Play Chess Like The Mandalorian

The Mandalorian is a TV Series that many of us have probably heard of. And In case you haven't heard of it, The Mandalorian was a TV series part of Star Wars, that focuses on a Mandalorian who works as a bounty hunter, accompanied by a Baby Creature that he found on one of his missions, named Grogu (Although most people know him as "Baby Yoda"). However, many of the things he does can apply to Chess! In this blog, I will be going over a few of these things. So let's get right into it! 

1. Look For All Opportunities                                                                               

2. Always Have A Backup Plan

3. How When and How to Attack

4. Take Advantages

1. Look For All Opportunities

Just like how the Mandalorian always has his head on a swivel when in a fight, we need to as well. We need to always look for strategies, and what the opponent is planning to do. The worst thing is in games where you see a tactic, but completely miss your opponent's tactic. Down below is a few puzzles, that will test your skills of being able to find the better option in a game:

The obvious move was to capture the rook right? Not if you were looking properly. Now, that queen's sacrifice wasn't too hard to spot. Let's check out a game, where GM Alexander Grischuk keeps his head on a swivel, and looks for tactics where he finds brilliant sacrifices in order to win against GM Hikaru Nakamura:

Alexander Grischuk definitely showed his skills in looking for opportunities. We also need to do this, by taking our time and making sure we have made the right move. (Unless it's Bullet, in that case, DO NOT take your time).

2. Always have a Backup Plan

The Mandalorian always has a backup, even if he does not realize it. His backup is Baby Grogu, who knows "The Force", and sometimes helps out in fighting. Like The Mandalorian, we should always have a backup plan in our games. Try to solve this simple puzzle, that demonstrates this concept:

Now that was a pretty easy puzzle, by using the queen to threaten checkmate, but then initiating a fork with the knight. But in competitive games, with elite players, the concept isn't always so easy to pull off. Try to solve this slightly more advanced puzzle:

Even when you have a plan, such as a Queen Sacrifice, for example, you should always have a backup plan. Otherwise, you could lose material or even the whole game. Sometimes, people go for tactics that they think would work but do not realize the consequences of those moves. This was shown in this example game:

In this game, Black tried to do a strategy where they traded pieces, but after they failed, Black had no plan for after those moves.

3. Know When and How To Attack

The Mandalorian finds himself in a lot of battles. But he needs to know when to attack, and when to flee or defend in case of a bad situation. He also needs to know exactly how to attack. Likewise, we need to do the same in chess. Sometimes we think we have an incredible mating threat, only to see that our opponent can counter it easily. This is illustrated in this game: 

Now, that is a pretty beginner's mistake. Black had an obvious Checkmate Threat, and when White pushed for Checkmate, Black took the initiative and ended the game.

Often, you will need to make an attack on your opponent's defenses, in order to win the game or get an advantage. Former World Champion, GM Garry Kasparov demonstrated the art of attacking in an amazing and famous game against GM Veselin Topalov:

Kasparov certainly demonstrated his knowledge of attacking in this game. He had 4 Brilliant moves, and as you can see, when he got a slight advantage he never let go. Now that is how you attack well.

Now your turn! Try to solve this puzzle to attack your opponent and secure victory;

 Did you figure it out? if so, good job! That puzzle showed a common type of discovered attack, in which you have a bishop in between the queens, and you sacrifice the bishop in order to win a queen. It is always good to know when it is time to attack, and how.

4. Take Advantages

The Mandalorian doesn't always start out with an advantage, but he almost always ends with it. He gains the advantage through hard work and deliberation in the battle. We should learn from him, by doing the same.

It is always best to try to gain an advantage from the beginning. You can do this by choosing good openings. There are some openings to avoid at ALL COSTS. Let's get into that list!

1. Wayward Queen Opening:

The Wayward Queen opening is common among beginners. Usually, they are trying to pull off the Scholars Mate. This is a mistake. You want to avoid taking your queen out in the beginning and focus on taking the center or developing knights and bishops.

2. Amar Opening/Sodium Attack

These two openings are similar in the way that the first move is a knight move. Ok. Not to bad. Except these are where the knights move:

Amar Opening

Sodium Attack

As you can see, the knights move to the edge of the board. By doing this, the knights are not controlling the e4-e5 and d4-d5 squares. You always want to control the center in chess, or else your opponent can have some pretty gnarly defenses and attacks. 

3. Fool's Checkmate

Last and...... well definitely least we have the Fool's Mate. The name says it all. A Checkmate that Fools fall for. Don't know what it is? Well, here you go

It is the shortest Checkmate possible. Literally 2 moves. If you fall for this move and you are above 300 rated..... well maybe you should look into finding good openings.

Well, There are many terrible openings, but so this blog doesn't last forever let's get onto the next way to gain an advantage. Another way to gain advantages is to not constantly trade pieces. This will not accomplish anything, and in a worse position, it can just make the position worse in your favor.

"When you trade, the key concern is not always the value of the pieces being exchanged, but what's left on the board" -Dan Heisman

Well, instead of saying what NOT to do, let's talk about what you should do. You should always look for important tactics. One of the more common ones goes like this:

Now, that is a pretty beginner tactic, but still effective. Try to solve this puzzle for a not-so beginner tactic:

Sacrifices are always a good way to gain an advantage, however, some people find sacrifices that do not help them one bit. So be careful when making a sacrifice. Training Tactics can also help you be able to spot different mistakes your opponent makes, so that you can capitalize on the advantage.

Conclusion:

Playing like the Mandalorian can be a great way to gain rating. The Mandalorian is an all-rounded character, so like him, we can use these 4 strategies, to be able to improve.

Thanks for reading this, Seeya in the next blog!