How to Fool Your Opponent in Chess

This may not always work, especially if you play against strong players, but if you play with weak players, no matter what age, you can fool them. The trick is to leave a piece hanging (unprotected) while pretending not to know.

Steps

1. Think of a plan. Usually, when you fool an opponent, you should sacrifice a piece for more value in the game or an easy checkmate.

2. Suppose your opponent is black and castled king-side. He has not moved the rook or pawns and your queen is pinning the center pawn. Your bishop is about go to [h6] and prepare for checkmate when your opponent prepares to take a protected piece with all safety measures possible, but if he takes, he will lose defense to his king. What do you do?

• If you move the protected piece, you lost a move, but if you move the protector, you can win. So you move the protector to some other hanging place(it would be the best place to move it) and your opponent takes the piece. BAM! Your bishop threatens mate at [h6] and your opponent is hopeless.

3. Think of a way to trick your opponent. If your opponent is weak, you could just leave a hanging piece and he/she might fall for the trick. If your opponent is strong you might need a little more than a hanging piece.

4. Resort to traps. It might work at the lower levels, under 1200 say, but the better you get and the stronger the people you face, the more you will need to understand how to outplay your opponent positionally, as well as tactically.

5. Remember - in the end, winning at chess is about thinking further and understanding the position better than your opponent.   

 

How to Become a Better Chess Player Guides

Anyone can try their hand at a chess game, but it takes a bit more effort to become a good chess player. Read on to learn how to develop your chess skills.

1. Learn how to play. You can't get better if you don't know the rules or how to move a piece correctly. 

2. Join a local chess club. Be social and free with chess. Don't make yourself feel good by playing people that clearly are worse than you. If you have to make yourself feel better after a loss, a good way is to start planning how to counter your opponent.

3. Learn the values of the pieces. A pawn is worth one point. Knights and Bishops are worth three points each. A Rook is worth five points. A Queen is worth nine points. This is only a guideline, not a winning strategy so if you have a forced win on your turn, you can disregard the piece values.

• Do not sacrifice material unless you have a clear win. For example do not sacrifice a knight for a king side attack unless you are sure you can win.
• It is not advantageous to trade a Bishop (worth 3) and a Knight (worth 3) for a rook (worth 5) and a pawn (worth 1) because the Knight and Bishop are more powerful than a Rook and the pawn will not come into play until the very end of the game.
• These values are relative. In some positions, a bishop or knight is stronger than a rook.
• An exchange (a knight or bishop for a rook) is NOT worth 2 points despite its apparent value. It is generally worth 1-1 1/2 points. Therefor 1-2 (sometimes 3) pawns is enough compensation for being down an exchange.

4. Always develop bishops and knights. Pawns are overused and overextended, and often the developing pieces don't get developed. Then, your opponent will usually put a bishop through your pawn structure.

• Moving too many pawns weakens the castled king side and opens you up to attack. Moving too many pawns usually will weaken your endgame pawn structure.

5. Understand how you play. There are two main ways that people play. Some have a strong defense, and aggressive people that use this style can be incredibly deadly. The other type capitalize. They instantly seize hold of any mistake that their opponent makes, developing quickly and leaving with an open position. Neither is the better, although the main population are more sturdy than capitalizing.

• It is easier to attack than to defend. Some like to play gambits where they sacrifice a pawn to get an attack because they find that they win a higher percentage of games.

6. Enter your first tournament. Go there feeling like you are going to kick butt in this series of games. Forget the rating. Forget the scores. Just get out there and play the best you can, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

7. Get a rival. Find someone that is better than you and "compete" against them. Play them. Go to the tournaments that they do. Slowly get used to their playing style and use it against them and other people. Don't think of this "rival" as someone to do better than. Don't beat yourself up if you lose. Play them again. And again. And again. Do this until you have learned their style and how to counter it.

8. Study your favorite GM (grandmaster). Study, play, study, play. Learn how to use their techniques, and how to counter them.

