[blind-chess] Reposting: Chess Principles, Tactics and more Principles
- From: "Roderick Macdonald" <rjmacdonald@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Blind-Chess Mailing List" <blind-chess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 12:48:56 -1000
(Originally posted as articles #23, #24 and #27)
Article #23
Basic Chess Principles
by Bill Wall
Copyright by Bill Wall
All rights reserved
01. Develop your pieces quickly.
02. Control the center.
03. Try to put your pieces on squares that give them maximum space.
04. Try to develop your knights towards the center.
05. A knight on the rim is dim.
06. Don't take unnecessary chances.
07. Play aggressive.
08. Calculate forced moves first.
09. Always ask yourself, "Can he put me in check or win a piece?"
10. Have a plan. Every move should have a purpose.
11. Assume your opponent's move is his best move.
12. Ask yourself, "why did he move there?" after each opponent
move.
13. Play for the initiative and contolling the board.
14. If you must lose a piece, get something for it if you can.
15. When behind, exchange pawns. When ahead, exchange pieces.
16. If you are losing, don't give up fighting. Look for
counterplay.
17. Don't play unsound moves unless you are losing badly.
18. Don't sacrifice a piece without good reason.
19. If you are in doubt of an opponent's sacrifice, accept it.
20. Attack with more than just one or two pieces.
21. Do not make careless pawn moves. They cannot move back.
22. Do not block in your bishops.
23. Bishops of opposite colors have the greatest chance of drawing.
24. Try not to move the same piece twice or more times in a row.
25. Exchange pieces if it helps your development.
26. Don't bring your queen out early.
27. Castle soon to protect your king and develop your rook.
28. Develop rooks to open files.
29. Put rooks behind passed pawns.
30. Study rook endgames. They are the most common and most
complicated.
31. Don't let your king get caught in the center.
32. Don't castle if it brings your king into greater danger from
attack.
33. After castling, keep a good pawn formation around your king.
34. If you only have one bishop, put your pawns on its opposite
color.
35. Trade pieces when ahead in material or when under attack.
36. If cramped, free your game by exchanging material.
37. If your opponent is cramped, don't let him get any freeing
exchanges.
38. Study openings you are comfortable with.
39. Play over entire games, not just the opening.
40. Blitz chess is helpful in recognizing chess patterns. Play
often.
41. Study annotated games and try to guess each move.
42. Stick with just a few openings with White, and a few openings
with Black.
43. Record your games and go over them, especially the games you
lost.
44. Show your games to higher rated opponents and get feedback from
them.
45. Use chess computers and databases to help you study and play
more.
46. Everyone blunders. The champions just blunder less often.
47. When it is not your move, look for tactics and combinations.
48. Try to double rooks or double rook and queen on open files.
49. Always ask yourself, "Does my next move overlook something
simple?"
50. Don't make your own plans without the exclusion of the
opponent's threats.
51. Watch out for captures by retreat of an opponent's piece.
52. Do not focus on one sector of the board. View thw whole board.
53. Write down your move first before making that move if it helps.
54. Try to solve chess puzzles with diagrams from books and
magazines.
55. It is less likely that an opponent is prepared for off-beat
openings.
56. Recognize transposition of moves from main-line play.
57. Watch your time and avoid time trouble.
58. Bishops are worth more than knights except when they are pinned
in.
59. A knight works better with a bishop than another knight.
60. It is usually a good idea to trade down into a pawn up endgame.
61. Have confidence in your game.
62. Play in as many rated events as you can.
63. Try not to look at your opponent's rating until after the game.
64. Always play for a win.
----------
Article #24
Basic Chess Tactics
From: http://www.playe4.com/index.html
Copyright 2005 LogicEmpire!
All rights reserved
As opposed to chess strategy, the overall plan of the game, chess
tactics refer to a sequence or a combination of few moves designed
to give the player an immediate, tangible advantage over the
opponent. Many of the most valuable chess tactics (for example:
forks, skewers and discovering attacks) consist of two moves: the
first move threatens the opponent with two, simultaneous dangerous,
so in the second move, which follows the opponent's response, the
advantage is already carried out. This article focuses on the
simplest, most basic, two-move chess tactics.
Discovered Attack
This chess tactic purposed to expose a potential threat by moving
one piece out of the way of another piece. At the same time, the
discovered attack can threaten the opponent and by that gain a
tempo, i.e. arrive at the desirable result one move earlier than
expected. In case of a discovered attack with capture, in which the
moving piece captures an opponent's piece that was protected by
another, the player (who can bring back the moving piece to a
harmless place) can also gain material, i.e. notable pieces or
pawns.
