Thanks! I will try these tips

(intermediate)

Deduce a piece’s movement by elimination

You can often deduce the location of a knight—or another major piece— by elimination. Suppose the opponent moves a knight. You know this because you could see it before, and now you can’t. Here is an example.

A knight has up to eight possible squares it can move to (or fewer if it is near the edge of the board). Some of those squares may already be occupied by your pieces, so the knight cannot be there. Other squares may be covered by your bishop or queen, so you know the knight didn’t move there either.

That may leave only two possible squares. If one of those is clearly occupied by an enemy pawn that you know is blocked, then only one square remains. That is where the knight must have gone.

This kind of deduction is common in Fog of War, but beginners often miss it because they don’t take the time to reason through the possibilities.

(advanced)

Use time to force forgetting

As time passes, your opponent is more likely to forget the structure and location of remaining pawns, which is one of the trickiest parts of Fog of War. You can use time as a weapon to encourage that forgetting.

If you have enough time on your clock, don’t rush. Take thirty seconds to think, or play two or three neutral moves by moving a piece back and forth. Let time pass so your opponent’s memory fades, especially regarding advanced or hidden pawns.

Players are much less likely to forget the location of an advanced knight, and they almost never forget where a queen is. Pawns, however, are easy to lose track of—and time makes that easier.

(intermediate)

If you don’t have to, don’t move your king in the endgame

In the endgame, when you have a clear advantage—such as a major piece and a few pawns against an opponent who has only a king and blocked pawns—avoid moving your king unless it is absolutely necessary.

A strong opponent will quietly advance their king and position it near yours. One careless king move allows the opposing king to take yours, ending the game immediately. I’ve lost games this way when playing against strong players: with a winning position where all I had to do was maneuver my major piece carefully, I moved my king one square, and the enemy king was already waiting nearby.

When you are winning, let your pieces do the work. Keep your king still and hidden unless moving it clearly improves your safety or is required to finish the game.

(intermediate)

Check the clock

This is one of the hardest habits for me. I was once close to beating a 2200-rated player. He had only a king and four pawns left, while I had a king, three pawns, and a knight. I lost on time.

During the game, I didn’t fully understand what he was doing. Only after the game ended—when I replayed it without fog—did I realize his plan. He had pulled his king far back and was simply moving it back and forth, deliberately not advancing his pawns. His goal was to let the clock defeat me.

Because I was focused on finding his king and planning my moves, I stopped watching the time and ran out of it.

ok thanks

(intermediate)

Don’t hesitate to call a bluff

I recently lost a game to a player rated around 1600 while I was close to 1950. Why? In the early middlegame, he captured my knight with his bishop. I could have taken the bishop with my queen, but I hesitated, assuming the bishop was protected. I didn’t take it.

A few moves later, he did something similar with a rook. Again, I assumed it was protected and chose not to capture. Both times, I was wrong. I ended up losing the game.

The lesson is simple: don’t hesitate too much. Sometimes you have to take your chances and call a bluff, especially when you are already behind. Playing too cautiously in Fog of War can be just as dangerous as taking a risk.

Good to know! Thanks for the tips! Sorry for the late response-I was incredibly busy with school and still am as I am trying to graduate by the end of this school year

(beginners)

Lack of Info is Big Info

When you open a line of sight (for example, your bishop on b2 all the way to h8) and you see no pieces there, that information is gold. Analyze it.

For example, it can mean: there is no rook at h8 (so the rook did not just leave to surprise you). There is no pawn at g7, which means it has advanced without placing the black bishop there. There is no knight at f6. There is no pawn at e5. Nothing has advanced to d4.

Of course, this information is temporary; it can change a few moves later. But you can act on what you know right now.

(beginners)

Probe to figure out what’s out there

In Fog of War, you make many moves just to probe. In classic chess, there is no probing (scouting); you see everything.

Probing means moving your pieces back and forth not to threaten a piece or a king, but simply to see what is out there. For example, moving your white bishop (I always assume White in my examples) from f1 to e2, then to d3, then to c4 over a sequence of moves is a form of probing during the opening. It’s an extreme example, since you should still be developing your pieces as you probe, but it illustrates the idea well.

