© Copyright 2021 - All rights reserved.

This document is geared towards providing exact and reliable information

in regard to the topic and issue covered.

- From a Declaration of Principles which was accepted and approved

equally by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee
of Publishers and Associations.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this
document in either electronic means or in printed format. All rights
reserved.
The information provided herein is stated to be truthful and consistent, in
that any liability, in terms of inattention or otherwise, by any usage or abuse
of any policies, processes, or directions contained within is the solitary and
utter responsibility of the recipient reader. Under no circumstances will any
legal responsibility or blame be held against the publisher for any
reparation, damages, or monetary loss due to the information herein, either
directly or indirectly.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
The information herein is offered for informational purposes solely and is
universal as so. The presentation of the information is without contract or
any type of guarantee assurance.
The trademarks that are used are without any consent, and the publication
of the trademark is without permission or backing by the trademark owner.
All trademarks and brands within this book are for clarifying purposes only
and are owned by the owners themselves, not affiliated with this document.
 CHESS FOR BEGINNERS

2 Books in 1
The Complete and Easy-to-Read Guide for Newbies
on How to Play Chess. Learn The Best Openings,
Strategies, Tactics, and Fundamentals to Make Your
First Checkmate Quickly.

Robert Johnson
CHESS FOR BEGINNERS

CHESS OPENINGS FOR

BEGINNERS
 CHESS FOR BEGINNERS

The complete and ultimate chess guide with the

fundamental basics and exercises for beginners.
Pieces, rules and strategies to start winning . (Graphic
Illustrations)

Robert Johnson
 Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1: THE LANGUAGE OF CHESS
The Advantages of Chess
CHAPTER 2: HOW TO PLAY CHESS?
Equipment for Playing Chess
How to Place the Pieces On the Chessboard?
The Course of the Game
CHAPTER 3: THE SPECIAL RULES OF CHESS
En Passant
Castling
Kingside Castle & Queenside Castle
When You're Not Allowed To Castle
Promotion
CHAPTER 4: BASIC CHESS STRATEGIES
CHAPTER 5: HOW TO BECOME A GOOD CHESS PLAYER?
First-Move Advantage in Chess
Chess Strategy – How to Predict Your Opponent's Moves
Playing Chess Improves Mental Clarity
CHAPTER 6: EXERCISES FOR BEGINNERS
CHAPTER 7: HOW TO CHECKMATE?
Win, Lose or Draw
CHAPTER 8: COMPETITION CHESS RULES
Basic Rules
The Touch-Move-Rule
The Fifty-Move Rule
The Rule Statement
CHAPTER 9: HOW TO ORGANIZE A CHESS GAME?
CHAPTER 10: CHESS NOTATION
CHAPTER 11: HOW TO WIN A CHESS GAME?
 Revisiting Chess Notation
Avoid the “Three Common Accidents”
CHAPTER 12: VISUAL GAME
Visualizing Active and Inactive Piece
Predicting Your Opponent's Plans
Look Before You Leap
Play as Your Opponent
Basic Mental Checklist
Strategic Considerations
CONCLUSION
 Introduction
I want to teach you how to do well in all three Chess's game stages, which
are the opening, the middlegame, and the endgame. Firstly, what is a
beginning, a middlegame, or an endgame?
The opening is generally the first ten or so moves of a game. Here both
players are trying to get their pieces out and trying to grab space on the
board.

Diagram. The Opening

The middlegame begins after the opening finishes, and both players have all
their pieces out. This is generally where the fight starts. The players will
start trying to attack each other's kings or push their pawns to gain space.

Diagram. The Middlegame

The endgame is, unsurprisingly, the stage of the game where the game is
nearing its end. The endgame begins after the middlegame ends, and this is
generally when the queens have come off the board. There are usually few
pieces left on the board in the endgame, and the players will have to use
their kings to attack and defend to win the game. The endgame is the
essential part of the game, and if you want to improve at Chess as quickly
as possible, you want to spend your time practicing endgames.

Diagram. The Endgame

First, before we discuss the middlegame or endgame, we'll have to start
with the opening. Even though practicing endgames will help you improve
at Chess much faster, if you play poorly initially and keep losing in the first
ten moves of a game, you might never get to an endgame.
As we mentioned before, some people spend hours trying to learn opening
theory, which means they try to memorize many opening moves. This is
generally a waste of time, as even if you've managed to remember a bunch
of opening moves and you play a better start than your opponent, once the
introduction ends, you might have no idea what to do, so you'll just get
thrashed in the middlegame and endgame. For example, what would you do
if I told you to try to memorize the following moves?
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Bc4
O-O 8. Bb3 a5 9. O-O d6 10. h3 Nxd4 11. Bxd4 Bd7 12. a4 Bc6 13. Qd3
Nd7 14. Bxg7 Kxg7 15. Rad1 Nc5 16. Qd4+ Kg8 17. Bd5 Qb6 18. b3 Nd7
19. Qd2 Qc5 20. Kh1 Nf6

If I told you to try to memorize all of that, you'd probably either want to
punch me in the face or start screaming at me. If you managed to remember
that, then either you're a genius or have a photographic memory. And that
was just one of the variations. You'd have to learn another 10 of those just
to get anywhere.
In general, any decent chess player can play a solid opening without any
problem - even if they are playing against an opponent who is a lot stronger
than them. There are a few opening attacks and opening traps which people
use to trick beginners into losing quickly. Still, once you learn the rules of
playing a good opening and you learn how to avoid falling into the common
opening traps, you'll be able to get through the door without any problems.
Spending ages trying to learn lots of opening tricks and pitfalls so you can
trick your opponents isn't going to help you much either, as once you come
up against decent chess players, they are not going to fall for your opening
tricks, and you'll just end up with worse positions.
So, our plan is straightforward. We're not going to spend too much time
discussing the opening because we could improve at Chess a lot faster by
spending our time learning the endgame or learning tactics, and we're not
going to waste time trying to learn opening theory. Instead, I'm going to
teach you the principles of opening play so that you understand how to play
well in the opening, and you'll be able to do well in all opening situations.
I'll then show you an opening plan to use in all of your games to play a
solid opening. I'll then show you some of the common opening attacks and
traps so you can avoid falling for them yourself (and you can use them
against your friends if you know they suck at Chess). Finally, we'll take a
look at some of the most popular chess opening plans, so you have a bit
more choice if you decide you want to try a different opening plan and so
that you know what's going on when you watch your friends play chess
games.
 Chapter 1: The Language of Chess
A definitive objective of the game is to get the king of your adversary. It is
claimed that Chess is good for improving concentration, improving
memory, developing computing skills, helping with attention span, and
developing patience.

The Advantages of Chess

Besides the fact that it is a beautiful game for learning and entertainment,
do you realize that Chess is extremely helpful for your brain and
prosperity?
That's why, by playing this game, you will learn many skills and techniques
that will be used in many other aspects of your daily life.
E.g.,
It instructs you to assume liability for your activities. It encourages
you to be patient, think before you act, plan, and anticipate your
actions' consequences.
 It trains you to analyze all the different factors related to each specific
situation and then make the final decision based on your analysis.
It trains you to handle and work well under pressure and to keep your
nerves.
Increases your problem-solving and analysis skills.
Encourages you to discover new ideas, be creative, and use your
imagination.
Improves memory skills and pattern recognition.
It also strengthens many other mental capacities, such as
concentration, visualization, organization, logical and abstract
reasoning, and critical thinking.
Encourages self-improvement, as there is always more knowledge to
be gained and new skills to learn.
It trains you to be generous and to learn from your errors when you
fail.
Of course, winning Chess improves your self-esteem and self-esteem, and
you feel great when you overtake your opponent.

Improve Your Mind by Playing Chess

Table games have been around for quite a long time. It's Chaupar (an old
game in India) from Mahabharata's hour, or new table games played by
individuals, everything being equal. They assume an essential job in our
lives. Some table games depend on techniques, and others rely on karma.
Chess is a prepackaged game dependent on the system of the players.
It is believed that initially, it originated in India, together with Chaupar and
Pachisi. Chess is a table game with two strategy players played by millions
of people around the world. It is believed that one of the table games is
mentally and stimulating all the time. The game is played on a 64 square
meter highly contrasting chessboard, on an 8x8 matrix. Every player has 16
chess pieces. One king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops,
and eight infantries are all different.
Players must use their minds and attack each other's chess pieces and try to
win the match. Chess can have three consequences. One is where the king
receives a checkpoint and is in a particular situation, the second is the one
where one of the players voluntarily resigns from the game, and the last is
the place where the game ends in a draw.
Table games are typically played for entertainment and to lighten fatigue,
yet Chess is a game with a few different advantages. Not only does it
provide fun for players, but it also increases a person's focus. Chess makes
the players' memory better because they have to remember and predict each
other's movements to play effectively. It increases people's patience and
improves cognitive skills. Also, Chess is thought to be a board game that
causes a higher IQ in children. This increases the focal length, which helps
players pay attention.
Today's world is full of distractions that lead our minds to the useless things
we don't need in life. The presence of the reason is no longer reasonable.
Employers are looking for more focused people than others, even if they are
not very talented. Having a great mood and presence and using your mind
to think is a luxury today. But we can think through this simple table game
and use different strategies to defeat other people. We live in a world where
we are permanently connected, but not really. We play online games; we are
all alone on our banks. Rather than playing these games on the web, we can
play Chess, a social movement since it requires an adversary. On the off
chance that somebody sorted out an opposition where we needed to
structure a game that you could interface with others and utilize your mind
and hone right now, you would go connected at the hip.
Chess is an excellent habit because it stings our minds and strengthens our
abilities, which is reflected in our daily activities because it is rightly said
that our mind's power is a sport and not rest and for centuries... He already
understood. We additionally need to comprehend and take part in a few
activities that accomplish a similar objective.
Chess players experience mental, as well as social and emotional benefits.
If you think Chess is exhausting or you are not keen enough to play Chess,
or you are old, there are things you have to think about Chess.
When you play Chess, you make greater innovativeness, critical thinking
abilities, and long-haul key arranging. As a youngster or grown-up initially
starts to figure out how to play Chess, he can adjust arrangements at a
certain point.
They don't have the right stuff to think after on. In any case, as they
progress, they will consider more moves after on and plan procedures and
counter-systems to guard their pieces, just as to amaze the adversary's
pieces. These are abilities that can be utilized.
Chess has been in some structure for more than 2,000 years. The attraction
of this game lies in its capacity to challenge the player's astuteness and
technique.
 Improve Your Mental Skills
Besides being a relatively fun and enjoyable game to play, there are several
benefits to playing Chess that people don't want to know. There are several
ways in which Chess can improve your cognitive status. We will take a
more inside and out glance at how Chess can enhance your psychological
capacities.
Apparently, by getting involved in this game, you will learn and master the
various skills and techniques that you can easily use throughout your daily
life. Many parents encourage their children to play because of the benefits
of cognitive enhancement.
As far as adults are concerned, this game can also strengthen several mental
issues about the individual. Chess shows you how to assume liability for
your activities. It encourages players to develop a lot of patience. These are
the principles you need to think about before taking action. It also shows
you how to predict the consequences of your steps accurately. Players who
make the wrong move can endanger their entire game.
With Chess, players experience many analytical skills, most of whom never
knew they had to start over. It teaches you carefully how to weigh the cons
and pros of a situation and discover something before deciding. All
subsequent decisions will be based on your initial analysis.
Chess can assist players in expanding their capacity to take care of issues. It
also improves your short-term and long-term memory by engaging in a
relatively tricky game. Players involved in Chess must use their
imagination. They have to figure out what they think the player playing
against them will do before they do.
Some of the mind's apparent abilities that Chess can help a person improve
are concentrating, visualizing, organizing, and thinking logically about a
given situation. Chess teaches players how to think in an abstract
environment and also how to criticize something.

Use Brain Science to Win Chess

Have you recently watched tennis or snooker? How many times have you
seen players stop or shoot before work because of someone in front of the
camera shot or shot? They practice all these years, and low noise can
deactivate them to such an extent that they refuse to play until the sound is
soft. What does this have to do with chess strategies?
E.g., The following day, I played against a player I know well. He attacks
with his bishops, usually in the same case, which can be devastating for the
opponent. If it's not too much trouble, note that I am against the seed, and I
might want to get in any event one of my adversary's knights out there
because I prefer not to play against two assaulting knights, and my rival
does. He knew it. Be that as it may, six moves into the game, and I changed
procedures and changed his bishop to my Knight. He was amazed, and I
saw him trying to think of another strategy he could use that didn't include
two bishops.
But more importantly, his attitude to the game. From his terms, I could see
that he was desperate to beat me now, but every time he threatened a piece,
he changed it with one of my little bits. In the end, he made unspecified
mistakes and missed the game. I pushed him aside, and he won.
Always allow at least 1 minute for your next move. Now, his song is in its
place, and it's easier if you see if there are problems in your schedule. Use
brain research to give you that you can think about each move totally and
put melancholy musings on the opposite side.
Notwithstanding, it is splendidly worthy to sit and extend your feet as you
set aside a few minutes for every development. Keep your eyes on the
board and rest them. Think of something else for a minute, then return to
the board a little after. Take a look at your opponent's position and rating. It
is incredible what you will find, which you may not know. Go behind your
opponent and look at the board at the end. You may be surprised that the
game looks like this from this angle. Do not pour hot coffee on the back of
the neck. It is not acceptable. Taking too much time on your following
move will provoke opponents. Does it irritate you?
However, a short walk before any major chess game will help you feel
refreshed and ready to go. The chocolate bar and a cup of coffee have been
shown to stimulate your brain power, so look for them back to the game.
Never show worries or feelings during a chess game, even if you lose your
queen in the first few moves. Play as if this is a strategy and tactic that you
always use. Remember, this is a chess game. What's the worst thing that
could happen? Go beyond that and keep playing. At the start of many
games, I lost the main parts of my carelessness and fought again for the
victory. Remember, a queen is not usually used until the middle game
because it is hazardous to bring her in first because she is easily caught. So,
use this knowledge to your advantage. In the beginning, losing the queen
will not affect the game, which is very different from the psychological one.
You have to bring it to mind and use all the pieces, including pedestrians, to
work as a unit to win the game finally. Get a sheet of a football card. How
often has a player not been sent, but does a team that only plays with ten
men has a draw or even a victory? It is because all players regain their
efforts. The pressure is off because they are not expected to win. They
function as a single unit fighting for one another.
Remember, your opponent is a piece, and now he can kill himself. Clean up
the traps and tricks, forks and pins to restore your harmony. Face any
mistakes you make. Try to make a blue attack on your king before he
realizes what happened to him.
As soon as you make a mistake, he didn't show any emotion but put a tiny
umbrella on your face. You want the other person to believe that this is a
sacrifice, and you want to catch him. He says nothing because it is
considered indirect. You never know, if you could do a good deed, he might
refuse to take your piece.
Improve your Chess and maximize your performance with a positive and
winning mentality! It is just one of the three necessary preparations you
must do before going to competitions! And the other two are the
preparation of physical and real Chess. If you only focus on one person, you
lose and don't show your best Chess!
 Chapter 2: How to Play Chess?
Want to start playing Chess?
You are right! The game of Chess is a fascinating game that offers many
benefits for adults and children alike.
You will learn the names of the pieces and their placement on the
chessboard, the movement of the details, the game's flow, and the game's
goal.

Equipment for Playing Chess

To play Chess, you will need:
1. A chessboard

A chessboard comprises 64 squares: 32 light squares (called white squares)

and 32 dark squares (called black squares).
Coins: Each player has 16 coins at the start of the game. One of the players
plays with the light pieces (White), the other with the dark pieces (Black).
A pendulum: pendulums are used during competitions to limit the thinking
time of each player.
The photo to the right shows a chessboard, pieces, and a clock. Remember
that the square to the first row's right should be white when seated in front
of a chessboard.
 2. The chessboard
The squares of a chessboard are numbered, as in a naval battle. For
example, in the figure on the right, boxes a1 and e4 have been circled in
red.
There are eight columns (from a to h) and eight rows (from 1 to 8). In the
figure, the column h and the 7th row are indicated by arrows.
Note: A figure representing a chessboard with (usually!) The position of the
pieces is called a diagram.

3. Pieces
At the start of the game, each player has 16 pieces: a King, a Queen, two
Towers, two Bishops, two Knights, and eight pawns. The figure below
shows the six types of parts. Symbols usually used in diagrams have also
been indicated under each part.
Note: Amateurs often use the term the Lady to refer to the Queen, and
children the Horse to refer to the Rider.

How to Place the Pieces On the Chessboard?

At the start of the game, the pieces are always placed the same way. I like
the following way of explaining the placement of pieces to children:

The rooms are in a castle. At the corner of the castles, there are always
Towers. Each player, therefore, places a Tower at each corner of the
chessboard.
Following the Tours, there are the stables: we, therefore, put our two
Riders there.
In the middle of the castle are the King and the Queen. The Queen is
very elegant; she likes to stand on a square the color of her dress: the
White Queen on the white square, the Black Queen on the black
square. We can also notice that the D souls occupy the column f.
To amuse the King and the Queen, the Fools are placed at their side.
Finally, the pawns defend the castle: we, therefore, put the eight pawns
in front of the other pieces on the second row.
The Ladies being placed initially on column d, we call the four columns of
a to d the queen wing and the four columns of e to h the king wing. It is
important to remember these terms because we will use them often in more
advanced courses.
 1. Moving parts
The two players take turns moving one of their pieces (castling). If a piece
moves to a square occupied by an opponent's piece, that piece is taken and
removed from the chessboard. A piece cannot be placed on a square
occupied by a piece of its camp. Only the Knight can jump over the other
pieces.
2. The movement of the Tower and the Bishop
The Tower moves horizontally or vertically, as many squares as it wants. In
the diagram below, we have indicated in color all the spaces where Tower
e4 can go. The Tower cannot go to a square occupied by a piece of its camp,
nor jump on top of another piece. In the diagram, the black tower in b7
cannot go to either g7 or h7. The Tower can take an opponent's piece by
going to the square occupied by this piece. In the diagram, the Rook in b7
can take the White Knight in b2.

3. The Move of the Rook and the Bishop in Chess

The Bishop moves diagonally, as many squares as he wants. In the diagram
below, we have indicated in color all the boxes where Bishop E4 can go.
Each player initially has a Bishop on a black square and a Bishop on a
white square. These Bishops will never be able to change color throughout
the game.
 4. The Displacement of the Queen and the King
The Queen moves like the Tower and the Bishop: she can therefore move
vertically, horizontally, and diagonally, as many squares as she wants
(without, of course, being able to pass over another room or be able to take
a part of his camp). As it is the most mobile part, it is also the part that has
the most significant value.
The King moves one square in all directions. When an opposing piece
attacks a King, it is said to be in check. A player does not have the right to
let his King check. He also does not have the right to move his King to a
square where he will be attacked (therefore in check).

5. The movement of the knight and the pawn

Moving the Cavalier is a bit more complicated, and there are a couple of
ways to explain it. I like to say that the Knight moves two squares
horizontally or vertically, then steps sideways. It, therefore, makes a sort of
capital "L," turned in any direction. We can notice that a knight who is on a
white square can, on the following move, only go to black squares (and vice
versa). The Knight is the only piece that can jump on top of the other pieces
(his own and the opponent's).
The pawn is the only piece that cannot retreat. It is also the only piece that
does not take as it advances. The pawns move forward one square in the
same column if the square in front of them is free. They take one or the
other of the two squares in front of them diagonally. A pawn located on its
starting row can advance two spaces (but it is not obliged). Thus, in the
diagram, the pawn in b2 can go to b3 or b4. The pawn in e5 can advance to
e6 or take the knight in f6. The two pawns in h4 and h5 block each other;
neither of them can advance.

6. The taking in the passing

When a pawn located on its starting row advances two squares and finds
itself following to an opposing pawn, then the opponent can, on the
following move (and only that move), take the pawn that has just left
advance with his pawn as if the opposing pawn had only advanced one
square. For example, in the past diagram, if pawn b2 advances to b4, pawn
c4 can take it (on the following move) by going to b3, as if the white pawn
had only advanced one square.
The Course of the Game
1. The line
The player with White begins, and then each player takes a turn. We say of
the player who must play that he has the trait.
2. Failure
When an opposing piece attacks a King, it is said to be in check. A player
does not have the right to let his King check. He must counter the failure by
taking the piece that attacks the King, moving his King, or interposing a
piece between his King and the attacker. For example, in the diagram
opposite, the Black King is checked by the White Tower in b8. Black must
parry the failure either by taking the rook with their knight, moving the
knight to f8, or moving the king to the h7 square. Any other move is illegal.
The player who fails may announce it by saying "failure," but this
announcement is not obligatory.
A player does not have the right to move his King to a square where he
would check.
3. Checkmate
An example of checkmate in Chess
The game's object is to check the king of the opposing player so that the
check cannot be parried: this player is said to be a checkmate. In the
example opposite, the Black King is checkmate: Black cannot take the
White Tower, they have no piece to interpose on the 8th row, and the Black
King cannot go to f8 or h8 because he would always be in check.
Our Getting Started with Chess online course contains several lessons to
teach you how to checkmate your opponent!
 4. The outcome of the game

A game of Chess can have three outcomes: White winning, Black winning,
or a draw. A game is drawn in the following cases:
By mutual agreement between the two players. Please note, a draw by
mutual agreement may be subject to conditions in individual
tournaments, such as being authorized only after 20 strokes.
If one of the players has no legal move, but his king is not in check.
We say that this player is pat. For example, black is pat in the position
opposite if they have the trait
In case of insufficient material to allow the mast. This is the case, for
example, if only the two kings remain on the chessboard, or in the
positions with the king against king + a bishop or king against king +
a knight.
If the same position occurs three times on the chessboard.
If the two players have each played 50 consecutive moves without
pushing a pawn or taking a piece.
How to read and rate a game of Chess: it is essential to keep track of your
games or analyze those of the champions.
Win, trade, and lose material: to know if giving a coin against your
opponent is good or bad. Basic tactical combinations: so as not to lose coins
stupidly and not to miss an opportunity to win those of your opponents.
 Chapter 3: The Special Rules of Chess
En Passant
En passant was an unusual move in the fifteenth century when Pawns began
moving two squares forward instead of one on their first move. When a
Pawn advances two squares, it can jump over the square an enemy Pawn is
protecting—many players probably regarded this as unfair.
To illustrate, here's a real-life war situation: A soldier (let's call him X) is
waiting in place, pointing a gun at a particular area, while the enemy soldier
(Y) knows his opponent's target. Is it possible for soldier Y to pass by
without getting shot? Soldier Y can take the chance of running past soldier
X, but it's a gamble: He might get away with it, or he might get shot.
There's an essential caveat behind this particular move. If your opponent's
Pawn moves two squares forward (cheating its death), you can capture it,
but only on that move. If you decline the en passant capture, you will not
have a chance to capture the Pawn again—unless a new en passant situation
arises.
As you can see in the diagram below, White's Pawn protects the c6 and e6
squares. Black moves their Pawn to e5, over the square White's protecting.
White may or may not choose to capture the Pawn. Let's say they do. When
capturing a Pawn with the en passant rule, you must capture it the way a
Pawn captures, diagonally one square forward. It may look a bit strange, but
Pawns do not capture horizontally.
Should you always choose en passant? No! If your opponent doesn't know
this rule and foolishly gave up a Pawn, sure. Otherwise, you must think
strategically if the en passant capture is beneficial to your position. Take a
look at the next example:
White's Pawn is yet again defending the c6 and e6 squares. Black moves to
c5—going over the square White is defending. Should White capture the
Pawn here? This depends on White's plan. If White wants to keep Black's
pieces a little more passive, capturing en passant isn't the best idea since
this would allow Black to recapture the Pawn and develop their Knight. So
what would be the benefit of capturing the Black Pawn? The d5 square
would become free (unless Black captures with the Pawn instead of the
Knight) for White's Knight to leap there. Chess is a complicated game!
There are a lot of variables to consider.

Castling
The purpose of castling is to get your King to safety. As mentioned earlier,
all pieces but the King have more substantial positions in the center. Why
would you want to leave your King where all the commotion is? Leaving
the King, there can place it in a lot of danger. The King is never 100 percent
safe, but in drawing it away from the center, you can protect it with a
fortress of Pawns standing guard. At the same time, castling can also help
one of your Rooks advances toward the center of the board.
What makes castling an exciting and unusual move? It is the only
circumstance in which the King can move two squares, and a Rook can
jump over another piece (the King).