9. Read one of the top 10 books written about chess. Here are a few good books:

• "The Mammoth book of Chess"
• "Logical Chess move by move" by Irving Chernev. It teaches you how to attack the king in the king pawn openings and how to play positional chess with the queen pawn openings.
• "My System" by Aaron Nimzovitch.
• "Think Like a Grandmaster" By Alexander Kotov. This book explains how to analyze variations so that you can play the middle game at a much higher level.
• "Judgement and Planning in Chess" by Max Euwe. A classic book that explains how to judge a position based on space advantage, combinations, endgame advantages, king attack and pawn structures.
• "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" by Bobby Fischer. A classic book that teaches chess tactics for the beginner.
• "Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur" by Max Euwe and Walter Meiden. This book explains how a master beats an amateur by making the right move based on a positions needs.
• "Practical Chess Endings" by Irving Chernev. 300 endgames that start simple but end difficult.
• "1001 Checkmates" by Fred Reinfield. A classic book that will help you to see checkmates and calculate the variations.
• "Ideas behind the Chess Openings" By Reuben Fine. Explains the strategies behind the openings so that you can remember and play them better.
• "100 selected games" by Botvinnik.
• "Basic Chess Endings" by Reuben Fine. A thick book that is a classic and explains all types of endings.
• "Point Count Chess" by I. A. Horowitz. A Classic book that rates 32 positional features and teaches how to convert these 32 advantages into a win.
• "How to win in the chess endings" by I.A. Horowitz. This book explains endgame strategies without complex variations.
• "Chess Fundamentals" by Jose Raul Capablanca. This book teaches the opening, middle and endgame strategies.

10. Learn the basic endgame rules. End game Strategy, "If ahead in material, exchange pieces not pawns. If behind in material, exchange pawns and you can force a draw.”

• Without pawns you must be at least a rook up to force mate, the only exception to this is that two knights and a king cannot force mate against a lone king.
• The king is a powerful piece, use it to block and attack pawns.
• Bishops of opposite colors draw most of the time because neither side can advance pawns without losing them. A rook pawn and bishop only draw against a black king if the bishop is the opposite color as the queening square.
• Bishops are worth more than knights in all but locked pawn positions.
• Pawns, Rooks, and Bishops become more valuable as the game proceeds so play to keep them.
• Many games with all the pawns on one side of the board end in a draw. 90% of master games end in a draw where all the pawns are on one side of the board because the master with the less pawns will exchange pawns and then sacrifice a knight or bishop for the last of the pawns. If you are left with just a Bishop or Knight you cannot force mate.
• Rook and Knight or Rook and Bishop many times can only draw against a Rook.
• In Queen endings, he who moves the Queen to the center first dominates play.

11. Powerful Pawn Structures are:

• An "Outside Pawn" lures the opponent’s king to other side, enabling you to gobble the rest of his pawns or advance your pawns on the other side of the board.
• A "Passed Pawn" is not obstructed by another pawn and should be pushed. Nimzovitch said, "Passed Pawns must be pushed".
• A "Protected Passed Pawn" is a passed pawn that is protected by another pawn. A Protected Passed Pawn forces the opponent to constantly defend against an advance.

12.  Weak Pawn Structures are:

• Doubled pawns cannot defend each other and are subject to attack.
• Isolated pawns are weak and must be defended by a piece.
• Backward pawns on open files are extremely weak and subject to attack by rooks.
• A King with the opposition can draw against a King with a Pawn.
• A Rook on the seventh rank is worth sacrificing a pawn.
• Zugzwang is where if your opponent moves his position becomes weaker (he would rather give up his turn), and is common in Chess.
• Rook and Pawn endings are the most complicated so avoid them.

13.  Download blindfold chess. That will train you not to keep forgetting and relearning which pieces are attacking which squares until you look and see. Since your brain will be forced to memorize so much information about the state of the board anyway, it won't be that much harder for it to learn to organize the information it learns about the board into a different set of pieces of information than ones that describe which piece is on which square, and you will instead get slowly trained to see the whole picture, notice very complex statements about the state of the board, and notice patterns of which complex statements about the state of the board should be figured out to decide which move to make. In fact, you will eventually even become better at blindfold chess than you would have been at non-blindfold chess if you had done the same amount of training using non-blindfold chess, though you won't be better at the current game done blind than you would be if you played that current game non-blindfold and the purpose of continuing to play it blindfold is to train for future chess games.

14. Notice patterns in what moves tend to make you win the game. Don't follow step 3 all the time with no exceptions, but rather judge the arrangement of pieces and decide whether it's really worth making a trade. It's good to trade pieces more easily if you're ahead as shown in the following sentence. If you would have a forced win if you promoted a pawn to a rook that would require losing the rook later, then you will still have a forced win if you promote it to a queen and don't do what ever you can to stop it from being traded for a rook and bishop because the queen can make any move a rook can make and so could use the winning strategy that the rook would have used. Use your trained ability to notice patterns to try to make a move that you predict will cause your opponent to make a mistake enabling you to win. The strategy can include knowledge of which person you're playing against, noticing which mistakes your opponent was making earlier in the game, or noticing patterns of the general type of mistake people tend to make.

