Chess tips

[glee]

@Little Nemo

Sacrifices are a key factor of the game. You should not try to defend your pieces at all times. If losing a piece is the price you need to give yourself an advantage, do it. Sacrifice a pawn to take a knight, a knight to take a rook, a rook to take a queen.

I’ve won games in international tournaments without sacrificing anything.
It’s better for beginners to keep their pieces defended where possible and to be alert to the opponent attacking them.
Sacrificing is great fun, but you need to learn how to do it. A successful sacrifice always comes from having gained an advantage beforehand.

@Little Nemo

This is especially true if you get a piece ahead; if you are a piece ahead, exchanging equal pieces should become a goal in itself. As an example, if you capture a pawn, you’re one minor piece up with 31 pieces on the board. But if you now begin a campaign of equal exchanges your position will improve with every one. If you follow the pawn capture with 12 exchanges, you’ll end up with a pawn advantage with only seven pieces on the board; with the piece count that low, a one pawn advantage is big.

Do you mean sacrificing, or exchanging?

@Little Nemo

Forks are another important concept. Look for moves you can make that threaten two pieces. Move a bishop to a position where it can capture a rook or a pawn. Your opponent will save the rook and you’ll be able to take the pawn.

Only if the pawn is undefended and the rook can’t move to defend it.

@Little Nemo

Study how to play end-games. With six pieces left on the board, everyone knows that an advantage of say, a king, a pawn, and a rook is better than a king, a pawn, and a knight. But many players don’t know the specific details of how to force a checkmate in a situation like that. Learn the mechanics of the basic end-game situations.

Yes, studying endgames is very suitable for beginners.
In your example, I wouldn’t say ‘force checkmate’ though - rather you win the pawn (although there are a few positions where this is impossible), then force your opponent to sacrifice his knight to stop your pawn queening, finally mating with king and rook.

[glee]

@Jurph

Look ahead for moves that can give check safely and try to keep one looming over the enemy; if he pulls something dastardly, he’ll often be counting on you to react to his evil plan. If you can give check instead, you force him to move his king or possibly one of his attackers to support his defense instead of his attack. He may still have you in a bad spot, but as long as you can keep giving check, he can’t ever capitalize on it.

Sorry, but this is very unlikely to work.
Most single checks are harmless, and perpetual check only occurs in specific positions.

[Trunk]

@Little Nemo

Sacrifices are a key factor of the game. You should not try to defend your pieces at all times. If losing a piece is the price you need to give yourself an advantage, do it. Sacrifice a pawn to take a knight, a knight to take a rook, a rook to take a queen.

These aren’t sacrifices. These are winning material.

I think y’all are giving a guy who sounds like a rank beginner some advanced advice.

Not that forks and discovered attacks are advanced concepts, but they’re a little tricky to teach a guy over a message board without a diagram.

What he needs is a beginning book or teaching software. He might try “Chessmaster” which has a lot of instruction. Chessmaster 9000 is pretty good software and can be had for a song if you can find it since CM 10000 is already out. If you want to pay for it, get CM10K.

As for books – ANY beginning book will do. You can find a “Beginning Chess” book used on amazon for $2.50. And, a lot of used book stores will carry chess books.

[Busy_Scissors]

@glee

Take the first 6-10 moves of the game (the opening).
You should:

• try to control the centre
• develop your pieces
• castle into safety

.

Its been years since I played chess, but I was surprised to see a number of people presenting castling as a no-brainer. Is this really true? Although the King is protected and the rook brought in to play, it does pin the king down into a relatively small area for your opponent to concentrate their attack on.

How common is castling in high-level play?

[glee]

@Myler Keogh

Its been years since I played chess, but I was surprised to see a number of people presenting castling as a no-brainer. Is this really true? Although the King is protected and the rook brought in to play, it does pin the king down into a relatively small area for your opponent to concentrate their attack on.

How common is castling in high-level play?

Ah, but you can also see where the attacks on your king are coming from!

Castling is practically automatic in club play and upwards. Indeed players will sometimes sacrifice just to keep the opponents king in the centre.

[Trunk]

@Myler Keogh

Its been years since I played chess, but I was surprised to see a number of people presenting castling as a no-brainer. Is this really true? Although the King is protected and the rook brought in to play, it does pin the king down into a relatively small area for your opponent to concentrate their attack on.