Kingside Castle, Before

 Kingside Castle, After

Kingside Castle & Queenside Castle

Please note: You must move your King first, followed by your Rook. At a
junior event, I touched my Rook first, so my opponent called the referee
and forced me to move my Rook instead. Since then, I have always been
meticulous in moving my King first. Luckily, I still won that game!

Queenside Castle, Before

 Queenside Castle, After

When You're Not Allowed To Castle

Pieces Between the King And Rook
In the starting position, neither White nor Black can castle. If the King
wants to castle queenside, it will have to move the Knight, Bishop, and
Queen out of the way. If the King wants to castle kingside, it will have to
move the Bishop and Knight out of the way.

King or Both Rooks Have Moved

If the King has moved, you'll have no chance to castle because there's only
one King per side. If one Rook has moved, you will still be able to castle
with the other. But don't think that moving your King or Rooks and then
moving them back into the starting position will work. This is the reason
you see most players castling in the first ten moves in the game. The
quicker you castle; the fewer obstacles will be in your way!
I'd like to tell you a story: In one of my first chess tournaments, I was
supposed to write down the moves, but I accidentally didn't follow this rule
and therefore didn't realize I had made a mistake. When I got home, I went
over the game with my father, who said, "Liza, how could you have castled
in this position? You already moved your King earlier in the game." Taken
aback, I replied, "I think I'd forgotten I moved my King.” "Well, you are
fortunate that your opponent didn't notice this," he said. "I hope you have
learned your lesson and won't make this mistake again. In chess, you have
to follow the rules."

King Is in Check
In this scenario, Black is ready to castle the King, but White develops the
Bishop with a check! You are not allowed to castle when you are in check
—though I honestly have no idea why. Remember: If you move your King
out of check here, you won't be able to castle for the rest of the game. On
the other hand, if you block the attack, you can still castle on the following
move!
 Going Through/Into Check

In this position, White is not able to castle on either the kingside or the
queenside. Yet, neither side has pieces between the King and Rooks; the
King is not in check, and the King and both Rooks have not yet moved—so
what's the problem? There are, in fact, two. White can't castle queenside
because Black's Rook is protecting the d1 square, so this would be going
"through check." White also can't castle on the kingside because Black's
Bishop is protecting the g1 square, so this would be going "into check."
Promotion
Promotion is Pawn's ability to transform into a Queen, Rook, Bishop, or
Knight when it reaches the other side of the board. Therefore, never
underestimate the power of the Pawn! Ninety-nine percent of the time, you
will want to promote it to a Queen—but there are some rare exceptions.
What I've noticed throughout the years is that many kids are in a huge rush
to get their Pawns to the other side, and they end up giving them away for
free because they didn't think carefully enough before making a move. If
you are thinking about promoting, make sure no enemy piece can capture
you!

Promotion, Before

Promotion, After
 Chapter 4: Basic Chess Strategies
The game of Chess can be classified into three distinct stages. The first
stage is the opening, where calculated opening moves are made to have the
upper hand over the opposition. The second stage is the middle stage, where
the players play for control and position in the board by the attack, counter,
and defense. The last stage is the endgame, where the Kings come into play
where saving the King becomes the motive and strategy to Checkmate, the
opponent.
In the process of the game, pieces will be captured by both parties. Each
player loves to capture more pieces than his rival to dominate the game. As
we indulge in overthinking, we may place our piece in danger of capture by
mistake. Such an inviting capture is known as 'En Prise' or 'In Taking.' But,
in some cases, players voluntarily place their pieces for intake as a part of
their strategy to trap the opponent when he captures the piece.
Following are the top ten tips that will lead you to a victory in a game of
Chess:
1. Be more cautious of the moves taken by the opposition than your
moves
Make sure you always take time to think about the following questions once
your opponent makes a move
What is the reason behind moving that piece?
Is there any risk to my piece or any piece of the opposition?
Should I be cautious of any other danger which I did not see coming?
What can be the Strategy of my opposition?
After answering all the questions, make your move to reply to the questions
by spoiling the opponent's plan.
 2. Make sure to reply with the best move each time
While contemplating your move, ask yourself the following question:
Can this piece be moved from this place to a better place?
Can improved effectiveness of a piece lead to a better position?
Is this move capable of tackling the tactics of the opponent?
Is the new position safe for this piece?
Is the new position safe from attack if a pawn is moved?
Is the piece worthy of the move, and will the opposition chase it?
Emanuel Lasker, a former Chess champion, has an advice for all the Chess
enthusiasts out there. He said, “When you see a good move, wait- look for a
better one!” Despite it being a great movie, it may not be the right time to
make that move.
3. Play with a plan
As a chess player, it is imperative to make moves according to the action
plan. Moving around the chessboard without any precise plan will only lead
to defeat as the opponent will not face the challenge from your side. Each
piece should be moved according to a plan and played together as a team.
Just like an orchestra that plays the same tune, chess pieces should play for
the same plan.
Plan causes a unity of the chess pieces. It is more impactful to attack the
King of the opposition together as an army than attacking as a single piece
captured in a losing cause. The strategy can be to capture a particular area
of the board to dominate the game. The plan can differ from person to
person, but it should be a well thought out plan.
4. Knowledge of each piece
The pieces' value should be considered in some pieces each player has in
the game before trading a piece. The player who has the total value of the
pieces over the other has the upper hand.
The pawn is considered the least useful piece as it has just a point value,
and also, it cannot be moved backward, unlike other pieces that can be
moved in the desired direction according to the movements of the pieces.
Hence, this estimation of the total value to know the players' position is a
fair assessment. The value of three pawns will equal the worth of one
Bishop or Knight. The Knight has the unique power to jump over other
pieces. The Bishops move along the diagonal squares. The Bishop in the
black square can move only on the black square and likewise for the Bishop
in the white square. But, Bishop can move faster than the Knight.
The Rook has the power of moving around the length of the board in a short
time. The value of a single Rook is equal to five pawns. The opponent's
Rook can be captured using a combination of Bishop and Knight.
The Queen's worth is equal to nine pawns, which is equal to the value of a
pair of Rooks. The Queen can move in any direction across the squares of
the board.
The King is the piece around which the game is played. It has no value or
worth since it cannot be captured or traded in the game process.
5. Well-development of the pieces
The time factor is considered to be a vital element to take control of the
game. The faster the pieces are developed, the better the player's chance to
dominate the game's proceedings. Control of the board is only possible with
quickly well-developed pieces brought into the play.
As a beginner, the players may waste time moving the pawns and capturing
the board's spaces. But, the game cannot be controlled by just making the
pawn movements. Please use other pieces to attack more valuable pieces of
the opponent, even when they are at a distance, due to their reach. The more
vital pieces should be brought into action as soon as possible by removing
the pawns that are in the way. Also, make sure that the valuable pieces do
not face any danger in the process, as the opponent will keenly watch all
your moves to eliminate the more vital pieces quickly. The pawns can be
moved according to the plan after the valuable pieces come out for the play.
It is a common temptation to the players to bring the Queen into the play.
The Queen is the critical piece, which can win you the game. It is essential
to make use of it only when it is the right time and place. If the Queen is
lost in the game's initial stage, it will be a significant loss for the player and
the opponent's most excellent trade. Make the moves when it is the best to
attain the desired place to attack in few moves. The calculated moves will
save the time of the player and the opposition.
6. Control the center
The four squares of the center should be controlled to dominate the game.
Firstly, when a piece is in the center, it can make more movements than in
any other board position. For example, a Knight in the center can play more
in eight distinct positions than a Knight in a corner, moving to only two
positions on the whole board.
Being in the center also facilitates the advantage of faster movement. A
piece can be taken to the opponent's territory quickly when the center is in
your control. The player who first captures the center can launch the attack
first as the pieces' travel is more manageable.
7. Safeguard the King
The ultimate aim in the game of Chess is to Checkmate the King of the
opposition. Sometimes we get so occupied with defeating our opponent that
we forget that our opposition is also playing with the same aim.
Always ensure the safety of the King by castling it on the board. The pawns
around the King are the lifesavers. Such pawns' movement should be
minimal as the King will be in danger once pawns are moved away. Apply
the same strategy to attack your opponent by forcing the movement of the
pawns surrounding the King.
8. Timing of trading the pieces
Full use of a trading opportunity should be made when a lower value piece
can be traded in exchange for a higher value piece of the opponent. But,
such changes do not arise if you are playing against a skillful opposition.
So, in most cases, only an exchange of equal value is possible, and the
decision should be made on whether the capture is worth the loss or not.
Without a clear-cut benefit, do not risk the exchange of pieces when you
edge over the opponent. The attack is weakened by having lesser pieces in
play, and the defenders face a threat.
Trading should not be carried on when there is not much place to move
your pieces in the opponent's area. Only when the spaces open up it is
beneficial for the player to attack.
The pawn formation of the opponent can be affected by the trading done by
the player. A situation where you can get a piece when your opponent is
eligible for only a double pawn is advantageous in your cause.
9. Work on the endgame
Concentration on the endgame should always be in the mind of the player
from the very first move. Every move should be played with the
determination to acquire the desired endgame result. For instance, a Knight
and Bishop are considered to be similar in the initial stage. At the endgame,
Knight would move slowly compared to the Bishop, which strikes with a
single move. So, if a decision has to be made on a Bishop's trading in place
of a Knight, then think about the pieces' effect during the endgame.
Pawn structure is also a critical element when it comes to the endgame.
Usage of a pawn to capture a piece of the opposition will lead to exposure
of file, which opens up Queen and Rooks' movement. It may result in a
double pawn that either party cannot defend. The endgame has to be well
fought in this case.
Both the short-term and long-term goals should be considered while making
a move to emerge as a winner.
10. Concentration
A lapse of concentration is what the opposition is looking to exploit to
dominate the game. A move that would cause trouble will be played,
making use of the lapse in concentration. It is essential to be alert all time to
have the game in control. If you are distracted, you may also make a move
that you will regret after the game.
11. Avoid unnecessary risk
Aggression is seen as a winning quality as far as a health plan supports it.
But, if the aggressive move is made without a plan, you will land yourself
in trouble. Unnecessary risks, rather than helping you win the game, may
lead you to a sorry loss. Calculated risks will help you, while reckless
moves will only help the opponent to dominate the game.
12. Avoid unnecessary checks
The Checks given to the opponent's King should put the opponent in
danger. The Checks should be backed with a valid plan that will help to
control the game. The unnecessary Checks will be a waste of time for the
player and the opposition when the Check does not threaten. But, in that
time, you can try a productive move that will lead to a checkmate.
13. Seizing the open files
Always make sure of occupying the open file when an opportunity arises.
The player who seizes open files is always in an advantageous position over
the opponent. Such a file that is seized will help in the endgame during the
checkmate.
Chapter 5: How to Become A Good Chess Player?
Chess is perhaps the most seasoned game ever. Played by everybody from
antiquated kings to the present online players, millions appreciate the game.
Nations like Russia have consistently seen Chess as an approach to show
knowledge, while others have utilized it to unite individuals. A game
representing history and virtuosity is a lot to learn from individuals
depending on how they play.
1. How Do They Respond to Mistakes?
One of the most exceedingly terrible emotions in Chess is the point at
which you lose a vital piece. If this happens early, odds are you will need to
work the whole game to move back. This is one of the most crucial
occasions for the mindset of a chess player. Not having the option to
overlook the mistake will crush your capacity to return. In these
circumstances, give extraordinary consideration to how the other player
responds. Does he quickly give indications of outrage and hatred? Does he
get over it or show no feeling by any means?
Other than an underlying response, observe how their procedure changes.
Probably my best shortcoming is that I become excessively forceful when
I'm losing because I feel on edge to even the playing field. The best chess
players can keep their cool and change their technique without losing
center. These are the sorts of individuals you take a stab at and the ones that
I attempt to gain from. When your organization commits a critical error,
you need individuals who can convey under strain and not freeze.
2. How Does Time Affect Their Play?
In Chess, there is a wide range of approaches to play with time. A few
games can give players hours to figure; others can be under 5 minutes.
Something to search for is if the individual you're going toward plays
diversely dependent on the time given. The best can think for quite a long
time without getting occupied. While long and short games both need a
portion of similar abilities, they fuse a wide range of procedures.
Can the other individual respond rapidly and not get bothered? One of the
keys to being extraordinary in Chess and business is adjusting to specific
situations. The adjustments in time uncover that capacity.
 3. Do They Let You Win?
Following the time, you're talking with somebody, and you request that the
person in question play Chess with you, observe how the person in question
goes about it. A typical situation is the candidate will play in a minimalist
way and let you win.
Giving you a chance to win isn't what you need to see. To test this, make an
idiotic move at the start of the game and check whether the person exploits.
What you need is for the interviewee to try their hardest to beat you. That is
because the best individuals in your organization need to win, and that
should be pervasive even in the main chess game you play.

First-Move Advantage in Chess

Chess's main move advantage is the player's intrinsic favorable position
(White), who makes the Chess' principal move. Chess players and scholars,
by and large, concur that White starts the game with some bit of leeway.
Since 1851, aggregated insights bolster this view; White reliably wins
somewhat more frequently than Black, ordinarily scoring somewhere in the
range of 52 and 56 percent. White's triumphant rate is about the equivalent
for competition games among people and games between PCs; [nb 1] be
that as it may, White's bit of leeway is less massive in rush games and
games between beginners. Chess players and theoreticians have since a long
time ago mentioned whether, given ideal play by the two sides, the game
should succeed White or a draw.

Chess Strategy – How to Predict Your Opponent's Moves

One of the abilities any new chess player begrudges is experienced players'
intensity to anticipate what their adversary will do apparently. They get
annihilated when they go facing propelled players because all their moves
seem to get countered. Is there some kind of mystic association required to
be a specialist chess player? Not so much, and we'll clarify how you can
anticipate your rival's moves to ensure you aren't being outflanked.

Look Before You Leap

Before you make any move, you should take a gander at what your rival is
doing. Don't only take a gander where their pieces are. However, attempt to
make sense of where they are going. You might have the option to decide
their technique just by watching where they move their pieces. This is
exceptionally just mystery, yet there's something else entirely to it than
aimlessly speculating, and we'll get to that in a moment.
For this initial step, you have to concentrate on focusing on your adversary
before making your turn. Don't only act like you are the just one on the
board, and your adversary's moves don't influence your system. You must
be eager to build up a liquid arrangement of assault. As your rival moves
one way, you move to capture or protect another way. You ought to have a
general arrangement, yet you ought to likewise have the option to adjust
and counter assault were fundamental.

Play as Your Opponent

How expert chess players get inside the leader of their adversaries and
make sense of what move they will make is that they imagine they are the
adversary. They think about what their choices are from that perspective.
Taking a gander at all the choices, they select the absolute best ones, usually
constraining moves.
A constraining move powers the rival into settling on a specific decision or
that indeed restricts his capacity to do a lot. Those are the moves that their
adversary is likely going to make. Along these lines, the propelled player
will search for those particular moves and plan to counter or maintain a
strategic distance from them.
They don't realize which move is coming straightaway, yet they arrange for
the move to hurt them the most. They expect their rival will make the ideal
move, and if you need to beat your rival, you'll need to accomplish
something very similar.
You can't only sort of meander no matter how you look at it without a
reasonable objective at the top of the priority list or make your moves and
trust in the best. You must be effectively foreseeing your rival. You will
most likely be unable to guess what he might be thinking, yet you can make
some sensible expectations concerning what move is coming straightaway.
The more you play and the more you utilize this system, the better you will
get. It helps on the off chance that you have a decent working information
of chess technique and if you know your rival and how they play. Simply
put yourself in the psyche of your rival by taking a gander at the board
through their eyes. When you do that, you can make not too bad
expectations about where they are going straightaway.

Playing Chess Improves Mental Clarity

Improving Mental Clarity
As the number of inhabitants in the people born after WW2 age, the starting
indications of "senior minutes" begin to show up. Since more individuals
presently need to remain stable and sharp, they are continually searching for
approaches to develop themselves. A few people may ignore specific
approaches to improve mental clearness and pass up on a brilliant chance to
remain sharp. Probably the ideal approach to improve mental clearness is to
begin playing Chess. For those who now play Chess, the chance to win
more games by improving mental clearness ought to be at the front line.
Chess is a round of procedure, and the individual with the psychological
edge will win a more significant number of games than their adversary. The
capacity to think ahead and strategize your best course of action just as your
rival's following move gives the individual the board's order.
Studies show that Chess is an enormous factor in improving mental
clearness. As a result of its effects in helping memory, numerous specialists
presently prescribe to their patients to start to play. The individuals who
begin to play chess report back saying that their psychological clearness is
superior to anything it's been in years. No medications, no treatment,
merely playing the game is sufficient.

Winning More Games

When an individual starts to play Chess, they before long discover that they
need to win. It's not particularly fun losing each game, and that is the thing
that snares individuals. This game has been played for quite a long time by
the two laborers and aristocrats the same. Interestingly, the best approach to
improve mental lucidity is to play more Chess, and the best approach to win
more games is to improve one's mental clearness. On the off chance that
individuals honestly are not kidding about winning and having some good
times simultaneously, at that point, you ought to put resources into a chess
set. You can discover nearly whatever an improving chess player needs or
needs. More than that is how many chess sets can go into any room of the
house and be a point of convergence as a delightful household item may be.
While there will most likely never be significant chess competitions played
in an outside field like a football arena or baseball settings, with the group
applauding their preferred player, this ought to not the slightest bit detracts
from the fame of the game. Check the nearby papers or get onto the web
and find where a chess competition will be held at an area near where an
individual life. While the group won't shout, there will be no less force in
the room. Merely observing the degree of play from the best players should
make many people endeavor to improve mental clearness. There is no
remarkable age to play Chess and not at all like games where age
disintegrates the player's capacities, and Chess improves an individual's
capacities. To start another life loaded up with mental lucidity, buy another
chess set and play away.
 Chapter 6: Exercises for Beginners

10-1

Black to move. Who has the advantage?

________________________

10-2

How does White win the game?

________________________
 10-3

Black to move. How can he promote his pawn?

________________________

10-4

White to move. How can he win the game?

________________________

10-5
Position after 44…Kb4. What is White's winning move?
________________________

10-6

What is White's best move?

________________________

10-7
Position after 40…g5. How can White save himself?
________________________

10-8

Which type of advantage does each player have?

________________________

10-9
White to move. Who should win the game?
________________________

10-10

What idea wins for White?

________________________
Chess Detective Problems

10-11
Black to move. How does he win the game?
________________________

10-12

Black to move. How does he win the game?

________________________

10-13
Can Black (to move) win this position?
________________________

10-14

White to move. How does he win the game?

________________________

10-15
How can Black promote his pawn?
________________________

10-16

Black to move. Can he win the game?

________________________

10-17
How can Black put White in zugzwang to win the game?
________________________

10-18

What is White's best move?

________________________

10-19
Position after 33…Kf6. What is White's winning strategy?
________________________

10-20

How can Black win significant material or force checkmate?

Solutions
10-1 – Black has the advantage because he has the more centralized king
and the outside passed pawn's potential. He can play 38…a5 39.bxa5 bxa5
40.Kb2 a4 41.Ka3 Kxc3 42.Kxa4 Kd4 43.Kb4 Ke3 and win White's pawns.
10-2 – White clears a path for the pawn to promote by playing 35.Rxe8
Bxe8 36.b7.
10-3 – If Black plays 38…h2, White can catch the pawn by playing 39.Kg2.
If it were White's move, he could play g4 and Kg3 to win the pawn. Black
should play 38…Ne3!, guarding the g2 square. Black cannot take the knight
because he leaves the square of the pawn. Black threatens to advance the
pawn, as the king now cannot move to g2.
10-4 – White needs to get Black to move his queen to advance his pawn. He
can play 32.Qe5+ f6 33.Qxd6! Qxd6 34.c7 and White will soon be ahead by
a rook.
10-5 – White wins by playing 45.Ke6. Black must protect his pawn with
45…Kc4, after which White plays 46.Ke5, putting Black in zugzwang.
Black must move away from his pawn. White will then capture it, promote
his pawn, and then checkmate Black. Note that 45.Ke5? Loses to 45…Kc4,
and it is White who is in zugzwang and loses.
10-6 – White wins quickly, creating a passed pawn with 50.Bh5!,
threatening 51.fxg6. If Black captures the bishop with 50…gxh5, White
plays 51.g6 and will promote a pawn on g8 in a few moves.
10-7 – Since he is far behind in material, White is desperate to find any
trick he can to win or draw. He plays the surprising 41.Rb2! And Black
must play 41…Rxb2 stalemate or lose his rook and the game.
10-8 – White has a material advantage since he is ahead of a pawn. Black
has a piece activity advantage because we are in the endgame. After all, his
king is centralized, and White's king is cut off on his back rank. Even
though White's king is restricted, Black doesn't have any real king safety
advantage because White's rook will not allow the Black king to get into
position to checkmate him. Pawn structure is also difficult to put in either
player's column: White has outside isolated passed pawns on both wings
and in the center, whereas Black has two connected passed pawns, which
are more robust than isolated pawns because they can safely march up the
board together. The position is roughly equal, with both players having to
play the game out carefully.
10-9 – Black will win. Notice that there is no way for White's king to get at
Black's pawns unless they move. If White's king moves anywhere, he
leaves the square of Black's a3 pawn. So he must play 51.d4 Kxg4 52.d5
Kf5 and Black's king is in the square of the pawn. Once he captures it,
White will be in zugzwang and move his king, allowing the a3 pawn to
promote.
10-10 – White wins by trading off to a winning endgame with 47.Rxf7+
Kxf7 48.a5 and the Black king is outside the square of the pawn. Note that
White's king is in the square of Black's passed c-pawn.
10-11 – Black has a potential threat of …Qg2 mate. White has a dangerous
c-pawn, which is part of a trio of connected passed pawns. Because White's
queen must defend the mate threat, Black should advance his passed pawn
and play 37…b3! 38.Qb2 Qg2+! 39.Qxg2 Bxg2 40.Kxg2 b2 and Black
wins the pawn race. Note that the immediate 37…Qg2+ doesn't work since
after 38.Qxg2 Bxg2 39.Kxg2 and White will promote the move after Black
does. Count out pawn races carefully!
10-12 – White is ahead in material, and he would like to advance his
kingside pawn majority and overrun Black's g7 pawn in the process. Black
has a dangerous pawn on b2 that White's rook is preventing from
promoting. Black can move his king down to c2 to escort the pawn in,
forcing White to give up his rook for it. Black will be that his king is too far
away from defending on the kingside, and his rook won't be able to stop the
White pawns by itself. To solve this problem, Black must promote his pawn
and prevent White from sacrificing his rook. So he plays 43…Ra5+ 44.Kg6
Rb5 to cut off Black's rook and after 45.Rxb5 Kxb5 46.Kxg7 b1=Q 47.g6
Qf5 Black can eventually win all of White's pawns after a series of checks.
10-13 – Yes, he can, but he must count out the pawn race carefully. Black
plays 51…Kb6! 51…Kxb5 allows a check after Black plays …a4, and
White responds with bxa4+, winning a critical tempo. 52.Ke7 a4 53.bxa4 c4
54.f4 d3 and Black will promote first. Races can be very close and need to
be counted out carefully.
10-14 – White wins quickly by sacrificing both pieces: 42.Rxd5! exd5
43.Nxa7! Rxa7 and Black's rook can't stop pawn storm after 44.b6 Rb7
45.b5 and 46.a6.
10-15 – If Black tries to promote the pawn with 39…h2, White can defend
the promotion square with 40.Rb1. To promote the pawn, Black needs to
block out the rook from the first rank by sacrificing his rook with 39…Rc1!
If Black plays 40.Nxc1 or 40.Kxc1, White plays 40…h2, and White's rook
is cut off from defending the h1 square.
10-16 – Yes, he can, but by only one move. You have to count out races and
observe how pieces can be forced onto the same line for a possible tactic
after a promotion takes place. 48…Kf4 49.Kh2 Ke4 50.Kh3 Kxd4 51.Kxh4
Ke3 52.g4 d4 53.g5 d3 54.g6 d2 55.g7 d1=Q 56.g8=Q Qh1+ 57.Kg4 Qg1+,
winning the queen.
10-17 – The winning move is 43…Qe5! Notice that White's pawns cannot
move. The knight is pinned to the king. Note that White has no useful
checks. If White moves his king to either g1 or f1, he will not have enough
protectors for the knight. That leaves White with only queen moves. She
cannot move away from protecting the knight, as she is the second
defender. The only possible move where the queen defends the knight is
44.Qe3. Black then wins after 44…Qxe3 45.Kxe3 Bxg3, winning the knight
and the game: White's king can win Black's c4 pawn, while Black's king
will move toward and win the g2 and h3 pawns. Black can sacrifice his
bishop for White's c4 pawn when it is close to promoting. Meanwhile,
Black will advance and promote a kingside pawn.
10-18 – Capturing the knight with 47.Kxe5 and counting out the pawn race
is the first line to analyze: 47…a5 48.h5 a4 49.h6 a3 50.h7 a2 51.h8=Q
a1=Q+ and 52…Qxh8, winning the queen and the game for Black! Gaining
a tempo by promoting with the check is often a way to win pawn races.
White should play 47.h5! Nf7 48.Kg6 Ne5+ 49.Kf5 to obtain a draw by
threefold repetition. Note that White doesn't threaten to advance the pawn
after 49.Kg5 a5 50.h6 Nf7+. This position is part of the movie's
championship game's final move sequence, Searching for Bobby Fischer
(1993). In the movie, 47.Kxe5? It was played, and Black went on to win the
game.
10-19 – White's winning strategy is to capture the a7 pawn and escort his a-
pawn to a8 with his other pieces' help. The game continued 34.Bxa7 g5
35.Bb6 Qxc2 36.a5 Qb2 37.Bd8+ Ke6 38.a6 Qa3 39.Bb7 Qc5 40.Rb1 c3
41.Bb6 and the pawn will promote in a couple of moves.
10-20 – Black is behind in material by a piece and a pawn and looks like he
is in trouble. Usually, it is opposite-colored bishops in the middlegame
where the attacking player has a big advantage. Here, with only a few
pieces left, the opposite-colored bishops help the attacker in the endgame!
Black plays 43…Re3+ 44.Kg4 (44.Kf2 loses to the discovered check, 44…
Rxc3+) 44…f5+ 45.Kg5 (45.Kh4 Be7 mate) 45…Kg7 (threatening 46…
Be7 mate) 46.Nd5 Rh3! (A brilliant rook sacrifice that threatens 47…h6
mate) 47.gxh3 h6+ 48.Kh4 Bf2 mate! This position and move sequence was
brilliantly filmed in the final chess game in the movie, The Luzhin Defence
(2000).
Zugzwang
Typically in Chess, you want it to be your move.
But there are situations in the endgame when few pieces are left on the
board and few choices, where you don't want it to be your move because of
an undesirable result.
The German word zugzwang means "compelled to move." When you are in
zugzwang, you are in a situation where you would prefer to pass your move
to your opponent, if you could.

