstoppable attack or win material. The opponent’s queen is often a good target to gain tempos and implement such an attack. It is a highly "threat-sensitive" piece (as just one example).
Forcing moves can also be used to simply win material by force from seemingly non-dangerous positions. This is one of the key reasons that they should be given priority in the calculation of variations.
Move, Move, Move! Joining Forces!
There are moments when we believe we're in a winning position or our pieces are strategically strong, but the challenge lies in understanding which moves to consider first and the order in which to analyze them.
Some key questions to consider: What move should we analyze initially? What type of response from our opponent requires the most scrutiny? And how deeply should we calculate the variations?
Here are two golden rules for effective calculation:
- Begin by calculating the most forcing move.
- Extend calculations until the end of the forcing moves. Strive to find the complete solution, not just the first moves.
When deciding on a move, prioritize examining all possible forcing moves, including checks, captures, and mating threats.
Analysis Steps:
Start by considering the most powerful forcing move.
Identify any strong defensive resources the opponent might have.
Ensure the solution found is indeed correct.
Using these techniques will not only help you find the best candidate moves, they will help you take control of your chess game and pave the way to success. [SCC]
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