A Complete Guide to King of the Hill chess

 King of the hill. All the complexities of standard chess can make it hard to play, and KOTH is much simpler, right? WRONG!!!. King of the hill is actually a lot harder that standard chess, because you have to apply the same principals to control the center while creating space to move your king to the center four squares. In this "book"  you will learn traps, basic strategy, piece importance, positioning, and how to learn from and analyze past games to become a better player.

First off, king of the hill can be won by checkmate but is usually won when the king reaches the center four squares. This being taken into thought, the main goal is to control the center. In this first section, you will learn how to get your KOTH games going with good positioning.

Section 1:Positioning in KOTH

I have been playing KOTH for a while (if that's what you call 4 or 5 months), which is long enough to gain a deep understanding of the game. Again, the main thing i have noticed is whoever has the control of the center will always win if they play correctly. I will start with the pawns, and how to use them.

• Keep your opponents pawns from passing into your half of the board, likewise try to push your pawns as far as is safe.
• Try to control at least 2 center squares with pawns during the middlegame

Here are some diagrams showing how the pawns are positioned in KOTH games.

This is a common position where the center control is equal. In this case, the outer pawns, bishops, and knights have to be in good position to remove the pawns. This next position is how pawns can be pushed over the halfway point on the board.

As you can see, the pawn kept black from developing some key pieces.

The knights are arguably the most important KOTH piece. They control the center very well, as shown here:

In just two moves, white can easily control all 4 squares. However, you first need to provide a shield of protection made with pawns. Here is a position showing what happens when you don't do this:

As you can see, the knights are easily pushed around by pawns. This is why it is essential to usually move the pawns first because with pawns in the center the knights are safe.

The bishops are good at controlling the squares from a distance, as shown here:

They also remove the knights, sometimes doubling up the pawns. 

To show the importance of this, here is a KOTH endgame position:

Doubled pawns can make a position vulnerable by creating hanging pieces and making it hard to control the center.

The rooks are used primarily in the endgame, to trap kings like this:

Castling is essential in KOTH, as shown here.

Section 2: Traps and Strategy

In this section i will go over the two basic strategies in KOTH: You play fast, or you play slow. In other words, you can try to move your king to the center or you try a more conservative approach and focus on defense.

The first strategy means that you have to catch your opponent of guard, out think them, and trap them. Here is the trap i use when i play in this way:

In this KOTH section i will attempt to analyze my recent KOTH game to show you how to learn from mistakes. I will explain and fix the mistakes i find.

Here is the game we will be looking at today:

CLICK HERE to view the game in live chess

gocapitals (1789) vrs. papapaulo33 (1713): 11/1/19

The main mistake is in the opening: bd2

See, black could take the pawn. I should have moved the queen's knight towards the center, setting up the discovered bishop attack i discussed earlier.

When reviewing your mistakes, always assume that your opponent will make the absolute best moves next time, so your studying helps.

Thx for reading my KOTH post, if you haven't already follow my blog if you liked this post.