Here is an essential zugzwang position.

White is playing for a win and is trying to promote the pawn to a queen,
where he could checkmate Black.
Black, of course, does not want this to happen.
If it were Black to move, he would have to play 60…Kg7, allowing White
to play 61.Ke7, where he can escort the pawn to f8 and promote it. Black
would be in zugzwang and will lose the game in a position he is hoping to
draw.
Now let's say it is White to move. To save the pawn, he would be forced to
play 60.Kf6 stalemate. Any other king move would result in Black winning
the pawn and drawing by insufficient mating material. Therefore, with
White to move, he would be in zugzwang.

Naturally, zugzwang occurs in king and pawn endgames because this is

when there is the fewest possible number of legal moves.
Sometimes, though, zugzwang occurs in positions with a few other pieces
on the board.
 Position after 37.hxg4
In this position, White is trying to promote his c7 pawn.
If Black's knight moves anywhere, White can play 38.Be6, chase the rook
off the promotion square and promote the pawn.
If Black's rook moves by playing either 37…Ra8 or 37…Re8, White can
play 38.c8=Q+ and win easily.
If Black plays either 37…h5 or 37…e4, White can capture the pawn, and it
would be Black's move again – so this doesn't gain anything for Black.
Using the process of elimination, only king moves remain. After any Black
king move, he will lose his knight after 38.Rb8 Rxc7 39.Rxf8. Black is in
zugzwang!
 Chapter 7: How to Checkmate?
In Chess, success is determined by victory, and a checkmate determines
victory.
Checkmate occurs when a player's king is under threat of capture from one
or more enemy pieces and cannot make a legal move to a safe square. When
this happens, the player whose king is trapped loses, and their opponent is
declared the winner.
Every movement, offensive, and sacrifice must be made with the same
ultimate purpose in mind. To that end, understanding the conditions of
victory is essential to understanding all chess strategies, from the opening
move to the endgame's final moments.

Win, Lose or Draw

While checkmate itself is a static target, there are as many paths to reach it
as chess players. Some seek to place constant pressure directly on the
enemy king, forcing them to stay defensive until they make a fatal error.
Others play the long game, picking off enemy pieces until the king is
defenseless or gaining minor positional advantages until their unsuspecting
enemy is utterly trapped. Every strategy has its advantages and
complications that arise throughout various stages of play. It's up to you to
determine which method is most appealing to your playstyle.
Aggressive players will derive great joy from regularly imposing checks—
the condition under which a king is threatened but can escape by moving
away or blocking with another piece. An opponent forced into check has no
choice but to respond defensively, making it difficult for them to mount a
counterattack. However, this strategy carries a high risk: placing too much
focus on an opponent's king may leave you vulnerable to an unforeseen
ambush.

Figure 14: With White's knight imposing a check from d6, Black's king
must move to a safe location, potentially sacrificing the bishop on f7 in the
process. The check can be one of the most effective ways of forcing an
opponent to make an unfavorable trade.
More patient players may prefer to slowly reduce an opponent's forces
while pursuing a long-term positional advantage. While this strategy
generally runs a lower risk in the early and middle games, the longer the
game drags on, the more opportunities your opponent may have to force a
stalemate.
A stalemate occurs when the player whose turn is to play is not in check
and has no legal moves available. When a stalemate occurs, the match
immediately ends in a draw. This can be incredibly frustrating if you've
spent dozens of moves with an upper hand, only to have your victory swept
away and replaced with a draw.

Figure 15: Black may seem to hold an advantage here, but they've let
victory slip through their grasp by allowing White to draw in a stalemate
since White has no moves available that would not put their king into
check.
Apart from a stalemate, draws in Chess are exceedingly rare but not
impossible. Conditions under which a draw can occur include the rule of
threefold repetition. The same board position has occurred three
consecutive times from a particular player in a single match. The fifty-move
rule is also a condition in which each player makes 50 moves (total of 100)
without a capture or pawn movement or when a situation arises where
checkmate is impossible for either player. Additionally, either player may
offer a draw to their opponent at any time during a game. Such an offer can
be accepted or declined at the other player's discretion.
 Strategy 1: Fool's Mate
Now that you've obtained a thorough understanding of how Chess is won
and lost, we're ready to dive into the first of several beginner's strategies. To
begin, let's get acquainted with the fastest possible method of winning a
chess game—referred to as mate in two or Fool's Mate.
While Fool's Mate requires a particular set of circumstances and isn't an
exceptionally reliable route to victory, it does illustrate some helpful
strategic fundamentals. Learning about it now will also help you avoid
falling prey to this common trap laid out to catch beginning players.
To achieve Fool's Mate, you must be playing Black. This is somewhat
unusual, as White is generally considered to have a very slight advantage
over Black when making the first move. However, when White opens with
the abysmal start of f3, Black can attempt to initiate this strategy.
Figure 16: In just a single turn, Black has asserted a robust positional
advantage over White. From here, a single blunder from White could seal
their fate.
Beyond only leaving White's king open to attack, f3 is a weak opening
move because it fails to provide development opportunities for any piece
apart from the king itself. Since the king is relatively weak in the opening
anyway, this is a significant blunder.
When Black responds at e5, it demonstrates a strong understanding of
opening strategy and positional play. From here, Black's kingside bishop
and queen can both take to the field immediately. Opening with a pawn
towards the board's center also allows Black to set up a strong defensive
wall in the play's center. Of course, if White makes the mistake of playing
g4 following turn, these long-term advantages will cease to matter.
Figure 17: The Fool's Mate has been played to completion. After White
moves their pawn to g4 on the second turn, Black responds with a decisive
checkmate.
Once again, White has made a blunder on multiple levels. Building a
defensive pawn formation on the edges of the board is rarely worth the
investment. More importantly, the only piece capable of blocking an attack
on the king has given up its ability to do so. Black can quickly swoop in
with Qh4# to end the game.
While Fool's Mate shows some keen opportunistic play from Black, it's
ultimately more of a case study in what not to do from White's perspective.
Being caught in this situation can leave a novice player feeling quite
embarrassed, but it's merely part of learning the game. Now that you've
studied the fastest complete game possible, it's time to examine some more
in-depth chess strategies for different play phases.
 Chapter 8: Competition Chess Rules
Regardless of when, with whom, or where you play Chess, introductory
principles continue as before. The equivalent goes for competitions and
rivalries, where players must play on a chessboard and deliberately move
their pieces to checkmate the rival player's the best. Notwithstanding, some
uncommon guidelines are set up during rivalries and competitions to more
readily sort out the game. The FIDE Board sets these principles, and they
exist principally to manage the length of the game and maintain a strategic
distance from player questions. Peruse on to get familiar with the
opposition decides that you may experience when playing an opposition or
competition.

Basic Rules
Fundamental rivalry rules are equivalent to an ordinary chess game. You
should utilize just one hand to move a piece, and you should take it off
when you have made the fitting move. Whenever you have moved a piece,
it is unlawful to turn around a move. If a player manor, he/she should
initially move the ruler with one hand, and afterward, move the rook with a
similar hand. When a pawn is advanced, and pieces are moved likewise,
players cannot contact those pieces again to turn around the moves. Be that
as it may, on the off chance that the advancement isn't conclusive, at that
point, another piece can make any legitimate move.
In a game, the player who effectively checkmates a rival's above all else
will be proclaimed the victor, and the game finishes. The player needs to
guarantee that all the moves he/she makes are substantial and legitimate.
Nonetheless, if a rival accepts that he/she will, at last, lose the match, they
have the authorization to leave and let the other player win.
The game is a draw when a player has no other legitimate moves left, and
his/her lord isn't under control. At this stage, the game will arrive at an
"impasse." This will quickly end the game, as long as the move that
prompts the impasse was legitimate. The game likewise finishes in a draw
when the opportunity arrives that neither one of the players can checkmate
the rival's best, nor can he/she make further legitimate moves. At such a
point, the game has arrived at a "dead position." This will end the game;
neither can guarantee triumph.
The game likewise finishes in a draw if pieces have been moved to an
indistinguishable situation on the load up, in any event, multiple times.
Another draw circumstance results if the two players have made fifty moves
sequentially without moving any pawns without catching any pieces. How
about we take a gander at some essential rivalry rules you will experience.

The Touch-Move-Rule
During a competition or rivalry, if a player contacts a piece with his/her
hands in a way that shows they need to make a move, at that point,
regardless of what occurs, they should move that piece. Be that as it may,
this is just allowable if the move is legitimate. However long the player
doesn't move the piece onto another square, the piece can be moved to some
other open square. On the off chance that a player accidentally brushes
against a piece, at that point, it doesn't consider a deliberate move.
If the player contacts an adversary's piece, at that point, if the move is
lawful, he/she should catch it with their piece. On the off chance that the
move isn't lawful, at that point, he/she should catch one of the rival's first
pieces on the board, as long as the move is legitimate. If the players can't
settle on whether they contacted their piece or one of their opponents, they
will be expected to contact their piece. The catch of the adversary's piece
will be repealed on the off chance that one player contacts more than one
chess piece. At that point, he/she should catch everyone in legitimate
moves. An exemption is made with the unlawful castling move, in which
case the ruler needs to move if it can. In any case, the rook won't be
permitted to move.
When the player is castling, he/she should contact the ruler first on the off
chance that the player contacts the rook first or the two pieces
simultaneously. He/she should utilize the rook first and continue with
castling. This is conceivable just if the moves are lawful. If the player can
finish a two-square move with the ruler without contacting the rook, at that
point, the person in question must move the rook in the right moves that
will make it a legitimate move. Something else, the entire castling will be
viewed as unlawful, and it must be removed.
When a player effectively moves the pawn to the eighth position, if the
player takes his/her hand off the piece, that point, it can presently don't be
elevated to an alternate piece. Notwithstanding, the move will likewise not
be viewed as legitimate except if the player advances his/her piece before
moving it to the following square. Essentially, when a player chooses to
make a move, the Touch-Move decide states that the player should lawfully
move the piece before contacting some other chess pieces. This can be a
slight test for most players. Players must remain watchful while playing in
opposition and make legitimate individual moves.
If a player needs to change a piece on the board, he/she should initially
report "j'adoube," a French expression signifying "I change." A player is
carefully restricted from contacting different pieces on the board if it's not
his/her turn, and he/she should stand by until their chance to make a move.

The Fifty-Move Rule

This is another standard that expresses that if no catch has been made in the
game, and if no pawn has moved in the past fifty moves, the players would
then be able to guarantee a draw. This standard was acquainted with
forestalling a player who got no opportunity of winning from consistently
playing until an uncertain end comes to fruition. This was a procedure
utilized by individual players who looked for success by depleting their
adversary and driving him/her to stop the game.
There is no uncertainty that an ace can undoubtedly make the fundamental
moves to procure a checkmate well under the initial 50 moves. Afterward,
in the twentieth century, it was seen that specific techniques and moves
didn't prompt a triumph. This implied extra moves and additional time.
The standard was then changed, permitting an extra 50 moves for players
who couldn't end the game inside the initial 50 moves. Be that as it may,
this standard was just material if the player hadn't killed any pawns.
With this new standard, players could do extra blends and discover a way to
triumph. An ever-increasing number of winning moves were found
throughout the long term, making it essentially more straightforward for
players to dominate the game. In 1992, FIDE canceled every other
particular case and set the fifty move rule as the overseeing standard.
Presently, players should either dominate the match in the setup number of
moves, guarantee a draw, or essentially acknowledge crush and quit the
game.

The Rule Statement

The standard says that an attraction is allowed to players under the
accompanying conditions:
The player composes it on their score sheet and pronounces their
expectations to judges about their best courses of action, which will
 bring about the last 50 moves. The player needs to deliberately survey
and guarantee that they didn't move any pawns before educating the
judge; The case should just be made after the initial 50 moves;
Under the 50 move rule, the game won't be naturally pronounced a
draw except if the player himself/herself professes to do as such under
the standard. This implies that the game can continue however long it
can until a point arrives when no other move will be substantial, and
the player needs to draw from his/her turn.
Essentially, when a player asserts a draw under the fifty-move rule, they are
content with their choice. FIDE changed a few guidelines in 2014,
dispensed with the conceivable outcomes of a "ceaseless" game. The FIDE
decides states that if players make 75 moves sequentially with no catch or
moving of a pawn, the game will go to a draw except if the players can
figure out how to accomplish checkmate.
It is uncommon to see a game end under the fifty move rule. A model is a
match played among Filipowicz and Smederevac in Polanica, Zdroj (1966),
which was pronounced a draw on the 70th move without either player
having caught any pieces.
 Chapter 9: How to Organize A Chess Game?
Chess is one of the world's oldest games. Historians claim that the first
version of chess in Persia was played. This version was not played for fun
but instead to encourage warriors to develop their strategic abilities. In the
early medieval period, chess made its way to the continent of Europe,
where royal families and commoners were easily favored.
Chess players enjoy the game and love other chess players. If they could,
most would spend the entire day trying to discover how to catch the king of
their opponents. One of the few things that the serious chess player enjoys
playing chess demonstrates his game skills, so many chess players enjoy
chess. The tournaments are a rare opportunity for the player to meet other
chess players, play a game, and demonstrate his capabilities with a little
luck.
A chess player cannot decide just to play in a chess tournament one day.
Although it's correct to want to play at a tournament, it's complex to
participate, and specific details must be thought first.
Check the Tournament Rules
Any legal chess tournament will have a selection of rules they obey closely.
This is besides the traditional chess rules. A person's worst mistake is if all
the chess tournaments are the same. The more a player knows the
tournaments' rules, the less likely they can do anything that will reprimand
them and maybe even drive them off the game.
The player looks at the rules and reads the highlights while reviewing chess
tournaments' rules. They should sit and honestly study the rules, paying
particular attention to hand placement rules, the time between movements,
etc.
Know the Time Constraints
Everyone has watched a TV show or film where players look in silence on
the board for hours and discuss their following move. Some chess
tournaments put this action down.
However, the tournament may not be interested in speed chess, where a
player has a fixed time, an average of three to five minutes, to make their
following move. Many tournaments reach a point where the player thinks
he has time to advance and penalizes the wait.
Some chess tournaments are just fun, but others are a huge thing. If a player
wishes to become a famous chess player, they want to play in tournaments
that will set the Chess World Championships stage, the world's most
important chess tournaments.
You have to relax after choosing a chess tournament and enjoy the day. If
you don't practice, mix up with the other chess players and enjoy the feeling
of being around people who love chess just as much as you do.
What Are The Benefits Of Membership In The US Chess Federation?
The US Chess Federation is a non-profit organization that supports the
study of chess games in numerous ways. The group aims at providing
information, awareness, and encouragement for all chess players, from
beginners to professional players, despite age or skill. They see chess as fun
leisure, as a form of art, and to better society.
The USCF tracks various chess competitions each year, including the
United States Chess Championship and other nationwide activities. The
group also participates in international tournaments connecting US chess
players to players from around the globe.
One of the most remarkable advantages of US membership
The Chess Federation subscribes to its monthly newsletter "Chess Life."
and publishes a two-monthly magazine called "Chess for Kids." The USCF
provides updated articles and material of interest to chess players in both
publications.
According to the organization's website, there are over 80,000 active
members, and over half of its members attend those colleges. Therefore, the
USCF is genuinely involved in funding chess programs in schools, from the
pre-school programs to the university level. The association promotes the
game's growth, with thousands of affiliated local clubs and associations in
the US.
The community also provides correspondence chess matches by mail or
email to pair members. Players are requested to score on the following scale
to start:
Grade D / Starter (1399 and after)
Grade C / Intermediate (rating from 1400 to 1599)
Grade B/Strong (rating 1600-1799)
Class A/Strong (rating 1800-1999)
The more genuine the self-appraisal of a chess player, the better the
group will balance an opponent of a similar ability level.
Master candidate (2000 - 2199 rating)
Master (rating from 2200 - 2399)
Master's degree (2400 or higher)
 Chapter 10: Chess Notation
In this guide's past areas, we have used diagrams and long explanations to
depict events happening on the chessboard. There are more economical and
concise ways of representing events on the chessboard. The more concise
way of depicting happenings and events on the board is referred to as chess
notation.
Learning chess notation is crucial because it helps you easily decode and
record the various moves made in a particular game while it is still in
progress. You would want to ask, “Why would anyone want to record the
moves made during a particular chess game?”
Well, the answer is: when you record a game using chess notation, you can
always refer to the record after for practice. Additionally, you can quickly
identify where you made mistakes and the right moves you made in a game.
With chess notation, you can relive a game and enjoy its most crucial
moments.
You can do more with chess notation than just studying or looking at your
past game. If you understand chess notation, you read through, enjoy and
learn from games played by and annotated by the greatest chess players. A
simple search on the internet will lead to annotated chess games' repertoires
by the best players you can study and learn from.
Having looked at the importance of chess notation, you will be learning and
familiarizing yourself with chess notation. The signs used in annotating
chess games are algebraic signs or notations, so they are quite universal.
This means that learning and understanding chess notation shouldn’t be
hard for you.
In learning chess notation, we will be making use of the coordinate system
a lot more.
So, a recommended practice is that you should get yourself a chessboard.
Then sit by the board, point to different squares on it, and represent each
square using the coordinate system. This is highly necessary if you use a
chessboard that the ranks and files are not labeled. Practicing and
familiarizing yourself with the coordinate system will help you understand
how to annotate a chess game.
To do notation, you simply need to learn how to combine the coordinate
system with algebraic notations, and you are good to go. In chess notation,
algebraic symbols are used before coordinates to indicate a move. In other
words, an algebraic symbol can be used in front of a coordinate to indicate
which piece is moving to which location or square on the board.
Shorthand For Pieces
In chess notation, every piece is represented with either a letter or a
figurine, or a symbol. We will be making use of letters to represent pieces
because doing the symbolic representation of every piece at every mention
of the piece will be a herculean task.
That being said, here is a table that shows the different pieces and their
representation in symbols.
In the table shown above, you can see the different letters and symbols
representing each chess piece. The lettering is relatively straightforward and
should not be hard for anyone to understand. As mentioned earlier, we will
be using letters instead of figurines to represent the chess pieces. However,
when you start annotating games, you can choose to use figurines,
especially if you feel artistic.
With that being said, let’s get to business and start annotating chess moves.
If you move the queen, for instance, to a4, you can annotate that move was
Qa4. A bishop moved to b5 will be recorded as Bb5.
While you can use a letter to represent all other pieces' movement, you
don’t need to include a letter before the coordinate system when moving a
pawn. If you move a pawn from g4 to g5, you will record the move as g5
instead of Pg5.
More symbols
Here is a table that shows more symbols used in annotating chess games.

The above table shows some essential chess symbols and their meanings.
You will notice that a checkmate can be represented with a # or written out
as mate in the table. So when you see “mate” and #, they mean the same
thing.
Also, the last six symbols on the table are not used to annotate games –
instead, you can use them to comment on the movie's quality. In other
words, those symbols are an economical way of describing the quality of a
chess move.
So if you are reading a chess notation document and you come across a sign
like Qg5!!, what it means is that the queen was moved to the g5-square and
the person annotating the game believes it is an excellent move.
Chess notation in action
One of the best ways to understand and get familiar with chess notation is
to review an annotated game. While doing so, don’t pay much attention to
the quality of the moves. You should be more interested in understanding
the game's notation.
That being said, let’s see notation in action.
One e4

The above notation simply shows that White moved his pawn to the e4-
square. Remember, when annotating pawn moves, you don’t precede the
square's coordinate where the piece is landing with a symbol of the piece.
So, in the above move, we didn’t write Pe4; instead, we wrote e4.
Notice that there is a “1” before the move; it merely means that the move
recorded is White’s first move in the game.
1…e5
The three horizontal dots mean this is Black’s first move, which follows
White’s first move. The e5 in the annotation means that Black is moving his
pawn from e7 to e5.
2 Nf3 Nc6
This annotation paragraph means that the two players, White and Black,
just moved their knights for the first time. In chess, this first knight move is
referred to as “developing the knight.” The “2” that precedes the symbol
shows you that the move is both White and Black’s second moves of the
game. White moves his knight to f3 while Black moves his knight to c6.
See the image below.
3 Bb5 a6
This paragraph shows that White moved his bishop from f1 to b5, while
Black moves his pawn from a7 to a6. With Black’s move, his pawn on a6 is
incidentally attacking the white bishop on b5. Again, the “3” preceding the
move indicates that it’s White and Black’s third move of the game.
4 Nxc6
The knight on b5 captures the bishop on c6. Remember that the “x,” when
used in annotation, depicts capture.
4…dxc6
The three horizontal dots (…) in the annotation show that Black moves a
piece after White has done so. The above paragraph shows that Black
captured White’s bishop that is sitting on c6. We would have used d7 to
represent the pawn that did the capturing, but since the pawn is already
sitting on the seventh rank, we only needed to use only “d.” For instance, if
black had used the b7 pawn to recapture the bishop on c6, the annotation
would have been “4…bxc6”. The reason remains the same – the b7 pawn
moved from the seventh rank.
5 0-0
The above paragraph shows that White just made his 5th move. In this
movie, White performs a castle along the kingside. This move helps to keep
White’s king in relative safety.
5…Bg4
Following White's castling move, black develops his bishop – this means
that he moved his bishop for the first time in the game from c8 to g4.
Six h3 h5!?

Remember, when a pawn is moved, you don’t include P or any symbol

before the coordinate. In the above annotation paragraph, White pushed his
h-pawn, which hasn’t made the first move to h3. Notice that in this new
square, the h-pawn on h3 attacks Black’s bishop sitting on g4.
Now, it is Black’s turn, and he pushes his h-pawn two squares forward to
h5. The other signs you see in the annotation mean that Black’s move is an
interesting one.
Seven hxg4? hxg4
For his seventh move, White uses his h-pawn to capture Black’s bishop
sitting on g4. The question mark you see in the notation means that the
recorder is questioning that move. Black retaliates by using h-pawn to
capture White’s pawn sitting on g4.
Now, the question mark in the notation means that White’s move is not
particularly good because while capturing a bishop with a pawn is right,
however, by doing so, White opened up his king to possible attack.
See the diagram below.

8 Kxe5 ??
For his eighth move, White uses his pawn on f3 to capture Black’s pawn on
e5. Notice that there is a double question mark on this move, meaning that
White just committed a blunder. The blunder is that he just made it easy for
Black to deliver a forced checkmate to his king.
8…Qh4!
Black returns White’s move by moving his queen to h4. The recorder
comments, stating that the move is a good one. Notice that Black’s queen
and rook are now on the same h-file. On his following move, Black may
checkmate White’s king.