Incorporating Strategy on Chess Free Guide

Chess is an incredibly fun, addicting game that requires skill and strategy. It's been around for centuries as a game for intellectuals and scholars; however, playing does require a level of genius -- but that doesn't mean children can't beat adults. Read on to learn and play this ancient game, which has been considered as one of the best board games around.

1. Use all your pieces. Do not keep moving your Knight around, just because he can give lots of checks. Use your entire army! One of the biggest rookie mistakes is to only using a few of your pieces. When that happens, the rest just end up lagging behind and make for easy captures for your opponent. So keep the board lively, keep your opponent on his toes.

    In your opening, place a few pawns one or two spaces forward and then start moving the other pieces. This allows more pieces on the first row to pass through and enter the playing field easily, giving you more offensive power.

 

2. Control the center. Since so many pieces can move about every which way, controlling the center is considered more beneficial than controlling the sides. When you dominate the center, your pieces have more mobility than they had at the edge or the corner. As an example, the knight only has two options to move from a corner, but he has eight options to move from a central square! Dominate the center as quickly as you can.

• It's for this reason that many people have their middle pawns start off the game. Just make sure you don't open up your king for an early checkmate by a well-placed bishop or a queen!

3. Don't give your pieces away needlessly. This is pretty obvious, yet many players hang their pieces, even grandmasters as well! If you must give them away, have them be in a trade. Never just relinquish one mindlessly -- they're all valuable, whether it is a pawn or a queen. There is a point system, if you're curious. The more valuable they are, the more points they're worth:

•     Pawns are worth 1 point
•     Knights are worth 3 points
•     Bishops are worth 3 points
•     Rooks are worth 5 points
•     Queens are worth 9 points

                         # Kings are invaluable because if you lose your king, you lose the game.

 

4. Protect your king. This is something you should pay special attention to. If you do nothing else -- if you aren't one much for doing the attacking -- you have to protect your king. Get him in the corner by castling, set up a fortress of pieces around him, make sure to give him a square to run, in case your opponent does manage to give you a check. You want to get your opponent fleeing rather than attacking as soon as possible.

• He can do very little on his own, yet he can hold his own. In the starting and the middle phases of the game, he almost always needs at least one or two pieces to watch out for any checks. However in the end stages of the game, when only a couple of pieces and few pawns are left on the board, the King then becomes a fighting piece and should be centralized.

How to Playing the Chess Free Game Guides

Chess is an incredibly fun, addicting game that requires skill and strategy. It's been around for centuries as a game for intellectuals and scholars; however, playing does require a level of genius -- but that doesn't mean children can't beat adults. Read on to learn and play this ancient game, which has been considered as one of the best board games around.

1. The white player makes the first move. They choose any piece they'd like to move to begin the initial attack, or the opening. They move a piece, and black counters. The opening is one of the most important parts of the game. There's no real "right" way to do it -- everyone has their own style and you'll find yours. But there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Do not go about about attacking for now. In your opening, you're just getting your pieces to their most useful posts. You want them to be on good and safe squares.
• Generally, make only 1 or 2 moves with your pawns. Then start concentrating on your more powerful pieces -- bishops, knights, queen, and rooks. "Development" (getting your pieces to active squares, such as the center) isn't complete until all of these pieces have moved.
• A lot of your opening moves depend on your opponent -- you'll just have to feel out the game. So observe and see if you can guess what his plan is. This game is more about anticipating threats and foresight than anything else.

2. Incorporate the "en passant" rule. If you'd like, that is. Plenty of beginners don't worry about it. But if you're curious as to how to make this game a little more French and a little more complicated than it already is, why, here's how:

• If you recall, your pawn can move 2 spaces forward on its first move. Let's say you do just that, landing next to your opponent's pawn, on the same row. On the next move -- and only the next move -- your opponent can capture your pawn en passant (which literally translates to: in passing). Normally, pawns can only attack one square diagonally -- but this is an exceptional case in which it can capture in passing and still land on that same diagonal space.
• Again, this can only happen directly after a pawn has made its initial 2-space move. If a turn goes by, the opportunity is lost. This move is unique only to the pawns and no other piece. Thus you cannot capture the queen or a knight by en passant

3. Take turns. And thus goes the game! You and your opponent take turns, trying to get to each other's king and capturing pieces in your wake. If you can threaten their queen or king and keep him on the defensive, you'll be at an advantage, but there are infinite possibilities as to how to win.

