The Principles of Chess

I have taught basic Chess, professionally and personally, for many years, and have close to almost 60 years of playing experience.  I have developed a Basic Chess Course that is designed for the very beginner and have had experts tell me, the 6 Basic Chess Principles I developed has helped their game.  I didn't create the Principles, but I created the course and developed the Principles cohesively.

How did I come to delineate these Principles?  Well, I studied for years, had teachers, took lessons, played computers, went to tournaments and clubs and started my own, played many  games, read many books on the subject, and wanted to improve my game, teach, and make a course based on it.  I remember for a 2-week period in the 90's, I did nothing but read books on Chess.  Close to around the clock and the old school notation.  Even before I really started to study the MCO editions.  Is that still being used?  I noticed a few old masters had a set of principles.  Sometimes 4 or 5 of them.  So I just used the principle of commonality and I strung them together and labeled 6 of them explained, based on overlap and redundancy.  

Here they are:  Development, Center, Force (material), King Safety, Pawn Structure, and Space.  Space being the hardest to grasp at first but used by grandmasters and instrumental and invaluable.  Having little advantages in as many of these different principles usually winds up leading to a win.  In other words, being able to trade down, counter an attack, turn a defense around, ambush, and even sacrifice, and win on time. 

Nowadays, there are channels, schools, influencers, and courses that say they have 100's of principles.. lol... Mixing tactics, advanced tactics, and strategies, and so forth.  There might as well be a 1,000 different farts coming out of their orifices in a single lesson. 

Cheers to anyone who sees and reads this.  Hope this helps and let me know if you have any questions, which is usually about Space, which could also be called Space Count.  You simply count how many empty squares and pieces in enemy territory, over the centerline, you can reach, once (so if a Bishop and a pawn, for instance, can attack the same square or piece, you only count it as one), and alternatively, how many they can reach (control, influence) in your territory.  The higher the count for a player, the bigger the advantage.  This can also be viewed as cramping your opponent, or getting cramped.  The number changes with each move, sometimes drastically.  Thanks!