Nine f4
For his ninth move, White moves his f-pawn to f4, creating a small
breathing space for his king.
9…g3!
Black responds to White’s ninth move by moving his pawn on g4 to g3. The
move is an interesting one, according to the comment.
10 Nf3
For his tenth move, White moves his knight from e5 to f3. It is now the turn
of Black to make a move. If Black mistakenly moves his queen to h2-
square, Black will capture the queen. But Black has another intention.
10…Qh1 mate
Responding to White’s tenth move, Black moves his queen from h4 to h1,
and that’s checkmate. Can you notice that it is a checkmate? Look at
White’s king and see that he has no escape. If White’s king tries to capture
Black’s queen on h1, Black’s rook is sitting comfortably on h8 waiting – so,
there is no way out for White. The game is over for him.
This last move can also be written as 10…Qh1 #. The hash at the end of the
statement is the same as “checkmate.”
 Chapter 11: How to Win A Chess Game?
Chess is a game between two players, in which their goal is to utilize their
chess pieces so that the opponent’s King will have nowhere to go
(‘checkmate’). However, winning a chess game is not as simple as knowing
how each piece moves. Winning involves analyzing the opponent’s moves
and making a move that your opponent cannot counter.
Figuring out how to play chess goes past understanding the principles.
Technique and strategies are both critical to playing better chess. Long haul
vital plans spin around thoughts, for example, the material lead,
advancement of your assault, King security, and spacing the board.
Arranging out the development of your clerics is regularly a pivotal system
to utilize for accomplishing checkmate.
Essential chess strategies are present moment, constrained arrangements
that can rapidly change the course of the game. Forks, sticks, and skewers
are among the most well-known strategic themes.
Chess technique is the part of chess playing concerned with assessing chess
positions and defining objectives and long-haul plans for future play. This
qualification influences the promptness with which an arrangement should
produce results. Until players arrive at the ability level of ‘ace,’ chess
strategies will generally determine the results of games more frequently
than methodology does. In this way, numerous chess mentors underscore
the investigation of strategies as the most proficient approach to improve
one's results in a genuine chess play.
Chess methodology is the thing that makes chess such a lovely game. After
the remembered opening moves are played, and every player begins to
unfurl their arrangement, the genuine chess starts to happen. Everybody
likes to concentrate on opening hypothesis and learn end game systems;
however, the center chess game is the place most games are won and lost.
Numerous games will end in concession even before an endgame happens.
Beneath it, you will discover a considerable lot of techniques and strategies
that each chess player ought to have in his collection. This is perhaps the
most extraordinary territory of the game that most players battle with
because there are such a significant number of things to see that it can get
overpowering. To learn from the recordings, ensure heaps of training pieces
follow it to prepare the eye to see things a lot quicker.

Revisiting Chess Notation

If you are serious about learning chess and playing the game competitively,
you must write and read chess notations. To become a better player at the
game, you need to continuously analyze your games and identify the
mistakes you have made so that they can be avoided. Unfortunately, it can
be challenging to note each move (you and your opponent make) if you
write each move using words, such as ‘Pawn captured opponent’s pawn
positioned in 4th square of 5th column and 4th row.’
A shorthand method used to note the moves without taking too much time
is assigning symbols for each piece and its position. There are also symbols
used to note specific actions (such as when a piece is captured or if the King
is castled). As a beginning player of chess, you are encouraged to learn (or
refresh your knowledge on) these notations so that you can analyze your
moves and study moves that could help increase your chances of winning.

Avoid the “Three Common Accidents”

For those who are just starting in chess, one of the most common causes of
their loss is not because their opponent is skillful; instead, it is because of
their carelessness and inability to look at the situation in its whole sense.
Some of the most common accidents that they become involved with are
the following:

Losing a Piece for Nothing

In chess, players are given an equal number of pieces that have equal
abilities (both Knights of either white or black, move in the same way).
Therefore, if your side loses a piece, but you cannot capture one from the
enemy, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage because you are now left
with limited options.
To better understand, take a look at the figure:

In this scenario, White has just castled, and Black just moved its Bishop to
d6. Unfortunately for Black, that square is being guarded by White’s
Queen, and Black placed the Bishop in a square without getting it defended.
White’s Queen will capture Black’s Bishop because the former does not see
the threat of being captured.

The Piece That You Lost Is More Important than What You’ve
Captured
Each chess piece is assigned a value, depending on its usability and purpose
in the game. Although being able to capture one of your opponent’s chess
pieces is better than not capturing anything at all, capturing a piece that is
considered less valuable than what you’ve lost is not a consolation. Losing
a more critical piece implies that you’ve also lost a more significant
‘power’ than what the opponent has lost. For example, even if you’ve
captured the opponent’s Knight, you’ve lost one of your Rooks; you are at a
disadvantage because Rooks can move farther than compared to the Knight.
To better visualize this scenario, take a look at this image:

In the situation above, White’s Queen just moved out the range of Black’s
Bishop by going to d2. Unfortunately, that square is within the range of
Black’s e4 Knight. Even if the c1 Bishop and the King guard white’s
Queen, Black still gains the material advantage by getting to capture
White’s Queen in exchange for its Knight.

Your Pieces Are Outnumbered

Chess is a game where attacking and defending should be combined.
Although going on the offensive will win you games, this doesn’t mean that
you should attack without ensuring that your attackers are ‘guarded’ with
other pieces that could capture your attacker. By not setting up a proper
defense for the attacker, it’s more likely that your opponent will not hesitate
to sacrifice some of his unimportant pieces just to capture your efficient
attackers.
The image below will give you an idea of what this situation looks like
In this image, it can be seen that White’s Knight just moved to e4 to
threaten Black’s d6 Bishop and f6 Knight. However, this position is
disadvantageous because White’s Knight has fewer defenders (only White’s
Queen is defending the Knight) than multiple attackers and defenders for
Black. With the advantage for Black, it is most likely that its Queen will
take White’s Knight, White’s Queen will take Black’s Queen, and Black’s
Knight will take White’s Queen. In this exchange, Black has the material
advantage by gaining two opponent pieces in exchange for one.
 Chapter 12: Visual Game
Learning to visualize the board helps to develop or formulate strategies and
tactics. This is a crucial component of being a powerful player of chess. If
you cannot dream, then you are never going to advance. It always amazes
amateurs at the pace at which a Grandmaster will re-construct a spot on a
board from a match or how they can speak about a game in detail without
having a board in view. Once again, this is because of visualization.

Visualizing Active and Inactive Piece

One significant factor as we identify the right squares for our pieces is how
active our piece will be on a defined square. Based on the square it lies on
and the pieces and pawns surrounding it, any particular piece is on a
spectrum between active and passive. It is unable to move an entirely
passive piece to either square. For its form, a fully active piece can travel to
a maximum number of squares.
You can find that the Queen will dominate 27 squares, and the rook can
theoretically rule 14 if you take out a chessboard and place one piece on it
at a time in the middle of the floor. However, 13 squares can be commanded
at most by the bishop and just eight by the knight. The number of squares
that they may move to determine how strong the pieces are signed. Other
factors still occur. E.g., 14 squares can be managed more effectively by a
rook than a bishop can control 13--the bishop must be in one of the center
squares, while the rook can be in free files and ranks everywhere.
So, from this, we realize that versatility is primarily about becoming busy.
This impacts how much power we have over a square as well. If they can
pass into it, our pieces control a square—even if it is guarded.
How active a piece is, is another consideration: how important does the
piece regulate the squares? There may be several squares in certain games
where the board is "closed" (many pawns dominate the middle of the board
and minimize mobility), allowing fair mobility but not controlling the best
squares. If the number of squares to which our piece will have access is
equivalent, we should not only blindly assume two squares to be equal. We
have to note that it is more necessary to regulate individual squares—and in
certain situations, I believe this applies to where the movement on the board
would be.

Predicting Your Opponent's Plans

Seasoned players' ability to seemingly foresee what their adversary will do
is one of the strengths that every young chess player envies. When they go
up against advanced teams, they get defeated because their single move
seems to be countered. To be an expert chess player, is there any psychic
link required? We cannot precisely clear how you should prepare for your
adversary's moves to guarantee that you are not outmaneuvered.

Look Before You Leap

You can look at what your enemy is doing before you make any attempt.
Look where their bits are not just but try to find out where they are going.
You can be able to assess their solution only by seeing where their pieces
move. This is mostly all guesswork, but there is more to it than assuming
randomly, and in a minute, we will get to that.
For this first step, before you make your move, you need to concentrate on
paying attention to your opponent. Do not only play like you are the only
one on the board, and your adversary's moves do not impact your plan. You
must be able to build a flexible strategy of assault. You move to catch or
protect that direction, while the enemy goes one way. You should have an
overarching strategy, but you should still be prepared to adjust and counter
assault when appropriate.

Play as Your Opponent

The way pro chess players get into their opponents' heads to find out what
moves they will make is to believe they are the enemy. From that
perspective, they consider what their options are. Looking at all the
alternatives, they choose the very best ones, usually forcing moves.
A pushing action pushes the enemy to make a particular decision or inhibit
his willingness to do a lot. Those are the steps that your enemy would
make. So, the advanced player will search for specific movements and
prepare to fight or prevent them.
They do not realize the step is coming following, so they just prepare for
the move that will affect them the most. They presume that their rival can
make the following possible attempt, and you will have to do the same
thing if you want to defeat the opponent.
Without a definite target insight, one cannot just walk around the board or
make your movements and hope for the best. You must consciously predict
the foe. You might not be able to read his mind, but you might be able to
make some rational assumptions on the following phase.
The longer you play, and the more this strategy is used, the healthier you
will be at it. If you have a clear functioning understanding of chess theory,
it improves if you know the adversary and how they are doing. Only place
yourself in your adversary's head by gazing at their eyes at the board. You
will make reasonable guesses as to where they are going following until
you do so.

Basic Mental Checklist

In chess, one practical approach to performing better is to stop making
errors. But here is a simple checklist that you can prepare yourself to run
through every single step in only a couple of seconds. This feels like a
significant checklist, but it is not complicated, and it just takes a couple of
seconds once you know what to search for and why.
What was the prior position of the piece they just shifted? There are two
explanations for talking about this. First, they undermined the region by
pushing their piece away from the original spot. Was it safeguarding other
pieces? Did they open themselves up in that area to be outnumbered? The
second explanation is that the movement's intent could have nothing to do
with the moving portion, but the fragments are surrounding it. Was the
piece just in the way? For the secret bishop that is now lining up with your
Queen, the activity is a diversion! Or worst, did the step merely generate
two risks to which you can only respond with one move?
What is the new aspect of the piece that they have just moved? There is an
explanation that they have selected the particular spot where they have
placed it. Are they making plans for an attack? Do they reinforce their
defense? Are they seeking to get more room for maneuvering? Now, are
they attacking somebody?
For whom did their Rook/Bishop/Queen only line up? You are Ruler,
Queen, or some other high-value item that a pawn could cover.
"APPEARS" is what you are searching for. Let's imagine that your enemy
has just lined up your Queen with your King, but a wall of pawns covers
your King. No question, right? And the front pawn in your pawn wall
unexpectedly strikes their knight, and the pawn between your King and
their Queen cannot retaliate! Instead of retaining the wall, your King must
now be secured! Be alert. This is a ubiquitous threat. Always be completely
conscious of every piece of worth lining up with others.
Is one of my bodyguards being endangered by the piece they just moved?
Any component covering any other piece is a body protector.
Another tricky attack that is impossible to detect is this.
For the piece they just transferred, what are the two-three motion
projections? What is the most dangerous location they may travel to? What
is it that can attack? Who can assist with this assault? So Ok, why just 2 or
3? If there are just a few pieces to remember, it is acceptable to think 5 - 10
moves forward, but situations naturally shift too fast and may require so
many separate pieces that 2 to 3 moves are enough. If your adversary does
not mind waiting an hour per step, bear in mind that this is an algorithm,
bringing some effort into it (chess ethics - long moves). Bear in mind, too,
that quick-fire movements retain all the time-pressure on the opponent.
Now, what is my strategy? Do you always strike the left flank, or do you
protect the right flank? Have their moves affected what you ought to do?

Strategic Considerations
1. If it is not closed, do I hold the middle (is it possible to take it still?).
2. May I develop some more until the attack?
3. In foundation growth, am I farther ahead (do I have time to exchange
tempo for more accessible (valuable pieces?)?
4. May I have the initiative (they have to respond instead of thinking)?
5. May I build traction (they are losing/retreating space)?
Is there a priority for this move? Do not spend your time doing something
that will never come into action. It can just allow priority steps. Example:
Do not create protections on the left if the right is targeted!
Is this move repeatable? If the enemy is willing to make a pass, it would
only make you pull it down and not put pieces forward. You switch to allow
them free base growth (in other words, you say to them, go ahead and move
again; I will miss my turn).
Does it have existing responsibilities for the piece I am going to move to?
This is a simple error to make. Piece (A) defends piece (B), then attacks a
piece of bait (you assume the enemy has made a mistake), or you have
either chosen to walk away without a thought. Piece (B) is then uncovered,
and it is caught by your rival, potentially outnumbering you on that hand
and catching you down in your trousers.
Does it provide a safe and unblockable escape for this move? Do not be
safe once you continue to be safe throughout. This is an easy error to make,
as well. You will find that if you place your knight near a corner, they just
have two squares to run to, quick to get captured! Any piece will get stuck,
making it easier for your opponent to choose. When you start digging
behind the opponents' pawn walls, it is often easy to get stuck or get caught
between your pawn wall and the opponents.
Do make not only sure your getaway, but also make sure that none of the
pieces from the opponents are in a position to obstruct your escape in their
following move!
This is a terrific move; is there a better one? You might have a successful
pass but see first whether you can verify or set a leader trap. Pay careful
attention to pins (cannot switch without bringing in Check/danger King or
Queen) and forks (attack two with one). Is there a clear place where you
might use a minor piece (Bishop or Knight) as bait to attract their Queen or
King?
 Conclusion
You have gained a basic understanding of chess openings, and you now
know how to properly start a chess game and improve your chances of
winning.
When it comes to chess, a strategy is the name of the game. Throughout the
whole game, one is continually evaluating moves, both for their short-term
benefits and their long-term place, within your overall strategy. From the
opening to the endgame, the strategic plan helps you beat your opponent,
allowing you to create a checkmate.
This game doesn’t just provide strategic mental stimulation; it also has a
long history dating back to before the 6th century. As a part of the social
fabric of many cultures, it has stood the test of time, tying together
humanity with a game of strategy.
So, what should you do with the little information you have gotten so far?
You should put the information into practice. Get yourself a chessboard and
get familiar with all the components of the board. Try and memorize all the
squares, ranks, and files. Once you are done doing that, the following thing
you should do is to arrange the chess pieces on the board correctly.
Start by playing with yourself, and you will need to play the White and
Black pieces yourself. This is a great way to perfect a new skill you just
learned. The more you practice with an actual chessboard, the more you
will master how the different pieces move on the board. Make use of forks,
pins, and the many other techniques we have talked about.
If you cannot get your physical chessboard immediately, another right way
to practice what you have learned is downloading a chess game on your
mobile phone. There are many free mobile chess games you can download
and start playing immediately. Just visit the app store for your mobile
operating system, type ‘chess’ into the search bar, and download one of the
games that will pop up in the search results. Make sure you read reviews
before choosing the one to download.
Some online games will allow you to pair with another player online. Once
you have paired with someone, you can compete with this person and win
virtual points. Participating in such competitions is a great way to sharpen
your skills.
However, when you are just starting, I would recommend that you shun
online competitions entirely. You need to learn on your own first before
engaging in competitions. Many mobile chess games allow you to play with
the system as your opponent, and that’s one of the easiest ways to learn how
to play chess.
Open the game you have downloaded, select the option that allows you to
play with the system, choose a side, either White or Black, and then start
playing. When doing so, you should not only pay attention to what you are
playing, but you should also pay attention to the moves that the system is
making against you. You will learn a lot from the system’s moves. Keep
practicing and improving your skills, and don’t forget that chess can be
quite addictive.
Remember, it is left for you to leverage this foundation and turn yourself
into a chess master.
As you play more, you will grow inquisitive, and this is what will make you
try to seek out more information on how to surmount a particular challenge
you face.
Chess is a complex game, and mastering it takes a lot more than just
reading about it. Playing, losing, and learning are the best ways to improve
your game. So, pick out your favorite openings and read about them several
times to make sure you fully understand the theory behind them and
remember the sequence of moves that comprise them. Do not forget to put
what you have learned to practice by playing games.
By now, you know how important it is to create a strategy right from the
beginning of a match and follow it through to a devastating conclusion.
Take your chess skills to the following level by knowing what NOT to do
and make sure the win is in your pocket.
The various opening moves and tactics, along with robust middle-game
evaluations, endgame follow-through, can get you to a win. But along the
way, you have to use a plan and follow it to the end. No plan when playing
chess puts you in a position of weakness with your opponent, and a sound
plan can put you in a position of strength. While you have to react to your
opponent’s moves, remember they are also attempting to execute their plan
to a successful conclusion. To get that checkmate, you just have to execute
yours better!
 CHESS OPENING FOR
BEGINNERS

Master the Most famous and aggressive Chess

openings and Learn the most used defenses by the
grandmasters (Chess for Beginners)

Robert Johnson
 Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1: OPENING OBJECTIVES
CHAPTER 2: OPENING CATALOG
CHAPTER 3: THE BEST CHESS OPENINGS FOR BEGINNERS
CHAPTER 4: THE 4 BEST STRATEGIES FOR BEGINNERS
Battery Attack
Queen and Bishop's Battery
Queen and Rook's Battery
Queen and 2x Rooks - Battery
2x Rooks- Battery
Discovered Attack
Discovered Check
Fork Attack
Relative Fork Attack
Absolute Fork Attack
Pin Attack
Relative Pin Attack
Absolute Pin Attack
Skewer Attack
Relative Skewer Attack
Absolute Skewer Attack
Forks
Pins
Skewers
Discovered Check
Threading
Double attachment
Nailing
CHAPTER 6: EXERCISES
CHAPTER 7: MORE CHESS OPENINGS
Danish Gambit
 Slav Defense
Vienna Game
CHAPTER 8: UNUSUAL REPLIES AND OTHERS
CHAPTER 9: LEARNING FROM THE MASTERS
Paul Charles Morphy VS Stanley Kipping
Paul Charles Morphy VS Henry Edward Bird
CHAPTER 10: ADDITIONAL CHESS OPENINGS
Damiano’s Opening [C40]
Latvian Gambit [C40]
Petrov's Defense [C42]
Game #91: Odegaard, Karl Erik - Bhave, Prakash [C50] USA, 1993
CHAPTER 11: CHESS STRATEGY
Evaluating Board Position
Material
Creating a Game Plan
CHAPTER 12: BASIC MATING PATTERNS
Two Pawn Checkmate
Bishop and Knights Fianchetto Checkmate
Smothered Checkmate
CONCLUSION
 Introduction
If you begin in the wrong direction, you can easily get lost forever — and
lose everything you have in the process. That is for ordinary travel, and so
is it for the game of chess. That is why you need to know the best chess
opening moves. And the best ones are those that ensure you do not make
your chess arrangement weak; you do not make yourself vulnerable to your
opponent. They are also those moves that make you a threat to your
opponent’s pieces.
Whereas any beginning of a chess game is generally referred to as opening,
formal use is usually about the set of moves you make in a particular
sequence at the start of the game, which is generally referred to as openings
by White, or defenses by Black. Do you know what will amaze you? It is
said that you have at your disposal well over a thousand chess openings! Of
course, that is quite a long sequence pushing up to the middle game.
Importance of Careful Chess Openings
First of all, you need to know that the player with the white pieces is the
one that makes the very first move in chess. And if you are the first player,
you must begin with robust and secure moves. Whites, as the game
initiators, are believed to have an advantage over the blacks. Statistics seem
to back this belief when you observe that whites win the chess game 52-56
percent of the time. And as the player with the black pieces, you find
yourself, kind of, trying to counter the moves made by the white. Therefore,
you must balance the impact; or rather neutralize the effect of the white
moves.
How to Develop Good Openings?
If you want everyone to know you are a novice, begin to make opening
moves that are redundant or even dangerous. But if you want to establish a
good game for yourself, move your chess pieces to squares where they are
most helpful to you. As you make a move right from the onset, ask yourself
— what impact will this move have on the game? Will my pieces are safe,
or will I be exposing some of them? Is this move the most threatening to my
opponent at this juncture? If so, go on and utilize that chance to weaken
your opponent.
Here are some helpful suggestions for a chess opening:
Begin with The Knight
a) Move your white knight to c3 or f3
b) Move your black knight to c6 or f6
c) Alternatively, move your white knight to d2 or e2
d) Alternatively, move your black knight to d7 or e7
In both numbers c and d, you will have to sacrifice both the king’s and
queen’s pawns. This move is mainly intended to develop your bishop.
You can follow these moves on the chessboard diagram below. The knights
and the first moves' results are shown in blue, while the pawns to be
sacrificed in the alternative moves are shown in red.
The tendency is to leave the queen to rest during the opening and only
begin to move it after into the game. You also do not hasten to move your
rooks at the beginning.
You Can Do a Fianchetto
What you do here is create room for your bishop to move to the 2nd rank
and remain adjacent to your knight. Here is how you do it:
g3
This means moving the knight pawn from g2 to g3. Note that you do not
indicate any symbol when you are showing the movement of a pawn.
However, when you are moving other pieces, you always indicate the
particular piece's symbol before indicating the move.
In our case, when you move your knight pawn to g3, you create room for
your bishop to move diagonally from f1 to g2. You demonstrate that
maneuver as g3, then Bg2, of course, ‘B’ being the bishop's symbol.

