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Tips chess
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For the rules of chess, see GameHelpChess
On Every move
Look at your opponent's last move
What does it change?
- Can I capture my opponent's piece?
- Is my opponent threatening to capture any of my pieces?
- Can I recapture?
- Can I move my attacked piece to a safer square?
- Can I threaten to capture a piece of at least the same value?
- Is another piece unprotected?
Look at the square you are moving to
Can my opponent capture this piece if I move it here?
- Can I recapture?
Can I find a better move?
Example thought process
- My opponent moved their knight
- Can I capture this knight?
- Yes, with my queen!
- But then my queen will be captured by their queen - bad move
- Yes, with my queen!
- This knight is threatening to capture a pawn
- I can recapture - no problem
- This knight is also threatening to capture my rook!
- Where can I move my rook this turn?
- I can move my rook to the left one square
- It can be captured by a bishop there
- I can move my rook to the left two squares
- The knight can also capture it there
- I can move my rook to the a-file or the b-file
- It can only be captured by another rook those squares
- I can recapture, so moving my rook to that square is OK
- It can only be captured by another rook those squares
- I can move my rook to the left one square
- Where can I move my rook this turn?
- Their knight move left a pawn unprotected
- I can now capture this pawn with my knight
- This also places my opponent's king in check
- This also threatens to capture their queen!
- I move my knight to capture the pawn on f7
- I can now capture this pawn with my knight
- Can I capture this knight?
At the start of the game
- Move a pawn to control one of the central 4 squares of the board
- Move Knights and Bishops to control the centre
- Castle with your King and Rook
- Move both knights and both bishops at least once before moving the queen or one piece multiple times
- After castling, avoid moving the protective pawns in front of your king
- Avoid moving your second most valuable piece - the queen - until the middle of the game
In the middle of the game
Once you have completed the above, decide on where to attack - usually one of:
- In the centre
- On the kingside (the half of the board where the kings start: files e through h)
- On the queenside (the half of the board where the queens start: files a through d)
- Use knights and bishops to attack the same squares, often an opponent's pawn
- a typical early target can be the f2/f7 pawn which can only be recaptured by the king at the start of the game
Near the end of the game
- With fewer pieces on the board, pawns become more important
- Try not to lose too many pawns
- Try to promote a pawn to a new queen!
- With few pieces on the board (and minimal chance of checkmate), the king is a fighting piece!
- Use your king to help promote your own pawns or capture your opponent's pawns