Collection of thinking shortcuts in chess

Hello!

Just recently, I have been thinking about all the mental shortcuts and rules of thumb one can follow in order to lessen the burden of calculation, especially while playing blitz games.

You know, things like:

: the square of the pawn rule (no need for calculation, one can instantly see whether the pawn is making the promotion or not)

: The Bishop dominates Knight position ( saves time sometimes, make trapping tactics easier to spot too)

I am not referring to principles like opposition - these, however simple, need to be studied thoroughly (even though there are a few neat instantly know whether you have  the distant opposition or not rules there as well...). I am interested specifically in this kind of easy to spot, time saving  principles within the game. I bet there must be some more besides these two? I was trying to google it, but I was not able to formulate the question properly.

So if you'd be interested to help me compile a small list of these, that would be awesome!

King on the 6th, pawn on the 5th always wins

By the Bishop dominated Knight position, do you mean that position where the Bishop is three tiles away from the opposing Knight, restricting its movements, or is that something else?

Yes, that's it!

NOT ALWAYS!

If 20 points of material is infront of the king(For example 2 rooks and a queen)there is a heavy attack on the king which needs to to be defended

Hope that helps

Two connected passed pawns on the 6th beat a rook

A knight on the rim is dim

Place a piece two diagonal squares from the enemy knight (see diag), and the piece is safe from the knight's attack for at least two moves (e.g., a king can be checked on Move 3.)

Have openings where you can force a game plan you know

Some good inputs! Thanks guys, I am already feeling more efficient by pondering about these. Forgot about the two connected pawns vs rook bit.

Something a bit more advanced, maybe?

Very nice suggestions

What's this 'square of the pawn rule; pawn makes promotion' you speak of??

"Draw a diagonal from the pawn to the eighth rank. Now imagine a square that encloses the pawn, the queening square and the diagonal like below.

And here comes the Rule of the square: if the king can enter this square of the passed pawn, then it can capture the pawn before (or as soon as) it promotes."

There is a ver instructive endgame puzzle position by Richard Reti which is a good one to solve and shows up the geometry of the chessboard (Diagonals are the same length as straight lines)

As well as a rather nice stalemate trick where the q cannot take the c pawn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upQ4RKHMQGg

ver = very

I'll be dog.  Thanks Ivan.  Sure didn't know that one.  Beats having to count it

down with your finger like a patzer. 

Another one; in case of double check, the king under the attack always has to move. This rule is also a time saver, no need to be paranoid about any piece attacking you for that one move, besides the fleeing king, obviously.

Here's an e-z 1-2 punch for tactics. If ur opponents king is open to attack and he has a loose piece on the board you can usually find a way to attack the king and win the loose piece.   

Meeting a threat with a threat is a dangerous game

If your threat is met with tempo, the opponent's will remain