Let us go through the other symbols before proceeding, just to be sure we

are picking the right symbol for each piece on the chessboard.
 Name of the Corresponding
Piece Symbol
Rook R
Knight N
Bishop B
Queen Q
King K
Some standard moves are often shown in brief when writing. Here they are:
Description of Corresponding
the Move Symbol
Captures x
Check +
Checkmate Either ++ or #
Castles king’s o-o
side
Castles queen’s o-o-o
side
Move to Control the Central Area of the Chessboard
And why would you need to do that? Well, do you know where you will
need what piece in the following, say, 10min? No, you don’t. Another
question: With an open center, do you not see that your opponent has room
to advance and threaten your pieces? Of course, that’s true. In the early
days, players used to dash the center, securing that space with pawns – often
having pawns at d4 and e4 or d5 and e5. But guess what? Experience has
taught differently. For one, the pawn is your weakest piece. How much of a
fight can it make for you individually in the face of your opponent’s vital
pieces? Often what happens is that those pawns are quickly captured, and
you are left as exposed as ever.
These days, players secure the center differently. They keep the area safe
from an afar – remote control, kind of. Only after do they bring in the
pieces.
Creating Alekhine's Defense
The moves you make at the opening lead may proceed as below:
e4, Nf6; e5, Nd5; d4, d6; c4, Nb6; f4; known as the 4-pawns attack.
But even as the white feels the center is well covered, the black is hoping to
undermine that position and eventually expose the white pieces. Notice how
the black has managed to lure the white pawns out by making threatening
maneuvers with the king’s knight.
Just to reiterate, the moves represented in the chessboard below are e4,
Nf6; e5, Nd5; d4, d6; c4, Nb6; f4.
Alternative Opening Moves Include:
4, Nf6; e5, Nd5; d4, d6; Nf3
e4, Nf6; e5, Nd5; d4, d6; Nf3 Bg4
Illustration of an Alekhine's Defense
Ensure Your King Is Safe
How do you do that, yet you have to move your other pieces forward as the
game progresses? And note that your king begins to become vulnerable
when you begin to move your other chess pieces.
Here are some options:
Begin to castle your king
One of the best ways to do this is to move your king to some safe corner as
there is not much activity.
The fact of the matter is that you cannot sustain injuries if you are not
where the fighting is. So, the King getting out of the way as the other pieces
scramble for the middle area is a wise move; a protective one.
In the meantime, you will be moving your rook that was initially at that
corner to a square near the middle, where it can help you advance the cause
to control the center of the chessboard.
Note that you do not have to confine your king to the nearest corner. You
can also move it to the side of the queen. For that reason, we speak of the
Queen’s side and also the King’s side. So the King has the option of castling
on either side, and the King’s location can be aptly described as castling
either on the King’s side or on the Queen’s side.
Important note:
When castling, always begin by moving your king and not your rook. If you
begin by moving your rook, your opponent will take it to make the ordinary
play and thus treat it as such. Yet while castling, you have the particular
concession to move your rook in a way you would otherwise not do.
Let us see how you can safely do your castling:
 From the original space at E1, the white king has moved two squares
to the right and occupied the 2nd square from the right. Then you have
followed that by moving your rook from its corner, H1, to space
immediately to the left of the king — nearly the square the king just
skipped. That was the move shown earlier on with the symbol, o-o.
See the position of the rook and the king in blue font.
You could also move your king two squares to the left; that is, towards
the queen’s side. And in that case, you will take the queen’s rook from
A1 and move it to the square immediately to the right of the king —
here too, the square that the king just skipped. That was the move
shown earlier on with the symbol, o-o-o. See the position of the rook
and the king in pink font.
Whenever the King castles on the King’s side, the move is described as
castling short; and when the King castles on the Queen’s side, the move is
described as castling long. Every field and every game has its jargon, and
you must be up to speed in this regard; otherwise, you’ll find it difficult
fitting in or even being on the same page in communication with your
opponent.
Here is how the chessboard is demarcated:
Castling short is symbolized: O-O. Have a look at this demonstration:

In the above chessboard, the King was initially at e1, his home square. Then
in castling, he moved two squares to the right – call that g1. The Rook,
which was initially on its home square, h1 then moved to the King’s inside
at f1, which happens to be the King’s left side; and that move is
intentionally designed to protect the King. It took the Rook two squares to
get to the King’s inside.
Castling long is symbolized: O-O-O. Have a look at this demonstration:
Let’s follow the moves that constitute castling long. The King has initially
been at e1. Then he moves two squares to the left; to c1. The Rook was
originally at a1, and it moved to the King’s inside to protect him. It took the
Rook three squares to reach the right side of the King at d1.
Ever heard of the saying, it takes two to tangle? Well, in chess, it takes a
King and a Rook to the castle. If one of them is missing or has moved from
the home square, castling can’t be accomplished.
 Chapter 1: Opening Objectives
Objectives are the little tasks that you work to achieve within your process
of getting to your overall goal. They are like segments of the entire plan and
achieving or completing each segment gets you a step closer to the primary
goal. In chess, this comes with five main areas of focus that ensure you get
to the checkmate as soon as possible:
1. Establishing Material Advantage
The first thing that should be in your mind at the beginning of the game is
winning more material. This is usually the first objective for the task of
winning. As soon as the game starts, the first thing is to make sure you have
more pieces left on the board.
The idea of material advantage is that the person with more pieces can
generally force someone into a defensive position and remain with extra
materials to mount offenses that the opponent is in no position to defend.
During games with very advanced players, someone can surrender in the
early stages of the game when they realize that they have lost the material
advantage. They believe that unless you are playing with someone likely to
make a mistake down the line, there is a very undeniable possibility that the
person with more pieces will win.
2. Proper Piece Development
After establishing material advantage now, piece development aims to make
sure your pieces have essential roles to play. Having pieces is one thing.
Using them is something else. Here it is all about placing the pieces where
they will maximize their potential. It’s all about location when it comes to
Piece development.
Piece development is a team effort game. In most cases, it is always best to
have your pieces working together rather than alone. Once in a while, your
opponent may make a mistake that allows you to make a lucky take, but this
barely happens when playing people who know exactly what they are
doing. While setting your pieces, always look at the team role they play.
Always avoid lone players. Coordination of all your pieces when
developing is essential. On some occasions, in your attempt to develop one
piece towards achieving its full potential, you may hurt another piece.
Take, for example in a situation where you can jump your knight to two
different squares. One of these squares gives your knight its best possible
potential. The other offers the knight an okay role, not so impressive but
better than its current role. There is, however, a small problem. The position
that gives the knight more value also blocks the queen. In this case, you
have to consider the coordination between the queen and the knight. In your
attempt to improve the knight's position, you shouldn’t render the queen
useless. It's better to have an okay knight plus a functional queen than a
mighty knight and a blocked queen.
Stages of Piece Development
Undeveloped – in this stage, a piece has no particular role to play. It’s
all about its possible roles to come.
Underdeveloped – a piece has been awarded a role for playing, but the
role is minor. As much as it is doing something, it could always do
better. At this point, the goal is to move it to a better position.
Properly developed – a piece has been given a role that suited it. It is
not considered to be underinvestment or a waste of power.
Perfectly developed – the piece is in a position where it can do the
most damage to an opponent. Its resting position forces the opponent
 into making submissive moves.
Developing a piece needs one to be aware of all the roles that pieces can
and play on the board. These roles include:
Defense – these undermine your opponent’s attempts to attack your
territory and capture your pieces. Some are purposefully set to keep
the king from being too exposed.
Restriction – these pieces' location on the board restricts the
movement of an opponent’s piece. A piece could be restricting the
movement of more than one piece, which increases your material
advantage as your opponent has less functional pieces.
Attack – to increase your control, you need to focus on attacking your
opponent and forcing them into negative defensive roles. The more
someone is playing a defensive match, the less they pay attention to
mounting an attack.
Multiple – these are the best pieces ever. Having pieces set to
accomplish more than one task is the best way to achieve an advantage
over your opponent.
When selecting the order, you should develop, you need to consider the
current value each piece has. If a piece has no role or is underdeveloped,
that piece gets priority in development. Focus on having all your pieces
playing at least some role and, to some extent, developed. As tempting as it
would keep developing a piece to its maximum potential first, don’t. It’s
better to have all your pieces in the initial development than have some just
doing nothing on the board.
As you advance in your game and also start playing more advanced players.
You will notice that no one is making mistakes, and it’s challenging to
attain a material advantage over your opponent. Piece development also
becomes trickier as they are also fully aware of the objective. Now, you
have to focus on accumulating minor advantages. Hoping or anticipating
your challenger to make a mistake won’t work with more advanced players.
Achieving the objective of piece development will require you to: focus on
your least active pieces on the board; keeping your opponent from
achieving the same goal by neutralizing all his attempts and also taking his
most substantial pieces off the board; attaining all the strategic squares for
your pieces and exchanging your opponent’s pieces as much efficiency as
you can.
3. Conquering the Center
The chess center's center refers to the four innermost squares on the
chessboard and the immediate surrounding squares. Having control over the
center in a chess game is of utmost importance. Centrally places pieces
have more flexibility and wield more power in a game. Take, for example in
the case of a knight. Compare a knight situated at the side and a knight
situated in the center. The knight on the side loses the ability to cover some
extra squares in terms of movement. He can only move toward the inside,
whereas the knight at the center can move in all directions.
Pieces and pawns covering the center pose a more significant threat to the
opponent as one piece can place multiple roles while in the center compared
to any other point in the board. This goes a long way into facilitating your
material advantage and guarantees proper piece development. Achieving
central control is not an easy task, especially when playing a more advanced
opponent, as they are fully aware of the need to control the center and play
towards the same goal. So how do you get to control the center before the
other person does so?
When starting the game, you should consider the center as a goal. Viewing
it as a goal on its own enables you to focus your attention on getting there.
You cannot have divided attention when trying to control the center as your
opponent won’t make the same mistake. You need to give it your whole at
first. This doesn’t mean that you completely ignore all the aspects of the
game. Keep in mind that chess is a game of very many possible moves, and
not keeping an eye on the entire board or the objectives of your opponent
can be costly. Focus, but don’t focus too much on one thing that you ignore
the bigger picture.
Move your pieces towards the center at all times unless there is a reason not
to. If you are threatened on the flank side, deal with that. If a piece plays a
role in the outer files and ranks, it’s okay to let it keep doing so. Develop as
many pieces towards the center as you can. When it comes to dealing with
the fact that both of you are targeting the same thing, that is the center. This
means that you won’t just find empty squares. There will be pieces already
in the square or heading towards the center. Your task here will be to keep
them from doing so. Chase their pieces away from the center. Apply as
much pressure as you can to ensure they opt-out. When it comes to pawns,
you need to keep in mind the pawns' two locational values. Flank vs. Center
pawns. When the opportunity presents itself, always make sure to exchange
center-located pawns for flanks.
In other cases, you may have enemy pieces who aren’t located at the center
but are posing a threat to the center. For example, a directly open bishop
that has access to an entire long diagonal. Or a knight that can get to the
center with one move. These are the ones you should target first when
mounting attacks. Taking out these pieces enables you to occupy the center
unchallenged. This is very important as getting to the center and then
turning to play defensive roles can be a severe waste of strategic
positioning.
Always remember that central pieces are the best-developed pieces. These
pieces have control of a large number of squares on the board. While at the
center, a piece can be a defender, an attacker, or even a restrictor. These
pieces also can escape danger easily and quickly with single moves as they
have multiple options in terms of direction. Having a piece at the center can
be good at posing a danger or mounting a double defense. A bishop
controlling a long diagonal can defend on one end and then slide directly to
do the same on the opposite side of the board without losing its dominance
on the board.
4. Guaranteeing King Safety
As we have seen before, chess is all about the king. If the king falls, so does
your game. When it comes to king safety, we have to focus on
understanding the check rule. The king at any time cannot be in check. A
king is in check if it’s in danger of capture. King safety is an essential role
in strategizing your game. Looking at the king's safety here is not just about
your king but also the enemy’s king. How safe is my king, and how can I
challenge the safety of their king? You want your king as safe as possible,
and they're as exposed as possible, and that’s most definitely their goal.
5. Pawn Structure
Pawns may not seem important as they don’t have much power in a chess
game, but this cannot be further from the truth. Pawns play just as important
roles as the other players on the board. Without pawns, some of the other
pieces lose some of their value. The best way to maximize your pawns'
potential is to make sure that they are arranged in the most optimal way
possible. By optimal, I refer to each pawn's ability to accomplish a goal,
such as protecting each other and other functions. One important thing to
consider when dealing with the structure is to avoid incapacitated pawns.
As you know by now unless capturing pawns move straight ahead. This can
be problematic when you have pawns behind each other.
 Chapter 2: Opening Catalog
Studying the openings is very important to start the game right away.
Missing the opening means being forced to remedy the initial mistake, not
fully develop one's pieces, giving the opponent an advantage. We have seen
how difficult the endings with few pieces are, this to tell you that the
opening is, even if it does not seem, also very complicated. I can certainly
not show you that a small part of all its complexity by showing various
game hypotheses. I will illustrate a series of general principles that must be
followed as faithfully as possible. Even if it is not easy to apply them, your
opponent will try to prevent you from developing because he too has your
usual problem and your usual goal. WIN.
Here I list the two openings that I will discuss.
A) Opening of Re1) and 4
B) Opening of Donna1) d4
All the other openings are rarely played, but this does not mean that they
are not good, indeed in many games, you will also see great champions
playing different openings. I understand that in high-level tournaments,
about 30% of the openings occur with 1) e4, another 30% occurs with 1)
d4, 15% occurs with 1) Cf3, and another 15% with 1) c4. What is missing
to reach 100% are other openings even less used, but not without surprises,
even positive ones, since they are not very well known and, consequently,
analyzed from a theoretical perspective.
A curious thing that I want to point out is that many openings have a proper
name. Let me explain by giving you some practical examples. “Apertura
Grob” - “Apertura Rèti” - “Spanish Part” - “Italian Part” - “Hungarian
Defense” “Two Horses Opening” - “Four Horses Opening” and many other
names. All these names can be dedicated, as in the case of the first two, to
great champions of the past who theorized/played/studied them, or they can
be due to the chess "school" that codified them first or even to the scheme
that is on the chessboard. To form.
Opening of D 1) And 4
This opening is, as mentioned pastly, widely used for two reasons. The first
reason is that it allows you to conquer part of the center of the board. The
second reason is that it allows two pieces, which otherwise could not do so,
to enter the game at the following move. These pieces are the bishop on f1
on the diagonal f1-a6 and the queen on d1 on the diagonal d1-h5. One thing
to note is that the pawn on e4 is NOT defended, and therefore you will need
to be careful and provide for its defense in subsequent moves.
Black's response to this move is generally 1) ..., e5, but you can respond just
as strongly with 1) ..., c5 or with 1) ..., e6 and with other moves like 1) ...,
d6 or 1) ..., Cf6 or with others. Let us try to analyze some of these possible
responses of blacks very superficially.
A) e4, e5
The answer 1) ..., e5 is good because it allows blacks to develop a pawn,
bring it to the center, and prevent a possible advance of the white pawn.
Also, in this case, free the diagonal of the Bishop and that of Queen. As you
can see, black is symmetrical to that of white, now the question to ask is
which move can be right for white, and the answer is 2) Cf3, 2) Cc3, 2)
Ac4, and at least three others or four.
Here it is impossible to face all the various existing combinations so that I
will show you only two of these possible continuations.
Spanish Match
1) e4, e5; 2) Cf3, Cc6; 3) Ab5, etc.
Now let's see a possible continuation 3)…, a6; 4) Aa4, Cf6; 5) 0-0, Ae7; 6)
etc., etc.
Below I report the scheme of this game, and as you can see, with very few
moves, the game is already very complex.

Match of the four horses

1) e4, e5; 2) Cf3, Cc6; 3) Cc3, Cf6 etc.
Now let's see a possible continuation 4) Ab5, Cd4; 5) Cxe5, De7 6) etc,
Below is the diagram of the continuation, I think there is no need for
comments.
B) e4, c5
The answer 1)…, c5 is good because it allows black to develop a pawn and
carry it, if you have center edges, but still checking the d4 square, then it
allows you to free the queen's diagonal. One possible answer from white is
the
2) Cf3, 2) Cc3, and at least three or four others.
Here it is not possible to deal with all the various existing combinations, so
I will show you only one of these possible continuations.
Sicilian Defense
1) e4, c5; 2) Cf3, e6; 3) d4, cxd4; 4) Cxd4, Cf6; 5) etc., etc.

7. Opening of Donna 1) d4
This opening is also, as past mentioned, widely used for two reasons. The
first reason is that it allows you to conquer part of the center of the board,
the second reason is that it allows two pieces to be able to enter the game at
the following move. These pieces are the bishop on c1 on the diagonal c1-
h6 and the queen on d1 on the d1-d3 column. One thing to note is that the
pawn on d4 unlike the past opening [1) e4] is defended by the queen, even
if, in the following moves we will try to defend the pawn on d4 with the
knight on f3.
Black's response to this move is generally 1)…, d5, but it can be answered
just as strongly with 1)…, Nf6 or with 1)…, f5 and with other moves like
1)…, b5. Let us try to analyze some of these possible responses of blacks
very superficially.
A) d4, d5
Answer 1) ..., d5 is good because it allows black to develop a pawn and
bring it to the center, also in this case it frees the diagonal of the bishop and
part of the column of Donna. As you can see, the response of black is
symmetrical to that of white.
Queen's Gambit Rejected
1) d4, d5; 2) c4, e6 etc.
Now we see a possible continuation 3) Cc3, Cf6; 4) Ag5, Cbd7 5), etc.
Below I report the scheme of this game, already very complex.
Queen's Gambit Accepted
1) d4, d5; 2) c4, dxc4
Now we see a possible continuation 3) Cf3, Cf6; 4) e3, Ag4; 5) Axc4, e6;
6) etc., etc.
Below I report the scheme of this game, already very complex.

B) d4, Cf6
The answer 1)…, Nf6 is good because it allows black to develop the knight
that controls the d5 and e4 squares.
Indian Defense
1) d4, Cf6; 2) c4, e6
Now we see a possible continuation 3) Cc3, Ab4; 4) a3, etc. Below I report
the scheme of this game, already very complex.

Here I have made a quick and easy overview of the openings, but you
should know that there are about 50-60 coded and studied openings. So, I
give you some advice, study at least one opening of white, which you will
use in case you have to play with white and at least one answer of black for
the two most used openings in case you have to play with black.
8. Behavior of 2 great champions at the opening
At the beginning of this lesson, I gave some advice if possible always play
the usual and well-tested openings, which you have studied. Now let's see
how two great champions of the past played in the opening game.
Karpov Anatoly vs Kasparov Garry
Moscow - 31st World Championship 10/09/1984 Match no.1
Sicilian opening Scheveningen - Keres attack
1) e4, c5; 2) Cf3, e6; 3) d4, cxd4; 4) Cxd4, Cf6; 5) Cc3, d6; 6) g4, h6; 7)
h4,
Cc6; 8) etc.
Moscow - 31st World Championship 17/09/1984 Match No. 3
Sicilian opening Taimanov
1) e4, c5; 2) Cf3, e6; 3) d4, cxd4; 4) Cxd4, Cc6; 5) Cb5, d6; 6) c4, Cf6; 7)
Cc3, a6; 8) etc.
Moscow - 31st World Championship 09/24/1984 Match 5
Sicilian opening Scheveningen
1) e4, c5; 2) Cf3, d6; 3) d4, cxd4; 4) Cxd4, Cf6; 5) Cb3, a6; 6) Ae2, e6; 7)
or-
o, Ae7; 8) etc.
Moscow - 31st World Championship 28/09/1984 Match n ° 7
Defense Tarrasch
1) d4, d5; 2) c4, e6; 3) Cf3, c5; 4) cxd5, exd5; 5) g3, Cf6; 6) Ag2, Ae7; 7)
or-
o, oo; 8) etc.
Moscow - 31st World Championship 05/10/1984 Match n ° 9
Defense Tarrasch
1) d4, d5; 2) c4, e6; 3) Cf3, c5; 4) cxd5, exd5; 5) g3, Cf6; 6) Ag2, Ae7; 7)
or-
o, oo; 8) etc.
Now, after seeing how Karpov started these five games, let's see how his
opponent, Kasparov, responded when it was his opening turn.
Kasparov Garry vs Karpov Anatoly
Moscow - 31st World Championship 12/09/1984 Match No. 2
West Indian Defense
1) d4, Cf6; 2) c4, e6; 3) Cf3, b6; 4) g3, Ab7; 5) Ag2, Ae7; 6) oo, oo; 7) d5,
exd5; 8) etc.
Moscow - 31st World Championship 21/09/1984 Match 4
West Indian Defense
1) d4, Cf6; 2) c4, e6; 3) Cf3, b6; 4) g3, Aa6; 5) b3, Ab4 +; 6) Ad2, Ae7; 7)
Ag2, Ab7; 8) etc.
Moscow - 31st World Championship 09/26/1984 Match 6
West Indian Defense
1) d4, Cf6; 2) c4, e6; 3) Cf3, b6; 4) g3, Aa6; 5) b3, Ab4 +; 6) Ad2, Ae7; 7)
Ag2, oo; 8) etc.
Moscow - 31st World Championship 03/10/1984 Match n ° 8
West Indian Defense Catalan variant open
1) d4, Cf6; 2) c4, e6; 3) g3, d5; 4) Ag2, Ae7; 5) Cf3, oo; 6) oo, dxc4; 7)
Dc2, a6; 8) etc.
Moscow - 31st World Championship 08/10/1984 Match 10
West Indian Defense
1) d4, Cf6; 2) c4, e6; 3) Cf3, b6; 4) Cc3, Ab7; 5) a3, d5; 6) cxd5, Cxd5; 7)
and3,
Cd7; 8) etc.
I showed you how two great champions of the past started playing, but this
does not mean that they always opened with these openings, it just means
that they studied a type of opening and then verified how well their
opponent was able to respond to their attack. Seeing how prepared the
opponent was, they decided whether to change the type of opening or insist
on the one just used.
 Chapter 3: The Best Chess Openings for
Beginners
Possessing a successful opening can help you establish the speed and Tone
of the game. Your opening will give away your personality into your
competition and vice versa. Therefore, it provides you ample chance to play
following your competitor's style. You may wonder, "What great an
opening could perform"? Allow me to say here in this stage that lots of
games are completed in a matter of moments as a result of strong openings.
Sometimes all you need is a hard opening to grab your competitors off
guard and then push the game in your favor. Thus, you must be aware of
different openings in chess to use them from the competitor and understand
what to anticipate when your opponent plays with a particular one.
Keeping this in mind, I've picked some of the very significant chess
openings and describe them in this report. These are the very best chess
openings for both black and white in the novice phase into the elite level.
Use them wisely.
Here Would Be the Best Chess Openings For Novices In 2020:
1. Ruy Lopez
2. Italian Game
3. Sicilian Defense
4. French Defense
5. Caro-Kann Defense
6. Pirc Defense
7. English Opening
8. Alekhine
9. Queen's Gambit
10. Modern Defense
11. King's Indian Defense
12. King's Indian Attack
13. Dutch Defense
 1. Ruy Lopez

Moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5

This opening is popularly called the Spanish game and has been named
after a Spanish priest, Ruy Lopez, who found this opening in the entire year
of 1561. This opening was not valued or utilized much at this point. Just
through time, it has become popular among experts (grandmaster degrees
too) and is considered as one of the most influential chess openings.
It's utilized as White's best effort in gaining an edge after dual king pawn
formations. A significant plus of the opening is that it provides the white
participant enough chance to develop a more intricate offensive strategy and
slows down Black's pawn formation.
Recommended class: Open Ruy Lopez from Andrew Martin
 2. Italian Game

Moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4

The Italian Game is just another old chess opening such as the Ruy Lopez
and has been found in the 1600s. This opening was rather prominent at the
point in time because people overlooked the Ruy Lopez opening. But with
all the Ruy Lopez opening hogging the limelight through time, this opening
has lost its allure.
This Is Usually Due to the certainty that the Bb5 Move at the Ruy Lopez
opening places the Black in a more significant drawback than the Bc4 move
within this opening. Even so, this is a highly effective opening alone and
needs to be considered if you wish to begin the game on an offensive
notice.
 3. Sicilian Defense

Moves: 1. e4 c5
This opening is popular among the Black gamers when White moves the
king pawn to e4. The main reason is that the opening provides the Black
participant a chance to retort quite ardently to White's opening. This
technique perhaps can neutralize any competitive introduction of the White
participant, which is the reason for its popularity. The c5 is a far better
response to e4 than every other movement and may be utilized to black's
benefit if the upcoming moves are performed right.
This defensive posture was regarded as a dreadful opening if it was detected
originally and wasn't utilized in several games initially. These days, the
Sicilian is among the most usual chess openings being broadly used across
different tournaments' performance levels.
 4. French Defense

Moves: 1. e4 e6
The French Defense is an opening that favors the Dark players. Though this
opening provides a way for the White player to contact the middle, it
compels the white pawn in the electronic lineup. It pressurizes the White
player to perform with his following move sensibly, which is accustomed to
the Dark player's benefit.
 5. Caro-Kann Defense

Moves: 1. e4 c6
This is another opening that the Black Players prefer since it features a
powerful retort into the White's e4 opening. Even though it gives good
defense into the Dark player, it isn't quite as popular as the French defense.
This opening has gotten a lot of variants because of its discovery.
Two players detected the opening, specifically Horatio Caro, a British
participant, and Marcus Kann, an undercover participant in 1886. Though
this isn't a lively opening, unlike many others, this may win massive favors
for your Black player if supported with a well-defined pawn structure.
 6. Pirc Defense

Moves: 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3

This opening is well suited to Black players. Just like the Sicilian defense,
this opening was considered a dreadful one in its discovery time. But
through time, it has gained popularity and is now popular among Black
gamers. This can be an exciting and smart opening because it's effective at
turning the tables.
Initially, this opening provides room for the white to construct in the
middle. Nevertheless, this may be utilized to the benefit of Black to
establish an aggressive assault against the White at the middle and is just
one of the openings that provide the Black participant ample chance to take
an offensive strategy through opening up a lane to the queen and bishop to
obtain an upper hand to the game.
 7. English Opening

Moves: 1. c4
This is just another opening that may work wonders for your White
Participant if played correctly. The English have experienced many
experiments through the last few years, and there are many mixtures of
following moves. When the white player plays it carefully, he will have the
ability to adopt an offensive strategy from the Dark player by opening up a
lane to the queen.
For many practical purposes, this can be called a reversed Sicilian defense
for simple comprehension. But this opening is much livelier than the
Sicilian defense since there is a lot of scope for innovation and
improvement; this particular element of unpredictability associated with
this opening is thought of as another among the most effective openings.
 8. Alekhine's Defense

Moves: 1. e4 Nf6
Rather than the other openings we’ve seen today, Alekhine's defense wasn't
found long ago. It's, in reality, a contemporary opening and was just found
in the year 1921. This defense can also be considered a hypermodern
defense and a beneficial opening for Black gamers since it allows them to
start an aggressive assault.
Under this opening, the White player is motivated to move his Pawns
forward to create a wide pawn formation. This extensive pawn formation is
readily employed by the Dark to benefit and may become the foundation for
starting an aggressive assault.
Another reason why the Dark gamers prefer this movement is that the Fact
can nullify each of the pre-determined moves that form part of White's
opening. This kind of play also eliminates all resemblance into the plank,
which can be advantageous to competitive players.
 9. Queen's Gambit