Relative to what? If he’s in the middle, he’s still in a small area.

Furthermore, the easiest way to free your pieces is to move your center pawns which you also have to do to control the center. If you leave your king in the middle, he’s exposed.

How common is castling in high-level play?

Totally. Probably in at least 90% of all high-level play, both players castle.

[don_t_ask]

Get Logical Chess: Move By Move by Irving Chernev. It explains what is going on move by move in games by masters. The explanations cover all the basic theory of strategy and tactics. Play through the games slowly on a full size board. Study the positions and Chernev’s explanations and seek to understand what he is talking about. Don’t rush through like you are learning to type, it doesn’t matter if it takes days for a tricky thought to take root.

When playing and studying adopt a regular pre-move thought process. Generally this is - checks, captures, forks, pins, nets and ties. You look for each of these possibilities with all your pieces. While playing the Chernev games do the same thing - it will help you understand the opportunities that the player you are studying ignored which is just as important as the move they did choose.

Find a player whose style you like - if you pay attention you will be able to tell one from another, and get an anottated book of his games. Set up a board and proceed as follows :

Lets say, like me, you like the elegance of Capablance…well you are now going to try to be him.

Play all the standard moves of the opening - about 8 moves, then cover up Capablanca’s moves and start playing. Pick the next move you would make. If it is the same as Capablanca’s or noted as being as good then give yourself 1 point. If your move corrects an error by Capablanca take 2 points otherwise have 1/2 a point. Make Capablanca’s move, make his opponents move and study the board again. The scoring means that you will score between 50% and 100+%. Your aim is to get closer to 100%. Again take your time. Remember that Capablanca was totally immersed in the game while playing it, we are not. Sometimes I used to look at the samew position morning and night for days while tossing up possibilities. It is a great buzz to come up with a really elegant answer no matter how long it took.

[glee]

Alectrona,

if you’ve got the hang of chess notation, here are a couple of examples of opening play. (Of course White moves are given first.)

1. e2-e4 e7-e6
2. d2-d4 d7-d5
3. e4-e5 c7-c5 (a)
4. c2-c3 Nb8-c6
5. Ng1-f3 Qd8-b6 (b)
6. Bf1-e2 Bc8-d7
7. O-O(c) c5xd4
8. c3xd4 Ng8-e7
9. Nb1-c3 Ne7-f5
10. Nc3-a4 Qb6-a5

This will be a quiet game, as both sides struggle to work around the central blockage. Knights will be slightly better than bishops, since they can jump over obstructions.
There is a potential tactic in the final position though - Black threatens to move his knight on c6, discovering an attack on the White knight on a4.
(a) Both sides try to control the centre with pawns.
(b) Because the pawns in the centre are blocking each other, it is safer than usual to bring the queen out so early.
(c) This is chess notation for castling on this side (Ke1-g1; Rh1-f1)

1. e2-e4 e7-e5
2. Ng1-f3 Nb8-c6
3. Bf1-c4 Bf8-e7 (d)
4. d2-d4 e5xd4
5. c2-c3 (e) d4xc3
6. Qd1-d5 (f) Ng8-h6
7. Bc1xh6 (g) O-O! (h)
8. Bh6-c1 (i) Nc6-b4 (j)
9. Qd5-d1 (k) c3-c2 (l)

(d) calm development by both sides
(e) now White decides to gamble on a sacrifice. If Black doesn’t take it, White will build a pawn centre.
(f) White threatens mate by Qd5xf7…
(g) no time to recapture the bishop because of mate - has White won already?! :eek:
(h) most satisfying. The mate is defended, and both the White bishop and the pawn on b2 are under attack. (In addition, if the Black pawn reaches b2, it will threaten the hapless White rook on a1 and promote itself to a Black Queen!)
(i) Has White successfully met both threats?
(j) Now Black threatens both the White Queen and the fork Nb4-c2+ (+ stands for check) winning the rook on a1.
(k) Has White successfully met both threats?
(l) Finally Black wins his material back by forking both the Queen and knight on b1.

White launched an attack with only a slight advantage, and has come out worse.
However this was an exciting tactical battle!

