6/19 Chess Lesson
Quick chess lesson today. A major lesson for anyone who wants to learn how to play chess or is a beginner with chess, it’s always important to remember: The point of the game is to achieve checkmate, not capturing other pieces.
Many times, new players get very focused on capturing the majority of their opponent’s pieces first, THEN focusing on capturing the King.
While this is a good strategy for beginner’s, and can certainly lead to a high amount of wins when first starting out, as your chess game progresses, the focus becomes less on capturing pieces, and more on capturing the King.
Obviously the ability to do this takes time as it involves a higher level of skill, but understanding how to do this will take your chess game up to another level.
It will also prevent matches from being lost when there was a chance to win. For example, lets say player 1 has the opportunity to capture the King within 2 or 3 moves, but instead the player focuses on capturing more of their opponent’s chess pieces first.
Player 1 ends up making a mistake, and player 2 ends up winning, when player 1 had the game won, but was more focused on capturing pieces rather than winning the game.
Below is a video from a recent chess match played that demonstrates this well. Dark player has a queen, rook, and bishop on the table, and light player is still able to capture the King.