Moves: 1. d4 d5 2. c4
This is among the earliest openings in Chess and is regarded as a
competitive opening, ideally suited to the White players. Even though it
may seem like favoring the Dark participant in the beginning due to the lack
of pawn for its White, this opening is known to have given the White
participant enough floor to start an offensive assault.
But a prominent point about this opening is that it also gives the Dark
player chance to react to White's moves using a competitive strategy. Hence
it cannot be wholly considered an opening that will benefit only the White
player. Numerous games hold sufficient evidence to how this opening can
reap the Dark player, too, in the event the following moves are played
correctly.
 10. Modern Defense

Moves: 1. e4 g6
This opening has been utilized to capture the opponent off guard in certain
games, even though it isn't used regularly. This opening sets out to
encourage the Dark player but ends up supporting the White player to gain
an edge over the Dark player. As in Alekhine's defense, the white pawns are
motivated to proceed forward to establish a sound pawn structure in the
middle.
This paves the way for the Dark to assault round the middle. Exactly enjoy
the Alekhine's defense. This opening exerts some benefit and restores
balance in the game. Since White won't forecast the upcoming movements
of Black, this opening may be employed by Black to establish an aggressive
assault.
At Precisely the Same time, this opening helps White embrace an offensive
strategy since there's sufficient chance for White to create a reliable center.
Having a solid center makes it possible and easy for White to establish an
aggressive assault against the Black. Even though it has several virtues, the
players prefer this opening it inclines to complicate the game, and
frequently, players have been left with no thought about what
This lack of predictability and clarity Related to this Opening is the most
important cause of its lack of popularity.
 11. King's Indian Defense

Moves: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6
This is another famous chess opening and can be just another Instance of
hypermodern gameplay. This opening makes it possible for White to get
control over the center together with his pawns. At precisely the same time,
the Dark player can also be given enough chance to challenge the middle
control exerted by White. It's been a constant favorite among professional
gamers since it's a lively introduction and contains much scope for
advancement.
Another Extra benefit of choosing this opening for Black Is that you're
given a chance to come up with your bishop, knight and additionally castle
your troops at the start of the game itself. You may understand the
importance of castling your troops early to the game in an after the post I
wrote >>Chess rules for castling<<
 12. King's Indian Attack

Moves: 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3
The mirror opposite to Black's King's Indian Defense is that the King's
Indian Attack. As you may have figured, this opening favors the White.
Openings like the French Defense, Sicilian defense are popular among the
Black gamers since these openings violate the symmetry from White's
openings. However, this opening is effective at retorting any defensive
strategy embraced by Dark and allows
This opening can lead to competitive middle games at which both the
players shed a lot of pieces. An intriguing component of this King's Indian
attack is that it does not need to be used as an opening. It may be adopted as
a strategy throughout this game too.
Ideally, White may embrace this strategy to squelch any Defensive motions
of Black. The twin aims of the opening/strategy are as follows: To enable
White to create their bits. To result in a round against the black king. This
requires exceptional strategies in the Dark player to neutralize these
competitive moves in the White.
 13. The Dutch Defense

Moves: 1. d4 f5
The Dutch defense is regarded as the very competitive retort by Black to
White's opening. This opening gives Black the chance to start an assault on
White's kingside throughout this game. But this attack leads to the f7 square
of this shameful getting an easy target to its White. This disadvantage is
readily overcome by castling the king.
This is one opening that promotes competitive moves out of both Players
and makes the game even more intriguing and exciting. Despite its multiple
advantages, this opening may also be a double-edged sword for shameful
since you open yourself up from a fast checkmate if you are not attentive
and playing against an expert White. These are a few of the widely used
openings. I am confident that you’re amazed and motivated after studying
these intriguing openings. I'm confident you're waiting to test them out on
another game. The value of a fantastic opening can never be stressed
enough. A fantastic opening can most surely alter this game's destiny;
hence, you must understand these several openings.
 Chapter 4: The 4 Best Strategies for Beginners
We will be discussing the following basic chess tactics and how they can be
used to make your game better:
Battery Attack
Discovered Attack
Discovered Check
Fork Attack
Pin Attack
Skewer Attack
There are many more tactics in chess, but to understand and learn the more
complex chess tactics, you will need to know these basic tactics, and these
tactics will be taught to you with the help of simple and understandable
animated diagrams. Now let us take a look at the aforementioned basic
chess tactics.

Battery Attack
Battery attack is of a two-kind attack, which comprises of Queen along with
Bishop or Rook. In the first kind of attack, the Queen and the Bishop are
placed side by side on the Diagonals. In the second kind, the queen is with
the rook on the Straights or Ranks or Files.
As the strength of a household battery is increased when an extra cell is
added, this tactic aims to strengthen the army attack with extra pieces.

Queen and Bishop's Battery

The Diagonals are made use of for this kind of battery. The Bishop is
employed as it has greater reach. Whatever is the tactic, only the board
positioning will allow the player to take the calculated risk required for this
kind of attack. The position of the board is explained with the diagram
below for better understanding.

Queen and Rook's Battery

The Rank or File is used for this kind of battery attack where Queen and
Rook are employed to add power. It is recommended to make the desired
moves with the Rook rather than the Queen, despite it being the chief of the
battery attack.

Queen and 2x Rooks - Battery

A battery attack with a Queen and 2 Rooks is considered a powerful,
commanding attack, which will give you an advantage over your opponent.
Alexander Alekhine applied such an attack where the Queen and two Rooks
on the file move towards the rival when he plays Chess's game. Hence,
Alekhine's gun became another name for this attack.
2x Rooks- Battery
Without a Queen, only 2 Rooks on the Ranks or Files can form a battery
attack, controlling the board. It is instrumental despite being a weaker
battery attack compared to the three kinds mentioned above of attack. But
only the game situation can determine the level of effectiveness of such an
attack.

Discovered Attack
The two different units of the two opposing players are against each other,
but the King of either player is not attacked.
One unit comes into play when the other unit is pulled out of the way. Only
then the unit can attack the opponent, and such is the case of the discovered
unit.
From the image below, we can understand that Bishop is the uncovered unit
or can be called a discovered unit in this scenario.

Discovered Check
Unlike Discovered Attack, in Discovered Check, the King is in danger. The
discovered unit attacks the enemy King in this case.
Since the black should save the King according to the diagram, the
discovered unit has enforced a Check that leads to the Black Queen's
sacrifice to save the King. Simultaneously, when the white Bishop checks
the King, the Queen is under the radar of the White Knight.
Fork Attack
In this case, a single unit can attack two rival units in one move.
Two Chess Tactics as Relative Fork and Absolute Fork, are explained below
with images.

Relative Fork Attack

The Relative Fork Attack is an attack made by one unit on two or more
pieces of the opponent in a single tactic that excludes the rival King. It is up
to the opponent to decide which piece he wants to rescue, and which piece
will face the attack. The following diagram shows how a single move of the
white Queen can put the Rook and the Knight of the Black in danger.

Absolute Fork Attack

In the Absolute Fork Attack case, the King of the enemy is attacked along
with another piece or pawn of the opponent in a single move. Since
opponent should save King as the King is checked and leave another piece
in danger.
The image shows that the white Queen can attack the Black King and the
Rook simultaneously.

Pin Attack
This attack comes into play when a lesser important piece or pawn is ahead
of an important piece.
There are two types of Pin Attack in the form of Relative and Absolute Pin
Attack.

Relative Pin Attack

The less critical pawn or piece is attacked if it is before an essential key
piece. Since it is a relative attack, the critical piece is not the King of the
rival player.
The White Knight, in this case, is the pinned unit. Such a unit's movement
may disturb the formation to safeguard more valuable pieces and put such
pieces in danger.
Absolute Pin Attack
As the attack is absolute, the King is in danger. The pinned unit cannot
move, as the King's protection is the game's prime cause. If such a piece
tries to move, it is illegal against Chess's rules where voluntary Check is
impossible.
In this scenario, the black Queen should be pinned to the black King due to
the white Rook.

Skewer Attack
The identification of an attack is done through an essential piece before a
lesser important piece or pawn.
The Relative and Absolute Skewer Attacks are mentioned briefly below.
Relative Skewer Attack
The attack is launched on a valuable unit to capture the lesser valuable unit
just behind the valuable unit. This attack facilitates the movement of
essential pieces that hindered the lesser valuable piece or pawn's attack.
The white Bishop looking to capture the Black Knight should first threaten
the black Rook.

Absolute Skewer Attack

The enemy King is attacked with a Check-in order to capture a lesser
valuable piece behind the King. When a Check is enforced, the opponent
should save the King by moving if impossible to block with a piece. In that
situation, King's movement opens up the chance to attack the pieces just
behind the King.
According to the image, the Rook should be exposed to danger to save the
King from Check. The white Queen would easily capture the Rook once the
King is off the way.

Forks
A Fork is when a Knight, Bishop, Rook, or Queen attacks two pieces on
different squares at the same time. In the image below, a Knight has forked
a Queen and a Rook. Notice the “fork” shape the arrows make.

The opponent can move either the Queen or the Rook, but he can’t move
both! You’ll notice that the Queen and Rook are protecting each other, but it
doesn’t matter. You remember that the value of a Queen is 9 points and a
Rook is 5 while a Knight is only 3 points. So, White will gladly make that
trade any day.
While my favorite piece to fork with is the Knight. You can also fork with
Bishops, Rooks, and Queens. Here are a few examples.
 A Bishop Forks two Rooks.

A Rook forks a Knight and Bishop.

 A Knight forking a Queen and Rook.
In the picture above, notice the King can’t take the White Knight because
the Bishop protects it. From the beginning of the game, I am trying to put
my Knight in this position. The game is in my favor from here on out.

Pins
A Pin is when your piece traps (or pins) your opponent’s piece between it
and the opponent’s King. In the example below, Black’s Rook would love
to move down and eat up the White Queen, but it can’t because moving
down would put the King in Check, which is illegal. The Rook is pinned.
Since two pieces are attacking that square, White’s Queen can move up and
take the Rook. Since the Black King can’t attack back, White takes a free
piece. Oh yeah!
Skewers
A Skewer is when your piece attacks two opponent pieces through each
other. See the image below. The difference between a skewer and a pin is
that the Queen in this situation is not pinned to the Rook. It can move and if
your opponent is smart, he will move it. But one of those pieces is going to
die. It’s called a Skewer because it’s like a shish-kebab that skewers through
two pieces of grilled chicken.

Bishop skewers Black King and Rook

Discovered Check
A Discovered Check is not technically a Fork, Pin, or Skewer, but it’s in the
same family of awesome moves and I wanted to share it with you because
it’s just as powerful. I also call it the Peekaboo Maneuver. Discovered
Check is when a piece that could attack the opponent’s King is blocked by
one of your own pieces. When you move the blocking piece out of the way,
your opponent discovers he’s in check. In the picture below, the White
Rook is pointed toward the Black King, but White’s own bishop blocks it.

Rook is pointed toward Black’s King but is intentionally blocked by his

own Bishop.
Peekaboo! White takes advantage of Discovered Check, attacking the
Queen while the King must move out of check.
In the next picture, White’s Bishop is moved out of the way. Notice that the
Rook is putting the King into check and the Bishop is attacking Black’s
Queen. Since the King must move out of check immediately, White’s
Bishop can take Black’s Queen for free.
If you want to pull ahead in points, Forks, Pins, and Skewers, and
Discovered Check are the best way to do it. In order to incorporate them
into your repertoire, you’ll have to actively look for opportunities to use
them. But I promise, once you got it, it’s like bringing a laser gun to a knife
fight.

Threading
I think this strategy is easier to do than to explain. First of all let's say that if
for the double attack the best piece is the knight, for the enfilade the
strongest piece is the queen. This strategy consists of attacking an
opponent's piece that is placed in the same line of action (column,
crosspiece, diagonal) as another opponent's piece.
In practice, if we attack an opponent's Bishop with a Queen, and behind that
Bishop there is another Bishop, our opponent will still lose a piece because
he will move the first Bishop but the second will be captured.
Example: White: Queen f3 Black: Bishop f5 and Bishop f8.
The white queen threatens a bishop, and the bishop moves (to get out of the
way of the attack), but offers another piece to the white queen. This move
can be saved, however, if you have these pieces White: Queen f3 Black
pieces: Bishop f5, Bishop f8 and pawn e7. Let's assume that white has
moved and now it's black's turn to defend. How can he free himself from
this entanglement? Just push the pawn from e7 to e6 so that it defends and
supports the bishop f5.

Double attachment

The Two Knights Defense starts out with:

e4 e5
Nf3 Nc6
Bc4 Nf6

The most obvious attacking continuations are to continue with move 4.

Ng5. White is increasing the pressure on that f7 square and threatening to
win a pawn by force and messing up black's hopes of castling. The usual
reply from the black is:
Ng5 d5
From this position, white has little option, but to take on d5 as his
bishop, and the e4 pawn are both under attack. After this, there are several
different variations we will discuss later on.
However, black can instead try the exciting move:
Ng5 Bc5
This is a dangerous counterattack from black. He is ignoring the
mounting pressure upon the f7 square in favor of developing some
counterattacking potential. White has three main variations: 5. d4, 5. Bxf7+,
and 5. Nxf7.

Nailing
Nailing could be said to be the reverse process of threading. Here again, the
strongest piece is the Queen, but there is nothing to stop the Bishop and
Rook from nailing. Nailing occurs when one's own piece attacks an
opponent's piece and the latter cannot move because it is defending its own
king.

This is the case with:

White piece: Bishop c3. Black piece: Rook e5 and King h8.
The white bishop threatens the rook on e5, which cannot move because it is
covering its king on h1. If the opponent moves the rook White has the right
to declare an "Illegal move" and depending on the tournament the arbiter
will take his own measures (which almost always consist in loss of time on
the opponent's clock or even loss of the game if we are in a lightning game
or a semi-light game).
 Chapter 6: Exercises
Chess is first and foremost a game of forethought and disciplined strategy.
This is why practicing tactical exercises is so crucial to improvement at the
game. Having a proper grasp of tactics in any given situation will give you
a leg up on the competition and allow you to win otherwise unwinnable
games.
Each of the following tactics exercises were chosen to ensure a variety of
tactics was explored. In each example, white will win given the correct
number of moves using strategies described in the preceding. While there
may be more than one correct solution to each of the following exercises, a
correct example for each will follow the entire set.
Answers

1. D (5) to N (E7) White can threaten the knight with the pawn so black will
move the night and no longer be guarding B4.
Q (A4) The queen will check the king and be close to taking the bishop,
black has no choice but to concede the bishop

2. R (D7) to K (C8)
R (D5) to K (B7)
R (E5) to B (D6)
R (H5) This allows white to take a pawn without losing the ability to keep
the pressure on black

3. R (F8) to R (xF8) White’s rook forces a check and puts pressure on the
black’s rook, which leads to a threat on the king by the white bishop
R (xF8) to K (A7) When the rook checks, the king is forced to move in only
one direction.
B (xE3) The bishop will take the knight and check the king, both gaining a
piece and avoiding checkmate at the same time

4. R (F5) to N (ED7) This allows the white to pressure the black knight,
forcing it to withdraw or risk losing a piece.
Q (F2) to R (G8) White puts pressure on the opposite knight forcing black
into a position where it is weak on defense.
E5 R (xG5) This allows white’s pawn to move and allows for the most
beneficial exchange
E (xD6) to R (xF5)
D (xE7) to R (xF2)
K (xF2) This is not necessary but only works out in white’s favor. This
leaves the board-wide open for white to proceed in several different ways

5. Q (B3) to K (H7) White will check the king leaving black no choice but
to move it
R (H1) to Q (H5) White can use the rook to check the king, forcing black to
use the queen to block
R (xH5) to G (xH5) If done correctly, white will exchange a rook for a
queen. The white knight is crucial in this play as it makes the easiest way to
avoid check impossible.

6. N (F6) to K (F8) This move will allow white to put pressure on both
rooks and possibly allow for checkmate
N (xD7) to K (G8)
N (F6) This will force black into a situation where black has no choice but
to surrender a rook

7. R (H3) to K (G8)
E7 to D5
E (xD8) to R (xD8)
Q (xC5) to B (xH3)
G (xH3)

8. R (H8) to K (xH8)
Q (xF8) to K (H7)
Q (xG7)

9. R (H7) to K (G8)
R (CG7) to K (F8)
B (D6) to B (H6)
R (H8) to R (E7)

10. R (xF8) to K (xF8)

Q (F3) to K (G8)
Q (xG3)
 Chapter 7: More Chess Openings
Danish Gambit

The Danish Gambit is named for the nation of Denmark, not the delicious
sweet Danish pastries. Although White is inviting Black to gobble up a
couple of pawns, perhaps a double entendre is at play.
The opening is most strongly associated with a Danish chess master, Martin
Severin From. From was active as a player in the mid-to-late 19th century
but is better remembered as an analyst and administrator, from writing an
essay on the sequence of moves now known as the “Danish Gambit” while
playing in an extreme 1867 tournament in Paris. Perhaps he penned it as a
ruse to distract attention from his play, as he came equal last out of the
thirteen entrants. In a way, this makes From’s achievement in immortalizing
the Danish Gambit even more remarkable – it’s one thing to popularize an
opening thanks to winning a tournament with it. Still, it is undoubtedly even
more challenging if the player has performed poorly.
An interesting quirk of this 1867 tournament was that it used a different
scoring system to today’s players are most familiar with. Almost universally,
present-day chess tournaments award 1 point for a win, and both players get
½ a point for a draw and 0 points for a loss. Chess has been scored this way
for such a long time that it’s hard to imagine an alternative, but other scoring
systems exist. In Paris 1867, it was 1 point for a win, 0 points for a draw, and
0 for a loss. Drawing a game was as bad as losing.
This system may hint at a solution to modern chess's scourge; at the top level
especially, there are far too many draws. When playing with the Black
pieces, emerging with a draw is considered a satisfactory result in contests
between elite grandmasters, so they often try to lead the position towards a
drawish end rather than play sharp lines and risk a loss. There’s also the so-
called “grandmaster draw” — a draw by agreement where, early in the
game, both players agree to shake hands and share the point before things
even get interesting. Such a safety-first approach is not great for the game’s
followers who want to see the danger, excitement, and decisive results.
The problem of excessive drawing is not restricted to chess. In football
(soccer), goals are difficult to score, and it is tempting for teams to adopt a
defensive mindset rather than press forward for a win. But spectators hate 0–
0 draws, and indeed don’t particularly enjoy draws of any kind. Competition
is meant to be about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, not the
melancholy of a draw.
To combat the drawing tendency, the Football League in England tried
something drastic for the 1980/81 season when they increased the value of a
win from 2 points to 3 points. Draws remained worth 1 point and 0 points for
a loss. A team became better off if they won one game and lost one game (3
points total) than if they drew two games (2 points).
Placing additional value on wins concerning draws had the desired result.
The number of drawn matches across the first division season fell to 25.5%
of games played, compared to 29.0% in the preceding season. Observing the
improvement, other national football leagues quickly followed suit, and
today and the 3 / 1 / 0 system is ubiquitous.
Could chess embrace such a radical departure? There would be many
naysayers, but 3 / 1 / 0 is already in use at the annual Bilbao Chess Masters
tournament. It attracts some of the world’s very strongest players, and the
scoring system does seem to have the desired effect. By giving more points
for a win, it stimulates more aggressive chess and fewer draws.
Even though the Danish Gambit is today decried as “unsound” by the
experts, Martin Severin From may have been correct in recommending it,
given the way the 1867 Paris tournament scoring system heavily penalized
draws. Since the Danish Gambit sees White offering Black the chance to go
a pawn ahead in the material in exchange for White’s fast development, the
position immediately becomes unbalanced. One side or the other is more
likely to emerge with a win. If 3 / 1 / 0 ever becomes more widespread, we
may see a revival of interest in more dangerous openings such as the Danish
Gambit.
Slav Defense

Slavs are an ethnic group native to central, eastern, and southeastern

Europe. Various attempts have been made to give them their own countries,
usually with failed results. For example, Yugoslavia was a nation for all
southern Slavic people but exploded into ethnic conflict in the 1980s and
1990s. The Soviet Union’s Slavic lands broke apart into Russia, Ukraine,
and Belarus in 1991. Czechoslovakia underwent a more peaceful divorce
between the Czechs and the Slovaks in 1993. Even within the “Slavic”
grouping, there are essential differences that prevent a shared sense of
identity.
The Slavic lands were crushed under the yoke of an oppressive regime after
World War II. This is not the only time in their history the Slavs were
oppressed: the English word “slave” has its origins from “Slav” due to the
servitude suffered at the hands of Muslim conquerors in the 9th century.
These days, their circumstances are happier, and their quality of life has
improved. Many Slavs maintain the tradition of playing chess in parks,
which has unfortunately been lost to much of the world. Their reputation as
chess players is still fearsome; one of the first rules this author learned as a
young man was to be leery of challenging any chess player with a Slavic-
sounding name.
The Slav Defense was named because so many strong Slavic grandmasters
helped popularize it; Semyon Alapin, Alexander Alekhine, Efim
Bogoljubov, and Milan Vidmar helped develop the theory behind the move.
One upside of 2. …c6 is that Black’s light-squared bishop is not locked in,
unlike when 2. …e6 is played to decline the Queen’s Gambit.
The central tension can be relieved right away in the Exchange Variation: 3.
cxd5 cxd5, while other lines can become very complicated. The Slav
Defense has survived extensive examination from the 1920s to the present
day and still retains a large and respected following.
Vienna Game

The Vienna Game looks relatively non-threatening. Rather than use the
second move to attack an enemy soldier with the more common 2. Nf3,
White defends one of its pawns by playing 2. Nc3. It is a fundamentally
solid opening that can develop in many directions, both aggressive and
quiet. One idea is to follow up with 3. f4 in the King’s Gambit (the “Vienna
Attack”). Other lines see simple developing moves and the beginnings of a
long-term positional game.
The Vienna Game received its name thanks to several strong Viennese
players who worked on its development. Vienna was an important cultural
center during the Enlightenment; Mozart played his music there and held
many strong chess tournaments. Wilhelm Steinitz – the first official world
chess champion – gained one of his most important early victories by
winning the Vienna City championship in 1861. Steinitz was also one of the
opening’s most ardent advocates.
The city of Vienna hosted the debut of a most extraordinary invention in
1770. Wolfgang von Kempelen claimed to have invented an automaton that
could play a formidable chess game against a human opponent. The
machine consisted of a man's life-size model in Ottoman robes, complete
with moving arms and head. This figure sat at a cabinet with a large
chessboard on top and three doors at the front. The Austrian court
assembled at Schönbrunn Palace to witness the machine’s first game, and to
the astonishment of all, this “Mechanical Turk” easily won. The Turk after
traveled to the Café de la Régence in Paris and played against the world’s
best player, François-André Danican Philidor, as well as the prominent
statesmen Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin.
If you hadn’t guessed, it was a trick. Steam Age technology was not capable
of the complex calculations required to play chess. The Turk concealed a
strong chess-playing human operator inside the cabinet, who directed the
moves to the model’s arms via interior levers. Kempelen employed
elaborate misdirection to prevent the secret from being discovered. The
base of the machine contained dummy gears and cogs, which appeared to
be driving the operation. It also made a clockwork-like sound. The Turk
survived inspection many times.
As interest in the Mechanical Turk grew, Kempelen became increasingly
reluctant to expose his creation to further scrutiny. He would lie about it
being under repair. He even wholly dismantled The Turk until ordered by
the Emperor to rebuild it. It may seem unbelievable to us that the
Mechanical Turk could fool onlookers like this. Still, it was the early
industrial revolution, and all manner of new gadgets were hissing and
spinning out hitherto impossible deeds. A chess-playing machine wouldn’t
have seemed entirely out of the question to 18th-century minds.
The first (real) chess-playing computer programs were not developed until
the middle of the 20th century. Initially, computers could now play chess at
all was remarkable enough, but these first programs could be defeated even
by weak human players. However, the machines became better and better
over the following few decades. They became able to evaluate millions of
possible positions every second and began to pose a serious threat to even
the best humans.
In the 1990s, the world’s best player, Garry Kasparov, took on IBM’s
specially built chess supercomputer Deep Blue. Under the spotlight of
global media attention, the first six-game match in 1996 saw Kasparov
defend humanity's honor by triumphing with three wins, two draws, and
one loss. But in a rematch the following year, Deep Blue came out the
victor – much to Kasparov's upset.
Since that contest, chess programs have continued to get even more robust,
while our brains seem much more confined to the limits of our biology.
These days, a game between a professional grandmaster and freely
available software running on an ordinary laptop computer would be an
abject humiliation for the human. Having begun in Vienna as a hoax, the
machines have finally prevailed.
 Chapter 8: Unusual Replies and Others
1. d4, b6

