Chess Tips : Development is important

Time and development are very important elements of chess. Development simply means that your primary pieces are moved out from the back rank and in a potion to attack. Though sometimes this can be accomplished by leaving them on the back rank, it is not the normal scenario. Imagine that rook that is trapped on the back rank by a knight and a pawn, it has not yet been developed. The player whose pieces are ready for battle sooner will be able to control the tempo of the game. If you want to be that player, you have to develop your pieces efficiently and quickly to powerful positions.

Many inexperienced players like to move many of their pawns at the beginning of the game to control space on the chessboard. However, you cannot win with pawns alone. Since knights, bishops, rooks, and queens can move greater distances than pawns and threaten more distant targets, it is a good idea to bring them out quickly. This of course is after you have moved enough pawns to guarantee that your stronger pieces will not be chased back by your opponent’s pawns.

Once all the other pieces are developed, it is easier to see what pawns you should move to accomplish your overall plan. It is tempting to bring the queen out very early because it is the most powerful piece on the board. However your opponent can chase your queen back by threatening it with his or her less valuable pieces Instead of just moving pieces out, try to determine the best square for each piece. Then try to place that piece there in as few moves as possible. This may save you from wasting valuable moves later in the game.

Chess Tips : Control the Center of Game

Control of the board cannot be understated. The most valuable four squares on the board are the four directly in the center of the board. In many cases the person who controls the four squares at the center of the board will have the better game and a definite advantage. It is critical to attempt to gain this control of the center.

There are two simple reasons that controlling the center of the board is important. First, a piece in the center controls more of the board than one that is somewhere else on the board. As an example, place one knight on a center square and another in one of the corners of the board. The knight in the center can move to eight different squares while the cornered knight only has two possible moves. Second, controlling the center of the board provides an avenue for your pieces to travel from one side of the board to the other. To move a piece across the board you will often have to take it through the center. If your pieces can get to the other side faster than your opponent’s pieces you will often have an advantage. Being able to mount a successful attack on that side before he or she can bring over enough pieces to defend against your attack results in you having an advantage.

It is often worthwhile in the long run to be willing to exchange pieces with your opponent so that you gain the control of the center of the board. This exchange of pieces may seem wasteful at first, but pays off in the end of the game by you having a control of the tempo. Control of the center of the board also offers an excellent defensive advantage.

Chess Tactic : Center Domination

It is very important in any game of chess to focus on a number of concepts that are proven to be effective. One of these concepts is to control the center of the board. Controlling the center of the board allows you to be very flexible in your game play. When you control the center of the board that you are able to mount a variety of attacks as well as maintain a solid defensive structure. If you have an advantage in the center of the board you have a strong advantage in the game itself and a higher chance of winning.

There are some ideas that a chess player should follow to help maintain domination of the center of the board. First is to not allow your knights to be forced out of the center of the board by your opponent’s advancing pawns. If you allow this to happen you are likely to hand over control of the center of the board to your opponent, who then will have the advantage. Understand that if your knights are limited by the edge of the board or by the back rank on the board, they are rendered much less effective than when they are helping to control the middle of the board where they are a viable threat.

Another idea for helping to control the center of the board is to use flanking pawns to capture your opponent’s pawns instead of using your own center pawns. As much as possible, try to leave your center pawns in the center and bring out pawns from the sides (C and F files) to capture your opponents advancing pawns. This also allows your knights to remain in the center where they belong. Do your best to control the center of the board and you will drastically improve your odds of winning.

Chess Tips : Developing your primary pieces

One of the more obvious and more overlooked strategies in chess is developing your primary pieces. Some players will get distracted with their opening sequence and find themselves getting into what I call pawn battles. Having a solid pawn structure is important and can have a dramatic effect on the game play. However, if all you do is work on your pawn structure and do not develop your knights, bishops, rooks, and queen, then you are giving your opponent a tremendous advantage.

To use an oversimplified example, imagine that a player has moved all of his or her pawns forward at least two spaces, but has not moved any of his or her back row pieces. This is an easy opponent to pick apart. With a sacrifice of a few or your pieces and development of your primary pieces you ill easily win the game. Of course this is an extreme example but it is intended to show you what can happen if you focus too much on pawn structure and not enough on your primary pieces getting developed.

The more you develop your primary pieces, the greater chance of success you will have at winning the chess game. A rook sitting on your back row that is trapped by your pawn and knight serves little to no use for you in the game. The same goes for a knight that cannot move from its original spot because of your pawn structure. Having these powerful pieces and not using them is a beginner mistake that is made rather frequently. A general rule is to try to move every piece that you have once before moving any piece twice. This may be hard to accomplish, but the idea behind it is a solid one that will help you land victories.

Popularity of Chess on the Internet

The rise of the internet has caused widespread sharing of information and trends that had traditionally been centered in certain areas. Chess is no exception. Though chess has maintained a constant popularity worldwide for the last several centuries, the always helpful Google Trends gives as an interesting, and perhaps unexpected, look at the number of chess queries over the past six years or so. One of the most surprising things about these searches is the inclusion or exclusion of certain countries. Russia, for instance, who dominated the chess field for several decades in the twentieth century, isn’t even on the top ten list of countries where “chess” is most commonly searched, while the Russian language is only ninth on the list of languages in which “chess” is most commonly searched, though there is certainly a good representation in the Nordic and Slavic areas. There are a few explanations for this trend however: it is quite possible that the popularity in internet trends reflects more a popularity among a younger generation, excluding popularity among older generations, or that the exclusion of some countries could reflect higher accessibility to chess clubs where chess is played in person, and less accessibility to internet chess resources. Overall, however, Google Trends shows an undeniable drop over the past six years in searches relating to chess, with just a few spikes along the way. The most recent data shows that chess queries are the most unpopular they’ve ever been, for as long as Google Trends has been keeping records. That said, there are clearly a number of countries who are still gaga for chess, and their dominance is chess queries on Google is clearly shown.

1. Philippines

With the fifth highest population of countries in the world, the Philippines only narrowly edged out India for the number one country where the most “chess” searches come from. Additionally, Tagalog, one of the more common languages of the Philippines, is the number one language in which said chess inquiries are entered.

2. India

India has the second highest number of chess related queries of any country, while Delhi, India holds the top place as city with the highest number of chess searches. Because of the wide variety of languages spoken in India, no exclusively Indian language makes the top ten languages in which chess is most commonly searched, though Arabic is a distant eighth.

3. Norway

Norway is the third highest country in terms of the number of chess searches, while Oslo is the second highest city. Norwegian also takes second in languages in which chess queries are most commonly made.

4. United States

While the United States actually comes in ninth in terms of countries from which chess queries come, English is the third most commonly used language to search chess. This could be because of the wide number of English speaking countries (South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand also make the top ten list), but it is important to know that five of the top ten cities from which chess queries most commonly come are in the United States.

Chess Tips : Studying is Hard Work

To really make major improvements in your chess game you need to study a variety of concepts. You have already started by reading this. Reading about games, tactics, strategies, etc. are proven methods of improving your chess game. There are also software programs to visually teach you tactics and multiple web sites with a variety of learning tools.

The important thing is to try and stay interested in learning. Playing chess is great fun. Studying concepts and strategies is not always as fun as playing an actual game against a good opponent. Try to stay interested in your studies by utilizing a learning method that you enjoy. If you enjoy reading, then get some chess books to read through. If you are a more visual learner, then some of the software programs or websites may be more your style.

Think back to your school days, or your current school days. It was always easier for me to do well in courses that I enjoyed because they held my interest. The same idea applies to studying and learning about chess. Learn about the things that interest you the most. Those could be gambits, tactics, strategies, focusing on the end game etc. Then use the methods that hold your attention the best. If you are a visual learner, reading may not be the best method for you. If you are more of a conceptual thinker, you may like to reconstruct games in your head and play through all of the possible options that were available. Whatever methods you choose try to make learning about chess fun for you because after all that is what games are all about.

Chess Tips: Which Forked Piece to Capture

A fork is when you are able to threaten two pieces at the same time with ONE of your pieces. Knights are notorious for being able to do this, especially against rooks. For an example, you have your knight forking two rooks. Does it matter which of the two rooks you capture? Are you sure? Should you capture one of the forked pieces immediately?

