Fog of War Chess - Grandmaster Strategy!

In the last week, I've been playing Chess.com's popular new variant 'Fog of War' chess, and I have a feeling it's made me a stronger chess player, due to the great importance on prophylaxis and stopping the opponent's threats before they can create them! 

To my knowledge, there is very little theory on Fog of War Chess (also known as 'Dark Chess'). As I am one of the highest-rated players on Chess.com in this variant (I don't know of anyone higher rated than me in Fog of War at the time of writing), I'd like to advance the theory and understanding of this variant by sharing what I have learned on how to play this variant as well as possible, from my own experiences.

While there are some similarities to Kriegspiel, a very important difference is that the aim of Fog of War Chess is to capture the king, rather than to checkmate the king.

This means that the concept of an 'illegal move' putting the king in check, or leaving the king in check, does not exist - if your play a move that allows your opponent to take your king, you will lose - unless you're IM Eric Rosen, and your opponent flags before they successfully capture your king! 

Here is my Youtube video, where I walk you through my thought process during my games (and how I would improve on both sides' play). You'll learn what you should focus on in different positions, and many key principles that will help you to avoid your opponent's traps and threats, while maximising your piece mobility and deducing more information about your opponent's setup! 

Are you interested in learning more about Fog of War chess? I've played 137 games so far in the variant, and I'd definitely be happy to continue this topic into a series on Youtube if you ask for it!

To improve at this variant, I recommend playing through the games of other Fog of War experts as well, such as Rekosheten, a1t19, Redrubic, CondorMinsk (my toughest opponent thus far) and IMJackRodgers, for some variety.

See you in the next post!