Chess rules
These are not the rules as how to play but rules to remember when you play.
At the start.
- Improve your pieces.
- Try control the center.
- Castle soon.
- In the opening dont go pawn hunting esp when your pieces are not developed and you dont have space adv too.
In the middle game.
- Improve space / coverage
- Dont do and unnecessary exchange esp if it help your opponent expand his space.
- Try exchange your opponents best pieces oppose the vice versa.
- Try protect your pawn structure
- Dont move just cause you need to move - think what are you going to gain, control / space
- Learn about various tactics - Double, discovered, forks, pins, skewers, removing the gaurd etc.
- Try creating weeknesses. if there is one weekeness like backward pawn, let him defend that and in the process bring all his force to it. Now quickly change the plan and attack some thing else.. and vice versa.. he wont be able to deploy his pieces all around and surrender.
In the end game.
- Your king is the more important piece move it to protect / promot your pawns, to to take it in front of your pawns.
- A bad bishop is one of the color same as that of the positions on which most of your pawns are and also has very little space to move (as it is having your own pawns on its way).
- A good bishop is the one which has more space to move and can attach your opponent pawns.
- A good night is the one which is at the center of the board and can move to a position around. esp when the pawns are assymetric in nature.
- Have good nights and good bishops exchange bad nights and bishops for the good ones.
- learn about king vs king + pawn, king+rook+pawn vs king + rook, and other minor pices end games.
- Always have your rooks behind passed pawns in general.
- learn about triangulation.
- when you have two vs 1 pawn advance the pawn which is not facing the opponent pawn as much as you can and then move the other.
In general.
- Learn about openings and defences ( learn 2 openings, 2 defences and how to use them against everything else. Have in mind on the various threats / strenghts that each opening has)
- Learn out various check mate patterns they would help you esp to scrifice things and win a game. Generally opponents overlook them.
- Try make your opponents pieces move to a worst square, deprive best squares for them and have best squares for your own pieces. Look for intermediate moves between takes etc that make your position better and your opponents worse.
- If you have bishops try to open up the board (clean as much as you can on the board so that they have free movement), and if you have knights try to close it.
- Based on the pawn structure of your opponent try capture his bishop that can pass through his own pawns and capture your pawns.
- From your opponent moves try understand his plans in advance - like which side he would castle etc and try to have a plan to counter that.
- Always look for moves that makes your pieces move to good squares and are in coordination.
- For feinchated castled bishops better move the rook pawn on the opposite side to two squares that opens up the rook file and helps in achieving check mate on the rook file.
- Keep an eye on king safety and pawn structure, they are important, if your pawn structure is week, opponents can land their minor pieces on critical squares and torment you. If king safety is compromized, they can do sacrifices and close the came soon.
- When you have strong knight at some out post generate the play around it.
- At every position, check if there are any mating patterns that can arise out of the position.
- Try thinking by involving all the pieces.
- Think of positions/ forcing patterns that might arise even after sacrificing the queen / a piece.
- Mating positions esp with knight can be tricky as a knight can attack the same square from two different positions, even if the opponents covers one square you can use the other.
- Based on the pawn structure, decide which side to attack. If you are white. pawns on e3,d4,c5 mean you would do a queen side attack. pawns on e5, d4,c3 mean a king side attack. Based on this deploy your pieces to support the attack.
- If your opponent is attacking on one side, try and see if you can counter attack on the opposite side.
- Try trade queens when your king defences are weak. That way your opponent has limited choices to attack. At the same time when your opponent king position is weak try to hold on to your queen.
- Karpov's style. If you watched some of his games, he almost always improves the king position before setting out to complete an active plan.
- If you try to attack on the say kingside, try and eliminate counterplay on the queenside by say locking pawns. (just an idea again you might not want to loose time in some cases).
- If you want to lock a position with two pawn, have them in same rank and when opponent trys to attack a pawn, push it forward to lock the position.
- Try to see if you can lock out positions whenever under attack. Understand the locking pattern and see moves which can help you achieve that. Playing with pawns is fun.
- When you have a strong piece at the center / before moving a strong piece to the center. Try and see if you can play your pawn such that it cant be kicked from that position/ if kicked finds a better square.
- Try and win the minor piece battle in the middle game,such that your minor pieces come out better towards the end game.
