Please, help me to understand the strategy of Chess game

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korotky_trinity
PhilipFry3000 wrote:

@korotky_trinity

Everything you are asking is apart of the learning process for any beginning chess player and while there is no one answer there are ideas for improving.  While there are general Chess principles and rules there are also reasons to not follow them.  However for a beginning player, if you stick to some basic ideas it will help you improve.  The game is roughly divided into 3 areas, the Opening, Middlegame, and Endgame and I will address each one, as well as answer your questions you had propsed in the original post.  Just remember these are basic guidelines that need not be followed in every instance, but for starters it gives you something to go by until you start to improve and understand more about the game.  

 

Opening: The basic idea of the opening is simple, you want to get your pieces out onto better squares and get your King to a safe spot.  Castling is usually the best way to insure your King is safe in the opening.  Most of the action happens in the middle of the so putting your King in the corner is usually the best way to go.  Anatoly Karpov is correct, you should develop your pieces, meaning get your Knights and Bishops off their original squares.  Try to avoid moving a pieces two times in the first 10 moves unless you absolutely have to.  If you have developed all your pieces and castled you will more often than not enjoy a good game.

 

Philip !  Okey !

It's so simple !  Thank you a lot !

Maybe someday I will improve my Chess playing skills though.... Without theory one can not play well… 

Intuitively I play the same way in the beginning of the game as you said.

korotky_trinity
PhilipFry3000 wrote:

@korotky_trinity

 

2. Make a plan, find something weak about your enemy and try to exploit it.

 

Philip, I've got your idea for the middlegame... It's the most difficult step for me.

Usually I do ten-twelve moves very fast... and after that I become a little puzzled. I can't see the weak points in my opponent's position. 

Hmm... My intuition says nothing about it.  So at that moment I can start to think over position during 5-10 minutes even...

I try to decide what to do further. 

WiredFighter

I want to learn the starting moves..

MustangMate
korotky_trinity wrote:
MustangMate wrote:

Strategy is another term for plan.

The plan is to capture the other players King. 

To achieve this goal, the plan is to move the pieces and pawns -  Forward

Winning space allows for opportunity of making threats that eventually can not be parried. 

Oh... thank you.

Then it's not so complicated as it seems.

) I hope that you are right.

I am right.

Simply explanations are best. People go out of their way to complicate things, making chess appear as a game for intellectuals by convoluted explanation.

The pieces begin on their 1st rank. What are they doing? Thankfully, the other side is in the same boat. The game ultimately revolves around controlling Space on the board. He who wins important squares is provided opportunity to pursue the enemy King. - Simple concept indeed. Execution not so. 

 

MustangMate

A chess game takes place on the chess board. A finite area  (not so trivial a matter). It is divided into 8 x 8 squares. They too, in a sense, have a boundary, each square being defined from the other 63.

Why am I explaining this ... ? A Plan starts to take shape -

The best board games are battles over winning space/territory. Chess has the added Element of the enemy King, if captured, wins the Game, regardless if the other player controlled 63 squares.

This is the attraction. What makes for Chess being the ultimate game.

RussBell

@korotky_trinity -

Check out 'Hanging Pawns' YouTube Channel....in particular the section on Middle Game Ideas...

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLssNbVBYrGcD2mB7JrHbpP5qyT_ncxCRj

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkJdvwRC-oGPhRHW_XPNokg

Chessable.com has lots of courses relating to strategy & planning...

https://www.chessable.com/chess-strategy/

Some good books relating to strategy & planning...

Good Positional Chess, Planning & Strategy Books for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/introduction-to-positional-chess-planning-strategy

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

nartreb

Your profile shows you as rated 1466 in rapid.   That's not "a bad player" at all.

 Feeling stuck in the early middlegame is normal.  If neither player has blundered in the opening, then the position will be basically even, and usually it's also crowded and complicated.  There are lots of options, and NONE of them is obviously winning.  It's pretty much impossible to see the "right" plan right away.