(It is true that he could play better: 8. Nb1xc3 g7xh6 9. Qd5-h5 with compensation for his pawn.)

[Little_Nemo]

Glee, I agree that defense is an important concept. But I think most beginning chess players come into the game too defensively minded and forget that unltimately the game requires offense. Beginners are usually too concerned about losing any of their pieces (except for some beginners who see their pawns as useless cannon fodder) because they see losing a piece as an irrevocable step. Consequently they miss opportunities. They need to break this mindset and realize the pieces are there to be used and, when the time is right, lost.

I’ll also admit I’ve read very few books on chess and I may be mis-using some of the vocabulary. But the OP was asking for advice from the viewpoint of someone who was also unfamiliar with the vocabulary, so I felt okay about explaining things in my own words and hoping the concepts would be clear even if the words were imprecise.

As for the advantage of castling, it’s twofold. First off, your king is generally the only piece on the board you’re not going to use on offense. So the best thing to do is move it into a corner where there are fewer approaches for your opponent to attack it from; a king in a center square can be attacked from eight different directions, a king in a corner square can only be attacked from three. The second advantage of castling is that it brings a rook out from the corner and develops it for offense.

[Bill_H]

Little Nemo wrote

Glee, I agree that defense is an important concept. But I think most beginning chess players come into the game too defensively minded and forget that unltimately the game requires offense. Beginners are usually too concerned about losing any of their pieces (except for some beginners who see their pawns as useless cannon fodder) because they see losing a piece as an irrevocable step. Consequently they miss opportunities. They need to break this mindset and realize the pieces are there to be used and, when the time is right, lost.

In my experience, players at Alectrona’s level really need to work on seeing the dangers, on thinking ahead to how they can avoid material and positional loss. In my estimation, Alectrona should be focused on defense and building a strong setup. Being clever can come later.

I’d be willing to bet that if you looked at Alectrona’s losses to date, you’d find that none of them were for loss of having a clever sacrifice. They were all likely because our friend missed an important attack from the opponent.

[glee]

@Little Nemo

Glee, I agree that defense is an important concept. But I think most beginning chess players come into the game too defensively minded and forget that unltimately the game requires offense. Beginners are usually too concerned about losing any of their pieces (except for some beginners who see their pawns as useless cannon fodder) because they see losing a piece as an irrevocable step. Consequently they miss opportunities. They need to break this mindset and realize the pieces are there to be used and, when the time is right, lost.

I’ll also admit I’ve read very few books on chess and I may be mis-using some of the vocabulary. But the OP was asking for advice from the viewpoint of someone who was also unfamiliar with the vocabulary, so I felt okay about explaining things in my own words and hoping the concepts would be clear even if the words were imprecise.

We’re all trying to help!

But I think it’s worth getting the vocabulary right, since that’s what books and experienced players will use.
So for example, you don’t mean ‘the pieces are there to be used and, when the time is right, lost’, but ‘the pieces are there to be used and, if the opportunity arises, sacrificed.’

I’ve watched a lot of beginners and they usually focus entirely on their own plans, losing material to simple attacks.

As Bill H rightly said:
“I’d be willing to bet that if you looked at Alectrona’s losses to date, you’d find that none of them were for loss of having a clever sacrifice. They were all likely because our friend missed an important attack from the opponent.”

I already offered to annotate a game of Alectrona’s - that would tell us what stage he has reached.

[lost_in_the_post]

@Alectrona

Update on how I’m doing:

Well I learnt to castle which was satisfying. I still havn’t won a match yet though after playing 4 more times after the tips… It always seems that I have the least pieces left compared to the other player. And also, what happens when the time runs out?

My $0.02 – I’ll try to make this practical:

(1) Tell us more about your situation. How often do you play? How seriously? Are you good at strategy games and math? Do you have a long attention span? Are you playing only with serious competitors? How old are you?

(2) How to improve – keep playing. It sounds like you’re a beginner playing more experienced players. To develop your understanding of chess in a gradual, more organic manner, it can help to play opponents at your level, and below, too. The experts can defeat you so fast you don’t know what happened, and don’t improve, unless you’re really adept at this sort of activity.

If you’re playing against only experts, then have them play with a handicap – e.g., they play without a wing, without a rook, a knight, and a bishop. Good exercise for them, and you have a chance to develop some kind of attack (or defend against clever attacks and traps … if you spot them).