- If you see yourself reacting to an enemy threat, plan, or idea, stop and think long and hard about using what your position offers. If it doesn’t offer anything, then find a way to create something (even if that calls for a sacrifice).
- Always consider for a break in the center.. esp as black.. that way you can equalise or sometimes get an edge..white might generally overlook such pawn break moves in the center.
- If you are capturing pawns offered in the initial stages of the game ask these two questions,
- can I eventually catch up in development?
- can the opponent take advantage of the open lines my capture will create and get to me in a hurry?
- One of the clearest advantages you can have in chess is to win the opponent's pawns or pieces. But there is a risk! As you're grabbing material, you're not developing. Winning material is fine, if you can catch up to your opponent's level of mobilization
Look for imbalances in your opponent position and create a plan accordingly. Some of the imbalances are.
----------------------
At the start.
- Improve your pieces.
- Try control the center.
- Castle soon.
- In the opening dont go pawn hunting esp when your pieces are not developed and you dont have space adv too.
In the middle game.
- Improve space / coverage
- Dont do and unnecessary exchange esp if it help your opponent expand his space.
- Try exchange your opponents best pieces oppose the vice versa.
- Try protect your pawn structure
- Dont move just cause you need to move - think what are you going to gain, control / space
- Learn about various tactics - Double, discovered, forks, pins, skewers, removing the gaurd etc.
- Try creating weeknesses. if there is one weekeness like backward pawn, let him defend that and in the process bring all his force to it. Now quickly change the plan and attack some thing else.. and vice versa.. he wont be able to deploy his pieces all around and surrender.
In the end game.
- Your king is the more important piece move it to protect / promot your pawns, to to take it in front of your pawns.
- A bad bishop is one of the color same as that of the positions on which most of your pawns are and also has very little space to move (as it is having your own pawns on its way).
- A good bishop is the one which has more space to move and can attach your opponent pawns.
- A good night is the one which is at the center of the board and can move to a position around. esp when the pawns are assymetric in nature.
- Have good nights and good bishops exchange bad nights and bishops for the good ones.
- learn about king vs king + pawn, king+rook+pawn vs king + rook, and other minor pices end games.
- Always have your rooks behind passed pawns in general.
- learn about triangulation.
- when you have two vs 1 pawn advance the pawn which is not facing the opponent pawn as much as you can and then move the other.
In general.
- Learn about openings and defences ( learn 2 openings, 2 defences and how to use them against everything else. Have in mind on the various threats / strenghts that each opening has)
- Learn out various check mate patterns they would help you esp to scrifice things and win a game. Generally opponents overlook them.
- Try make your opponents pieces move to a worst square, deprive best squares for them and have best squares for your own pieces. Look for intermediate moves between takes etc that make your position better and your opponents worse.
- If you have bishops try to open up the board (clean as much as you can on the board so that they have free movement), and if you have knights try to close it.
- Based on the pawn structure of your opponent try capture his bishop that can pass through his own pawns and capture your pawns.
- From your opponent moves try understand his plans in advance - like which side he would castle etc and try to have a plan to counter that.
- Always look for moves that makes your pieces move to good squares and are in coordination.
- For feinchated castled bishops better move the rook pawn on the opposite side to two squares that opens up the rook file and helps in achieving check mate on the rook file.
- Keep an eye on king safety and pawn structure, they are important, if your pawn structure is week, opponents can land their minor pieces on critical squares and torment you. If king safety is compromized, they can do sacrifices and close the came soon.
- When you have strong knight at some out post generate the play around it.
- At every position, check if there are any mating patterns that can arise out of the position.
- Try thinking by involving all the pieces.
- Think of positions/ forcing patterns that might arise even after sacrificing the queen / a piece.
- Mating positions esp with knight can be tricky as a knight can attack the same square from two different positions, even if the opponents covers one square you can use the other.
- Based on the pawn structure, decide which side to attack. If you are white. pawns on e3,d4,c5 mean you would do a queen side attack. pawns on e5, d4,c3 mean a king side attack. Based on this deploy your pieces to support the attack.
- If your opponent is attacking on one side, try and see if you can counter attack on the opposite side.
- If there are two pawns vs two pawns in pawn storm, pawn storm cannot be achieved that easily as the side that is facing the pawn storm can just lock the position out, though that might give rise to back rank mate.
- Never cancel out your attacking pieces with defending pieces. instead retreat back your attacking pieces and then see if you can kick those defending pieces using your pawns gaining on time.
