chess tips & tricks

Chess is a game of strategy and tactics. Each player commands an army of 16 chessmen --- pawns and other pieces (the king, queen, bishops, knights, and rooks).This is not an exact science and will not always work but is a way to end a game in a quick fashion. This Instruct able implies that you already know how to play chess or at least no how to move each individual piece as it is supposed to operate. It will involve your queen, bishop and moving a single pawn out of the way. I would also not suggest this against particularly skilled players because they will most definitely see the move coming and it will put your queen at risk.

 As play proceeds, each player will capture some of the opponent's men; often, the capturing pieces are immediately recaptured. As long as the piece a player gives up is generally equal to the piece he gets in return, we say the players are exchanging. If you unintentionally place a piece where it can be captured without getting a piece of equal value in return, we say that you put that piece en prise. (This is a French term that literally means "in take.") Sometimes a player may place a piece en prise in order to trick an opponent. If the opponent captures the offered man, it may leave him open to attack.

If you want to avoid big errors in the beginning of your game then follow these guidelines below.

•   Start first move playing 

•  Put your light pieces (bishops and knights) to a good square so that they control vital center squares. For example: Place the knights to their natural squares which are for White the squares f3 and c3. For Black the squares f6 and c6. Don't place knights at the edge of the board.

• Don't move the same piece TWICE or more in the opening! This wastes valuable development time! 

• Don't get your queen out too early. Develop first knights and bishops and castle to bring your king into safety

•  Don't move pawns in the opening as it is stronger to get out a knight or bishop than pushing pawns. You must push the e- or d-pawn to be able to bring out the bishops and to have a firm grip in the center. But that's it.

•  Castle early to protect your king.

•  Don't attack before you have developed all your pieces.

Among strong players running into a fork is deadly and usually loses the game as you lose a lot of material immediately and will most likely not win it back.

If your opponent is weak then you might have a chance to make up for it and win material back, but among club players you might as well resign as you have no chance to recoup the material.

If you continue to play on, your opponent will finally win in the endgame with minimal risk as he has more material. He just has to simplify and trade off as many pieces as possible and then you will feel his material advantage more and more. In the end he might have a king and a few pawns plus a knight or bishop versus your king and pawns only.

Sometimes you have to sacrifice a piece or a pawn to gain tactical or positional compensation for it. If you get nothing then don't sacrifice anything or you lose in the endgame because of lack of material. In the positions below White sacrifices the queen but can give checkmate after this.In a pseudo sacrifice, you offer a sacrifice but you will soon regain material of the same or greater value.

The game ends in a draw (remis) in the following cases:

If the players agree to a draw. They can do this anytime. Once a draw offer has been made, it cannot be withdrawn. If the other player continues to play on, the offer is no longer in effect. You should offer a draw after you made a move, but before you press the clock.

If there is insufficient material to achieve a checkmate.
Example:
- King versus king
- King versus king and knight
- King versus king and bishop
You cannot give checkmate with king and lightpiece (bishop or knight) only.