These are the types of questions that you need to know the answers to if you want to consistently win games. When to capture a forked piece depends on what your opponent does with them. If your opponent leaves the pieces sitting there you can simply wait. If your opponent moves one of the two forked pieces then the answer is simple. Take the piece that you still threaten and take it now. But what if your opponent threatens your forking piece?

Using the example mentioned, let us suppose that your knight is now under attack and you must act. Which of the two rooks do you capture? The answer is to capture the rook that is doing the least on the board. If one of the rooks is simply stuck on the back row and the other rook is pinning one of your pieces, then capture the rook stuck on the back row. This will result in your opponent taking your knight with the other rook, thus unpinning your pinned piece, or it will result in you getting a “free” capture because your opponent simply allows you to take the rook. Always take the piece that is doing the least amount of work and always wait to capture until you are forced to capture, or until your opponent removes one of the forked pieces.

Explore Variety

An inexperienced chess player may be well served to learn an opening and stick with it until he or she learns the basic concepts of chess. Once you have mastered the basics, or once you seem to be at a sticking point in your rankings it is time to try different things. In order to have a well-rounded game it is important that you learn and experiment with a variety of tactics and strategies. Getting stuck in a rut will keep you at the same rating that you have been at. An old saying that I like says, “If you keep doing what you are doing, you will keep getting what you are getting.” In short, you will not improve your chess game unless you learn new ideas to improve your game.

That opening that you have been using for a year now is a functional opening, but now it is time to learn other openings and to experiment with them to see if they work for you or not. If you are using the same end game strategies that you used in your first dozen chess games, then it is time to learn some new end game strategies. The more that you know about chess and the various concepts the better your game will be.

It is easy for all of us to get stuck into a rut because many of us think “If something works why change it?” The reason to change your methods is because they may not be the best methods or techniques. The more you learn about chess and the options available, the more versatile you can be during your games. Knowledge is power and the game of chess has mountains of knowledge available for us to learn.

Chess Tactic : Doing Nothing

Chess is a very complicated game, as we all know. One of the reasons that it is very complicated is that you must move a piece every move. This makes it nearly impossible to hold the wonderful defense that you have created without giving your opponent an opportunity to penetrate your defensive scheme. This defensive structure that you have carefully crafted grows to be even more important in the end game.

Understanding that it is sometimes better to shuffle a piece back and forth from square to square, than to weaken your defense, is very important. Doing this may seem… boring… but it is better to be boring than to throw away a win or a chance at a draw. If your opponent allows you to do this enough, the game will end in a draw due to the 50-move rule. More often though, your opponent will grow impatient and make an error. This is assuming that you are in a weaker position and that your opponent is looking for a way to place you into a checkmate instead of letting you get the draw.

This frantic moving and searching by your opponent will frequently result in them making a mistake and giving you the victory. Another consideration is whether or not you are playing a timed game. If so, you can run your opponent out of time with this shuffling of your piece because your opponent will spend time looking for a mate while you are in a perfectly defended position that requires no thought. Look at your end game for opportunities to utilize this do nothing strategy. This strategy will come in handy at times and can help you secure a draw, or even better a win.

Chess Tips: What is Your Opponent Trying to do?

This is a question that you should ask yourself each and every time your opponent makes a move in a chess game. Too often players will overlook this simple question and focus far too much on what he or she is trying to do, not what their opponent is trying to do. Ignoring the strategy that your opponent is trying to implement is similar to going to war and only focusing on your army’s goals while ignoring the goals of the enemy.

You are trying to capture your opponent’s queen in these next few moves because it appears to be weakly guarded. This can be a good or bad strategy depending on what your opponent is trying to do. If your opponent is attempting to lure you into focusing all of your attention on that poorly guarded queen while setting you up for checkmate, then your attention is focused in the wrong place. Of course you are not a mind reader and do not always know what your opponents strategy is, or if he or she even has a strategy in mind. However, it is critical that you consider what you believe your opponent is trying to do.

When playing chess your goals in the game need to become somewhat secondary to countering the goals that your opponent has. If you see that in two moves you can place your opponent in checkmate, but fail to realize that in one move he or she can capture your attacking pieces, then you have failed to examine what your opponent is trying to do. Once again it is the all-important balance between offense and defense that you are working towards in the game of chess. Focusing all of your attention on one area or the other is a mistake. Find a good balance between the two styles.