• Pawns may seem like they're just in the way, but don't be tempted to sacrifice them just yet. If you get one to the other side of the board, it turns into a different piece (just not the king)! Generally people go for a queen, but you're welcome to turn it into a rook or a knight or a bishop. If you can sneak your pawn to the other side without your opponent noticing, you can change the tide of the game completely.

4. Always think a step or two in advance. If you move your knight there, what happens? Does it expose other pieces for your opponent's next play? Do you have time to play offense or does your king (or maybe even queen) need protecting? What ideas seem to be brewing on your opponent's turf? Where do you see the game going in the next few moves?

• This isn't a game where you can mindlessly move pieces around -- they all affect each other in one way or another. You'll have a pawn in the way of your bishop's attack, you'll have your knight defending your king, and your opponent's rook is about to jump on your queen if you don't do something about it. So plan your next move and the one after that -- and your opponent's moves if you can, too. To win, you must be tactful and strategic!

• Always have a comeback move, if possible. You can place your pawn at the will of your opponent's bishop if that means you can then take his bishop with your knight. Sometimes well-planned sacrifices must be made.

5. Know how to "castle." There is a special move involving both the rook and the King. It is the only time you can move two pieces in the same turn.Apart from the pawn's en passant move, one other special move is castling. That's when your rook and your king exchange places -- it shelters the king and gets your rook developed and ready to join the action. It is generally useful to have your king castled.

    You can use your castle only if :

• Neither the King or the Rook to be castled have moved.
• The King is not under check.
• There are no pieces between the King and the rook.
• When your enemy pieces do not control the squares between the final castled position and the uncastled position 

• In one turn, you move both your king and your rook. If castling towards the King side, your king moves two spaces right and your rook is placed right next to the king, (having moved two spaces) If castling towards the Queenside, your king moves two spaces left and your rook is placed next to the king(having moved three spaces right).

6.  Win the game by checkmating your opponent's king. That means you've got the king in check but this time there's no escape. When this happens, saying, "Checkmate!" is acceptable, but not necessary. At this point your opponent taps over his king so that it falls and signals defeat.

1. Stalemates do happen -- where the game basically ends in a draw. It's when you can get your king is neither in check, nor has any safe squares to move to.
2. There are a few other ways by which a game can end in a draw.

• By agreement. If both players agree that they can no longer win or see a method to win, they can agree to draw.
• By repetition. If the same exact position of the chess board, occurs at three different points in a game, the game is declared a draw. For example, if both players just keep moving their Knights back and forth to the same squares, the game will be declared a draw.
• By the 50 move rule. If neither player makes a pawn move or captures a piece for 50 consecutive moves, the game will be declared as a draw. This prevents player from playing endlessly, or to tire the other player out.
• By insufficient material. If neither player has sufficient material to checkmate the king, the game is considered a draw. For example, a Knight and a King alone cannot checkmate the lone enemy King.
• If all other pieces except the kings are captured and are off the board. This is an example of insufficient material and a King cannot checkmate or check the other king all by himself. The game will end as a draw.

Understanding the Game, Board and Pieces Guides

Chess is an incredibly fun, addicting game that requires skill and strategy. It's been around for centuries as a game for intellectuals and scholars; however, playing does require a level of genius -- but that doesn't mean children can't beat adults. Read on to learn and play this ancient game, which has been considered as one of the best board games around.

1. Learn what each piece is and how it moves. Every type of piece moves differently. Here are the names of every piece and how they move (with one or two exceptions, that we'll cover in a bit):

• The pawn: The most basic piece in the game (you have 8 of them). On its initial move, it can move forward one or two spaces, but it is only allowed to move forward by one space afterwards. Pawns are only allowed to attack other pieces one space diagonally from it, and cannot move backwards.
• The rook: It looks like a castle tower. It can move horizontally and vertically as many spaces as are available. It can attack pieces in its path.
• The knight: It's represented by a horse and is the most complicated unit. It moves in an 'L' shapes that consist of two spaces horizontally then one space vertically, or one space horizontally then two spaces vertically, in any direction. The knight is the only piece that can jump other pieces. He attacks only the pieces that are in the spaces he settles.
• The bishop: It can only move diagonally, but it can move an unlimited amount of spaces until it attacks. It's shaped like a bishop's hat.
• The queen: She is the most powerful piece (usually has a more feminine crown). She can move either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally by any number of spaces and attack from any of those directions.
• The king: He can only move one space each turn in any direction and attacks in the same manner. He is the unit you do not want to lose at all costs, as it will make you lose the game.
•     Remember the strong points of the pieces.