  Ideally, you'd see some weakness in your opponent's position, maybe a backward pawn or a stuck piece, and you'd work out a strategy for exploiting that weakness.  "That pawn is backward, but it's defended by the bishop.  Can I trade bishops?"  

  More often, it's too hard to work out the winning move.  "I can't trade bishops without moving my knight first, which will leave my pawn undefended, and then..."  Instead of choosing one strategy, just look for a) moves that improve your position.  Make a rook battery on a half-open file, move a knight to a safe central square.  b) Make small threats.  Point a piece at his backward pawn, even if it's defended.   

Even if you don't have a grand plan, you'll usually find that the way your opponent reacts to your threats creates new weaknesses.  As long as you're prioritizing your basic positional stuff (mobilize your weak pieces, keep your pieces defended, control the center...) you'll find that you have options for making new threats on these new weaknesses.    

Classic example: point two pieces at a pawn in front of a castled king.  If he advances the pawn, you've got an open diagonal you can threaten.  If he brings in a piece to defend the pawn, target that piece, because it's practically pinned.

Switch to slower time controls, and when you get to the midgame, take as much time as you want.

korotky_trinity
nartreb wrote:

Your profile shows you as rated 1466 in rapid.   That's not "a bad player" at all.

 

nart, it's because usually I play with low-rating players here... who make blunders as I do. And after that I know what winning strategy is.

Simply I start to change minor pieces and Queen (it's very important)… So when I have one minor piece or two pawns more than my opponent has.... Of course I can win.

But when I play people with your rating and higher.... - they do blunders very seldom. )

korotky_trinity

Oh guys !  You gave me so good advises for the middlegame that it seems to me that I begin to understand Chess game better !

Thank you everybody.

TROOLLFACE

do you play blitz? If you do this is a trap you may encounter; the O' Kelly Sicilian Trap!!!

https://youtu.be/UusyvElUVsE 

korotky_trinity
nartreb wrote:

Your profile shows you as rated 1466 in rapid.   That's not "a bad player" at all.

 Feeling stuck in the early middlegame is normal.  If neither player has blundered in the opening, then the position will be basically even, and usually it's also crowded and complicated. 

Yes.... yes !  Exactly that's... This is why I decide to ask your help...

I understand that the most of my games I lose just in the early middle game !

Maybe it's illusion but it seems to me that my opponent has some ready plan... he (she) moves his pieces fast enough...  but I haven't any plan.... and I react simply to the moves and threats of my opponent.

Usually the game develops in the way I describe.

 

 

korotky_trinity
TROOLLFACE wrote:

do you play blitz? If you do this is a trap you may encounter; the O' Kelly Sicilian Trap!!!

https://youtu.be/UusyvElUVsE 

Trool, I stop loving Blitz games.

TROOLLFACE

thats sad

RussBell

@korotky_trinity -

From your profile, we see that you have been playing mostly blitz......therefore....

One more bit of advice...

Play Longer Time Controls...

For many less experienced players, speed chess tends to be primarily an exercise in moving pieces around faster than your opponent while avoiding checkmate, in hopes that his/her clock runs out sooner than yours.  Or being fortunate enough to be able to exploit your opponent’s blunders before they exploit yours.

There is little time to think about what you should be doing.

It makes sense that taking more time to think about what you should be doing would promote improvement in your chess skills.

An effective way to improve your chess is therefore to play mostly longer time controls, including "daily" chess, so you have time to think about what you should be doing.

This is not to suggest that you should necessarily play exclusively slow time controls or daily games, but they should be a significant percentage of your games, at least as much, if not more so than speed games which do almost nothing to promote an understanding of how to play the game well.

Here's what IM Jeremy Silman, well-known chess book author, has to say on the topic...
https://www.chess.com/article/view/longer-time-controls-are-more-instructive

And Dan Heisman, well-known chess teacher and chess book author…
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627052239/http:/www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman16.pdf

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/dan-heisman-resources

and the experience of a FIDE Master...
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/how-blitz-and-bullet-rotted-my-brain-don-t-let-it-rot-yours

Bgabor91

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Nicator65
korotky_trinity wrote:

I'm a bad player... I do one-two-three blunder in every game but I wanna ask not about tactics but about strategy of Chess game.

Anatoly Karpov explained that in the begging of Chess game you should develop your pieces.

In the end of the game... as I got it myself... you should try to make your pawn - Queen... or to eat your opponent's pawns.

But I don't know what you should do in the middle of the Chess game ?

Should I try to checkmate my opponent's King ?

Or should I push my pawns and minor pieces forward ?

Should I do something else ?

What is my main task ?  And what is the best strategy for the middle of the game?

Help me, please.

See, there isn't a single "winning" strategy that applies to each and every single case. However, all strategies are about making your pieces and pawns better than the opponent's pieces and pawns.

This may seem vague or confusing, so let's start by something simple. Say you have a pinned rook. You can't move it. On the board, you may have equal material and the pin won't win material, but you still can't move the darn thing. Now add more material that's it's either pinned down or tied down to defensive tasks. You may still have equal material, but your pieces can't play freely. Think of them as exhausted athletes. If your opponent's pieces and pawns are not tied down to defensive tasks, they will "run" faster from one side to another and, eventually, find a weak spot in your position.

How do you make your pieces and pawns better than the opponent's pieces and pawns? By piece activity. Think of activity as "threats" and "logical limitations". For instance, if your rival threatens a pawn and you don't defend it, you may lose the pawn. And if you defend the pawn, the material is tied down to its defense (meaning the defender will have "logical limitations" to its mobility).

To develop the activity you need to make your pieces and pawns to work as a team. The queen is stronger than the other pieces, but can't even checkmate alone. So it's all about coordination, both active and defensive. Think of coordination as the basis for activity, where the active coordination needs to be stronger than the opponent's defensive coordination when you're attacking, and the other way around when you're defending.

Now, the coordination doesn't normally appear on its own. You build it by placing your pieces and pawns on some specific squares move by move. This whole mental picture is called an idea, a plan. For example, if by some reason your opponent has weakened his king's position, you don't widely move pieces nearby (as that would be tempo inefficient and may likely fail), but plan in advance which pieces do you need and where should each one has to be placed and try to move them using the least amount of moves.

So, you're supposed to make your material better than. This is achieved by activity. To build activity you need coordination. And to clarify your mind when building activity you play with an idea, a plan, which has to be motivated by some weakness in your opponent's position.

korotky_trinity

Nicator, thank you... Your advises are very wise. )

I will be remember them. )

Now I see that Chess game is like a kind of science even... It has many-many theoretical secrets. 

Nicator65

Well, what I wrote is not like secrets but a structured process of thinking. On secrets, yes, there are, but they're more related to precision when evaluating a position.

PhilipFry3000

Nictator65 explains things us beginners and aspiring players hope to achieve, I've read his blogs and they make perfect sense.  They are long but that is to be expected when explaining something as complex as chess.  

drmrboss


When accessing the stable position without tactical possibility, you need to check

1. where can I attack vs

2. what is my weakness,

Which one is more important.

 

Clearly there is no option 1.

But there is option 2. You have serious weakness on a3, which can be attacked by Kt via Nc3 outpost which will subsequently lead to significant restriction on black rook's movement.

 

Plan?

 

If white can exchange 1.a3 a5 2. axb3 axb3 or

1. a3 bxa3 2. Ra1  .... then Rxa3 will solve your weakness in queenside.

 

If white can exchange those two pawns, it is a well known drawish rook endgame. Without solving your urgent issuse, you have high risk of losing in current position.

 

When  your rooks are restricted, black can easily push his passed pawns by doubling rook on " e" file and subsequently play ,

f6,e5, f5,e4 etc . It could be a draw or forced loss.

 

Those plans are quite impossible when you can get rid of black' kt outpost.