Tips

10 moves are basic, and learning the main ideas is part of learning the moves. theory is very important and will serve you well no matter what

im 900 and I know 12 moves deep into multiple openings...

I’m 1200 and I know 1 move deep into games

lol

I know only e4

On YouTube a Ukrainian or Russian guy, I think called Igor Smirnov, described 100 chess principles. I have found several of them useful. The list does not add up to 100 as he made a few joke "principles". Someone else drew up the list and I have copied it with minor alterations.

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1.Do not move the same piece twice in an opening 2. Do not exchange your active pieces for no reason 4. Castle as soon as possible to put your king to safety 5. The main opening task is to develop your pieces quickly 6. Keep your queen behind your pawn so that your opponent cannot attack it 7. Look for the best diagonals for your bishops 9. A bishop is slightly stronger than a knight; do not trade it off for no reason 10. When your opponent's king hasn't castled yet, aim to open the position quickly 11. While developing, make sure you don't block your other pieces 12. The knight on the rim, is dim 13. Avoid unnecessary pawn moves in an opening, develop your pieces instead 14. When there is opposite side castling, start pawn storms 15. When you don't know an opening theory, just develop your pieces and castle 16. Use your pawns to blockade opponent's bishop 17. Pin the knight near your opponent's castling as the first step to your further attack 18. When you have more space, avoid exchanges 21. Put your rooks on open files 22. Capture towards the centre 23. Pull up your queen to make your attack successful 24. Transfer your knight to a weak square 25. When you're up material, trade pieces 26. Do not exchange a pinned knight; it can't move anyway 27. Do not advance your pawns too far away from the rest of your forces 29. Provide an escape square for your king to avoid back rank problems later 30. Figure out opponent's plans and prevent them 31. Trade your flank pawn for your opponent's central pawn, because the centre is the most important part of the board 32. Centralize your pieces as much as you can 33. When you control the centre, it's fine to start your attack on the side 34. Pawns can't go back; avoid creating weaknesses in your position 35. Sacrifice to expose opponent's king, and to destroy him after that 36. Your knight is the best blockader of your opponent's passed pawn 37. Trade off your passive pieces 38. Double your rooks on an open file 40. Sacrifice a pawn to open diagonals for your bishops 41. Place your queen 2 squares away from the knight diagonally, so that the knight can no longer attack it 42. Do not overload your piece with too many functions 43. When your knight is pinned, attack the bishop to force it to make a decision: whether it's going to trade, or go back 44. If you have a bad bishop, trade it off 45. Keep your pieces protected, and you will never blunder them 46. Put your pieces on squares opposite to the colour of your opponent's bishop 47. Get rid of the pin by pushing your pawns forward 48. Ask yourself, "what will my opponent do when it's his turn?", and prevent it (similar to 30) 50. Relocate your pieces to more active squares 51. When you're down material, complicate matters and attack 52. Counter a flank attack by your central attack 53. Trade off opponent's fianchettoed bishop 54. You can use a pawn effectively to restrict an opponent's knight 55. Use a pawn minority attack to create weak pawns in your opponent's position 56. Occupy string squares defended by your pawns 57. Eliminate the main defender of your opponent's kING to make your attack easily successful 58. To limit the options of your opponents, play forcing moves: checks, captures, attacking moves 60. Your knight is the best defender of your king 61. Doubled pawns in the centre aren't bad, because they control a lot of important squares 62. A double attack is the most important chess tactics 64. When your opponent is attacking you, ask yourself if it's truly dangerous 65. Offense is the best defense 66. Advance your rook to the seventh rank; it has a lot of targets to attack there 67. Attack the base of your opponent's pawn chain 68. Monitor hanging undefended pieces of your opponent, and attack them 69. Linear pieces pinning everything but not the knight, are most active in open positions 70. Define your candidate moves before you start to calculate anything 71. F7 square is the weakest point of your opponent's position 72. Avoid pawn islands, they're weak 73. Activate your king in an endgame 74. When your opponent's king is weak, look for combinations 76. To take is a mistake; do not trade when it helps your opponent to become more active 77. Positional play simply implies putting your pieces to better positions 78. Attack the pinned knight to win the game 79. While defending, keep the position closed so that your opponent cannot attack it anymore 80. Perpetual check is a good way to save a losing game 81. Bring all your pieces into play 82. If you have mastered all the good moves by now, you will be a disco superstar 83. A pawn break can help create a passed pawn in an endgame 84. Stalemate is a good way to save a losing endgame 85. Put your rook behind a passed pawn to support its advancement 86. The bishop can completely dominate a knight 87. Use the back rank weakness 88. Use a position in an endgame to push opponent's king away so that you can advance and win the game 89. In an endgame, centralize your queen 90. Passed pawns must move forward 91. Queen + knight is a great attacking team 92. Rook + bishop is a great attacking team 93. The main endgame plan is to promote a passed pawn 94. In an endgame, attack opponent's pawns; not his king 95. When your bishop cannot control the square of promotion, a rook pawn cannot win the game 96. Advance your pawn majority; playing where you are stronger 97. Attack 2 weaknesses to overload your opponent 98. Restricted pieces is a great target for your attack 99. 2 minor pieces are usually stronger than a rook + pawn 100. Calculate all possible captures, not just 1

Ignore No. 82. It is a joke. I tried to purge the jokes but overlooked that one...

hi

I believe that it’s pretty much always about layering knowledge and ability from one rating step to the next. How do 1000s become 1200? There might be some key things, but it’s mostly small gains in everything. How do 2000s become 2200? There might be some key things, but it’s mostly small gains in everything. You get the idea. The rating number isn’t as important; it’s layering upon what you know and your rating naturally catches up to your ability if you truly learned more.

Way before 2000 rating, you’ll develop a sense of your strengths and weaknesses. Those could definitely change on your chess journey, but you’ll have ideas of what to work on that’s tailored to your own game. We can play unrated live chess for learning sometime if you like. Even just a game or two with specific advice might help more than a bunch of generic advice. What one player is great at, another player might need improvement there.

It also depends on your current level of understanding. My advice for reaching 2000 level would be very different if the player I was giving advice to was already 1900s versus someone who was under 1000 and just learning the rules of chess.

Why did you write this much

I didn't but Smirnov put forward 100 or so principles and someone else rather helpfully wrote them down. If the block of text bothers you, feel free to introduce some paragraphs.

Of the principles listed, I have found 21, 29, 34, 35, 41, 66 and 85 to be most useful.