Chess Flirts: A Beginner's Guide to Playing Romantically
Hello there! This is a series where I teach romantic chess for beginners.
Since this is romantic chess, some of the lessons found would not be fundamentally sound and feel free to point out some corrections or variations. Let's keep it civil, chess is a gentleman's game.
Full disclosure: I am not a serious player, hell I've only played for 3 years and only learned through the internet; the only highlight I have is winning a college tournament full of casuals too.
But I love playing for fun, I love it when I can go on a king hunt and sacrifice some pieces or pull off a brilliancy.
So, if you are willing to look past that, here we go
1) Openings
Really? Shouldn't beginners just stick to basic E4 or D4 variation? Why yes! But most beginner's only understand that at face value. The opening is crucial in deciding what type of game you'll play and the attacking chances (and ultimately, your winning chances).
For example, the French Defense
The popular variation would be 3.Nc3
Which is all well and good, but it looks like there's a good chance that position will close. Not ideal for an a romantic such as yourself. Instead you may want to play 3.exd5
Which after 3... exd5 4.c4 looks like a Queen's Gambit with an open e-file! Ideal for an open attacking game.
Hence, looking for aggressive variations and gambits in the opening would be worthwhile.
While we're on the subject
2) Open files
There's nothing else in God's green earth that puts a bigger smile on my face, than an open file I can utilize (I'm lying, but I want to make this point).
Learning to use open files is a must especially if you're a beginner. They are the gate way for tactics and attacks that'll make your hands shake and lose sleep.
We'll go into more details about files next time, but in essence the best thing about open files are that it leads to a target and allows you to use your major pieces (Rooks and Queen).
Here's an example using an opening that's famously romantic -- the King's Gambit
Shoutout to gawinpukchareon, thanks for the game.
Well that's all for now, hopefully I can give more lessons in the future.
Feel free to comment any suggestions, or things I've missed. Thank you for reading!