(advanced)

When not to initiate exchanges in favor of sneaking in

In general, it is better to initiate exchanges of major pieces (queens, rooks, etc.), because doing so reveals the positions of enemy pieces.

However, if letting your opponent initiate the exchange poses no real threat to you—such as revealing your king, major pieces, or critical pawn structures—it can be better to wait and let them do it if you have a sneaky move available. Here’s why.

Your opponent will often rush to initiate the exchange because they want the information before you get it. Knowing this, you can sometimes use that impatience against them. While they are preparing or hurrying to trade pieces, you can quietly sneak a knight or bishop into a dangerous square that haunts their king—assuming you have a good idea where the king is hiding.

Players frequently focus so hard on completing the exchange that they fail to notice the danger being set up. I’ve fallen for this trap several times myself when playing against experts.

(advanced)

Tempos are fluid in Fog of War

A tempo in chess is a unit of time measured by a move. Gaining a tempo means making a move that improves your position while forcing your opponent to respond. Losing a tempo means spending a move without improving your position, or making a move that could have been avoided.

In classical chess, tempo is often critical. For example, if one player wastes a move in the opening by moving the same piece twice without reason, the opponent may use that extra tempo to develop faster, seize the center, and launch an attack. Many classical games are decided because one side is a single move faster — an attack arrives before the defender can organize, or a checkmate works only because the opponent is one tempo too slow.

In Fog of War, tempo is more fluid. Sometimes it matters a great deal, and sometimes it matters very little.

Early in the game, information is often more valuable than speed. A move that looks like a loss of tempo in classical chess may be worthwhile in Fog of War if it reveals pawn structure, confirms that a square is safe, or gives clues about where the enemy king might be. For example, moving a bishop back and forth to test diagonals can provide critical information, even though it would be considered wasteful in regular chess.

There are also many situations in Fog of War where being one move faster does not immediately lead to a decisive attack, because you cannot be sure where the king is or what pieces are defending it. In those cases, probing moves can be more valuable than rushing forward.

However, tempo does still matter in Fog of War. Once a king has been discovered, or when the game reaches the endgame, tempo becomes much more concrete. A single wasted move can allow a king to escape, a pawn to promote, or a hidden piece to strike first. In these situations, Fog of War behaves much more like classical chess.

The key difference is this: in Fog of War, tempo competes with information. Sometimes speed wins; sometimes knowledge does. Strong play comes from knowing when to value tempo and when to spend it gathering information.

(advanced)

When to exchange your queen with an enemy knight

In an endgame where you have a clear material advantage (for example, a queen and a rook) and your opponent has only a knight left, that knight can still pose extreme danger to your king—especially if you cannot shield your king with pawns in a knight-resistant setup.

In this situation, if you get the opportunity to exchange your queen or rook for the knight, take it.

A skilled player can guess where your king is hiding, take risks, and maneuver the knight close to your king. Because there is no check warning, one careless king move or one missed knight jump can end the game immediately. Many winning positions are lost this way.

Once the knight is gone, your advantage becomes easy to convert. Pawn promotion and king exposure can be handled calmly, without the constant threat of an unseen knight delivering a sudden capture.

(rules)

The Square Colors

I should have posted these rules in the first comments of this forum. They explain how square colors change in Fog of War, something Chess.com never clearly explains.

The rules are simple.

First, you can always see your own pieces.

Second, squares are either foggy or not. If you can move to a square, it is clear. If you can move there and an enemy piece is on that square, you will see that piece.

There is a third color that often causes confusion—it definitely confused me! It simply marks your last move or that of an enemy piece but only if you can see it! It MAY also indicate the last position of the enemy king after it has moved, but i am not sure of that.

Pawns make things more complex. A pawn cannot move forward if it is blocked, which means the square directly in front of it may appear foggy even though a piece is there. Pawns also cannot move diagonally unless they are capturing, so they do not see diagonal squares unless an enemy piece occupies one of them.

Now think about how en passant works. Since you can move to the en passant square, that square becomes clear even though no piece is visible on it. You have to pay attention to notice this cue.

One more hint comes from selecting your own pieces. When you click on a piece, the squares it can move to are marked with dots. This does not give you new information beyond foggy versus clear squares, but it confirms what is currently possible and can help prevent mistakes.

