Most Important Chess "General Principles"

Sorry if this thread has been posted somewhere else... My question/problem is as much as I play and do the lessons on here, I cannot win and I feel like I'm not getting better. So are there any important principles I'm missing that might help like "a knight on the rim" or about controlling the center of the board? Any general rules of chess would be awesome! Thanks!

Opening Principles:

Control the center

Develop towards the center

Castle

Connect your rooks

Middlegame:

When ahead material/position, trade pieces not pawns

When behind material/position, trade pawns not pieces

Endgame:

Passed pawns must be pushed

I thought this PDF book that some member posted online was decent...

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/a-collection-of-chess-wisdom
https://leanpub.com/acollectionofchesswisdom

I liked Pandolfini's book "The Chess Doctor," too.

Still, for my taste, there is a *lot* of useful knowledge that has never been published or posted anywhere that I've seen.

At your level forget about memorizing openings.  Follow the opening principles and youll be fine.

Don't get checkmated.

Don't drop pieces.

No offense, but the only people who say that are people who know openings. I'm getting creamed in the openings despite:

Playing to control the center

Developing minor pieces first

Castling before move 10 if possible

Connecting my rooks

Reserving my Queen

And so on. Sorry, but I need to study some openings.

Regards,

Lou

a knight on the edge beats meat and two veg.

No offence taken.  After reviewing some of your games, what is causing you to lose is missing simple tactics, and hanging pieces. 

and not being able to get to the endgame.

Shalom! Take my advice with grains of salt I am not an expert but my experience has led me to these insights.

1) Try to get as many pieces into the action. Not just an opening thing.

2) Avoid over extending with pawns, move pieces and reposition pieces but only move a pawn if you must or decide to reposition your battle lines long term.

3) Not every position calls for an attack on the king. In fact many games are won by other means. Carefully consider what is your opponents weakest spot and then focus on it.

4) When behind material avoid piece trades and willingly accept most pawn trades. As long as you have pieces you have chances to defend and even counter attack but with fewer pieces on the board the harder it will be for you. If your up material do the opposite.

5) On guard rule can save you pieces! Try to guard all your pieces at least once unless you are capturing or its a forcing move like check. Leaving pieces unguarded opens up possibilities for tactical combinations to exploit them!

6) If your king is under attack don't rush to push pawns by it or open its position up. Most times keeping it closed will suffice in it's protection or buy you time to send reinforcements.

7) Consider all trades carefully! If your opponent has a lame duck bishop blocked by its pawns and your knight stands mightily on an outpost into the enemies camp why trade it? Active pieces are usually best left untraded unless a specific tactical combination comes up from trading it.

Seven general rules to help!

Thank you. I'll take all the advice I can get. :)

Awesome tips! I so greatly appreciate them! Especially 4 & 7 are where I feel I'm not doing properly. Now Ill be on the lookout