Chess for Beginners

Category: Strategy

  • Chess Strategy

    Chess Strategy

    What is Chess Strategy?

    It is the creation of long term plans that will dictate your next several moves. In order to achieve these plans, you can argue that the chess player will resort to either positional, tactical or endgame devices.

    Aspect of chess playing concerned with evaluation of chess positions and setting of goals and long-term plans for future play.

    Strategic play is the most difficult component of chess to train and learn. By studying tactics, you can improve your pattern database and your visualization skills. Tactical study will lead to tangible improvement in your game.

     
    But when studying strategy, patterns are not as obvious and over the board decisions are more common, making it one of the most complex phases of a chess game.

    Strategic versus Positional Chess

    Positional chess has to do with the positioning of the pieces and their mobility whereas strategic chess has to do with long term planning. A strategic plan in chess can revolve around making a piece more active, and as a result can have a positional component. A strategic plan can also lead to a tactical culmination. And finally, a strategic plan can lead to an endgame.

    For Nimzowitsch in My System the basic elements of strategy were:

    1. The center
    2. Open files
    3. Play on the 7th and 8th ranks
    4. The passed pawn
    5. The pin
    6. Discovered check
    7. The pawn chain
    8. Exchanging

    If you review Nimzowitsch’s list, you can argue that items 1-3 and 7 are positional in nature. Items 5 & 6 are tactical, and 4 & 8 are endgame related.

    The following Venn diagram illustrates the different components of chess strategy.

    Components of Chess Strategy

     

    Strategic Thought Process

    How frequently do you need to rethink your plan? when in my thought process do I think about strategic components and create a long term plan for the position?

    While long term plan is the definition of strategy, you need to reconsider any long term plan based on the situation on the board. The following critical moments are signs that a re-validation and possible modification of your strategic plan maybe in order:

    1. In positions where there are possible exchanges
    2. Transition from opening to middlegame, or from middlegame to endgame.
    3. After a change in pawn structure.
    4. At the end of a series of forced moves.
    5. When there is tension in the position.

    A common chess thought process heuristic is to think strategically during your opponent’s move and to calculate variations during your move.

    chess strategy thought process

    How to Improve Your Strategic Play

     Step one is to go over of master games, starting in chronological order with the games of Emanuel Lasker. This will give you a good foundation of strategic play. This will give you a good perspective of how strategic play has changed over the years. Play through circa 1927, when Capablanca lost the Chess Championship to Alekhine.

     
    Step two is to review Nimzowitch’s My System, study it well and apply it to your play.
     
    Step three is to review Master games starting with Alekhine’s games circa 1930. Review games until you reach circa 1969 which is the end of Petrosian’s reign as chess world champion.
     
    Step four is to read Watson’s Modern Chess Strategy – Advances since Nimzowitch. The key is to identify how play has changed since Nimzowitch’s time.
     
    Step five, is to continue reviewing chess master games, from 1970 to current times.

    I would love to hear your feedback on how you define strategy in chess and what your thought process looks like.

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  • The Bishop and Open Diagonals

    The Bishop and Open Diagonals: In order to obtain its full working force, a Bishop must be provided with open diagonals; here its long-range power can be put to good effect. The following game shows how the opening of an attacking diagonal can lead to an immediate decision.

  • Playing Against an Outpost

    Playing Against an Outpost

     

    In the diagram White has an outpost on e5, but Ne5 can always be met by …Nxe5 and after recapturing with the pawn, White’s outpost is gone. White needs to bring another piece to bear on e5, so White to move would play 1.Bg5 and follow it up with Bh4 and Bg3. If on the other hand Black is on the move, he would seek to prevent this with 1…h6, or a more active solution 2…Qe8( so as to meet Bg5 with 2…Qh5! threatening Rxf3) or 1…Qb6. Either move gives Black a fine position.

     

    If you are unable to cover your opponent’s outpost, then extremely active harassing tactics are needed.

     

    The diagram is from Unzicker – Fischer, Varna 1962.  If you are unable to cover your opponent’s outpost, then extremely active harassing tactics are needed. In this position the White knight is at least four moves away from reaching d5, this gives Black some breathing room to prevent it, since after the White knight reaches d5 White is lost.

