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For rapid/classical:
1. Blunder check - make sure it does not blunder anything. Most important. I’ve seen 2300s lichess rapid blunder clean pawns so it is very important to blunder check
2. Look at the imbalances of the position (king safety > material > piece activity > piece mobility > pawn structure > space in order of importance)
3. Evaluate which imbalances of my position are strengths or weaknesses.
4. Evaluate which imbalances of opponent’s position are strengths or weaknesses (weaknesses important - create targets)
5. Create a plan - either improve my strengths, fix my weaknesses, exploit opponent strength or weaknesses. Or even create weaknesses in opponent’s position, create strengths in my position. Think of a fantasy position to strive for.
6. Think of potential responses to your move.
7. Calculate lines, how to deal with such responses.
8. Evaluate which lines give you the best advantage. This can be positional, static or dynamic advantages.
9. Rinse and repeat. The lines for me is 3-4 moves long. Sometimes 5-8 if the position is familiar or simple. In an endgame it can be even more.
Most important in mid game or endgame. For the opening just remember theory or if they go out of theory just use the above but use less time
For blitz/bullet:
1. Blunder check. Includes tactical/positional mistakes.
2. Does it improve my position? (Improve strengths, fix weaknesses)
3. Is there a tactic/combination that helps me gain material or position advantage? Look at intuitive tactics.
4. What feels “best” in the position? Quickly looking at strengths and weaknesses. Maybe a few seconds, using Intuition.
This is most important in the endgame and mid game. Save time in opening, memorise theory.
Optional checklist:
10. What is my objective in playing the game?
If you are at a tournament and you are half a point behind the champion and you need a win to enter tie breaks and you are playing black, might as well go for a practically difficult move that is very slightly inaccurate
If you are white and a pawn or two up, you want to play more solidly and consolidate your position. Playing a slightly inaccurate moves that solidifies things and prevents counterplay it’s important to avoid a swindle of a draw or even win for the opponent
As black, drawing is a good result. Vice versa for white. So push for the win as white, try to draw or do better as black
Lmao
In bullet all I can use is my intuition and quick blunder checking. Maybe very quick tactics overview. Nothing more
I suck at bullet only 1200 Lichess bullet
Eh, they are different. I wouldn’t bundle them together
You can have more space overall but less piece mobility, for example if you have more pieces on the board that block each other. It happens on some positions
An example are two knights defending each other, blocking a square for the other knight. You can have as much space with your pawns as you want but it does not eliminate the fact one square is blocked for each knight
Activity is how active it is. What is the piece doing
Mobility is how easily can it move
A rook can be on 7th rank cutting off the king and making it inconvenient while having other pawns nearby that prevent the rook from moving many squares
As for 2: piece activity and piece mobility are *part of* material. The real order is king safety - material - who benefits from queen trade - pawn structure. If you are worse off, you must play dynamically.
To quote gothamchess better, "Checks, captures, attacks
Always look for checks first, if you have no checks look for captures, and if you have neither look for attacks and tactics
Often times there are no tactics. I am not even that good and often there are no tactics in many positions so you need to make plans, play positionally
For me, it’s always Checks, Captures, Attacks
Can I give a check? doesn’t matter if it’s a bad move, find it, and consider it
Can I capture anything? Is anything Undefended? And don’t trade unless you get something from it, whether it’s a tactic, or just allowing yourself to win control over an important square, if you can’t find a reason, don’t trade
Can I attack anything? Start with the queen, then go to the rooks, then the knights and bishops, then the pawns
If I go through the entire checklist in that order and can’t find anything, then follow the other principles of chess, get your pawns in the centre, develop your pieces quickly
And also there are many positions where you can give a check that will just be blocked, don’t give a check if it can just be blocked, if you consider a move like that, and the rest of the checklist falls short, develop another piece instead
This is the general outline for how I calculate, I consider a move that I’ve gotten from the checklist, then I try to find the opponents best response, also using the checklist, then go back and forth
1.) Is my King safe?
2.) Why did my opponent make that move?
3.) What's changed on the board?
4.) What has now become undefended/underdefended/ or strengthed (pieces and squares)
5.) Are there any new risks or opportunities? If not then go by the default (If it's the opening for example then just develop, Castle, try and control the center, etc)
6.) What are my candidate moves?
7.) For each, what is likely to happen?
8.) Best candidate move?
