Chess Strategy for Beginners

Chess beyond the basic rules is very interesting and has quite a few tactics or strategy involved. Though both are used interchangeably here, fundamentally both these terms mean different. Strategy would mean things like: control the centre board etc while tactics could things like do castle early on and so on! This blog talks about chess strategy and primarily intended for beginners who know the rules but have no suave beyond that.

Chess Basic Rules

The game of chess has a few rules for the different pieces

• King: Can only move one block at a time in any direction. Is to be protected and when check mated, the game’s over.
• Queen: Can move any number of blocks in any direction. The most powerful piece and in terms of points is worth 9.
• Rook: Worth 5 points and can move in straight directions either forward/backward or left/right.
• Bishop: Worth 3 points and can move in diagonal blocks in any direction.
• Knight: The most interesting piece and has a very weird move where goes two steps straight and one step to the right or left. Similarly in any direction it will take two steps forward/backward/left/right and then from that block another block left/right.
• Pawn: Worth 1 point and move only block in forward direction and can kill any other piece exactly diagonal and one position from it’s current block.

Source

More detailed rules and how to play can be explored through this Wikipedia article. When do you need to any way read the rules, what’s the need to call out the different pieces. We now know that we effectively are playing a 64 block game with 16 pieces on each side. Players win either through

• Check Mate : When we are able to check opponent’s King with no potential moves at their end to avoid it.
• Resignation : When the opponent resigns anticipating eventual defeat
• Time Out: This is true for online chess where the time period of game is typically low, I usually play 10 mins blitz

Poker Vs Chess

Time is key with online chess since, like the pieces <> positions, being able to put pressure through time is valuable as well. This can result in opponent making mistakes, you can play defence chess to slow the opponent down and so on so forth. Thereby the chess strategy needs to be thought in terms of pieces/hands, position & time like poker!

In a way, the game is similar to other strategy games such as poker in such a way that game also involves position of sitting & your chance of winning is a function of cards in the hand & on the board.

The Resources

We have:

• Pieces: Power pieces such as Knight, Bishop & Rook. Supreme power in form of Queen. These combined pieces are key for us to take over the board and assert dominance.
• Position: The pieces need to be in the right spot and also support each other to be able to control the board. Which is why, even with fewer pieces, best players can create massive mayhem, because they understand positioning of pieces on the board.
• Time: In a game of limited time, time is an advantage of it’s own. Being able to make fast moves and force opponent to think can be used to make unforced errors/mistakes through which one can win.

Maximise Chess Strategy: Openings

Which is why, we have openings in the game, because it’s a standard start to any game. By learning openings, we can both save time & maximise better positions that we can create advantages that be leveraged through the game.

Here is a great blog on how to open in Chess. Some key take-aways tactically from the blog is that

These notes were picked up from Chesspathways.com

Key Rules To start with

• Control central space with your pawns. Controlling space gives your pieces room to maneuver, and denies squares to enemy pieces.

• Castle early. Once the centre opens up, it will be dangerous for your king to be stuck on its starting square.  Castling tucks your king safely away in a corner, and also allows you to connect your rooks.

• Develop your pieces. Each player starts each chess game with eight pieces sitting lazily on their own back rank.  You won’t win many games if they stay there too long. 

• Don’t move the same piece twice without a good reason. If your opponent methodically brings all their pieces into the game, while you move the same piece again and again. It’s not good for you

• Don’t make unnecessary early queen moves. If you do move your queen, make sure that she can’t easily be harassed by enemy pieces. There’s a good reason why knights and bishops are often developed before the queen

• Strike while the iron is hot! If you succeed in getting a large lead in development (especially if you’re castled and your opponent isn’t), you need to act quickly or your opponent will catch up!

• Safety first. None of the above principles give you a license to make unsafe moves that allow your opponent to win free material.  Carefully assess the safety of each move before making it – in chess openings and in ANY chess position. 

To get better at openings, we can explore the detailed chess openings through an advanced read, for now you can keep the above points in mind and focus on the 3 resources mentioned!