1. The king is invaluable and must be protected.
2. The queen is the most versatile piece and is the most useful for supporting pieces, and often used for forking. The queen combines the power of a bishop and a rook in one piece. She is considered to be the most valuable, next to the King.
3. Knights are excellent for surprise attacks and forks.Their pattern of movement is often missed and confusing to novice players.
4. Bishops tend to be an excellent in an open position. However many novice players often underestimate bishops and do not make full use of them.
5. Rooks are strong and have a long range of movement. They work best on open files.
6. Pawns may seem insignificant, but they can be great for trapping an opponent when sacrificed to capture a more valuable piece. If played right, a pawn can even checkmate the King!

2. Understand what is meant by "check". If your king is in check, he is under attack from your opponent's pieces. When your king is in check, you must move out of check on your very next turn. You can move out of check by three methods:

•     By moving your King to a safe square. A safe square is one, where your king will not be in check.
•     By capturing the checking piece.
•     By blocking with one of your pieces. This does not work for Pawns and Knights.

 If you cannot do any of the above, and your king is still in check, the game is over and you have lost.

 

3. Understand the concept. In chess, you are trying to capture your opponent's king and they yours. While this is the primary objective, the auxiliary aim one is to protect your king from getting captured. This is done by either capturing as many of your opponent's pieces as you can or avoiding the capture of your own pieces.

• Chess is a game of intelligence and strategy. There are many moves and rules that beginners will not be able to foresee or understand initially. Be patient! It gets more and more fun the more and more you play.

4.  Set up the board. Now that you know each piece you can place them on the board. Align it so each player has a light-colored square on the bottom right. Here's how to set up your pieces:

• Place all the pawns on the second line in front of you so that you have a wall of pawns between you and your opponent.
• Place each rook on a corner of your side of the board.
• Place a knight next to each rook and a bishop next to each knight.
• Place the queen in one of the two spaces that remain, according to her color (i.e. if you have a black queen, she should go on the black square; if it's white, then she should go on the white square).
• Finally, place the King on the last remaining space. Check that your opponent has the same arrangement of pieces. The queens should be opposite each other and so should be the Kings.

5. If you're serious, consider learning the rank and file system. Each square on the board has a corresponding letter and number. When someone says something like, "Knight to C3," that C3 is part of this system; it makes reference a whole lot easier. Here is how it works.

Winning Tips Guide For Chess Free

Winning is not necessarily about playing the best moves. It is about defeating your opponent. In fact you may have played an awful game, and still won.

Disclaimer!: The advice presented in this section is not about playing perfect chess, and may even reduce one's ability to improve in the longer term. If for example one plays for king attacks in all games, then one's positional understanding is not likely to improve very quickly. The advice in this section really has to be qualified by the position, and other factors, eg the clock, the opponent, etc.

Winning is results focused, as opposed to methods focused. One hopes that if one plays a very good game positionally and tactically, that one should win. Good methods should find their rewarding results but in practice this might not occur. This section offers advice which does not necessarily imply good methods, but can be used to improve one's results in practice. 

Style of play

•    Play for king attacks
•    Put the opponent under pressure
•    The link between the opening and the middlegame

Choice of opening

•     Analyse your opening statistics and play to your strengths
•     Don't pretend your Kasparov
•     Understand the purposes of moves and the general plans in the positions

Other Factors

•     Be aware of context

Style of play

Play for king attacks!
The opponents king is the most vulnerable piece to attack. You could be down on material, and have your position blown apart, but if you mate your opponent's king you will have won the game. The opponent may have completely outplayed you previously in the game, but your mating attack will give you the point.

Put the opponent under pressure
Simplifications of material are unlikely to put the opponent under much pressure, and the game is more likely to end up as a draw. However if you are constantly putting your opponent under pressure, then they are more likely to eventually break. However apply this idea recursively!. Do not punish their mistakes by direct tactics which could simplify too quickly. Instead use the opportunity to put them under even more pressure. Only when they have made a really significant error should one try and capitalise directly on the advantage and risk losing the pressure exerted on them for concrete gains.

