Alright, we all have known about a couple of principles such as Knights before Bishops, develop quick and castle early, etc. But how many of us have actually put that to use? Not many really do, typically a lot of people win or lose a chess game because they were simply outplayed. I'm not here to make you an International Master, but I am here to help you seek out a few flaws in your game and perhaps even more.
So here are some of the basics I know.
1. Knights before Bishops - Always develop the Knights before the bishops.
2. In the opening, every move you make has to have some sort of idea to control the central squares e4, e5, d4 and d5.
3. No more then three pawn moves in the opening.
4. Try not to move the same piece in the opening more then once.
5. Castle early. Your king can be left wide open in the middle of the board.
These rules have to be followed with a strict understanding that there will be many exceptions to those rules. Chess is a game of skillful trickery, not a gambling game of luck.
Many of you probably knew a lot of that though. So here is what I want you to do, look at all of your most recent games and see how often you put those basic principles to use. If you put them to use in more then half of them, odds are your rating is over 1600. Right? If you hardly put these things to use, you're probably closer to 1300 or 1400, or you've faced a lot of tough opponents. (~1600-1700+)
Always, always always put these to use as much as possible. If you want a practice game, trying to use these, challenge me or anyone else from the group (Unrated, of course) and see how you do.
This will probably end up being a very long post, as I have a lot to introduce. So please bare with me!
Now, let's say you finally have these down and you have solid opening theory knowledge to put to use. What next? The mid-game is where the going gets tough, and more often then not everyone will play dirty! (Not cheating, mind you, they just know how to manipulate what you do) The opening is what introduces you to your options, so many people like to play an opening that puts them in their comfort zone. Many people who like to play aggressively, tactically, often play variations around 1. e4. Ruy Lopez, King's Pawn Gambit, King's Indian Attack are all great examples of games like these.
Many players who like to sit back and let their opponents mess up, moving amongst the shadows waiting for the perfect chance to strike will play stuff usually around 1. d4. The Colle, the English Attack, the French defense.
"I don't have white and my opponent played something that will take me to a bad place I don't like!" No need to fear! None of these openings and what they lead to are set in stone. More often then not, there is a positional and a tactical approach to every opening.
Taking the King's Gambit in mind that I mentioned, it will look like this at first.
It is up to black now to decide what he or she wants to do.
For the tactical...
And for the positional...
Mid-Game play requires a few key factors you need to understand.
1. Good Bishop and Bad Bishop
2. You need a plan. Don't just move pieces around blindly.
3. Pins, skewers, forks, mate threats. All of these will need to be watch for under the best of surveillance. Stay sharp, slow down and think. You have time, more then a day on here and if you are OTB you usually have a few hours. This is what they are for.
4. Don't be so quick to trade down and simplify the position. If the position is roughly equal this is usually something to go by. Keep it complicated, make your opponent think. Use his time against him to think as well.
5. If you are up a piece up and control the board, trade down. This is usually good, trading down when you have a material and positional advantage. Less pieces means that your opponent has a smaller chance of evening the playing field.
6. Don't trade queens early. No matter if you can rush down the d-file and make your opponent lose his castling privilege, it's usually not worth it in the long run. Your queen is a great and powerful piece, and when she is used in conjunction with your bishops and Knights, even rooks, she is one beautiful piece for every player. Positional and Tactical alike. Attacking or defending.
7. Bishops are slightly better then knights in an opened position, knights are slight better then bishops in closed positions.
Once again, these rules must be followed with the extreme understanding that there will always be exceptions. So continue to use your best judgement, just use these to give you an idea to work on. An example for number 6. Don't trade your queen early. Look at this puzzle.
Now by no means was that a brilliant opening or a masterpiece for the ages, but it was an opening that I've stumbled across of a few times myself. (As white AND black!)
Sometimes when you're up in material and have a great attack going on, occasionally you need to look at the position and see if you can spot any potential checkmates. If you can, perhaps trading down pieces will stop those checkmates from happening. So again, use the idea to trade down to your advantage, after scanning the board for anything else that will give you something more. As Larsen once said "If you see a great move, look for one even better."
End-games. This is where so many people can turn a drawn, or even outright winning position into a loss game. I'll probably make an entire new thread about end-games. But some quick tips.
1. Bishops are usually better then Knights.
2. Rooks shine the brightest on open files and ranks.
3. You want an active King. Contrary to the opening and mid-game, you will want your king to be very active in the end-game.
4. The player with the most pawns can usually salvage the game and make it into a win, or force a drawn position.
I'll leave it here for now and let you guys ask me some questions on this. I know you're going to have some, so put em out there and I'll answer to the best of my knowledge!
Alright, we all have known about a couple of principles such as Knights before Bishops, develop quick and castle early, etc. But how many of us have actually put that to use? Not many really do, typically a lot of people win or lose a chess game because they were simply outplayed. I'm not here to make you an International Master, but I am here to help you seek out a few flaws in your game and perhaps even more.
So here are some of the basics I know.
1. Knights before Bishops - Always develop the Knights before the bishops.
2. In the opening, every move you make has to have some sort of idea to control the central squares e4, e5, d4 and d5.
3. No more then three pawn moves in the opening.
4. Try not to move the same piece in the opening more then once.
5. Castle early. Your king can be left wide open in the middle of the board.
These rules have to be followed with a strict understanding that there will be many exceptions to those rules. Chess is a game of skillful trickery, not a gambling game of luck.
Many of you probably knew a lot of that though. So here is what I want you to do, look at all of your most recent games and see how often you put those basic principles to use. If you put them to use in more then half of them, odds are your rating is over 1600. Right? If you hardly put these things to use, you're probably closer to 1300 or 1400, or you've faced a lot of tough opponents. (~1600-1700+)
Always, always always put these to use as much as possible. If you want a practice game, trying to use these, challenge me or anyone else from the group (Unrated, of course) and see how you do.
This will probably end up being a very long post, as I have a lot to introduce. So please bare with me!
Now, let's say you finally have these down and you have solid opening theory knowledge to put to use. What next? The mid-game is where the going gets tough, and more often then not everyone will play dirty! (Not cheating, mind you, they just know how to manipulate what you do) The opening is what introduces you to your options, so many people like to play an opening that puts them in their comfort zone. Many people who like to play aggressively, tactically, often play variations around 1. e4. Ruy Lopez, King's Pawn Gambit, King's Indian Attack are all great examples of games like these.
Many players who like to sit back and let their opponents mess up, moving amongst the shadows waiting for the perfect chance to strike will play stuff usually around 1. d4. The Colle, the English Attack, the French defense.
"I don't have white and my opponent played something that will take me to a bad place I don't like!" No need to fear! None of these openings and what they lead to are set in stone. More often then not, there is a positional and a tactical approach to every opening.
Taking the King's Gambit in mind that I mentioned, it will look like this at first.
It is up to black now to decide what he or she wants to do.
For the tactical...
And for the positional...