Chess Strategies - Skewers and Pins

Pinning your opponent is when you are able to trap one of your opponent’s pieces. The most common scenario is pinning a piece that your opponent has placed in front of his or her king. Picture your opponent placing a bishop in front of his or her king and you placing a rook on the same file. Now your opponent cannot move the bishop or he or she will be placed into check. It is an illegal move to put yourself into check. Now that you have learned the tactic of pinning your opponent’s pieces you need to know when it is the best time to actually capture that pinned piece.

Many times a chess player will react too quickly and take the opponent’s pinned piece because it seems like the right move. This is often a mistake. If you are able to pin one of your opponent’s pieces you may be best served to wait to capture that pinned piece. If you react quickly and take it now, you will lose the piece that you have used to create the pin. From the example above, you would lose your rook once you take the bishop.

A better option is to wait until your opponent moves that piece. Referencing the example again, wait until your opponent moves the king before you take the bishop. Eventually, if you are patient, your opponent will move the king in order to get the bishop back into the game. When your opponent does this take the bishop. An even better scenario is making sure that your opponent has moved king so that you can capture the bishop without losing your rook. The most important concept is to be patient. Far too many chess games are lost due to players acting too quickly.

Chess Move: How The Pieces Move and Capture

Picture yourself playing a tough chess game and your opponent is threatening to promote a pawn. When should you capture this pawn? For most of us the answer would probably be to capture it as soon as possible, or when it is convenient for us. Typically a player will capture that pawn quickly to eliminate the threat that it presents by being able to be promoted. If the pawn has a few moves to go before it can be promoted a lot of players will wait until they are in a good defensive position before going after that pawn. What if both of these tactics are mistakes though?

Often times a better option to capture that promoting pawn is to wait until after it has promoted. This means that you take it the very next move, after it promotes. You must eventually capture the promoting piece, but doing so too early may cost you a win or, at worst, a draw. Most chess players face a promoting piece late in the end game where pieces and moves are extremely valuable. The end game situation makes it even more critical that you plan ahead and that you do not hurt yourself in capturing that promoting piece. Of course, do not wait to capture the promoting piece if your opponent is threatening to block your capture.

Instead of capturing the promoting piece too soon, try to gain tempo in the game so that you have your opponent forced into a more defensive stance. A tempo advantage often wins games. Tempo is when you are a move ahead of your opponent and you are able to threaten your opponent due to your solid defense. Being too hasty in reacting to your opponent‘s advances can be very destructive.

Chess Move: Protect an Attacked Piece

There are many methods to protect your pieces when they come under attack from your opponent. Not all of these methods will work in an actual game, but all should be considered depending on the situation that you find yourself in.

The first method is to move the piece to a safe square. This would be a square where your opponent cannot attack the piece or where it is guarded by another piece of yours.

A second method to protect an attacked piece is to capture the attacking piece. This may be one of the best methods because not only do you eliminate the threat from your opponent, but you also gain material and tempo in the process. Your opponent will have gone from an offensive front to a defensive posture in this one move.

The third method is block the attack. This does not work with all pieces such as knights. If you opponent is attacking with a queen, rook, or bishop this method will work. This is where you simply move another piece in the path of the attacker so that your opponent cannot capture your primary piece.

The fourth method is to simply guard your piece that the opponent is attacking. Moving another piece does this, so that if your opponent does attack, you will be able to capture the opponents attacking piece the very next move.

The final way to protect an attacked piece is to counterattack. Pinning or skewering your opponent can do this. For example, if your opponent threatens to take your rook, but you are able to threaten to capture your opponent’s queen, then your opponent is likely to surrender the attack and to defensively move his or her queen.

The Best Chess Move

When playing a game of chess it is always important to not get rushed and make a simple mistake. Too often a chess player will see a good or decent move and jump quickly to make that move. What is often overlooked is making the best move possible. Getting in a hurry or getting overly confident in your skills leads to making this simple mistake. Chess is a game that requires a well thought out plan and strategy if you want to win on a consistent basis.

