Chess Strategy: How to Win More Games

You don't need to memorize long opening lines to play good chess. