List of Top 10 things to keep in mind when...?

We've all heard the fundamental rules of opening:

1)  Control the center

2)  Develop your pieces

3)  Protect your king (Castle early was what I was taught though many might disagree)

 I've also heard some other gems such as "A Knight on the rim is dim".  

What other more useful guidelines would be helpful?

I'm particularly interested in tidbits to keep out of sticky situations, or improve one's ability to assess the board more objectively?

I wanted to pose this question to the community and hopefully construct some more easily grasped rules to play by for better chess.

As an example, here is something I have started to notice in my own play.  While I'm 36 years of age at the writing of this piece, keep in mind that I've never played tournament chess nor taken lessons.  In fact, the term Fianchetto was not in my regular chess vocabulary prior to this site.  Because of this, my example may seem elementary to more advanced players, but perhaps it will help some players. 

Example:

When in a tight game with many defended positions, I've noticed that when a square or piece is defended/attacked by equal pieces, the player who moves first will take the most pieces.  Here is a very simple example:

 The first diagram shows this concept at it's most basic level.  Pieces are evenly matched.  The first to move has one left over.

 In the second diagram, the example is extended.  The rook count is equal.  The first to attack will end up with one more rook than their opponent.

The more I thought about it, I realized there is a simple mathematical rule regarding whether or not to engage in an exchange.  Here are the steps:

a) Identify the square you plan to attack which will result in a potential retaliatory attack.

b)  Count the number of pieces defending that square

c)  Count the number of pieces you have that can attack that square.

If opponents defenders > your attackers then

      Don't attack

Else

     Attack.

             begin attack with lowest value piece.

The final diagram plays out a sequence to demonstrate this.

I recognize that a player may decline following through this exchange if they believe they can gain tempi by forcing a check, however.  The purpose of this discussion was simply to come up with some tools for newer players to more easily analyze their game and improve their play.

As the title suggests, my hope is to see the discussion here culminate into a "Top 10" list of chess tips.

Any nice tidbits? 

There are so many! Ummm...

Always, and I mean always, look at every possible check in every possible position. 

 These are the top ten tips when you are playing chess.

1. Look at your opponent's move when you play chess.

2. Make the best possible move when you play chess

3. Have a plan when you play chess.

4. Know what the pieces are worth when you play chess.

5. Develop quickly and well when you play chess.

6. Control the center when you play chess.

7. Keep your King safe when you play chess.

8. Know when to trade pieces when you play chess.

9. Think about the endgame when you play chess..

10. Always be alert when you play chess.

Thanks, Bendcat.

These are definitely useful.  But I'm looking for something a little more concrete.  Maybe what I'm looking for doesn't exist.  

The example I gave was a simple math exercise a player can carry out to see if it's potentially advantageous to start an attack on a square.  I'm looking for something like that.

While the examples in the top 10 list provided above are good rules of thumb, I've been in games where my opponent has deviated from these rules and come out winning in the end. 

 You forgot to mention that if the number of attackers are equal to the number of defenders, the defenders "win". For example, I'll modify your first diagram:

Here's a question.

Is there a way to asign a numeric value to your position?  example:

Add 1 for every exposed piece defended.

Add 1 for every square attacking.

Add 1 for each center square attacked. 

Remove 1 for any un-defended piece.

In this manner, could one in a match, run a calculation to assert whether or not a move will increase or decrease their position? 

This is exactly what a computer would calculate greersome. There is of course a mathmatical formulation to calculate the best move, this however is far too time consuming for a human. We know it is possible for a great human mind to beat most computers, because a human player will use intuition, i.e. playing a lesser statistically advantageous move now could result in a more statistically advantageous move in the future.

Reading the board intuitively is a skill that develops with practice. Over time a player can develop a form of subconscious mental calculatation with regards to peice value/position/exposure and perhaps most crutially attack formations.

 It doesn't exist and it can't exist. A great scientist once said math is perfect insofar as it refers only to itself, and uncertain insofar as it refers to anything real. Mathematically correct rules for winning at chess? Why not for winning elections, or wars, or Nobel prizes?

Here are some general rules, to which there are many exceptions, which nevertheless can be supported by some simple math:

1. Don't move the same piece more than once in the opening.

2. Attack what cannot move

3. Obtain the two bishops

4. The player with the space advantage should avoid exchanges

5. Knights are best in closed positions and located in the 16 squares at the center of the board

6. Bishops are best in open positions and on long diagonals

7. Rooks belong on open files

8. Queens should be developed last

9. Isolated, doubled and backward pawns on open files are weak

10. The owner of a passed pawn must find a way to advance it

11. Opponents' passed pawns must be captured or blockaded

12. The knight is the best blockading piece

13. The king must be brought to the center of the board in the endgame

The key to most of these is tempi. A tempo is a move. Obviously, if you can make more moves than your opponent you will quickly win. In one sense, of course, this is impossible. But in practice it turns out to be very much a part of chess strategy.

Take a position in which white has pawns on c4, d4, and e4 and black develops with Nf6. Now suppose white happily plays e5, and black realizes he has no safe square for his knight other than g8. So there follows Ng8, e6, Ne7. Black has moved his knight three times in order to get it to a square he could have gotten it to with one. In mathematical terms, the board is equivalent to one where white has been given two extra moves, one of which is e5 and the other of which may be anything.

So the mathematical chessplayer wants to force his opponent to waste tempi while not wasting any himself. So he develops his minor pieces to the right square the first time, unlike the example above (#1). He aligns his forces against immobile targets, preventing a situation in which he spends, for example, four tempi to set up an attack on a piece, and the piece moves away (one tempo) wasting three of his tempi (#2). When he controls most of the board, he avoids exchanges, causing his opponent's space to be crowded with pieces, which will get in each other's way and have to be disentangled, wasting tempi (#4).

He doesn't develop his queen early, because as the most valuable piece, she will repeatedly be attacked by the enemy's minor pieces, which at the same time are developing to good squares, giving his opponent tempi (#8).

And so on. The other rules refer to controlling the optimal number of squares with your pieces (including using the king as a minor piece when the threat of checkmate has receded) and the self-evident imperative of promotion, as well as avoiding pawn weaknesses. I won't bore anyone with those explanations. For a single unifying mathematical principle, other than calculating material imbalances, winning tempi cannot be beat.

me tooo

i wasn't even alive!

Lol

me too. 3 months before i was born this forum was created 😂