What I've learned after 3 years of chess! 10 tips

Here are the best tips that I have learned on my own.  Ten of them, in no particular order.  I'm a 1500-1600 level player (I can do better only in online chess, through the use of the analysis practice board, which is not available when playing chess in person)

1.  Don't always be in a rush to castle early, or you may face a devastating pawn storm and early attack.  In this instance, your opponent may make knight and bishop sacrifices you don't see or plan for, because the game may never get to an "endgame scenario" at all (early checkmate or resignation from desperate defensive sacrifices)

2.  If you don't have great book knowledge (like me!), mirroring a superior opponents moves can often keep you from getting quickly destroyed!

3.  The best non-forking check move (i.e. a check that doesn't win you a piece), is the double check!  When you pull off a discovered check from two of your pieces attacking the opponents king simultaneously!  In this scenario, your opponent cannot simply block your check and must move their king, keeping your attack tempo and maybe moving the opponent's king into a worsening position.

4.  Knights move in a weird, non-intuitive fashion.  I often spend more time considering knight moves and defending against them than with other pieces.  If I lose a queen or rook and must resign a game early, it's almost always from a knight.  It's easy to see a knight fork maybe one or two moves in advance, but where there is a series of attacks and moves, a knight fork can seemingly pop up out of nowhere!  (basically, the knight can often be the piece that capitalizes  on moving your opponent around).

5.  Knights are better early, because they can "hook attack" in a busy crowded board.  Bishops are better in defending a pawnrace endgame, knights take too long to get anywhere and sometimes ya gotta move two or three times just to hit a square that is very close to where you started!  Sucks a lot of moves up and often you don't have the time

6.  If you sacrifice a piece for an early or midgame attack, watch extra hard to avoid a forced queen trade.  I find the queen nearly essential to pull off an early or midgame checkmate.  If you lose your queen, the sacrificed piece will likely cost you the game, rather than winning it (which was your original intention).

7.  Don't go out of your way to avoid piece trades...often if you decline a trade, it can permanently worsen your position and cost you the game.  If you're not sure it's safer to trade.

8.  You don't need to castle to win OR link your rooks or your rook and queen together.  Often a king move 1 move north will pull this off, and a central king position can be great for defending pieces and winning pawnraces in the endgame.

9.  As the number of pieces on the board declines, the better and more useful your king becomes!  It's like a mini-queen in movement!  

10.  The best pawn trade, is when your capture or recapture immediately attacks one of your opponents major pieces (knight, bishop and up).  Then your opponent has to react and you basically get to move again right away, stay on the attack!

Sorry bra...post your tips! 

Rule 11 there are usually exceptions!   and I'm sure, what works at a lower level will be picked apart at a higher level (pushing pawns can open you up to attack by a skilled player, I have good luck with it at my level)

That's amazing, never knew about this. Feel free to share more tips/tricks like this. 

thanks for this advice

12. Be oblong and have your knees removed.

Thanks for the diagram. Top

Thanks for the diagram. Top

while this is a solid effort to share tips that perhaps are not SO obvious.  I think the castling-hate misplaced. I think its generally better to make castling work in nearly all games....

so #1 ought to be something like

"don't castle into an attack and consider opposite side castling if the opponent aggressively posts peices that could quickly mobilize against a castled king.   It is often to wise to prepare for castling; such that you can castle at any moment, and avoid any kind of tactical play against a king stuck in the center."

while this might sound obvious, it has been given as advice from many players much stronger than 1500.

Good diagram showing the Knights' moves. I will save it for future reference. 

agreed. but these are NOT tips are some people would understand them.  I mean at 1500, an obvious tip would be.

"don't allow you pawns or peices to be taken or exchanged for more valuable pawns and peices."  very true and valid at online 1500- and very obvious...

I think these are meant to be  more like "observations that surprise me and/or unexpected observations (not obvious) that helped me become a slightly better player"- like how tricky knights can be; and the neat little observation about how important it is , not to allow queens to get exchanged when down a peice.

as such, they are surely more personal than tips.  "don't be too rushed to castle" might be a very valid observation.

my only thought to the OP is not to be too dogmatic about these observations.  sometimes I think , that help us become a 1500 player can stop one from becoming a 1800 player. 

help me guise after playing too much online chess my rapid rating is somewhere around 1300-1400 but when I played on real chess board I am not able to see a single tactics and blundering by pieces pls help me to fix this.

#10 was weird, but I liked "the king is a mini queen" thing

People who only play online find a physical 3d board difficult at first.

People who only play in person find the online 2d board difficult at first.

Set up tactic puzzles on a real board and solve from there, or play over games an analyze on the board. That will help you get used to it.

How about this?

That was a good one (the diagram with the Knight).

Hi!

Oh here's another tip.  The best pawns protecting your king or major pieces are often the opponents pawns.  They can remove YOUR pawns off the board if they've a mind to, but only you have the option of removing their pawns, making them often more dependable defenders!

Ten Tips:

1. Look before you leap!

2. A penny saved is a penny earned.

3. Never give a sucker an even break.

4. What, me worry?

5. It's better to keep quiet and have people think you're stupid instead of opening your mouth and proving it.

6. Find a penny, pick it up!

7. Go ahead, what could go wrong?

8. When in danger or in doubt, Run in circles, scream and shout.

9. When caught doing something wrong, blame unpopular people.

10. If you have nothing better to do, you may as well play chess. And if you can't play chess, head to the forums.