    1… Ra4 Immobilizing the knight. 2. c3 Qa6 3. h3?  Rc8 4. Rfe1 h6 5. Kh2 Bg5 6. g3 Qa7 7. Kg2 Ra2 8. Kf1 Rxc3! White resigns, as after 9.Rxa2 (9.bxc3 Qf2#) Rf3+ 10.Ke2 Rf2+ 11.Kd1 Qxa2 his position is wrecked.

    The lessons to be learned here is that structure alone is not quite everything. The pieces must be able to coordinate with the pawn structure.

    From Stean’s Simple Chess

  • The Bishop Pair Versus Bishop and Knight

  • Steinitz's Elements

    Permanent advantages

    1. Material advantage
    2. Bad king position
    3. Passed pawns in the middlegame
    4. Weak pawns for the opponent
    5. Strong and weak squares
    6. Pawn islands
    7. Strong pawn center
    8. Control of a diagonal
    9. Control of a file
    10. Bishop pair
    11. Control of a rank

    Temporary advantages
    12. Bad piece position
    13. Inharmoniously placed pieces
    14. Advantage in development
    15. Concentration of pieces in the center (centralization)
    16. Space advantage

  • Training Notebook 08.16.2007

    08.15.2007

    Play Standard Game

    Played and analyzed my G/60 ICC ST Tourney game

    08.16.2007

    Study Strategy
    Reviewed through page 24 of Chess Strategy for Kids don’t mind the title…the book is highly recommended by Dan Heisman, and it ensures that you have all your chess fundamentals in place.

    Key Points

    Everything in chess can be explained in terms of three basic ideas:

    • Material
    • Safety
    • Freedom

    Based on those ideas when selecting candidate moves 5 good questions to ask are:

    1. Who is ahead in material?
    2. Is either King unsafe?
    3. Who has more freedom?
    4. What would you play if it was your opponent’s turn?
    5. What do you play that takes advantage of the three keys to strategy?

    Solve Endings

    Did Endgame module 1 of Personal Chess Trainer’s endgame module (40 exercises). I had not planned on using PCT, but it has a good amount of endgame puzzles, and it uses pattern recognition as a teaching tool which is a positive.

  • The Good and the Bad Bishop

    According to Pachman, the value of the Bishop can usually be assessed by the following rule:

    The Bishop has good working power if its own pawns are posted on squares of the opposite color, assuming that the pawn formation cannot easily be altered.

    As a rule, each side will try to place their pawns on a color opposite of that of his Bishop; this makes it easier to block the opponent’s pawn on squares accessible to the Bishop. When the position has become simplified and the pawn formation fairly rigid, both sides will try to rid themselves of a bad Bishop and keep a good one.

  • Ruben Fine’s Thirty Rules of Chess

    TEN OPENING RULES

    1. Open with a center pawn.

    2. Develop with threats.

    3. Knights before Bishops.

    4. Don’t move the same piece twice.

    5. Make as few pawn moves as possible in the opening.

    6. Don’t bring your Queen out too early.

    7. Castle as soon as possible, preferably on the Kingside.

    8. Always play to gain control, of the center.

    9. Try to maintain at least one pawn in the center.

    10. Don’t sacrifice without a clear and adequate reason. For a sacrificed pawn you must:

    A. Gain three tempi, or
    B. Deflect the enemy Queen, or
    C. Prevent castling, or
    D. Build up a strong attack.
    (more…)

  • Chess Imbalances – The Silman Thinking Technique

    In How to Reassess your Chess Jeffery Silman describes how to create a plan in the middle game based on his set of chess imbalances. The list of imbalances includes:

    Chess Imbalances

    1) Superior minor piece
    2) pawn structure
    3) space
    4) material
    5) control of key file or square
    6) lead in development
    7) initiative

    Silman goes on to describe his ‘Thinking Technique‘ which is based on his concept of imbalances in chess. In a nutshell the thinking technique consists of:

    Silman Thinking Technique

    1) Determine your position based on positive or negative chess imbalances

    2) Determine the side of the board to play on

    3) Dream up fantasy positions

    4) Try to acheive fantasy position, if not dream up another one

    5) Look at candidate moves. candidate moves are all moves that lead to fantasy position.

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