People in general have a tendency to look for the easiest path to follow and it is no different in playing chess. While there may be an option to skewer your opponent‘s pieces, you may have overlooked the possible checkmate in two more moves that you could have made. This tendency to leap towards the first move that appears to you is a mistake that many inexperienced chess players will make.

There are multiple books, software, and web sites that offer tactical skills improvement exercises. These are very good for you to be able to look for the best move instead of looking for the easiest move. When you look at one of these tactical exercises you will be able to say to yourself “what would I have done in that situations?” Then you will be able to see what the best move is. Did your instinct move match the best move offered as the solution in the exercise? If not you may not be taking the time to look for the best possible move. These tactical exercises may seem somewhat mundane, but if you really want to improve then you need to spend time focusing on them so that you can consistently look for the best move each and every move.

You Have To Develop Your Pieces

When playing a game of chess it is important to develop all of your primary pieces early on in the game. If you have primary pieces that are still sitting on the back rank by the time you reach the middle game, then you have given your opponent an advantage in the game. All pieces need to be developed in order for you to have the tactical advantage in the game. Often times a player will leave a rook sitting on the back rank doing absolutely nothing. If you find yourself doing this, then you need to change. A rook is a very valuable piece and leaving it sitting safely tucked in the back rank is creating a situations where you are basically giving your opponent a one piece advantage.

A general rule of thumb is to move each piece once before moving any piece twice. This may seem very difficult to achieve in game play, but it does provide a great advantage to you if you are able to carry out this strategy. If you are able to safely develop all of your pieces early on in the game you will definitely have a lead in tempo over your opponent. Conversely, if you play too conservatively, you will allow your opponent to gain tempo and your opponent will be able to put you on the defense for the entire game.

Do not forget to develop your king by castling. Generally this is done on the king’s side, not the queen‘s side. This is also usually done during the opening, or within the first fifteen moves of the game. A winning strategy is one where you are able to develop and cautiously advance your pieces before your opponent has the chance to do the same.

A Winning Chess Player Attitude

A chess player‘s attitude probably has as much to do with winning and improving their chess game than anything else. A chess player can spend months reading books, practicing games, and memorizing openings, but if that chess player does not posses the winning attitude he or she will only advance so far in his or her abilities.

I am not going to suggest that you need to be an overly joyous soul to be good at chess, but you do need to work on some attitudinal skills such as confidence, respect, determination, discipline, etc. All of these traits can help make you a better chess player and perhaps a better person. Confidence in your game and your skills does not equal an arrogant person, confidence means that you know you are an intelligent person with some chess skills who could beat anyone on a given day. Confidence means that you are approaching the game with an attitude that you can in fact win the game at hand if you play well.

Respect for other players is important as well since you do not want to take an opponent so lightly that you do not try your best when you play. Determination means that you are willing to put in the practice and time that it takes to become a great chess player. If you look towards grand masters as people you would like to emulate, then understand that they got to where they are by practicing, studying, and learning from their mistakes.

Finally discipline is needed to have a winning attitude. The discipline to critically think through your moves, the discipline to sit and analyze the games that you have played, and the discipline to analyze the games of the chess greats is needed to develop a winning attitude. Disciplining yourself into good study habits will definitely help improve your game and your attitude.

Original Article : 101ChesTips.com

Chess Puzzles and Problems

Solving chess puzzles or problems is a whole lot of fun, isn't it? As all of us are well aware, we put a lot of effort into keeping our bodies fit.  Gyms and hundreds of magazines and videos tell us how to do it.  But what keeps our brains fit?


Well, the chess puzzles and problems that you will find in the Academy are a good start.  As long as you have the discipline to try to find the solution yourself before jumping to the lesson, you should derive great enjoyment and benefits out of them.


As you will see, they vary between combinations, openings, middle games, endgames, and everything else there is.  One of the more intriguing features about them is that you won't know in advance what you are looking for.  All you will know is whose move it is.  The rest is up to you!


The idea is for these chess puzzles and problems to simulate as well as possible a real life situation.  During a real game nobody notifies you that you should be looking for a queen sacrifice or a great positional maneuver, right?  It is up to you to study the position and decide what the best move would be right there.


In the Academy's training environment your task is very similar.  The only advantage you have over a real game is that by showing you the position I am letting you know that something special is about to happen.  Figuring out what exactly is your job!