(3) If you’re playing against other beginners and always losing, then, hmm. OK, my generic advice is to do the following:

(a) At the start of the game, immediately deploy the Grunfeld defense. (This is very simple. You can castle, and that’s part of it. Find a picture of it so you know what it looks like.) Properly used, it can give you some breathing room against better players, it develops some of your pieces, and beginners usually have a hard time attacking it directly.

(b) You mention winding up with fewer pieces … you just have to learn to be careful with that. Who’s guarding who. How many pieces are guarding this front line piece. Etc. If s/he takes this piece, then you take that piece, then s/he, then you, etc. You want to wind up ahead … This is fundamental. Repeat: this is fundamental. [apologies if I’m sounding like a snob]

(c) As mentioned previously, “develop” your pieces – get the back row pieces out, or at least able to move out.

(d) Beginner’s Offensive strategy – either (i) kill more pieces of theirs than they kill yours, or (ii) seize and control territory around their king, and/or kill pieces defending their king. If you’re not sure what to do, exactly, just pick one square, and attack that square with as many pieces as you can – all at the same time. It’ll be educational.

Oh, and have fun. There are different ways to go about trying to win the game.

[ShibbOleth]

Glee, are there any books or software programs (suitable to beginners) that you’d recommend? (I see that Trunk has made a reco, just looking for a second or different reco) We have a chess program that came on our iMac that just destroys me, no matter what level it’s set on, and I don’t seem to learn much from it. Maybe I’m too old!

Also, I just got my kids a chess set for Christmas and I’d like them to learn. I can teach them the basics, is there anything particular to young kids that would be helpful (6 & 9 years old)?

[RickJay]

This may sound stupid, by try playing a human with a real chess set. I personally find I am much, much better when I play IRL, as opposed to on the computer. There’s something about playing chess on a computer that makes me miss things.

Otherwise, just keep playing. Take your time between moves (as far as the clock will allow) and you will learn to recognize those dangers.

[lost_in_the_post]

@AsSeenByOthers

I played with two novices today and I knew I had the upperhand in both matches:

-I had castled and had taken more pieces and checked a few times.

But out of nowhere, they pinned me in the castle into automatic checkmate! And you can imagine my response was literally.

You took more pieces and checked – this is good. Good work. That is one approach to checkmate – get ahead in pieces, and then just trade pieces (you kill his piece, he kills your piece back) until they have nothing left, but you still have something. (examples: A King and a Rook can beat just a King. But a King and a Bishop versus King is a stalemate.)

The unfortunate endings – sounds like a case of leaving your back row undefended, and they moved a rook there, and your King was blocked by your own pawns from escaping. Well, that’s probably happened to every player here, when they were learning (happened to me, anyways) … it’s how the learning process works.

As others have mentioned, you learn to recognize dangers and traps – by falling into them. You’re gaining experience. After a few times, you learn to watch out for them, then you see them coming, and prevent them. And then you start to see how you can use them on other people! (And much later, you can threaten a trap, and do something else …) Keep playing, and you’ll do it to someone else someday.

@AsSeenByOthers

Ok I just played two more games.

I lost in 3 moves in 30 seconds in the first game.
Second match was a stalemate.

I found another weakness in my game, In the last game, I put the other player’s King in check soooo many times but grrr I just can’t finish it.

The 30 second defeat – sounds like the classic “Fools’ Mate” – it’s happened to me … It’s just one more thing to recognize and defend.

The King on the run – that’s why people have mentioned “developing” pieces, getting them out there – you generally need several pieces acting in conjunction to pin down a King. One piece checks, while the other ones cover the other squares, so the King has nowhere to run. And they can guard each other.

Sounds like your game is improving. If you like offense, eventually you may want to sit down and play through historical games (as mentioned previously) and see how various great players have conducted offensives. You can learn by doing, too, though, whatever holds your interest.

[Kent_Clark]

@AsSeenByOthers

I found another weakness in my game, In the last game, I put the other player’s King in check soooo many times but grrr I just can’t finish it.

When I was a beginner, I was a sucker for an easy check. I usually wound up losing a bishop because of it.

