Realizing a material advantage
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The side which has an advantage in material can employ one of two basically different strategies to exploit the advantage.
Whenever we have more pieces than our opponent, the best strategy is usually to play for an attack.
Because we have more pieces, our opponent is forced to defend against superior forces. Thus we can often simply attack one point with more pieces than he has available for the defense.
The second method consists of aiming for a simplification of the position. You try to swap off pieces and aim for the endgame. In the endgame you can convert your advantage in material without having to worry too much about counterplay.
In fact, with fewer pieces on the board, the effectiveness of an extra piece is all the greater.
However, it is important to retain at least some pawns, because many endgames with an extra piece, but without pawns, cannot be won.
Thus an important rule is:
The side which has the advantage in material should try to exchange pieces, but avoid exchanging pawns.
One useful method is the transition to a won pawn ending.
Sometimes, in order to simplify our task and eliminate any counterplay, we can return part of our material advantage.
As soon as they have acquired an advantage in material, some players make a great mistake. They think they have already won the game, their concentration lapses and they simply wait for their opponent to resign. Such behaviour is very often punished: you overlook your opponent's threats and sometimes you even lose a game which you had already almost won.
In such situations we must play with even greater care and not allow any counterplay.