Fork
When a player tries to gain material by attacking two (or more) of
the opponent's pieces using one piece, commonly a knight, due to
its vast mobility or in rarer cases the queen, which on one hand
can move any direction but on the other hand too valuable to risk,
or a pawn, which in a single move forward can attack two of the
opponent's pieces (on its diagonal right and left).
Skewer
Again, an attack performed by one of the players pieces (the queen,
rook or bishop) on the opponent's two pieces, lined up so the more
valuable piece is placed in front of the less valuable piece.
Following this double threat tactic, the opponent's valuable piece
is forced to move, exposing the less valuable piece to the player's
capture.
Pin
Similar to skewer, this chess tactic involves a threat of one
player's piece (bishop, rook or queen, meaning only pieces that can
move any number of squares) on the opponent's line of pieces,
except that in here the player's valuable piece, commonly the king,
is threatened. The less valuable piece is incapable of moving to
avoid exposure of the more valuable piece, thus called the pinned
piece. Since it requires more maneuvering than other chess tactics,
pinning often referred to as a chess strategy.
Undermining or Removal of Guards
A chess tactic in which a player captures the opponent's guarding
piece, and as a result exposing the guarded piece. The opponent,
then, is forced to choose between saving the guarded piece and
capturing back the guard, or he/she might sacrifice that no longer
guarded piece and dry to capture the player's capturing piece.
Eventually, undermining often leads exchange of both players'
pieces.
----------
Article #27
Chess: basic principles
(Author unknown)
From: http://sites.dehumanizer.com/chess/
Copyright 2006 Dehumanizer.com
All rights reserved
Introduction
There are many books on chess out there. I, myself, have read some.
It seems to me, however, that there's a big gap in the available
literature, since almost all chess books seem to belong to one of
the following:
1. books for beginners: they teach you the rules of chess, how to
move the pieces, then demonstrate a couple of simple
checkmates, and that's it. They're intended for people who
have never played chess, and are curious about it.
2. more advanced books: openings theory, one or more openings
studied in detail, analysis of classic games between
grandmasters, studies of game endings, and so on. They're
meant for people who know the game very well, have been
playing for a while, and take it seriously, possibly even
competing in amateur tournaments.
What is missing here? In my opinion, something for intermediate
players (or, more correctly, "advanced beginners", but let's be
nice. :) ). Those who have no doubts about chess rules, who no
longer leave pieces unprotected, or lose them because they were
distracted ("where did that bishop come from?!?"), and who usually
have no trouble winning a game when they have some material
advantage.
So, what's next? What should they do to improve? Study dozens of
openings and variants? Analyze games by grandmasters? Eventually,
yes. But, for now, it's too soon!
The next step, instead, should be to learn a few principles, which,
though simple, quickly change your way of playing the game,
because, even though you may not be aware that you're playing
opening X variant Y, you know that moving this piece there is a
good idea, because...
Principles
1. The beginning of the game (a.k.a. opening) should be viewed as
a "race" with two goals:
+ to control as much of the board as possible
+ to develop most of the attacking pieces
2. Avoid moving the same piece twice during the opening. Remember
the "race" - try to save moves.
3. Unless you really know what you're doing, and why, you should
open the game, usually, with one of the center pawns (king's
or queen's), moving forward 2 squares (that is, to d4 or e4).
If you're playing Black and White has just opened with one of
those moves, you should answer with the equivalent one (d5 or
e5).
4. Knights belong in the board's center. Move them there as soon
as possible.
5. Trying to attack with the queen early in the game is usually
not a good idea. Your opponent will be able to attack her with
less valuable, protected pieces, which will force you to move
your queen again and again, preventing you from developing the
rest of your pieces, while he will be developing his.
6. After you have developed your bishops and knights, you should
probably castle. Castling helps protect your king and develop
a rook. For the same reason, avoid moving the king before
castling, as you can't castle if he has already moved. 7.
Avoid having two or more pawns in the same column (which is
very common if you capture a piece with a pawn). If capturing
with a pawn (and with impunity) is the only way, by all means
do so, but if you have several ways to do it, choose one that
won't leave one pawn in front of another.
8. If a column has no pieces at all (either yours or the
opponent's), try to put a rook there.
9. The f2 square (or f7 for Black) is, in the beginning of the
game, a weak spot. Pay attention to it.
10. Often, pawn chains are formed, where pawns protect one
another, forming diagonals. That can make it difficult for you
to "penetrate" your opponent's territory. The trick, usually,
is to find an unprotected pawn, at the back of the chain -
capturing it (probably with a knight) may be a good idea. 11.
Don't choose moves expecting your opponent to play badly, as
in "let's see if he doesn't notice this". Always assume he
will make the best possible move. If not, so much the
better...
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