The link between the opening and the middlegame
Try to choose an opening which give a certain flavour to the game which suits your style, eg a lot of manoeuvering. Eg the English does not give a massive advantage, but gives a chance to be creative in terms of manoevers. Some openings like the Kings Indian give rise to positions where there opportunities to use pawn breakthroughs. Whereas the Gruenfeld is about piece pressure on the centre, with thrusts later designed to blow up the white centre such as c5.

Move ordering is a technique to consider if you know what your opponent likes and simply avoiding it through the flexibility offered by particular move orders. If you know your opponent plays the Budapest gambit for example, you could start with 1. Nf3. Or if you are black against 1.d4 you could play 1..e6 to leave the possibilities of the Dutch defence or the French defence.

Choice of opening

Look at your opening statistics and play to your strengths!
"Chess for Tigers" by Simon Web suggested this as a method for improving one's results. Again the idea is not to have a perfect opening repertoire, but to have an opening repertoire which brings good results in practice. Openings which suit your style are likely to give you the best results in practice. Play these opening lines to maximise your chances of winning. Try and understand why statistically you are winning in certain openings and not in others.

Don't pretend to be Kasparov
Don't just copy the Grandmasters if you don't understand what they are doing. Play to your own level in order to have a grip to the motivations behind your moves. If the opponent plays an unexpected move for example, then you are in trouble.

Understand the purposes of moves and the general plans in the positions
Do not understand just reams of moves. For example in the Ruy Lopez why does the White bishop spend four moves to get to c2? A good reason is that white has the advantage in space and does not want to simplify the position. A bad reason for playing this is that is because one has seen Grandmaster's doing it.

Other factors

 
Be aware of context
There are several factors usually in the context of a tournament game. For example:-

a) The clock
You cannot leave yourself too short of time to make a lot of moves. In this respect it is sometimes better to play practical moves quickly, rather than try to find the "perfect" move. In finding the "perfect" move, one's clock situation may be worsened considerably.

b) The opponent
You may find out information about the opponent such as they are a sicillian dragon specialist. Do not go into their pet variations. Instead be prepared to play a boring line if necessary to get them out of their book knowledge and make them fight on their own resources.
 

c) Yourself
If you feel tired, do not go in for the most demanding variations. Try and play a solid game, which does not require too much mental effort. It also hopefully means that you wont be blown away after one mistake. Then try and get as much coffee in during the game, to try and wake yourself up.

 

Chess Free Strategy vs. Tactics Guides

Strategy vs. Tactics

Often you will look at your forcing moves and decide they lead nowhere. That’s fine; now you instead play a strategic move rather than a tactical one—a move that improves the quality of your position without trying directly to win your opponent’s pieces or mate his king. But strategy and tactics are linked, since one goal of strategic, “positional” play is to increase the power of your pieces and create fertile conditions for tactical strikes on later moves. Sometimes this is a matter of arranging your pieces so that they have more freedom of movement and denying the same freedoms to your opponent; sometimes it is a matter of coordinating your pieces so that they are aimed at the same sector of the board; sometimes it is a matter of arranging your pawns to help achieve those same purposes for your pieces. At the end of our study of each tactical family (and sometimes more often), we will pause to consider its strategic implications: what the tactical ideas teach about the right sorts of moves to play when there is no such tactic yet available.

All this talk of weaponry admittedly is abstract. It will become concrete in the studies that follow. We will look at over a thousand tactical sequences. The rough structure of most of these sequences, and of a large share of all the great tactical moves ever played in chess, is similar; it involves the elements just described. First there are some forcing moves—checks or captures or mating threats that limit your opponent’s replies. Then there is a denouement: a double threat, such as a fork or discovered attack or one of the other themes we will consider, that becomes possible after the forcing moves have changed the board. As a result you are able to take a loose or underprotected enemy piece. We can call this a combination. The variations on this pattern are limitless, and there is much to know about its details: how to spot forcing moves and figure out their consequences, and how to spot the patterns suggesting that a fork or pin is in order. You can spend a lifetime building your understanding of those things and gaining skill at carrying them out under time pressure. But as you get started it all may be more manageable if you consider these studies as variations on the single idea just described.