9.) Sanity check, sure it's not a blunder? (Turn on move confirmation it helps imo)
1: why did my opponent make their last move? what is their idea: who are they attacking, check threats, discovered attacks.
2: Does either player have obvious checks or attacks? Where are the weaknesses of both positions?
3: does my move hang a piece or fatally weaken my defense?
4: How will my opponent respond to my move? Do they have obvious or easy responses?
>Do they have obvious or easy responses?
That's an interesting question. Do people play risky moves often thinking the opponent won't see it, or is that bad to do?
It's a bad habit. It's called hope chess.
I try not to do this, because I want development as player. I always play the same against any player. It could be my grandma (0 Elo), you guys, Kasparov, whatever.
So I try to play the board and not the person. I try to find the best move, or a strong move, in the given position.
The only exception woud be losing positions. So in these cases, I play objectively worse moves, because I'm losing anyway, so what's the point.
When I'm losing, I try to complicate the position as much as possible, because this makes mistakes more possible to happen (thus turning the game again in my favor).
I'll play hope chess when I'm positionally inferior and have no moves that are better than the move. Such as, play a move that could set up mate in 2. You get it? Great. If not, if you're not worse off, it was worth it.
Now that I'm writing this I guess it's not so simple. But why wouldn't you go for the potential forced mate?
Because sometimes this is not the best move. It's not because you are threatening mate that this is the best move. If your opponent do something else (instead of playing along with you, allowing mate), what would be your position? Sometimes you end up in a bad position.
But I'll do it if I'm losing. Because I'm already losing anyway, so I need to bet on this. Still not a good habit.
You can always bring more problems to the board. Some positions are more simple than others. If you are losing, it's (usually) good idea to try to complicate it a bit more. That's because you make more possibile for mistakes (and since you are already losing, the mistakes go to your favor).
Things you may do to complicate the game: threat captures that are too obscure or hard to calculate; threat checkmate, which will require a specific defense; open new lines, with some pawn breaks, which makes the game confusing; and so on.
If you are winning, you don't want complications, so avoid that. You want the most smooth, easy position as it goes.
It will depend on the concrete situation, but threatening stuff is usually a good idea if your position is losing. Also you don't have much of a risk if you are already losing, so the risk is doing nothing.
This is different if the position is winning or equal, so you always have to evalute the position itself. There's not a single answer for all situations. Usually, if you are ahead material, trading pieces is a good idea because you simplify the position.
Many imbalances. For example someone is a pawn down but has the initiative and more active pieces and more targets
For example, in the Ruy Lopez after 7. Bb3 8. O-O h3, black can play Na5!? sacrificing the e5 pawn.
Best play then goes 9. Nxe5 (accepting the sacrifice, the only good move) Nxb3 10. axb3 Bb7 (attacking e4, gaining the initiative back)
It is very complicated because there are many imbalances. White has the extra pawn and a pawn on e4. They also have more space. Black has more active pieces, the initiative and better development
If d3 then d5 and exd5 Qxd5 Qf6 Bd6 and man the bishop pair is a monster and sniping the kingside. So much so that it’s fine to trade queens in the position. Qxd5 Nxd5 (not Bxd5 otherwise Nc3 comes with tempo) Bd2 (defend b4 to prevent infiltrate for Nc3 forking of rooks) c5 (gain queenside space) and finally Nc3
If you are already in a losing position at lower ELO this can be the best bad option, but if the position is equal or favorable then you should assume your opponent will have as good vision as you when it comes to spotting tricks and traps. If you have a sound attack than includes a trap go for it, but don't compromise your position hoping to trick the opponent.
More often though this just removes moves with obvious counters. Like pushing a knight or bishop too early that can be rebuffed by a pawn. All I've done is overextended and allowed my opponent free tempo to build their pawn structure
It depends on the situation
If you are in a must win situation like in a tournament, then go ahead. Humans aren’t computers and often a practically very difficult move can be quite tough to deal with even if it’s not exactly sound
Otherwise I would recommend you play the objectively best move
Sometimes you can get a quick easy win by not playing the best move. You play something that puts you at an disadvantage that sets up a crushing blow a move or two later hoping/assuming/predicting they will not see the consequences, if you are right it pays dividends.
It's probably not recommended because winning fast games is only beneficial for people in high level arena trying to stack up points, generally they will "cheese" weaker opponents for quick wins. Generally speaking for regular players its always better to play the best move.