- Planned attack is very important.(Kasparov is awesome).
- When a side has overextended pawn structure. Try to capture that extended pawn with maintaining more pawns in the center.
- When opponent pieces are passive & cant come to king side, try attack the king.
- With out imagining the position of your pieces and how they coordinate / safety of your king dont just go attack.Cause piece coordination is critical for any attack.
- When the opponent king is exposed try double attack (combinations) with checking and attacking another piece.
- When opponent pieces are not coordinated, look for combinations attacking multiple pieces / king.
- Tactics by themes / combination - check it.
- Before you plan for an attack or pawn breaks etc. First ensure that all your pieces are in right positions.
- 2 ROOKS vs Queen: The side with the two rooks needs to have a safe king, open files for the rooks, and pawn targets for the rooks. The side with the queen needs to attack the enemy king.
- Never cancel out your attacking pieces with defending pieces. instead retreat back your attacking pieces and then see if you can kick those defending pieces using your pawns gaining on time.
- Planned attack is very important.(Kasparov is awesome).
- When a side has overextended pawn structure. Try to capture that extended pawn with maintaining more pawns in the center.
- When opponent pieces are passive & cant come to king side, try attack the king.
- With out imagining the position of your pieces and how they coordinate / safety of your king dont just go attack.Cause piece coordination is critical for any attack.
- When the opponent king is exposed try double attack (combinations) with checking and attacking another piece.
- When opponent pieces are not coordinated, look for combinations attacking multiple pieces / king.
- Tactics by themes / combination - check it.
- Before you plan for an attack or pawn breaks etc. First ensure that all your pieces are in right positions.
- 2 ROOKS vs Queen: The side with the two rooks needs to have a safe king, open files for the rooks, and pawn targets for the rooks. The side with the queen needs to attack the enemy king.
- Try trade queens when your king defences are weak. That way your opponent has limited choices to attack. At the same time when your opponent king position is weak try to hold on to your queen.
- Karpov's style. If you watched some of his games, he almost always improves the king position before setting out to complete an active plan.
- If you try to attack on the say kingside, try and eliminate counterplay on the queenside by say locking pawns. (just an idea again you might not want to loose time in some cases).
- If you want to lock a position with two pawn, have them in same rank and when opponent trys to attack a pawn, push it forward to lock the position.
- Try to see if you can lock out positions whenever under attack. Understand the locking pattern and see moves which can help you achieve that. Playing with pawns is fun.
- When you have a strong piece at the center / before moving a strong piece to the center. Try and see if you can play your pawn such that it cant be kicked from that position/ if kicked finds a better square.
- Try and win the minor piece battle in the middle game,such that your minor pieces come out better towards the end game.
- If you see yourself reacting to an enemy threat, plan, or idea, stop and think long and hard about using what your position offers. If it doesn’t offer anything, then find a way to create something (even if that calls for a sacrifice).
- Always consider for a break in the center.. esp as black.. that way you can equalise or sometimes get an edge..white might generally overlook such pawn break moves in the center.
- If you are capturing pawns offered in the initial stages of the game ask these two questions,
- can I eventually catch up in development?
- can the opponent take advantage of the open lines my capture will create and get to me in a hurry?
- One of the clearest advantages you can have in chess is to win the opponent's pawns or pieces. But there is a risk! As you're grabbing material, you're not developing. Winning material is fine, if you can catch up to your opponent's level of mobilization
Look for imbalances in your opponent position and create a plan accordingly. Some of the imbalances are.
----------------------
- Superior minor piece
- Pawn structure
- Space
- Material
- Once you get a material advantage, dont just go attacking. First consolidate your position, king safety, secure all pieces.
- Then find a target in opponents camp, esp a less defended piece which you can undermine with your pieces.
- To stop counter play - Try to find the perfect balance between defense and a continuation that furthers your own plans.
- "It's not over till it's over" may be trite, but it's true - for all sports. Avoid overconfidence and never play quick moves.
- Don't( try to make it exciting! Try to make it safe and easy! When victory is in your grasp, always keep things simple and safe. If possible, take your opponent's weapons away from him,
so that he can 'I shoot you in the back. - Control of a key file
- Control of a hole/weak square
- Lead in development
- Initiative
- King safety
- Statics vs. Dynamics
