6 Quick Chess Tips for Becoming A Great Chess Player
6 Quick Chess Tips for Becoming a Great Chess Player
We’ve covered much information on this site, including how to play chess, chess strategy, checkmate strategy, and the chess tactics in our E-book “The Chess Formula”. Today, we’ll keep it brief and to the point and cover 6 quick chess tips for becoming a great chess player.
6 Quick Chess Tips for Becoming a Great Chess Player
1. Master the Knights
The knights value may be equivalent to the bishop, and less than the rook and queen, but when mastered, the knights can be the greatest chess piece in the game. While we cover how to move the knight here, as well as more in our E-Book, take some time to master the knight, as well as anticipate where your opponent may move their own knights.
2. Take Your Time
It’s very often that inexperienced chess players will move a piece thinking they have a great move ahead, only to have their chess piece captured. If you’re a beginner to the game of chess, be sure to anticipate future moves, and take a few moments before moving your pieces. Even if you rarely play the game of chess, just by taking a few moments to anticipate moves on the chessboard, you will play at a much more advanced level.
3. Master the “Check & Capture”
This is from our E-Book “The Chess Formula”. The “Chess & Capture”, is a move where the king is in line of a higher ranking piece, and when placed in check, the King must move, and the high ranking chess piece is captured.
See example below:
Dark queen places King in check
King moves out of check
Rook, which was in line of capture of King, is now captured, without any light piece to capture the queen in return
Point being: Make sure not to leave your pieces vulnerable behind your King.
This, among many other moves, which we cover in “The Chess Formula”, is one of the major moves that players will take advantage of to gain the upper hand in a chess match, and also one of the major mistakes players make to soon be at a disadvantage…which takes us to point number 4.
4. Mind Your Surroundings
While it becomes incredibly easier to learn all the major mistakes and ways to take advantage of mistakes such as the “Check & Awe” from our E-Book which points of all of these out, it still is important to pay attention to all your pieces on the chessboard. More often than not, it’s from mistakes such as these, as well as being aware of them, that elevates a players chess playing abilities.
5. Value Your Pawns
I’ve written about this many times, and have an article here about how to use your pawns for checkmate, but I will emphasize the point again:
Your pawns can be your greatest ally, and also your greatest enemy.
When used effectively, your pawns can be promoted to a queen, or force an opponent to give up a high ranking chess piece, in order to prevent a pawn from being promoted.They can also make the chessboard more difficult for opponent’s to navigate. Either way, don’t treat your pawns as meaningless pieces because there are many or they have a value of “1”. Keep them protected and learn to use them effectively.
In our E-book, the Chess Formula, we also cover a specific tactic specifically for pawns but we’re not giving that one away…at least not yet.
6. Focus on Checkmate
I’ve mentioned this in every chess strategy article, but want to emphasis it again to drive home the point. Many new players tend to get caught up in capturing all their opponent’s chess pieces that they forget the point of chess: Capturing the king.
Remember it’s not always necessary (in fact very rarely necessary) to capture all of your opponent’s chess pieces in order to place the King in checkmate. Make sure to take your time (point 2) and read the board to see if there are opportunities for checkmate.
The last thing you want is to have an advantage over your opponent chess pieces wise, but then lose the match because your opponent blindsides you with an unexpected checkmate, when you could have already won the game.
6 Quick Chess Tips for Becoming a Great Chess Player
- Master the Knights
- Take Your Time
- Master the “Check & Capture”
- Mind Your Surroundings
- Value Your Pawns
- Focus on Checkmate
