Chess Strategy

This thread is specifically devoted to discussing strategy.

i have never memorized a tree or studied chess videos or paid or asked for free a chess lesson from one better than myself ( hard to find anyway ).

what is the point about "strategy".  i open my games with the same opening almost all the time.  i do not expect to win.

i play, whether black or white, light or dark, by the same principle.

i defend.  this has grown out of a life circumstance. 

i dislike bishops.  i will trade bishop for bishop at the earliest instance.

i will trade queen for queen for the same reason.

i like  thai chess where the knight and rook have power.

at almost all costs  i will preserve my knights, even to giving up a rook.

this is my chess strategy.

it is of course a losing strategy in chess..hence my 900 and below rating all my life..but then chess for me has never been about medals but rather only the play per se.

It is important to vary your openings and responses to different moves. I had this problem when I was first learning chess- I would play the same predetermined moves, but almost always lose. Then I learned some openings and was able to improve my game a lot.

 i am an old man.  i do not wish nor have ever wanted to learn an opening tree. i have played the polish and the grob at times, or the spike of the two.

my worry and my defensive posture, is to take, if possible, but always to blunt, any knight entry.  i lose many times once this takes place at the early or middle game moves. 

I'm one of the very rare players above a 1500 rating, I've noticed, who does not bother with conventional openings. In fact the only opening I really know at all is the Ruy Lopez and I've only bothered remembering the first 4 moves or so. I just make up openings and go with whatever I feel like at the moment, although actually my style has long been very similar to that of Petrosian as described in a recent Chess.com article.

As a general rule you can tell what an opponent is trying to do after their first two or three opening moves, most people are pretty predictable, and it's just a matter of recognizing the threats that are coming.

As far as tactics, I like to look for favorable opportunities to simultaneously threaten an opponent and move pieces into position. I will also advance pawns past potential piece exchanges to threaten knights, queens, and bishops, gaining board advantage by passing up exchanges, and solidifying a pawn structure that prevents enemy pieces from going anywhere. Pins, forks, and skewers are of course all useful tactics.

Trying to learn positional play. As white I play the English, and as black I  play the French against e4. Against d4 I tried the hippo for grins against a player rated 350 above me. It's a deadlocked position that the opponent is hoping I'll blunder away a draw. 

Anyway, what's encouraging is that I'm reviewing games I played in June and July and wonder what I  was thinking at the time. I'd like to think at Christmas I'll wonder the same about some of my games now. 

I know everyone fancies themselves as gambling attackers. I find my most enjoyable wins are games where I was on the defensive the entire game, only to launch a last moment counterstrike. It leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy inside. 

It doesn't always work out that way. 

I like those sort of games, too- where I am in a losing position and then come back in the endgame.

I've not read that many books on chess stategy, instead I try to work out the best moves for a given situation.  Of course this gets harder the older you get, so I've always envied those that have the patience to read-up on the game and learn the proper way.

I want to win. My strategy is to get the pieces out as fast as possible, and try to give them nice roads. If I am able to outnumber my opponents with pieces I might gain material or advantage. If I lost to many pieces, and has less material I will go for a rushattack on the king. 

I want to learn to play draw. I got 5% draw online, and think I should made more draws.

This is my smoothest game ever:

http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=94023256

I wanted to get my pieces out, and not spend tempo on the pawns. Succes! I made two pawnmoves, he made ten.  :)

I wanted to develop with tempo, forcing him to defend. The best is of course to develop with check.

About openings. I try to first learn one answer to e4 and one to d4, and I use the explorer a lot.  Most of my lost games are lost because of early errors, putting me under pressure or giving me less material.These days I am rehearsing King´s indian answers to d4, and i will be happy if anybody challenges me for a three-day choosing white , and opening with d4.

I used to play a wide variety of openings and defenses, but never knew much about anything. I used to love playing the Sicilian, even though I lost more games then I won, it simply didn't suit my more positional style.

These days I play 1.d4 almost 100% of the time, and usually play the KID/QGD/Grunfeld positions. I do however want to start practicing the Catalan, it looks nice.

I am now learning (and playing) the Caro-kann against 1.e4 as I think it's less dynamic and tactical than the Sicilian, and I hate having my King rushed early in the game. I play the Grunfeld against 1.d4 lines however sometimes I'll play the Semi-slav.

My chess philosophy is to have good, active pieces. I think tactics are more effective (more frequent perhaps) when your pieces are optimally placed and for this reason a lot of my games are looking at my (and my opponents) pieces, looking for ways to improve (restrict) them. 

@Djonni - I'll send a challenge mate, I've been having a hard time against the KID and so I need all the practice I can get. Practice makes perfect as they say.

Patomark, I am very grateful. I am now competing in Høstturneringen in Nordstrand, OSLO. I have played 4 games (against much higher rated players), lost the opening in three of them, and two of these games were lost. So I am sure learning openings will help me. I am beginning to do well in the hyperaccelerated dragon, and now its time for rehearsing king`s indian.

Here are the standings, and I am Erlend Sæteren at place 25.

http://turneringsservice.sjakklubb.no/standings.aspx?TID=Hostturneringen2014NordstrandS-NordstrandSjakklubb

I pick an opening and play it for about 6 months then pick somthing else. Right now Its French Def. and English. I find a broaden mind is the sharpest with focus.

Nice work man! How long has your rating been below 1000? (if you don't mind me asking)

878 is Norwegian elo, not fide, and is not very bad. I think its 200 stronger than fide 878. A kid in my club is rated below 600, and he is playing fine, but does some errors now and then. He had an officer on me in the clubchampionship, but I fought wery hard and managed to get a high pawnattack. At that time he wasnt skilled in endgame, but now he attends the same class as me :)

I am new otb (except for that I played a year back in ca 1975). I have completed only one longchesstournament so far after my comeback in January, the clubchampionship in class c. I made 4 of 11 points, and met some underrated kids, and some grown up ok players. I wasnt able to win more, because I needed time to become better. I often lost the openings.

Now I have learnt some more, and that gives me fair chances against 1800 fide. Isak Sjøberg, the 11 year old kid that won the c-group in the winter has gone from Norwegian rating 1063 in January to 1266 and is playing at a better strenght now (he is a true and devoted talent, attending National team trainings). He has now fiderapidrating 1612. He crushed me in the opening in Høstturneringen, but I played my best middle game ever, and won after 70 moves.

I guess that its normal for a middleaged man doing comeback to perform at 1000 fide, and climb when adapting, getting tournamentexperience and mending the worst holes.

1800 is not much stronger than 1000, but the 1800 players dont do very visible blunders, they have a sound game, they know some openings, and they dont have visible holes in their knowledge.

Magnus Carlsen went from 900 to 1900 in a year. For ordinary peoples it of course will take a lot more time, but it is a climb that can be done, and it is encouraging too see that players we thought were invincible are vulnerable when we tightens our knowledge and our game.

My second win in Høstturneringen was against an experienced, flawless 1814 fiderated player. I realized that my dragon was well trained, and it was flying so elegant in the first 18 moves that he actually slipped a bit behind. He played good, but this time I made no visible mistakes and was able to get the bishoppairadvantage which gave me more speed in the endgame, enabling a pawnpromotion.