Beginner tips

My tip for beginners:

Look at the board before you move. Look at the square you are about to put your piece. Check the vertical, horizontal, diagonals and knight attack squares. Is the square safe? Are you giving your piece away?

Corrolary:

Do you have a piece under attack? Can you defend the piece under attack? If you recapture, will you be on the losing end of the exchange? Can you defend it as many times as it is being attacked? If you'll lose in the exhange, then do something to protect the piece. In most cases, moving the piece to safety is the best idea.


Learn to hold on to your pieces and you'll beat many people on your block.

Later beginners can learn how to avoid common knight forks and pawn forks.

Originally posted by slimedog
Rofl, that first game is the "Raptor" from "How To Play Chess Like An Animal," Except no h4

Wonderful book for children and adults.
Welcome Slimey 🙂

When considering a trade or a combination look at what would be left ON the board NOT at what comes off!

A simple example to illustrate
White to play

Trading queen for rook is a good idea because what's left on the board is a simple won pawn ending.

toet.

The first time I saw SwissGambit's "Torture Camp" blog, I could swear I saw a picture of him, wearing beginner's tips he had chopped off and made into a necklace.

But now I can't find the photo.

Avoid at all costs having a piece pinned to your king or queen. If that happens, do not underestimate how powerful that pin can be for your opponent and how debilitating it can be for you. I learned this the hard way many, many times.

That reminds me of another one, kind of 'pinned' in reverse. If your king is in position to be put into a discovered check, do something about it. At the very least move your king out of the way. Discovered checks can be very, very painful.

Originally posted by toeternitoe
When considering a trade or a combination look at what would be left ON the board NOT at what comes off!

A simple example to illustrate
White to play
[fen]8/8/1k4p1/2r3p1/4K1P1/4Q2P/8/8 w - - 0 1[/fen]
Trading queen for rook is a good idea because what's left on the board is a simple won pawn ending.

toet.

Since we are talking about beginners, they might not know why that is a won game. Can you put in the PGN, and play it out so they see?

Originally posted by sonhouse
Since we are talking about beginners, they might not know why that is a won game. Can you put in the PGN, and play it out so they see?

Actually,I think this is an ending they could figure out on their own and they'd benefit more from it that way.
But I'll show it this one time,on popular demand 😉



toet.

Originally posted by toeternitoe
Actually,I think this is an ending they could figure out on their own and they'd benefit more from it that way.
But I'll show it this one time,on popular demand 😉
[pgn][FEN "8/8/1k4p1/2r3p1/4K1P1/4Q2P/8/8 w - - 0 1"]
[Kd2 17.Kf3 Kc1 18.Qa2 Kd1 19.Ke3 Kc1 20.Kd3 Kd1 21.Qa1#[/pgn]

toet.

Oh, how easy it is to move 18. Ke3 and thus make it into a stalemate.
Happens all the time in bullet games.

Originally posted by SmittyTime
Avoid at all costs having a piece pinned to your king or queen. If that happens, do not underestimate how powerful that pin can be for your opponent and how debilitating it can be for you. I learned this the hard way many, many times.

I often find that players have very little idea how to use a pin.

Battle of the Pins!



7...Bb4

Here I pin his knight to his king, preventing any defence of e4.

8. Bg5

He pins my knight attacking e4 to my queen.

8...Qc7

I remove the pin on the knight AND put a second attacker on c4.

He then tries to pin my other knight, I take with my queen and he resigns soon after as he is a piece down.

So often I find that people pin knights without thinking things through. Too often the other player WANTS to develop his bishop to e7 or he wants to move his queen anyway. One of my golden rules of chess is "Never force an opponent to make a move he wanted to make anyway", this doesn't only apply to pins.

P.S. Another tip: don't play 2. Bc4.

Originally posted by Willzzz

P.S. Another tip: don't play 2. Bc4.

Rec'd

Originally posted by Willzzz
P.S. Another tip: don't play 2. Bc4.

Why not? What's the reason to avoid this?

Well generally speaking the best white can hope for is the loss of a tempo retreating the bishop.

It is occasionally played at master level, but has a very poor record.

Originally posted by Willzzz
Well generally speaking the best white can hope for is the loss of a tempo retreating the bishop.

It is occasionally played at master level, but has a very poor record.

It seems to be only a very minor transgression at the non-master level. But I do agree that it violates the guideline of knights before bishops, and it might be a bad habit to get into.

But still, it takes a while for Black to hit the bishop, and although White eventually may lose a tempo, it does develop the bishop and keeps it on a decent diagonal.

Yes it isn't a disastrous move, but it certainly negates white's first move advantage. It won't automatically lose you a game, but there are far better choices to be made.

Taking the most common moves from the Games Explorer you end up here:

http://www.playtheimmortalgame.com/gamesexplorer/index.php?movelist=e2e4c7c5f1c4e7e6g1f3b8c6b1c3a7a6d2d4c5d4f3d4d8c7c4b3g8f6c1e3&flip=0&co=-&u=-1&c=1400

This is not a bad position for black. One possible next move is b5, essentially trapping the bishop on b3 for the foreseeable future and in the example given for the entire game.