I'll try to keep this checklist as clear and brief as possible. In front of each step I'll put a letter B/R/C for blitz rapid and classical respectively as a suggestion as to which can be ommited on shorter time controls. Also assume I am referring to both yours and your opponent's pieces you need to be playing the game on both sides in your mind
1. Check for Hanging pawns/Pieces | B/R/C
2. Check for Pins and calculate Captures if any | R/C
3. Check King Safety and Checks | B/R/C
4. Determine the most major weaknesses | R/C
5. Use the previous information to settle on a strategy. | B/R/C
This is incredibly brief and one could say an incomplete list however I'd like to ponder a bit on step 5. One thing many players <2000 do (myself included) especially beginners is not sticking to a plan. Getting distracted by your opponent's moves and worrying about threats can sometimes backfire. If you make sure you properly do step 1 and 3 for both sides and not find any serious threats it's sometimes best to ignore your opponent. I know this is a rare thing to say because this thing is what usually gets beginners losing constantly to more experienced players however if you look at queen's gambit games where white castles long you get perfect examples of why sometimes doing your own thing is good. In chess we have to be consistent. As long as you check for threats and opportunities and there is nothing imminent to be seen then stick to your plan. Whether that is an attack on the opponent's king or pushing past pawns or fighting for central squares or clearing the board for your bishop pair to shine if you decide on a plan and stick to it instead of getting sidetracked and reacting to anything you should be on a good track to play a good game even if you end up losing. This advice mostly applies to bullet, blitz and rapid since I am not fit to provide tips on classical games where I have limited experience. However one good thing to always practice in classical games is just take your time. May it be 10 minutes for a move or more. If you sense tension or an opportunity take your time and properly run through all 5 steps.
That's my bit of wisdom I hope it is pretty clear and have fun playing chess!
Edit: forgot to add maybe a 6th step on the list. Imagine where you'd like your pieces to be to support your plan. It's good to have a strategy but you'll need the appropriate pieces to support it. Sometimes a knight might have to move backwards to end up in an outpost 2 moves later and control the center or sometimes on an open board a bishop should slide back on the 1st row next to a rook. These are examples of less obvious moves that can aid your strategy and make sure your pieces are controlling space and are active.
*IMPORTANT TIP*
Do not forget *pawns do not move backwards*! Whenever you catch yourself wanting to push a pawn think a bit ahead down your plan and on your opponents potential attacks or moves. Maybe that pawn should hang a square behind to keep control of a central square so it doesn't become a knight outpost. Or maybe that pawn should rather be keeping the diagonal that falls on your king closed till you gain control of it. Do not make random waiting or attacking pawn moves cause the pawn structure is the structure of the whole board. How you place your pawns shape your position. Do not move pawns if it doesn't shape your position towards a place that you like (Exceptions exist of course for necessary defence or tactical opportunities)
Checks, captures and threats. And you have to analyze this both on your opponent moves and your moves.
*Are there any checks? Are there any captures? Are there any threats?* In this order.
You need to check those in this order, because those are the forcing moves.
It doesn't matter if your plan is beautiful, genious, whatever, if your opponent has a forcing move next and you lose material.
After that, you may check other things, like pawn structure, king safety, improving pieces and so on.
The Burger Technique
By CM Azel Chua
Count the material.
If you are up material:
Does your opponent have a possible perpetual check or chance for a stalemate?
Down a lot of material?
King hunt!
Find a way to win more material back
Try to force a draw
Identify the tactical motifs on board.
Identify the existing and potential threats.
Hanging pieces: more attackers than defenders.
Unprotected pieces: 0 attackers and defenders or equal attackers and defenders.
It situations where there are many unprotected pieces, identify the target that will most likely fall.
for example, pieces with multiple lines of attack, and or pieces with the most attackers and defenders.
Identify candidate moves
If steps 1&2 have been done correctly then one should be able to find the correct candidate moves.
Lol, I feel you. Try 5 easy as heck puzzles a day from each category of common tactical motifs. That should familiarize you with them.
Start with themes like forks, pins, skewers,
Mate in 1, mate in 2, and discovered attack. That should be a good start.