Spend the early moves getting your pieces in position instead of going for a quick attack with one piece.

[glee]

@lost in the post

If you’re playing against only experts, then have them play with a handicap – e.g., they play without a wing, without a rook, a knight, and a bishop. Good exercise for them, and you have a chance to develop some kind of attack (or defend against clever attacks and traps … if you spot them).

Um, no. If you meet an expert, ask them to coach you. Most will enjoy doing that. They can tell you what moves are good and let you take back mistakes.
There is no benefit for the expert in playing handicap chess.

@lost in the post

(a) At the start of the game, immediately deploy the Grunfeld defense. (This is very simple. You can castle, and that’s part of it. Find a picture of it so you know what it looks like.) Properly used, it can give you some breathing room against better players, it develops some of your pieces, and beginners usually have a hard time attacking it directly.

You are talking about one of the most complicated defences in chess! (It’s even riskier than the King’s Indian.) It also only occurs against 1. d4 2. c4 and 3. Nc3…

@lost in the post

(d) Beginner’s Offensive strategy – either (i) kill more pieces of theirs than they kill yours,

We’d all like to achieve this! But how do we do it?!

@lost in the post

or (ii) seize and control territory around their king, and/or kill pieces defending their king. If you’re not sure what to do, exactly, just pick one square, and attack that square with as many pieces as you can – all at the same time. It’ll be educational.

No, it won’t be educational.

I’m sorry to be so critical, but I do this for a living.

[glee]

@ShibbOleth

Glee, are there any books or software programs (suitable to beginners) that you’d recommend? (I see that Trunk has made a reco, just looking for a second or different reco) We have a chess program that came on our iMac that just destroys me, no matter what level it’s set on, and I don’t seem to learn much from it. Maybe I’m too old!

I taught myself out of ‘Chess for children’ by Bott and Morrison, but that was so long ago that it’s probably :eek: out of print.
Trunk is certainly right in that any beginner’s book will cover much the same ground.

A friend of mine has suggested ‘Fritz and Chesster learn to play chess’ for our pupils on the School network, but I haven’t evaluated it yet.
‘Fritz 8’ has a wide range of playing levels and displays all attacked and defended pieces. (This improves your chess visual awareness that eventually becomes automatic.)

@ShibbOleth

Also, I just got my kids a chess set for Christmas and I’d like them to learn. I can teach them the basics, is there anything particular to young kids that would be helpful (6 & 9 years old)?

Basic checkmates (King and Queen v King; King and Rook v Queen)
Fun matchups (Queen v Knight; King and 8 pawns v King + 8 pawns)
Simple opening rules (develop your pieces; castle early; control the centre)
Tactical puzzles (fork, pin, overload, skewer, discovered check, backrank, zwischenzug, promotion etc)

For example, play 1. e4 e6 2. d4 Qf6 (?) 3. Nf3 Bd6 (??).
Challenge them to find the fork 4. e5!

Later on, play 1.e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qe6+ (?) 4. Be2 Qf6 (?) 5. Nd5 Qc6 (??).
Challenge them to find the pin 6. Bb5!, followed after Qxb5 by the fork 7. Nxc7+!

You’ll be aware of the dangers of sibling rivalry and the different speed they will probably learn at.
Chess must be fun at that age, but good manners are part of the rules.

[glee]

@AsSeenByOthers

It’s Alectrona here, I’m borrowing my friend’s account for now since my membership expired.

The people I play against are of varied standards but most of them are like, between amateur and below. I have played few beginners. I recently started playing everyday but I play on the internet only as I don’t have a chess set.

I played with two novices today and I knew I had the upperhand in both matches:

-I had castled and had taken more pieces and checked a few times.

But out of nowhere, they pinned me in the castle into automatic checkmate! And you can imagine my response was :eek: literally.

I’m good at math, but I’m not really a strategy person. I have a medium attention span and I’m 15.

As I said, post a game of yours here and I’ll annotate it.
(By coincidence, my age also has the digits 1 + 5 )

[Czarcasm]

@AsSeenByOthers

It’s Alectrona here, I’m borrowing my friend’s account for now since my membership expired.

I’m sorry, but you may only sign on as a guest once. If you wish to subscribe, please use the “subscribe” link at the top of this page.
Thank you.