Unusual openings are played against the players who memorize openings
and play, which is one reason why we have learned general opening
principles first.
Unusual openings are played to confuse players that they’re playing some
different opening he doesn't know.
Just following our general principles,
2. c4, Bb7; 3. Nf3, e6; 4. g3
We can play g3 in this position without being afraid of exchanging on f3.
Bxf3 will be just met with exf3 followed by Bg2 and normal development,
which will only give black a disadvantage of not having a double bishop.
If black plays Nf6 here, the opening will get converted to Queen’s Indian
Defense.
F5; 5. Bg2, Nf6; 6. O-O, Be7; 7. Nc3, O-O; 8. Bf4
It is just a Queen’s Indian Defense with f5, this type of conversion in
openings happens most of the time.
Ne4; (d6; Ng5, Bxg2; Kxg2, Qd7; d5)
This variation will be better for white since white has found some light
square weakness on black’s camp, which a white knight can occupy.
9. Rc1, d6;
White can play c5 in this position to open the a2 – g8 diagonal to create any
threat on e6 or to close the diagonal of black’s white bishop.
In most of the unusual openings, just managing to develop your pieces will
be more than enough. Sometimes, the opponent may tempt you by giving
away of attack. For Ex: From the above diagram after Ne4, it is tempting to
play Nb5 to attack c7. However, this will be useless since the opponent will
simply play d6 and defend the threat and create a square for his knight on
d7.
b6 with g6
1. d4, b6; 2. c4, Bb7; 3. Nf3, g6; 4. g3, Bg7; 5. Bg2
Black creates a double fianchetto bishop on b7 and g7. Black didn’t control
the center with pawns, which is a bad thing for the opponent. However, he
will eventually play d6 > e5 or e6 > d5 after the game. e6;
Allowing a square for g8 knight to e7 and also controlling d5 (central
square)
6. O-O, Ne7; 7. Nc3, O-O; 8. e4
Now we can understand that white is better at this position, having a
reliable center and useful pieces of activity. Players usually tend to make
mistakes after finishing the opening, especially opening, which they are not
most aware of.
d6; 9. Re1, Nd7
Now that we have the right pawn center, we need to make sure that it is
indestructible. The opponent may try to break it with e5 or d5, or c5 to
make things normal.
10. Bg5
Nf6 with Nc6
1. d4, Nf6; 2. c4, Nc6; 3. Nf3
It is a general principle that we should not block c pawn in the Queen Pawn
opening. But in this case, black has played Nc6 directly, blocking c pawn.
Playing d5 instead of Nf3 makes our pawn vulnerable after in the game.
Nf3 controls e5 square so that white can play d5 now.
This opening can often turn into Semi-Slav or King’s Indian system.
d6; 4. Nc3, e5; 5. e4
Just converting the line into King’s Indian or Old Indian defense set up.
Always try to convert the opening lines to the lines we know to make sure
that we don’t make any mistakes in the opening.
b5
1. d4, b5?!
In almost every opening, we would have played c4. Black played a move
that will stop c4 directly. It is not recommended to exchange a center pawn
for a flank pawn, so c4 is impossible. However, blacks didn’t try to control
the center now. Let’s try to have reasonable central control.
2. e4
This move not only controls the center but also attacks the pawn on b5.
Bb7!;
Counter-attacking the e4 pawn, we can continue like Bxb5, Bxe4, Nf3,
followed by Nc3 and castle.
This variation will allow white pieces to get developed rapidly. However, a
central pawn is exchanged for a flank pawn.
3. Nd2
Protecting e4 also enables the threat Bxb5 again. Nc3 will be met with b4,
and it will be better for black.
a6;
Black should protect the b5 pawn, which will also lose a tempo. B4 also a
playable move in this position instead of a6.
4. Ngf3, Nf6; 5. Bd3, e6; 6. O-O
We can see that white has developed many pieces compared to black and
also castled.
Playing e5 gives nothing to white, so O-O has been played just to develop
the rook and safeguard the king.
Be7
Just preparing to castle.
7. a4, b4; 8. c4!
White is trying to break the black’s pawn structure; bxa4 will leave the c4
square back to white. Black chose to play b4 to protect the pawns from
being isolated. White regains the move c4 and controls the center with an
additional pawn, which will give a reward in the long run.
 Chapter 9: Learning from the Masters
Chess is a learning game, and you will find that you will make several
mistakes along the way, but to truly get better, you are going to need to take
the time to not only go through the games of masters but also to analyze
them and think about why they made certain moves. Once you can
understand why masters make certain moves, you will automatically begin
to think like them.
Even though some of their moves may seem completely unorthodox, these
grandmasters made them because they managed to predict how the game
would go in the following several moves.

Paul Charles Morphy VS Stanley Kipping

Paul Morphy was one of the world's greatest players in the 19th century and
became one of the greatest players that ever lived when he was in his early
20s. This game shows how Paul Morphy was able to use Evan’s Gambit
and play an extraordinary game against Stanley Kipping.
This game was played in 1860, with Paul Morphy playing white while
Stanley Kipping playing black:
e4, e5, Nf3, Nc6, Bc4 — Morphy was a firm believer in playing the Italian
variation of the King’s Pawn Opening, and he was always on the lookout
for the opportunity to play the Evan’s Gambit. This situation is an instance
where his opponent obliged.
Bc5, b4, Bxb4, c3, Ba5, d4, exd4 — but instead of capturing the pawn with
cxd4, Morphy decides to castle instead. Morphy was a world-class player
that didn’t mind sacrificing a few extra points for the sake of position or
rapid development.
O - O, d6 — Kipping knew that being greedy and capturing the pawn on c3
would end in disaster for him against an opponent like Morphy.
Qb3 — Morphy aligns his queen with his light-squared bishop, which
attacks black’s f7 pawn.
Qf6 — This is a decisive move because Kipping defends the f7 pawn while
developing his queen, but Morphy responds with an unorthodox but equally
powerful move. Most people would merely capture the pawn on d4 because
it allows for a strong position. Morphy ignores this pawn.
e5! dxe5, Re1 (putting pressure on the e5 pawn), Bb6 — his is not the
greatest of movies on Kipping’s part because moving Nh6 or Ne7 would be
better because it allows the black king to castle faster and deal with the rook
pin on the e-file and add extra protection to the f7 pawn.
Bg5, Qf5, Nxe5 is a temporary piece sacrifice, but Morphy has a plan here.
Additionally, the black queen wouldn’t be able to capture the white bishop
because if white moves their knight and checks the king, they’ll be able to
win the queen, or white could take the pawn on f7 checking the king.
Therefore:
Nxe5, f4! — This pawn push attacks the knight, but the rook pins the
Knighton e1. Then:
dxc3+ — it would be tempting to play f3 instead in this position, but that
move does put black into a bit of a predicament because it can weaken the
whole position after white takes the knight on g8 with the bishop. There
will be a vast exchange of pieces in this position, and depending on the
strength of the player, it really could go either way. So, to play the safer
option, Kipping decides to take the pawn on c3 while opening the bishop’s
file onto the white king, check.
Kh1, Bd4, Nxc3, Kf8 — Kipping thought that this was a good move
because it unpinned the knight and the king, but after this move, Morphy
delivered a killing blow to Kipping’s position.
Rad1 — ironically, this wasn't the most substantial move that Morphy could
have played because the most decisive move was Qa3+. After all, it
destroys black in a few moves. But Morphy knew that moving Rad1 was
strong enough for him to still win in this position.
Nxc4, Qxc4, Be6 — this seems like a blunder of the dark-squared bishop
because it’s left entirely unguarded, but Kipping had no choice. If he tried
to protect the bishop or move it away, he would lose the game. If he played
Bg6, Morphy would respond by playing Rd5, which attacks the queen and
leaves the c5 square unguarded. If Kipping played his queen to g4, Morphy
would merely play his queen to c5 checking the king. Then it doesn’t matter
if Kipping blocks the check with his knight or his bishop because Morphy
would play his rook to d8, and it would be checkmate. This result is why
Kipping decides to sacrifice his dark-squared bishop.
Qxd4, f6, Ne4 — Morphy offers up his bishop for the sake of the position,
but Kipping doesn’t fall for it because it opens up the attack on his king and
remaining pieces.
B6, Ng3, Qc5, Qxc5+, bxc5, Rxe6, fxg5, fxg5, g6 — after this tremendous
trading of material, it appears that the position is still salvageable for black,
but this is a dire position for black to be in because he has no more effective
moves in the position.
h4, Kf7, Re5, h6, Ne4, hxg5, Nxg5+, Kf6, Re6+, Kf5, Rd4+, Kf4, Re4+ —
it was after his move (on move 30 of the game) that Stanley Kipping
decided it would be better to resign the game as he will be defeated in the
following few moves.
This type of game is essential to analyze because both players in this game
played solid moves, and unlike other games, neither player made
detrimental blunders. Morphy’s moves were just inevitably too powerful for
Kipping to handle, and Morphy came out victorious. Studying these types
of games will improve your own game.
Paul Charles Morphy VS Henry Edward Bird
There will be a few games included from Morphy because he was one of
the most influential players in chess history, and even though he had many
personal problems, his tactics in chess were unparalleled at the time.
This game was also played in the mid-1860s. Morphy played white while
Bird played black, and both of these players were in their mid-20s when
they played this match. Nevertheless, they both played an incredible game:
e4, e5 — but unlike other openings that Morphy goes for, he decides on the
King’s Gambit. The King’s Gambit is very similar to the Queen’s Gambit
because it works on the same principle. Morphy pushes…
f4, Bc5 — Bird prefers to rapidly develop his pieces rather than go for this
King’s Gambit, and he rapidly develops his dark-squared bishop.
Nf3, d6, c3 — this may seem like white is giving up the pawn on f4, but if
black falls for this trap, white will respond by playing d4. This move
quickly develops into the center, and it allows for whites to gain a lot of
control in the center of the board. So instead, Bird plays:
Bg4 — This is an excellent move by black because it pins the knight’s
defense on the possibility of pushing the central, white pawns. But Morphy
knows that this pin isn’t dangerous at the moment, so he plays:
Bc4 — This is a dangerous move by Morphy because it seems harmless
enough because it appears that he’s only developing one of his pieces, but
there’s a lot more to this move than is evident at first. If black went for Nf6,
then white will capture the e5 pawn with the f4, and even though it’s
tempting to capture the central pawn, it will result in numerous black
problems. The best move here is to take the knight on f3 with the light-
squared, black bishop and forcing the white queen to take the bishop. So
instead, Bird plays:
Nc6, b4, Bb6, a4, a6, h3 — Morphy pushes the pawns in his structure to
accelerate the attack. He pushes his pawns on the a- and b- files to threaten
the black bishop, and then he pushes h3 to force a move from black’s light-
squared bishop. There are multiple variations of a game like this, but Bird
doesn’t like the idea of the position as closed as if he played his bishop back
to the d7 square and feels that taking the knight will be a better option.
Therefore:
Bxf3, Qxf3, Nf6, d3, Qe7 — moving the queen out opens up the possibility
of castling in either direction for black, and this can change the game
according to how they feel necessary. It’s always vital to castle to the side
that has the lesser threat against your king, and carefully considering the
right way to castle is greatly important! It’s usually best to castle on the
opposite end of your opponent because this dramatically accelerates your
attack. This action isn’t always possible, and sometimes castling on the
same side is necessary to get your king out of the danger of the center.
F5 — Morphy closes the structure and puts a lot more pressure on black by
playing his pawn so advanced into the center of the board. Bird realizes that
there are many problems associated with his position, and he knows that
Bg5 is coming, which will put an irritating pin on his queen and his knight.
So, he knows that castling isn’t the right movie at the moment, even though
it is tempting to get one’s king out of the central attack. Because it will lead
to future problems, Bird responds with:
Rd8, Bg5, Nb8 — it may seem redundant to move one of your developed
pieces back to their starting squares, but Bird has a reason behind this—he
wants to move that knight to d7 to add extra protection for the knight on f6.
(Many moves that your opponent’s play may seem strange at first, and
although some of them may be blunders, some do have a greater purpose. If
your opponent moves his developed piece back to an undeveloped position,
then he/she might have something in mind.)
Nd2, c6, Nf1, d5 — at first, moving the pawn to the d5 square seems
imprudent, but it can’t be captured because it will result in many white
problems. Therefore, Morphy plays:
Bb3, Qd6, Ng3, O - O, Nh5 — castling may seem like a wrong move for
black, but there is a plan behind this. As soon as Morphy played his knight
to h5, he added strength to the bishop pin. However, Bird surprised Morphy
with what he played because he took the knight.
Nxh5, Bxd8, Bxd8, Qxh5, d4 — moving the pawn to d4 is a mighty move
for black because it allows blacks to defend the center and slow whites
attack the castled king.
At this point, both players decided on a draw because they felt that they
weren’t going to be able to develop in this position. After all, both players
were running low on time. Morphy would have probably been better in this
position, but he decided that it was better to agree on a draw because of the
time problems he was experiencing.
 Chapter 10: Additional Chess Openings
Damiano’s Opening [C40]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6
Discovered around 1512, its first mention by Damiano revealed how bad it
is. The pawn occupies a square far better occupied by the king's knight.

3.Nxe5!
Correctly played, merely winning a pawn.
3...fxe5
The best move under the circumstances was probably 3...Qe7.
4.Qh5+
Crushing in all lines.
4...Ke7
On 4...g6 5.Qxe5+ White will win the Rh8 and extricate the queen with
careful play.
 5.Qxe5+! Kf7
Forced.
6.Bc4+ Kg6
On 6...d5 7.Bxd5+ Kg6 8.h4 h6 9.Bxb7+-.
7.Qf5+
Forcing Black's king to a dark-square.
7...Kh6

8.d4+
A discovered check. Not that it matters here, but 8.d4 is superior to 8.d3+
because it gains superior control over the center.
8...g5 9.h4
Opening the h-file for the rook, the final insult.
Latvian Gambit [C40]
1.e4 e5
A double king pawn opening. Both sides have a share of the center, and both
can expect to develop quickly.
2.Nf3
Knights before bishops.
2...f5
The Latvian Gambit, offering a pawn in exchange for rapid development in
the center with ...d5.

3.Nxe5
Considered to be White's best move, capturing a pawn and pressuring f7, the
weakest square in Black's camp.
3...d6?
A natural-looking move, expecting to drive back the knight and open up a
path for Black's light-squared bishop, but a clean mistake. Correct is
3...Qf6, which we will see in the following game.
 4.Qh5+
The move that Black overlooked.

4...g6
Indeed not 4...Ke7? 5.Qf7#
5.Nxg6
The point. Capturing the knight allows Qxh8.
5...Nf6
An innovative resource, attacking the queen rather than capturing the knight.
6.Qh4
Maintaining the pin on the h-pawn.
6...Rg8
Breaking the pin, forcing the Ng6 to move.
 7.Nxf8 Rxf8 8.d3
White emerges ahead two pawns with easy development ahead.
Latvian Gambit [C40]
1.e4 e5
A double king pawn opening. Both sides have placed a pawn in the center
and activating their queens and kings' bishops.
2.Nf3
The natural developing move for the knight, often a prelude to the
development of the light-squared bishop and then castling.
2...f5
The Latvian Gambit, offering the f-pawn with the aim of greater central
control.
3.Bc4
3.Nxe5 is considered more substantial, but this move initiates some
complications that will please some players.
 3...fxe4
A pawn trade brings the knight to the center but frees up g5 for the black
queen.
4.Nxe5
With the obvious pressure on f7.
4...Qg5
Ignoring White's threats but now threatening both the Ne5 and capture on
g2.
5.d4
Defending the Ne5 and with a discovered attack upon the Qg5.
5...Qxg2
Stepping out of the attack and now pressuring the Rh1.
 6.Qh5+
Ignoring the attack on the rook to deliver a powerful check.
6...g6
After 6...Ke7 7.Qf7+ Kd6 8.Bf4 Qxh1+ 9.Bf1 and White's mating attack
will succeed.
It's a quick mate after 6...Kd8 7.Nf7+ Ke8 8.Nd6+ Ke7 9.Qe5+ Kd8
10.Nf7#
7.Bf7+!
Black is winning after 7.Nxg6 Qxh1+ 8.Bf1 hxg6 9.Qxh8 Kf7.
7...Kd8
 8.Bxg6
Sacrificing the Rh1.
8...Qxh1+ 9.Ke2
And now offering the Bc1.
9...Qxc1 10.Nf7+
Here's just some of White's compensation for all of the sacrificed material.
10...Ke8
Black must walk into a powerful discovery.
Avoiding 10...Ke7? 11.Qe5#
 11.Nxh8+
Winning back the rook with the check.
11...hxg6
Avoiding yet another mating trap.
Not 11...Ke7 12.Qe5+ Kd8 13.Nf7#
12.Qxg6+ Kd8
It's also a quick checkmate after 12...Ke7 13.Qxe4+ Kd6 14.Nf7#

13.Nf7+
The attack continues, even though White has only two active pieces. Note
that except for the queen, all of Black's pieces remain "in the box."
13...Ke7
Avoiding the discovered check, but inviting White to try Nc3-d5.
14.Nc3
Bringing up the reinforcements.

14...Qxa1?
Much too greedy, finally falling for one of White's many opening traps.
Black can play on with 14...Qxc2+ 15.Ke1 c6.
15.Nd5+
It's mate in three!
15...Ke8 16.Nd6+
Double check!
16...Kd8 17.Qe8#
Latvian Gambit [C40]
 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5
The Latvian Gambit.
3.Nxe5 Qf6
In the last game, Black blundered here with 3...d6, allowing 4.Qh5+.
Instead, Black uses the queen to drive back the advanced Ne5.

4.d4
Rather than immediately retreat the knight, White correctly takes the
opportunity to defend it and to take useful command over the center.
4...fxe4?
Correct first to drive back the knight with 4...d6.
5.Bc4
An active post for the bishop, threatening Nf7.
5...Nc6
There's no point in trying 5...Nh6 6.Bxh6 gxh6 7.Qh5+ Ke7 8.Nc3+-.
 6.Bf7+!
Even more potent than 6.Nf7.
6...Kd8
6...Ke7 walks into a game-ending queen fork. 7.Nc3 Nxe5 8.Nd5+.
7.Bxg8 Rxg8
Is Blackout of trouble?

8.Bg5!
Game over. Pinning the queen, and on 8...Qxg5, White ends the game with a
pretty knight fork: 9.Nf7+.
Petrov's Defense [C42]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6
Petrov's Defense.
3.Nxe5
The most common move, capturing a pawn.

3...Nxe4?
Already a losing move. Black should first play 3...d6 driving back the Ne5.
4.Qe2
Quickly exploiting the now open e-file.
4...Nf6
Capitulation.
Black must instead try 4...d5 when after 5.d3 Qe7 6.dxe4 Qxe5 7.exd5
White emerges a clear pawn ahead with a comfortable advantage.
 5.Nc6+
A discovered check that already nets Black's queen.
Game #88: Roemling, Sven (2181) - Lehmann, Lothar (2012) [C43]
Leipzig, 2005

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6

Petrov's Defense.
3.d4
A playable alternative to 3.Nxe5.

3...Nxe4
Capturing on e4, relying on the pawn on e5 to lessen the power of Qe2.
4.Bd3
White expects to gain time against the knight.
4...d5
Protecting the advanced piece.
5.Nxe5
Recovering the pawn, threatening Qe2.

5...Bd6
Both sides are ready to castle.
6.0–0
Removing the king from the open file and playing Re1.
6...0–0
With the same reasoning, safeguarding the king and preparing ...Re8.
7.c4
To undermine d5 and in preparation for Nc3.
 7...Bxe5
Exchanging the bishop for the advanced knight. Also playable is 7...c6,
protecting d5.

8.dxe5 Nc6
Targeting e5.
9.cxd5 Qxd5
Defending the knight and loading up on the e5-pawn.
10.Qf3
Two attacks upon a now-pinned Ne4.
 10...Nxe5?
A losing move.
Black must instead play 10...Bf5 11.Qxf5 Qxd3 12.Nc3 Nc5 with chances
for both sides.
11.Qxe4
Winning a piece
11...Qxd3 12.Qxe5 1–0
Game #89: Langlois de Septenville, Anne - Goulon, Paul [C50]
France8, 1996

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5

The Giuocco Piano
4.d3
The slow variation prefers a substantial buildup to the main line's aggressive
attention with 4.c3 or the Evans Gambit with 4.b4.

4...Nf6 5.Nc3 0–0

A mistake. Far better simply to play 5...d6.
 6.Bg5
Pinning the knight at a time when Black is reluctant to lose a tempo with
6...Be7.
6...d6 7.Nd5
Piling on the pin.
7...Kh8
Anticipating the doubling of the f-pawns, taking the king off the soon-to-
opened g-file.

8.Bxf6
Leaving the knight well placed in the center of the board.
8...gxf6 9.Qd2
Steering the queen towards the newly created hole on h6.
9...f5
Hoping to prevent the queen from reaching h6 with ...f4 and enabling
defense with ...f7-f6.
10.Qh6
With the immediate threat Nd5-f6 with its support of Qxh7 checkmate.
10...f6
Two attacks on f6, and now two defenders.

11.Nh4
The knight heads for g6.
11...Rf7
Avoiding the fork.
12.Ng6+
Starting a mate in three moves!
12...Kg8
 13.Nxf6+
Distracting the queen from the key f8 square.
13...Qxf6 14.Qf8#
The Rf7 is pinned!
Legal's Mate [C50]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6
Philidor's Defense, defending e5 but not the main choice because Black
quickly locks in the dark-squared bishop.
3.Bc4
Aiming for f7, considered the weakest pawn in Black's structure because
only the king defends it.
3...Nc6
Substantial development with influence on d4 and e5.
 4.Nc3
4.d4 is undoubtedly better, and herein lies a fundamental question... to play
for the trap or develop as precisely as possible?
4...Bg4
Breaking the time-honored rule: "knights before bishops."
5.h3
Putting the question to the bishop.
Surely not 5.Nxe5 with the threat Bxf7 and Nd5 checkmate! 5...Nxe5
winning the knight and defending the bishop!
5...Bh5
White gains on all replies, an excellent illustration of why ...Bg4 was
premature. On the capture, White can bring the queen powerfully to f3.
And retreats of the bishop back towards c8 involve an evident loss of
time.
 6.Nxe5
Legal's trap. The knight was pinned to the queen, not the king, and can still
move!
6...Bxd1
Black cannot resist capturing the queen, but now White mates in two.
On 6...Nxe5, White gains a pawn with 7.Qxh5 Nxc4 8.Qb5+ picking up the
knight.

7.Bxf7+
Check, with support from the Ne5.
 7...Ke7
The only legal move.
8.Nd5#
A beautiful checkmate.
Game #91: Odegaard, Karl Erik - Bhave, Prakash [C50]
USA, 1993
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5
The Giuocco Piano
4.d3
Supposedly, the slow variation, although this game may convince you
otherwise. White aims to develop the dark-squared bishop quickly but
delaying the idea of playing d4.

4...Nf6 5.Nc3
Solid development. White intends Bg5 and Nd5, and should Black prevent
that idea with ...h6, White will instead play Be3, a tempo ahead in the
Canal Variation.
5...0–0
Remarkably enough, a mistake. Much better is ...d6, intending to answer
Bg5 with ...h6 without compromising the king's sanctuary.
6.Bg5 h6
Now putting the question to the bishop involves a weakening of the black
king's fortress.
7.h4
Ambitious. Not fully sound, however, since Black can now continue with
...d6. The best move here is Nh4, sustaining the pin and inviting Black to
play ...g5.

7...hxg5?!
Better is 7...d6!
8.hxg5 Ng4
The correct idea, pressuring f2.
On 8...Nh7 9.g6! Ng5 10.Nd4! exd4 11.Qh5+-.
9.g6 Nxf2?
Falling into White's trap.
Black has a win here with 9...Bxf2+! 10.Ke2 d5!–+.
 10.Nxe5!
Winning in all lines.
10...Nxd1
Who could resist capturing the queen, but it now mates in five moves.
Capturing the knight invites Damiano's quick checkmate. 10...Nxe5
11.Rh8+! Kxh8 12.Qh5+ Kg8 13.Qh7#
Capturing the rook requires that White exhibit unusual care. 10...Nxh1
11.gxf7+! (Not the obvious looking 11.Qh5 Qh4+! 12.Qxh4 Bf2+
13.Qxf2 Nxf2 with play for both sides.) 11...Rxf7 12.Bxf7+ Kf8 13.Qh5
Qh4+ 14.Qxh4 Bf2+ 15.Qxf2 Nxf2 16.Kxf2 Nxe5 17.Bb3 Emerging up a
single pawn with clearly superior development.
11.gxf7+ Rxf7 12.Bxf7+ Kf8
 13.Rh8+ Ke7 14.Nd5+ Kd6 15.Nc4# 1–0
Four Knights' Game [C55]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6
The Four Knights Game.