(beginners)

Deductive and probabilistic thinking

In classical chess, thinking is mostly computational: you see everything, calculate lines, and choose the best move. In Fog of War, thinking is different. You rely on deduction and probability.

For example, if in the opening you see an enemy rook on b3 while the h7 pawn is still on its starting square, you can deduce that the a-pawn must have moved to a5 to clear the rook’s path. That is deduction: a conclusion that must be true given what you see.

Now consider a different case. If you see the b-pawn on b6, you can reasonably assume the opponent intends to place the bishop on b7. This is not certain—it might not happen—but it is highly likely. You might judge that there is a 90% chance the bishop is there or will be there soon. Acting on that likelihood is probabilistic thinking.

Fog of War rewards players who can combine these two skills: knowing when something must be true, and knowing when something is merely likely but still worth acting on.

(advanced)

Exchange Pieces Fast when Your Deductive Powers are Strong

The less pieces on the board, the more deductive skills can help you. if you are good at deduction, work on exchanging pieces fast to take advantage of this skill.

(intermediate)

Recognize the signs of castling on the kingside (intermediate)

Signs that your opponent has castled on the kingside include seeing the rook on f8, which is the strongest single indicator. In normal chess this almost always means kingside castling, and in Fog of War it remains the clearest clue unless it is being faked.

Another strong signal is the g-pawn advancing to g6 followed by the bishop appearing on g7. This structure strongly suggests a kingside setup. If the g-pawn is still sitting on g7, that also supports a normal kingside shell and increases the likelihood, especially when combined with other clues. An h-pawn move to h6 adds support as well, though it is weaker on its own.

Seeing a knight on g6 or several major pieces clustered in the kingside corner (around f6, g6, and h6) further increases the odds. These signs reinforce each other; the more pieces you see concentrated there, the more likely the king is nearby.

On the other hand, advancing pawns across all three kingside files usually points away from kingside castling. When the f-, g-, and h-pawns all advance, especially early, it is extremely unlikely the king is safely castled there. The more aggressive and scattered the pawn pushes on those files, the less sense a kingside castle makes.

None of these signs proves anything on its own. What matters is accumulation: the more of these indicators you see at the same time, the stronger the conclusion. Always act on likelihood, not certainty.

Finally, this entire approach breaks down against expert players (2000+). Strong Fog of War players deliberately fake pawn structures, rook placement, and piece clustering to mislead you. Against them, these signals may be intentional deception rather than genuine king safety.

(intermediate)

Recognize the signs of castling on the queenside

Conversely, signs that your opponent has castled on the queenside include seeing the rook on d8, which is the strongest single indicator. In normal chess this almost always means queenside castling, and in Fog of War it remains the clearest clue unless it is being faked.

Another strong signal is the b-pawn advancing from its base to b6 followed by the bishop appearing on b7. This structure strongly suggests a queenside setup.

Seeing a knight on b6 or several major pieces clustered on the queenside—often around b6, c6, and a6—further increases the odds.

On the other hand, advancing pawns across all three queenside files usually points away from queenside castling. When the a-, b-, and c-pawns all advance, especially early, it is extremely unlikely the king is safely castled there. Scattered or aggressive pawn pushes on those files rarely coexist with a secure queenside castle.

None of these signs proves anything on its own. What matters is accumulation: the more of these indicators you see at the same time, the stronger the conclusion. Always act on likelihood, not certainty.

Finally, this entire approach breaks down against expert players (2000+). Strong Fog of War players deliberately fake pawn structures, rook placement, and piece clustering to mislead you. Against them, these signals may be intentional deception rather than genuine king safety.

yea when you take there rook kick there jaw though the screen to show them to never do that again

(advanced)

Storytelling to improve learning

After finishing a good game, take time to review it and ask one simple question. If you lost, ask what mistake caused the loss. If you won, ask which move—or which opponent mistake—made the difference.

Once you have the answer, turn it into a short story or a tip. For example, a story might be: I won a game against an expert by advancing pawns deep into the endgame and leaving them there unnoticed. They later threatened a rook and then the king. The tip version would be: advance pawns deep into enemy territory without your opponent noticing.

Turning games into stories or tips helps you remember lessons far better than reviewing moves alone