The rest of this introductory section will be discussing chess notation and jargon, then some more technical aspects of the site. This therefore is a good time for a reminder that if you want to skip any or all of that stuff, perhaps because you already are comfortable reading about chess positions and want to cut right to some lessons, you can go back to the table of contents and navigate from there by using the link near the upper right corner of this screen.

Chess Free The Forcing Move Tactics Guides

The Forcing Move.

Sometimes in chess you do whatever you want to do and then your opponent does whatever he wants to do. Other times it’s different: if you capture his knight with your bishop, for example, he pretty much has to recapture your bishop; otherwise he simply is short a piece and probably will lose. (The other pieces belonging to both sides gradually will be exchanged away, and you will end up with the only attacking piece left on the board.)

Another example: If you check your opponent’s king, he can’t do whatever he wants in reply; he has to either move the king, block the check, or capture the piece you have used to make the threat. And if you make a move that will enable you to deliver checkmate on your next turn—a “mating threat”—your opponent likewise will have to address it immediately.


Checks, captures, and mate threats therefore are known as forcing moves. In other words, they are moves that force your opponent to pick from a small set of possible replies. They are the essence of tactical chess; they allow you to dictate your opponent’s moves and thus control how the board will look two or three or more moves from now. Other types of moves may be "forcing" as well, mind you: any threat you make against your opponent—for example, a simple threat to take one of his pieces on your next move—may force him to reply in a certain way. This happens all the time, and we will see examples as we go. But checks, captures, and mate threats tend to be the most interesting and important kind of forcing moves because they so powerfully limit your opponent's choice of replies.


This notion of forcing moves helps clear up some common confusions about chess. No doubt you have heard about good players seeing ahead five moves, or a dozen moves, or more; how do they do that when their opponents have so many possible responses to pick from? The usual answer is that their opponents don’t have so many choices after all. Suppose I think like this: if I take your knight with my bishop, you will have to recapture my bishop; then if I check your king, you will have to move it over one square; then if I check your king on its new square, you will have to block my check; then your rook will be left loose and I will take it. In this case I have seen ahead four moves, but notice that I didn’t have to keep track of a lot of possible variations. To each of my moves you only had one plausible reply. I just had to realize this. Of course sometimes your opponent will have more than one plausible reply, and in that case you will need to keep track of some variations after all (“if he does this, I’ll do that; if he does the other thing, then I go to plan B,” etc.). And it’s true that very strong players can keep straight lots of variations. But it’s also true that a lot of great tactical sequences consist entirely of forced moves that make it not so hard to see ahead.


Once you grasp the idea of forcing moves it also is easier to understand how to come up with nifty tactical ideas during your games. Of course you might like to unleash a fork or discovery or skewer, but what if no such moves are possible when it’s your turn? Do you wait around for a fork to become available? No; your first job when you are deciding what move to play is to examine your possible forcing moves: any checks, captures, or mating threats you can offer. You don't look at these things just as ends in themselves; you ask what moves your opponent would be forced to make in reply, and whether you then would be able to play a fork or discovery or skewer or some other tactic. If the answer is no, you imagine playing another forcing move after the first one and then ask the same questions.


The point of experimenting with forcing moves, in short, is that they change the look of the board. They may open up lines that currently are cluttered; they may cause your opponent to leave pieces loose that now have protection; they may make him line up pieces that are not now on the same line; they may make him put his king where it can be checked. Your task is to imagine the board as it would look after your forcing moves and see if changes such as those would create tactical openings for you. Gradually a pattern you recognize may emerge—the makings of a fork or discovery or other idea.


With practice this becomes second nature: if your rook is aimed at your opponent’s knight, you automatically consider capturing the knight and allowing your rook to be taken. This would be a sacrifice, of course, since rooks are more valuable than knights, but great tactical ideas routinely begin with sacrifices like that. The question is whether the exchange of your rook for his knight would leave you with a chance to play a fork or other double threat—or with a chance to play another forcing move that isn’t yet possible. Maybe after your rook is captured you then can play a check that wasn’t available before; and maybe after your opponent responds to the check you then will have a fork. But it all starts by thinking about a simple capture you can make and its consequences.


Likewise, you generally don’t want to make any moves without being aware of any checks you give and their consequences. Checks are the most forcing moves of all because your opponent is required to reply by moving his king, taking the piece that threatens it, or moving a piece between them. This usually makes it easy to see what a check will require your opponent to do. And since a check often forces your opponent to move his king, it may lead directly to tactics that make the king a target—a fork with the king at one end, or a pin with a king at the rear, or for that matter checkmate.