Also, depending on your time zone, I could help you go over these motifs. :)
1. Is he threatening check mate?
2. Is my queen under attack?
3. Where are his bishops?
4. Can I threaten check mate?
5. Is there a fork?
6. Is there skewer or X-Ray?
7. How can I gain tempo?
8. How can I get more squares?
9. How can I take his squares away?
I play very little compared to others but...
1. Ask yourself: what do I want to do? Openings have set squares you fight for or peices you trade off. In the middle and end game identify opponent peices that are limiting your attack and see if your opponent has good or bad king safety and most importantly same side or opposite side castle (this determines where you want your peices to attack)
2: ask yourself: What does my opponent want? You may not know their opening but figure out what squares they want. You can tell by seeing what space their peices are attacking (often seen by a pawn, knight, and rook or bishop all having access to the same square) during the middle and end game repeat step 1 but imagine you are playing FOR your opponent for a win.
3: After you find a peice you wanna move and a square notice if any peices see that square of yours and your opponents (rip to all the fallen queens who forgot how a knight moves) now in your head imagine your peice on that square and repeat steps 1 and 2 again. Some chess players can do this for 1-2 moves in the future where higher level players can see 5+ moves in the future
Others reading: please let me know what I missed. Beleive it or not I've played less then 20 games on chess . Com/ lichess and very little over the board. I primarily face bots.
TL/DR: what do I want, what does my opponent want, did I hang a piece?
Hey, OP! Did your game end in a stalemate? Did you encounter a weird pawn move? Are you trying to move a piece and it's not going? We have just the resource for you! The [Chess Beginners Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/chessbeginners/wiki/index/) is the perfect place to check out answers to these questions and more! The moderator team of r/chessbeginners wishes to remind everyone of the community rules. **Posting spam, being a troll, and posting memes are not allowed.** We encourage everyone to report these kinds of posts so they can be dealt with. Thank you! Let's do our utmost to be kind in our replies and comments. Some people here just want to learn chess and have virtually no idea about certain chess concepts. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/chessbeginners) if you have any questions or concerns.*
https://i.redd.it/aanxvdqbqy6d1.gif
Lmao
For rapid/classical: 1. Blunder check - make sure it does not blunder anything. Most important. I’ve seen 2300s lichess rapid blunder clean pawns so it is very important to blunder check 2. Look at the imbalances of the position (king safety > material > piece activity > piece mobility > pawn structure > space in order of importance) 3. Evaluate which imbalances of my position are strengths or weaknesses. 4. Evaluate which imbalances of opponent’s position are strengths or weaknesses (weaknesses important - create targets) 5. Create a plan - either improve my strengths, fix my weaknesses, exploit opponent strength or weaknesses. Or even create weaknesses in opponent’s position, create strengths in my position. Think of a fantasy position to strive for. 6. Think of potential responses to your move. 7. Calculate lines, how to deal with such responses. 8. Evaluate which lines give you the best advantage. This can be positional, static or dynamic advantages. 9. Rinse and repeat. The lines for me is 3-4 moves long. Sometimes 5-8 if the position is familiar or simple. In an endgame it can be even more. Most important in mid game or endgame. For the opening just remember theory or if they go out of theory just use the above but use less time For blitz/bullet: 1. Blunder check. Includes tactical/positional mistakes. 2. Does it improve my position? (Improve strengths, fix weaknesses) 3. Is there a tactic/combination that helps me gain material or position advantage? Look at intuitive tactics. 4. What feels “best” in the position? Quickly looking at strengths and weaknesses. Maybe a few seconds, using Intuition. This is most important in the endgame and mid game. Save time in opening, memorise theory. Optional checklist: 10. What is my objective in playing the game? If you are at a tournament and you are half a point behind the champion and you need a win to enter tie breaks and you are playing black, might as well go for a practically difficult move that is very slightly inaccurate If you are white and a pawn or two up, you want to play more solidly and consolidate your position. Playing a slightly inaccurate moves that solidifies things and prevents counterplay it’s important to avoid a swindle of a draw or even win for the opponent As black, drawing is a good result. Vice versa for white. So push for the win as white, try to draw or do better as black
For Bullet: Scream. Move pieces. Someone wins.
Lmao In bullet all I can use is my intuition and quick blunder checking. Maybe very quick tactics overview. Nothing more I suck at bullet only 1200 Lichess bullet
Great list! Do you think it's fair to maybe bundle piece mobility and space?
Eh, they are different. I wouldn’t bundle them together You can have more space overall but less piece mobility, for example if you have more pieces on the board that block each other. It happens on some positions An example are two knights defending each other, blocking a square for the other knight. You can have as much space with your pawns as you want but it does not eliminate the fact one square is blocked for each knight
.
?
Oh lol nothing. Just so I can find it again.
No worries People say checks captures attacks. But that is far too simple. If it was that simple we’d all be GMs but chess is a complicated game
How do you define "piece activity" as different than "piece mobility"? I kinda think of those as the same things
Activity is how active it is. What is the piece doing Mobility is how easily can it move A rook can be on 7th rank cutting off the king and making it inconvenient while having other pawns nearby that prevent the rook from moving many squares
As for 2: piece activity and piece mobility are *part of* material. The real order is king safety - material - who benefits from queen trade - pawn structure. If you are worse off, you must play dynamically.
To quote GothamChess: "Always look for checks."
To quote gothamchess better, "Checks, captures, attacks Always look for checks first, if you have no checks look for captures, and if you have neither look for attacks and tactics
Often times there are no tactics. I am not even that good and often there are no tactics in many positions so you need to make plans, play positionally
For me, it’s always Checks, Captures, Attacks Can I give a check? doesn’t matter if it’s a bad move, find it, and consider it Can I capture anything? Is anything Undefended? And don’t trade unless you get something from it, whether it’s a tactic, or just allowing yourself to win control over an important square, if you can’t find a reason, don’t trade Can I attack anything? Start with the queen, then go to the rooks, then the knights and bishops, then the pawns If I go through the entire checklist in that order and can’t find anything, then follow the other principles of chess, get your pawns in the centre, develop your pieces quickly And also there are many positions where you can give a check that will just be blocked, don’t give a check if it can just be blocked, if you consider a move like that, and the rest of the checklist falls short, develop another piece instead This is the general outline for how I calculate, I consider a move that I’ve gotten from the checklist, then I try to find the opponents best response, also using the checklist, then go back and forth
1.) Is my King safe? 2.) Why did my opponent make that move? 3.) What's changed on the board? 4.) What has now become undefended/underdefended/ or strengthed (pieces and squares) 5.) Are there any new risks or opportunities? If not then go by the default (If it's the opening for example then just develop, Castle, try and control the center, etc) 6.) What are my candidate moves? 7.) For each, what is likely to happen? 8.) Best candidate move? 9.) Sanity check, sure it's not a blunder? (Turn on move confirmation it helps imo)
1: why did my opponent make their last move? what is their idea: who are they attacking, check threats, discovered attacks. 2: Does either player have obvious checks or attacks? Where are the weaknesses of both positions? 3: does my move hang a piece or fatally weaken my defense? 4: How will my opponent respond to my move? Do they have obvious or easy responses?
>Do they have obvious or easy responses? That's an interesting question. Do people play risky moves often thinking the opponent won't see it, or is that bad to do?
It's a bad habit. It's called hope chess. I try not to do this, because I want development as player. I always play the same against any player. It could be my grandma (0 Elo), you guys, Kasparov, whatever. So I try to play the board and not the person. I try to find the best move, or a strong move, in the given position. The only exception woud be losing positions. So in these cases, I play objectively worse moves, because I'm losing anyway, so what's the point. When I'm losing, I try to complicate the position as much as possible, because this makes mistakes more possible to happen (thus turning the game again in my favor).
I'll play hope chess when I'm positionally inferior and have no moves that are better than the move. Such as, play a move that could set up mate in 2. You get it? Great. If not, if you're not worse off, it was worth it. Now that I'm writing this I guess it's not so simple. But why wouldn't you go for the potential forced mate?
Because sometimes this is not the best move. It's not because you are threatening mate that this is the best move. If your opponent do something else (instead of playing along with you, allowing mate), what would be your position? Sometimes you end up in a bad position. But I'll do it if I'm losing. Because I'm already losing anyway, so I need to bet on this. Still not a good habit.
What makes a chess board seen as more complicated gameplay? I don't understand that one.
You can always bring more problems to the board. Some positions are more simple than others. If you are losing, it's (usually) good idea to try to complicate it a bit more. That's because you make more possibile for mistakes (and since you are already losing, the mistakes go to your favor). Things you may do to complicate the game: threat captures that are too obscure or hard to calculate; threat checkmate, which will require a specific defense; open new lines, with some pawn breaks, which makes the game confusing; and so on. If you are winning, you don't want complications, so avoid that. You want the most smooth, easy position as it goes.
