The different phases of a chess game - how to get to 1000 - part 1
Hi everyone! This is the first blog of a 5 blog series where you will be taught everything you know to get to 1000 elo! In this first blog, you will learn to recognize the different stages of the game, and how to take advantage of each of them.
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/king-safety-how-to-get-to-1000-part-2 (part 2)
First, the opening. The opening will set up the game, and everything will evolve around it for the rest of the game.
Here I castled (as white) This marks the end of the opening. My king is safe, and most pieces are developed. My opponent should have castled but chose to wait and ended up not castling of the entire game. I recommend players under 1000 to castle there king when possible.
In this position, black to move, the move pawn to g5 is very aggressive. Now the black player should not castle king side because his king would not be safe (I will talk about king safety in my second blog of this series). But by playing g5, he can also break the pin and can castle on the queen side later.
In any chess game, you should follow principles and put two pawn in the center if possible, then develop knights, then bishops, and finally castle. try not to get your queen out too early because it will be attacked by the opponent and it is very dangerous (except for some openings like https://www.chess.com/lessons/learn-the-scandinavian-defense and the Englund gambit. Try not to trade bishops for knight, because the bishop is worth more than the knight.
Now, the middlegame. The middlegame will be where the action is. In the middlegame the kings are castled (Most of the times) and all the pieces are developed except the rook and sometimes the queen. I recommend trading down knight for knight and bishop for bishop, to simplify and get to an endgame. Most of checkmates will also be in the middlegame, and it is the phase of the game that you need to practice the most (puzzles is a good way of doing that).
In this game, the opening ends right here.
This is the position after the middlegame ends. the queens have been traded, and a few other pieces too. The rooks will now became active, as the last phase of the game starts: the endgame.
The endgame. Here the rooks are very powerful. Try to put the rooks on the seventh rank of your enemy and try to eat his pawn. Do not trade down if you have less material or else you will lose. Also try to put your rooks on open files, and ranks, where they will be most helpful. Trade down the knights and bishops if you both have the same amount of pieces.
Here whit just put his rook on the seventh rank, where it will eat a pawn and control the rest of the pawns. This gives white an advantage for the pawn run (the action of pushing a pawn to make a queen in the endgame). Finally, try to promote your pawn. Keep your king next to the pawn and remember that a queen is worth more than a rook! So do not hesitate to sacrifice it it guarantees you promote (maybe by removing the defender of the promotion square with a sacrifice)
Now you know how to recognize the different stages of the game! Stay tuned for the next blogs and have a good day!
made entirely by JustNotYetGM (games and text)