4.Bc4
A common mistake, White should instead play 4, Bb5.
4...Nxe4! 5.Nxe4 d5
Hardly a win, but indeed not the position that White wants to play. The
exchanges aid the defense, and Black will emerge with a stable position.
Max Lange [C56]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6
The Two Knights' Defense.
4.d4
This line is known as the Max Lange Attack.

4...d6?
Much too passive. Necessary is 4...exd4.
5.dxe5
Giving Black a problem... how to recover the pawn?
5...dxe5
On 5...Nxe5 6.Nxe5 dxe5 7.Bxf7+ winning at least a pawn. 7...Ke7
8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.f3.
 6.Qxd8+
Overloading the Nc6, which wants to recapture but needs to defend the e5-
pawn.
6...Nxd8
White wins a pawn either way 6...Kxd8 7.Bxf7.

7.Nxe5 Nxe4
Needed to maintain material equality.
8.0–0
With a clear position advantage and the immediate threat of Re1.
 Chapter 11: Chess Strategy
Chess strategies are based on theoretical principles and permanent factors
present in the position. It would be best if you used chess tactics to
implement your strategies. Here are the most common forms of tactical
attacks used by chess players:
Forks – This type of chess tactic involves an attack against two enemy
pieces. Forks can be done by all of your chess pieces, even the kings
and the pawns. Here, you should attack two enemy pieces at the same
time. For example, your pawn stands at d3, and your opponent's rooks
are on c5 and e5. You can execute a fork by pushing the pawn to d4,
which attacks both rooks. Since your opponent can only move one
piece at a time, you will be able to capture one of his rooks.
Pins – Pins can only be done by pieces that move along files and
diagonals. With this tactic, you will use a bishop, a rook, or a queen to
attack an enemy piece and prevent it from moving. It involves three
pieces: the attacking piece, the pinned piece, and the guarded piece.
For example, a knight is blocking a diagonal that leads to the king.
You may pin this knight against its king if you can attack it using a
bishop; the poor knight will not move since the bishop will kill the
king. There are two types of pins:
Relative Pins – With this type, the pinned piece can still move.
Absolute Pins – With absolute pins, the guarded piece is a king.
Because of that, the pinned piece is not allowed to move.
In general, the value of the guarded piece is higher than the attacked piece.
It means a player will lose material if he moves the pinned piece.
Skewers – Similar to pins, only pieces that move along files and
diagonals can accomplish this tactic. It also involves three pieces: the
attacking piece, the attacked piece, and the guarded piece. However,
skewers involve a different principle: the value of the attacked piece is
equal to or higher than that of the guarded piece. It means a player
may be forced to move the attacked piece to minimize loss of material.
For example, your opponent’s king is on e8, and one of his rooks is on
h8. You can skewer the enemy pieces by placing a queen or rook on
a8, b8, or c8. You will gain material since the opponent is required to
move his king, letting you capture the undefended rook on h8.
Overloading – With this tactic, you will force an enemy piece to do
multiple tasks simultaneously. Since your opponent can only make one
move per turn, you may gain material by overloading his pieces. For
instance, your opponent’s queen is defending a knight on a5 and a
bishop on d4. You can overload the queen by attacking the knight and
the bishop simultaneously. If you can capture one of these pieces, the
opponent will be forced to recapture using his queen, which will leave
the remaining piece undefended.
Discovered Attack – This tactic has some similarities with pins and
skewers. Only queens, rooks, and bishops can do it. Discovered
attacks involve three pieces: the attacking piece, the blocking piece,
and the attacked piece. You own the long-range piece and the one
blocking it. For example, your queen is on a diagonal that leads to an
undefended enemy piece. However, one of your knights is blocking
the diagonal. You can execute a discovered attack by moving your
knight away; this action will allow your queen to threaten the enemy
piece.
You will gain more significant benefits from this tactic if you can make an
attacking move using the blocking piece. Since your opponent can only
make one move at a time, executing two attacks simultaneously can earn
you a decisive material advantage.
Discovered Check – This is a discovered attack in which the attacked
piece is the enemy king. Your opponent will be required to defend
against the check so that you can make a free move or a decisive
capture using the blocking piece.
Chess strategy involves evaluating chess positions and setting objectives
and plans for subsequent play. If you want to win games convincingly, you
should know how to develop concrete game plans before and during the
game. Players who play without planning and preparations are bound to
experience terrible losses most of the time. You can significantly increase
your chances of winning by knowing how to form a strategy based on a fast
and logical assessment of the positional elements.
The strategic element of chess positions can be categorized into two areas:
static and dynamic. Static elements are likely to persist for some time, such
as King’s safety, pawn structure, bishop pair, and queen’s existence. On the
other hand, dynamic elements are transient elements such as development,
center control, initiative, diagonals and files, piece placement, etc. A correct
assessment of position is essential to the success of the planning process.

Evaluating Board Position

Strategically evaluating chess position involves finding differences in
positional elements between you and your opponent and ascertaining both
sides' strengths and weaknesses based on those imbalances. The positional
elements are material, pawn structure, space, center control, open lines,
weak squares, initiative, development, and King’s safety.
Material
The most basic way to know how you stand in the game is by comparing
the total value of pieces on your side with that of your opponent.
Traditionally, each piece is valued using this point system:

Pawns 1 point
Knights 3 points
Bishops 3 points
Rooks 5 points
Queens 9 points

The player with more powerful pieces generally has a bigger chance of
winning. Strategies and tactical moves are aimed at capturing enemy pieces
while preserving your own. Material value, however, is only superficial.
Such factors should modify material advantage as mobility, coordination,
position, and type of position. Each piece takes on a different level of
relevance depending on which phase of the game you’re in. Knights and
Bishops are similarly ranked at 3 points, but a Knight enjoys tight positions
in the Middlegame. Bishops, in turn, are slightly stronger in open positions
during the Endgames.
Pawn Structure: Pawns play an essential role in every game of chess. They
protect your pieces, control the center in the early stages of the game, and
shield your king from your opponent’s vicious attacks. Pawns, however, are
slow-moving pieces. This makes pawn structure more or less permanent or
static. A disrupted pawn connection can significantly weaken your position.
Since pawns can only move forward, doubled pawns, backward pawns,
island pawns, or isolated pawns are generally considered severe flaws in
your position. Connected pawns usually indicate a strong position.
Space: The side with more control over spaces on the board enjoys an
advantage. Having more space means having more options for
implementing strategies and tactics.
Control of the Center: Controlling the center means positioning your pieces
to attack the central squares. Control of the center is vital for several
reasons. It gives your pieces more mobility and increased capability to
attack and defend. Since tactical battles are often waged around the central
area, the player with center control enjoys a decisive edge.
Weak Squares and Open Lines: Weak squares are unprotected and open for
occupation or control by the opponent. A weak square or hole can be
exploited to gain an advantage. On the other hand, open lines allow long-
range pieces like Rooks, Bishops, and Queens to exert pressure on the
center and the opponent’s side of the board.
Initiative: The player with the initiative dictates the tempo of the game. He
is generally the attacker, while the opponent is the defender. Having the
initiative forces your opponent to abandon his attack plans and thus disrupt
his strategy momentarily.
The advantage in Development: This element is essential in the opening
phase of the game. You can gain an advantage in the development by
bringing your pieces out as early as possible. Keep in mind that your pieces
can only help you win the game if placed on good squares or are well-
developed.
King’s Safety: The King’s role changes as the game transitions from one
phase to the following. The King is stronger when there are few pieces on
the board, especially true in the endgame. Hence, the King becomes a
significant attacking piece in the closing stages. A player whose King is
performing a role appropriate to the game stage has a better position than a
player whose King is performing an inappropriate role.
The following game fragments are taken from high-level games. You can
learn how to make your evaluation by studying the detailed analysis for
each position.
Karpov–Kasparov
Moscow 1985 Watch (16)

Black has a one-pawn lead in terms of material but what tilts the game in
his favor is the Knight on d3. The Knight, defended by the light square
Bishop, radiates tremendous influence from this position. White can blame
it on the weak d3 and d4 squares, which allowed Black to move forward
without impediment. White’s pieces are tied and have limited opportunities
for attack. Black has the upper hand in this position, and the cleverly placed
d3 Knight will prove to be pivotal in the outcome of the game.

Creating a Game Plan

A player who desires to win must know how to create and implement plans
before and during the game. Chess games are played in three phases: the
opening, middlegame, and endgame. Each stage presents distinct challenges
and themes and demands varying strategies. To dominate all stages, you
should know how to assess, plan, reassess, and modify your plans during
play.
Here are easy ways to help you create a game plan:
Decide which side of the board to play on. You can do this immediately
after assessing your position based on the elements of the game. The board
has three main playing areas: the center, the kingside, and the queenside.
Figure out which side has favorable positional imbalances that you can
exploit or which side will allow you to create them and focus your game
plan on that area of the board.
Figure out the best squares for your pieces and visualize them on those
squares. Ask yourself these questions: Are your pieces functional? Are they
helping you realize your goals? Are they exerting pressure on your
opponent? Can they be captured easily by enemy pieces? You can save
precious time and effort by only using your imagination. You can avoid
wasting your time and effort on ineffective plans and feeble moves by only
thinking ahead and using your imagination.
Identify candidate moves. Depending on your current position, you usually
have four to six options on your following play. To help you decide on your
succeeding moves, you will have to identify all feasible options.
Calculate your moves. Once you have lined up your options, you’re ready
to calculate your following moves by playing the options one by one in
your mind. As you do so, visualize the best moves your opponent can make
and see how well you can respond to them. Keep practicing, and you will
soon see improvements in your visualization and calculation skills.
 Chapter 12: Basic Mating Patterns
Chess's primary purpose is to checkmate; it is essential to know that not all
checkmates are as easy as we think there are various means of achieving
checkmate in a game. As a player, you should always endeavor to mostly
lookout and make an effort to see specific structures in line to stay away
from moves that could destroy your game.
Looking at these various basic mating patterns, you will be able to
familiarize yourself with other various means to checkmate:

Two significant pieces back rate mate: so far, this has been the most
comfortable likely mate in the game of Chess; this often happens in the end
stages of the game, the most advantageous side cuts its opponents, King,
from rank 7 with one major chess piece and delivers a mate with the more
strengthened one. This a general mating pattern and also very essential. It is
also safe to know that if your opponents' King is hooked in the chessboard
center, the more promising side could walk him into the Rank eight into the
position sustained by identical checks with the rooks, therefore mating on
the back Rank.
Two Pawn Checkmate
This happens when one side has two pawns, and the other side had
absolutely none. The opponent has no place to move in the other positions:
your King completely protects d7 and f7; d8 and f8 are also protected by
the e7 pawn, which visibly can't be attacked. If your opponent were to
move, your piece would feel uneasy because it can be seen as a stalemate,
which can also be called a draw. Therefore, it is best to move your piece
and mate in one: 1.d7.
Diagonal checkmate: This is when the setup queen and bishop line up in the
same diagonal, proven to be very impactful. This setup is even very much
more robust; every player should also be very mindful of this setup when
they are on the defensive side. This same type of mate is possible if your
queen and Bishop are in a diagonal line b1-h7, double hit on the weak h7
square, which is mostly protected by the King chess piece unaccompanied.
Back rank checkmate: This is a standard matting pattern that is very strong
and impactful; all payers use it as a severe threat or weapon. Its pawn
blocks the black's King on rank 8, and every check by the leading chess
piece would be a very lethal move. We should at every instance be able to
point at any possible threats from the back Rank even when there isn't any
immediate checkmate insight; these positions could change very quickly, so
an excellent practice is essential to be able to create a survival plan in the
endgame where all main pieces would be present.

Bishop and Knights Fianchetto Checkmate

This is a very common checkmate that plays on the three weak dark squares
surrounding the Black King's castle: the White's chess piece could occupy
f6, g7, and h6. It is mostly unsafe to trade the fianchetto bishop, the Bishop
of the black's dark squares. It is possible to feel endangered when you seem
to lack the fianchetto bishop in your play, but you could sight your
opponent's fianchetto bishop.
Two Bishop checkmate: It has been stated that a pair of bishops in an open
stance is twice more vital as the bishops far apart from each other. Pairing
your bishops is similar to doubling rocks it serves as a very efficient tool.
Queen and Bishop fianchetto checkmate: This is another instance of how
'bishop-less' fianchetto could be played with. White sights this and
intelligently sets up a mating net. Squares h6, f6, and g7 are very weak, and
White would take that benefit. We should have in mind that queens and
bishops work perfectly with each other. Also, think twice before
exchanging your fianchetto bishop, also know that when you sight an open
file available, it is very compulsory to occupy it with main pieces, double
up, and attack.
Anastasia'S checkmate: A checkmate like this is another important instance
of how the knight could be used in a mating method. In this mating method,
the mate's knight and rook work in line with each other to lock an
opponent's King on the h-file and then checkmate after. This style also
shows the importance of a rook lift in the center game; this is a style that
occurs when one player lifts his rook from the back Rank to a very
energetic position; it is always very secure near the opponent's King.
Rook and Bishop checkmate: Generally, this form of checkmate occurs at
the end of the game and in the center of the game. This idea is that the rook
is used to cut through the Black's King right on the edge part of the
chessboard, and you could also use the Bishop's long-range capacities to
provide a mate. We should also know that this mate form could also be
known as Morphy's mate because it was initially employed by a great chess
player named Morphy in one of his games.
Smothered Checkmate
This mate is achieved by a knight single-handedly when your opponent's
King cannot move anywhere because its chess pieces or pawns have
obstructed it. This particular mating method is tough to see, the reason
being that players don't often look up to the fact that a knight chess piece
could be used to mate when its pieces and its rook strongly encircle a
Black's King.
At that point, the King can never move. It is essential to know that a knight
is a critical piece that could perform that particular movement without
changing the Blacks chess piece structure. Also, know that when you sight
that your opponent's kings are unable to move due to an encircled structure
by its piece, a smothered mating method plan should immediately pop into
your mind.
Queen and Bishop pin checkmate: This mating method verifies that queen
and bishop work so much perfectly. This method is also prevalent, and it is
also an essential mating method that should always be acknowledged and
used repeatedly.
Queen and king checkmate: This is very easy, yet it is a beneficial mating
method that would show face at the end of the game. It is effortless to
checkmate a lone King with a King and Queen working hand in hand on the
chessboard. Know that most players would at a point resign before the
occurrence of such a position, but also know that there are some set of
players that would go on and on till the very end of the game, so it is
essential to know how to win this comfortable position fast and effortlessly.
Chess's births are now not precisely apparent, although most trust it
developed from earlier chess-like games performed in India nearly two
thousand years ago. The Chess activity we comprehend presently has been
around because in the fifteenth century, the location it accumulated to
emerge as famous in Europe.
Chess is a sport performed between two opponents on contrary facets of a
board containing sixty-four squares of alternating colors. Each participant
has sixteen pieces: 1 king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights,
and eight pawns. The game intends to checkmate the other King.
Checkmate occurs when the King is in a function to be captured (in check)
and can't get away from capture."

Chess teaches patience: After a few games, the baby learns that making
strikes except entirely searching at the entire board and noticing the place
critical pieces are inclined will end up with her losing these integral pieces.
They will study that the lack of patience will most likely reason them to
cease up in checkmate.
Chess will improve authorities' functioning: The National Center for
Learning Disabilities states: "Executive feature is a set of intellectual
strategies that helps be part of the past ride with a new action. People use it
to feature activities such as planning, organizing, strategizing, paying
interest to and remembering details, and managing time and space." Chess
lets youngsters exercise all the sides of government functioning and
motivate (winning) to have interaction in all these facets. Therefore,
children who have problems with authorities functioning will make these
skills higher.
Chess is a healthy distraction from present trauma that kids may also be
experiencing. If her mother and father are going through a harmful divorce
or has witnessed excessive violence, concentrating on Chess will furnish a
significant respite from the affliction surrounding her life. Chess will teach
them that they choose to distance themselves from their anguish thru
healthful skills such as Chess or unhealthy escapes like capsules and
alcohol.
Chess teaches a method that creates wondering about two or three moves in
toughening as a substitute for focusing solely on the subsequent omit of
your chess piece. These adjustments the everyday concentration of solely
questioning about what will show up in the following 5 seconds. This
instructs young adults to look past the first cross and the instantaneous
future. This is an enhancement to their planning skills.
Chess is a splendid board recreation for mothers and fathers to play with
their children. The recreation's nuances will decorate your connection with
your toddler as you instruct him or he teaches him how to play effectively.
This is a recreation for sharing and teaching strategies, learning about
mistakes, and being exceptional in a quiet, considerate way.
The endeavor of Chess is now no longer only an idle amusement. Several
very treasured features of the mind, recommended in the path of human life,
are to be received or bolstered by using its potential, to come to be habits,
equipped on all occasions. For existence is a shape of Chess, in which we
have regularly pointed to gain, and opponents or adversaries to contend
with, and in which there is a sizable range of appropriate and unwell events,
that are, in some degree, the effects of prudence or the want of it. By
enjoying Chess, then, we can also learn:
1. Foresight, which appears a little into futurity, and considers the
penalties that can also moreover attend an action: for it is continually
happening to the player, "If I go this piece, what will be the
advantages of my new state? How can my opponent use it against me?
What one-of-a-kind strikes can I make to help it and to guard myself
against his attacks?
2. Circumspection, which surveys the whole chessboard, or scene of
action, the family contributors of the pretty a few pieces and
situations, the dangers they are respectively uncovered to, the quite a
few chances of their supporting every other; the possibilities that the
adversary might also additionally make this or that move, and assault
this or the other piece; and what one of a sort capability can be used to
keep away from his stroke, or turn its penalties towards him.
3. Caution, not to make our strikes too hastily. This habit is best received
by looking at strictly the criminal tips of the game, such as, if you
contact apiece, you have to pass it somewhere; if you set it down, you
want to let it stand.
 Conclusion
Golden Rules have a special place in my heart. I was introduced to them by
my first coach Zlatko Bašagić, who unfortunately passed away last year.
Zlatko was a well-known coach in former Yugoslavia. I have him to thank
for the success in my chess career, particularly my achievement in
becoming World Junior Champion in 2002. Even though 20 years have
passed since I was first introduced to the Golden Rules, I still remember
them like yesterday. Every time we analyzed my games, he was always
ready to jump in with game checks: ‘’What do the Golden Rules say about
this movie?’’ Often, he asked this question when I made a lousy move and
was violating the well-known list of chess axioms. He said that it was
important for every player, from amateurs to World Champions, to know
and consider the Golden Rules in every step of the game. These rules don’t
necessarily apply in all situations, but they provide a general game plan of
how things should look during a game.
1. In the opening, don’t play multiple moves with the same piece. Every
move in the opening should be connected with the development of a
new piece.
Your primary goal should focus on developing your minor pieces and
freeing the squares required to bring your king to safety by castling. To
achieve this goal, you should not waste precious time in the opening by
moving the same piece more than once.
2. Don’t play with your queen too early.
As mentioned in the first rule, your objective is to develop minor pieces and
castle ASAP. Playing with your queen early on in the game is not
recommended. You will end up wasting precious time. Another significant
drawback of moving the queen too early might result in an attack by the
opponent’s minor pieces. Your opponent will develop his pieces with
tempo, and this is not something you want to allow.
3. Castle ASAP
The castling move was introduced in the 14th century. Until this move was
introduced to chess, games were usually much shorter than today. This is
because the king was often attacked or even mated in the center of the
board. With the castle move, you usually bring the king to safety where it is
protected by the pawns, far away from the center where all the action
usually happens at the beginning of a game. Another benefit of castling is it
allows you to bring the rook into play from the board's edge.

White correctly developed his minor pieces and is ready to castle on the
king-side.
4. Fight for the central squares (e4, d4, e5, d5)
It is not a coincidence that moves 1. e4 or 1. d4 is considered the best
option for White. We fight for the central squares so we can have space to
develop our minor pieces. Think of your starting moves as giving your
minor pieces some air to breathe. The more breathing space they have, the
better. Try to create difficulty for your opponent by taking central squares
away from him to complicate his development.
5. Put the rooks on open or half-open files
Similar to minor pieces, the rooks also need breathing space. Better yet,
they need the freedom to participate in the battle on the board actively. They
are best placed on an open file.

Both White and Black rooks are placed correctly – both on an open file
where they are most active.
6. In an open position, the bishop is better than the knight.
In an open position, bishop activity is more significant than knight activity
because it covers more squares than the ‘’slowish’’ knight.

7. The bishop is better than the knight when the pawns are on both
wings (flanks).
Because the bishop is controlling more squares and can do damage on both
sides of the board at the same time, it makes it superior to the knight when
pawns are on both wings.
8. The knight is more potent in a closed/locked position.
If the position is blocked, then bishops are usually limited by pawns. Since
bishops can’t jump over pawns while knights can, knights become superior
pieces in blocked positions.

9. In the endgame, the king is one of the essential pieces.

In an opening, you want to castle and take your king away from the action.
This is because the king is very vulnerable with all the pieces on the board.
However, when the game reaches the endgame, then the king can be
transformed into a beast.
10. Don’t put the knight on the edge of the board.
The knight’s activity usually suffers if they are located on the edge of the
board. In this case, it only controls four squares. If they are closer to the
center, i.e., on c3, they control eight squares! “A knight on the rim is dim.”
11. In an endgame, you should not put the rook in front of the pawn -
either yours or the opponents.
Generally, the best place to put your rook in an endgame is behind the
pawn. If it is your pawn, it will be much easier for you to push it down the
board. If it is the opponent’s pawn, that’s still the best way to control it
while still staying active with the rook.

12. You should always be able to explain why you played an individual
move.
When you play chess, you should always have a plan. For example, in the
beginning, you plan to take as many central squares as possible while
developing your minor pieces to castle eventually. This should hold even in
a middlegame. It would be best to plan what you want to do or what you
want to stop your opponent from doing. Then you should follow this plan.
Always keep in mind that I will be there after the game to ask why you
played a particular move. Better have your answer ready ☺ .

13. The materially superior side should try to exchange pieces (but not
pawns!).
If you are two pawns up in a middlegame and you have an option to
exchange all the pieces (except pawns and continue being two pawns up in
a pawn endgame), then that would be a dream come true. Since pawn
endgames with an extra pawn(s) are most often winning positions, it is
something to strive for.

14. The materially inferior side should try to exchange as many pawns
as possible.
Doesn’t it make sense? Well, let’s look at another example. You are in a
middlegame and are facing a challenging position with a whole minor piece
down. Being a piece down is no fun, but what would happen if you could
exchange all the pawns and stay in a bare king against an opponent’s king
and a minor piece? It does not matter whether it’s a bishop or knight; the
position would be a dead draw because there isn’t enough material to win
the game.

15. When you have finished developing minor pieces, move the queen to
connect the rooks.
Remember rule number 2, which states you should not move your queen
too early. Now is finally time for you to move it. When your minor pieces'
development is completed, it is time to connect both rooks by developing
the queen. Rooks gain more power if they are connected because they
defend one another.

16. If your king is under attack, try exchanging queens.

Queens are the most potent attackers in chess. By exchanging them, you
severely limit the attacking potential of your opponent.

17. Try to change bad (inferior) pieces for the good (superior) pieces.
Try to keep superior pieces and don’t exchange them for weaker ones.
Amateurs blindly take or exchange the first piece they see. My advice to
you is to take things slowly. Calm down and think about the situation.
Evaluate your piece activity and potential compared to that of your
opponent’s. Only then should you decide whether the capture would be
beneficial.
Of course, if you conclude that your opponent’s piece is more active and
has better potential, then it is definitely in your best interest to swap it off
the board.
The knight on d5 is better than his colleague on d7.
Black to move should play 1… Nf6 or 1… Nb6 and exchange it.
18. Rooks belong to the 7th rank.
Rooks are ideally placed on the seventh rank. There they are the most active
because it allows them to attack the opponent’s pawns and the king. A fair
comparison of strength is reflected in the saying that ‘’In the endgames, the
rook placed on the seventh rank is worth a sacrificed pawn.’’