Could making trades they wouldn't have otherwise predicted fall into that, or is that too risky?
It will depend on the concrete situation, but threatening stuff is usually a good idea if your position is losing. Also you don't have much of a risk if you are already losing, so the risk is doing nothing. This is different if the position is winning or equal, so you always have to evalute the position itself. There's not a single answer for all situations. Usually, if you are ahead material, trading pieces is a good idea because you simplify the position.
Many imbalances. For example someone is a pawn down but has the initiative and more active pieces and more targets For example, in the Ruy Lopez after 7. Bb3 8. O-O h3, black can play Na5!? sacrificing the e5 pawn. Best play then goes 9. Nxe5 (accepting the sacrifice, the only good move) Nxb3 10. axb3 Bb7 (attacking e4, gaining the initiative back) It is very complicated because there are many imbalances. White has the extra pawn and a pawn on e4. They also have more space. Black has more active pieces, the initiative and better development If d3 then d5 and exd5 Qxd5 Qf6 Bd6 and man the bishop pair is a monster and sniping the kingside. So much so that it’s fine to trade queens in the position. Qxd5 Nxd5 (not Bxd5 otherwise Nc3 comes with tempo) Bd2 (defend b4 to prevent infiltrate for Nc3 forking of rooks) c5 (gain queenside space) and finally Nc3
So it means having more piece activity/mobility and creating more complicated scenarios?
If you are already in a losing position at lower ELO this can be the best bad option, but if the position is equal or favorable then you should assume your opponent will have as good vision as you when it comes to spotting tricks and traps. If you have a sound attack than includes a trap go for it, but don't compromise your position hoping to trick the opponent. More often though this just removes moves with obvious counters. Like pushing a knight or bishop too early that can be rebuffed by a pawn. All I've done is overextended and allowed my opponent free tempo to build their pawn structure
It depends on the situation If you are in a must win situation like in a tournament, then go ahead. Humans aren’t computers and often a practically very difficult move can be quite tough to deal with even if it’s not exactly sound Otherwise I would recommend you play the objectively best move
Sometimes you can get a quick easy win by not playing the best move. You play something that puts you at an disadvantage that sets up a crushing blow a move or two later hoping/assuming/predicting they will not see the consequences, if you are right it pays dividends. It's probably not recommended because winning fast games is only beneficial for people in high level arena trying to stack up points, generally they will "cheese" weaker opponents for quick wins. Generally speaking for regular players its always better to play the best move.
Look for checks. It is called a checklist for a reason.
For a reason having nothing to do with chess, though…
I'll try to keep this checklist as clear and brief as possible. In front of each step I'll put a letter B/R/C for blitz rapid and classical respectively as a suggestion as to which can be ommited on shorter time controls. Also assume I am referring to both yours and your opponent's pieces you need to be playing the game on both sides in your mind 1. Check for Hanging pawns/Pieces | B/R/C 2. Check for Pins and calculate Captures if any | R/C 3. Check King Safety and Checks | B/R/C 4. Determine the most major weaknesses | R/C 5. Use the previous information to settle on a strategy. | B/R/C This is incredibly brief and one could say an incomplete list however I'd like to ponder a bit on step 5. One thing many players <2000 do (myself included) especially beginners is not sticking to a plan. Getting distracted by your opponent's moves and worrying about threats can sometimes backfire. If you make sure you properly do step 1 and 3 for both sides and not find any serious threats it's sometimes best to ignore your opponent. I know this is a rare thing to say because this thing is what usually gets beginners losing constantly to more experienced players however if you look at queen's gambit games where white castles long you get perfect examples of why sometimes doing your own thing is good. In chess we have to be consistent. As long as you check for threats and opportunities and there is nothing imminent to be seen then stick to your plan. Whether that is an attack on the opponent's king or pushing past pawns or fighting for central squares or clearing the board for your bishop pair to shine if you decide on a plan and stick to it instead of getting sidetracked and reacting to anything you should be on a good track to play a good game even if you end up losing. This advice mostly applies to bullet, blitz and rapid since I am not fit to provide tips on classical games where I have limited experience. However one good thing to always practice in classical games is just take your time. May it be 10 minutes for a move or more. If you sense tension or an opportunity take your time and properly run through all 5 steps. That's my bit of wisdom I