Looking at any checks and captures you have to offer is like looking for loose pieces on the board: these are things you do all the time during a game, because most great tactical ideas involve one of those elements or the other.

Chess Free The Loose Piece Tactics Guides

 The Loose Piece.

Another key idea in chess is the loose piece. A loose piece is simply a piece that has no protection. It is common for players to leave pieces unprotected here and there; as long as they aren’t being attacked, they look safe enough. But loose pieces make perfect targets for the double threats described a moment ago. Suppose your queen performs a fork, attacking your opponent’s king and one of his rooks at the same time. He moves his king. Now you can use your queen to take his rook—if it is unprotected. But if the rook is guarded you won’t be able to take it because the cost will be too high: your queen will be captured afterwards.

We can turn this point into advice for practical play. You want to be aware of loose pieces on the board at all times. Any piece your opponent has left unguarded is a possible target for a tactical strike; any piece of yours that is left unguarded is a vulnerability. Indeed, you want to not only notice loose enemy pieces but also look for ways to create them. We will see countless examples in the studies to come. ("Loose pieces" also can be defined to include enemy pieces that are underdefended: attacked once and defended once by a fellow piece. As we shall see, pieces in that condition sometimes can make targets just as good as pieces with no protection at all.)


The great chess writer Cecil Purdy stated the point as a rule: "Never leave or place a piece loose without first looking for a possible fork or pin, and never see an enemy piece loose without doing the same." Do you follow this advice already? Many inexperienced players don't. When they put a piece onto a new square, they mostly just check to make sure it won't get taken there. Purdy's advice is different. It is to ask whether your piece has protection on its new square; and if it doesn't, to ask carefully whether a fork or pin or other tactic might be launched against it. You may not yet understand quite what it means to look for forks or pins, but you will soon; and then following Purdy's counsel will save you many sorrows.

Chess Free The Double Threat Tactics Guides

The Elements of Tactics: A Primer.

The Double Threat.

If you are new to chess, the sequences that good players use to win games may seem impossibly complicated. But most of them actually are based on just a few general concepts combined ingeniously and persistently. This frame and the ones that follow explain the concepts broadly. The rest of the site teaches their use in detail.

The most important idea in chess is the double threat. Generally speaking a double threat is any move you make that presents your opponent with two problems at the same time. Since each player can make just one move per turn, your opponent only has time to address one of the threats you have made. On your next turn you execute the other one. Maybe your first move checks his king and attacks another of his pieces at the same time; or maybe you threaten one of his pieces and are building a threat of checkmate elsewhere. The result is the same: your opponent has to spend his next move dealing with your threat against his king, and then you get to take the other piece you were threatening.

The universe of chess tactics can be divided into four or five great families of ideas, each of them a variation on the logic of the double threat. This site is organized around them:

1. The first family, and the best-known type of double threat, is the fork—a move where one of your pieces attacks two enemy pieces at the same time. You no doubt have seen examples of knight forks if you have played chess for a while; the knight naturally lends itself to moves in which it attacks two pieces at once. But the same idea can be executed with your queen or with other pieces, as we shall see.

2. A second type of double threat, and another family of tactical ideas, is the discovered attack. This occurs when you move one of your pieces out of the way of another so that both of them make separate attacks against your opponent. Again, he only has time to parry one of the threats. You play out the other one on your next move.

3. A third family of tactical ideas involves the pin or skewer. These occur when two of your opponent’s pieces are on the same line and you place an attacker so that it runs through both of them. In effect you again are making a double threat—one threat against the piece in front and another against the piece behind it.

4. And then there are countless other situations that may be lumped under the heading of removing the guard, in which you capture or harry an enemy piece that guards something else you want to take. Your opponent can’t defend against both threats on the one turn allowed to him, so you are able to play one of them or the other.

In effect most games of chess are contests to see who can find a way to use one of those tactical techniques first. One successful fork (or discovery, or skewer, etc.) often decides a game by giving one player an insurmountable advantage over the other. This is why Richard Teichmann said that chess is 99% tactics; and it is why mastery of tactics is the key to having fun at the chessboard, not to mention winning.

[Note: A fifth family of tactical operations involves mating patterns: characteristic ways that kings get trapped. These are treated in the last section of this site. They do not necessarily involve the logic of the double threat in the way that those tactical devices just described do. We also are leaving aside a few other, more minor families of tactics for now.]