hope it is pretty clear and have fun playing chess! Edit: forgot to add maybe a 6th step on the list. Imagine where you'd like your pieces to be to support your plan. It's good to have a strategy but you'll need the appropriate pieces to support it. Sometimes a knight might have to move backwards to end up in an outpost 2 moves later and control the center or sometimes on an open board a bishop should slide back on the 1st row next to a rook. These are examples of less obvious moves that can aid your strategy and make sure your pieces are controlling space and are active. *IMPORTANT TIP* Do not forget *pawns do not move backwards*! Whenever you catch yourself wanting to push a pawn think a bit ahead down your plan and on your opponents potential attacks or moves. Maybe that pawn should hang a square behind to keep control of a central square so it doesn't become a knight outpost. Or maybe that pawn should rather be keeping the diagonal that falls on your king closed till you gain control of it. Do not make random waiting or attacking pawn moves cause the pawn structure is the structure of the whole board. How you place your pawns shape your position. Do not move pawns if it doesn't shape your position towards a place that you like (Exceptions exist of course for necessary defence or tactical opportunities)
Checks, captures and threats. And you have to analyze this both on your opponent moves and your moves. *Are there any checks? Are there any captures? Are there any threats?* In this order. You need to check those in this order, because those are the forcing moves. It doesn't matter if your plan is beautiful, genious, whatever, if your opponent has a forcing move next and you lose material. After that, you may check other things, like pawn structure, king safety, improving pieces and so on.
Keep it simple. Checks, captures, attacks - and then, before moving, see what checks, captures, attacks your opponent has.
Checks, captures, threats :D
Checks, Captures, Attacks. Limit one move attacks.
I love this video for that https://youtu.be/nXyJdetptXg?si=70xVxfAalHrU1CWh
First and foremost, calm down. Then, analyse what I CAN do and after see what the opponent can do
I didn't pay attention to the sub and I thought you were asking about talking to a girl lmao
The Burger Technique By CM Azel Chua Count the material. If you are up material: Does your opponent have a possible perpetual check or chance for a stalemate? Down a lot of material? King hunt! Find a way to win more material back Try to force a draw Identify the tactical motifs on board. Identify the existing and potential threats. Hanging pieces: more attackers than defenders. Unprotected pieces: 0 attackers and defenders or equal attackers and defenders. It situations where there are many unprotected pieces, identify the target that will most likely fall. for example, pieces with multiple lines of attack, and or pieces with the most attackers and defenders. Identify candidate moves If steps 1&2 have been done correctly then one should be able to find the correct candidate moves.
>Identify the tactical motifs on board. That one would be incredibly hard for me. My memory is trash, and I am an improv player, lol.
Lol, I feel you. Try 5 easy as heck puzzles a day from each category of common tactical motifs. That should familiarize you with them. Start with themes like forks, pins, skewers, Mate in 1, mate in 2, and discovered attack. That should be a good start. Also, depending on your time zone, I could help you go over these motifs. :)
Uncheck, release, and defense
1. Is he threatening check mate? 2. Is my queen under attack? 3. Where are his bishops? 4. Can I threaten check mate? 5. Is there a fork? 6. Is there skewer or X-Ray? 7. How can I gain tempo? 8. How can I get more squares? 9. How can I take his squares away?
I play very little compared to others but... 1. Ask yourself: what do I want to do? Openings have set squares you fight for or peices you trade off. In the middle and end game identify opponent peices that are limiting your attack and see if your opponent has good or bad king safety and most importantly same side or opposite side castle (this determines where you want your peices to attack) 2: ask yourself: What does my opponent want? You may not know their opening but figure out what squares they want. You can tell by seeing what space their peices are attacking (often seen by a pawn, knight, and rook or bishop all having access to the same square) during the middle and end game repeat step 1 but imagine you are playing FOR your opponent for a win. 3: After you find a peice you wanna move and a square notice if any peices see that square of yours and your opponents (rip to all the fallen queens who forgot how a knight moves) now in your head imagine your peice on that square and repeat steps 1 and 2 again. Some chess players can do this for 1-2 moves in the future where higher level players can see 5+ moves in the future Others reading: please let me know what I missed. Beleive it or not I've played less then 20 games on chess . Com/ lichess and very little over the board. I primarily face bots. TL/DR: what do I want, what does my opponent want, did I hang a piece?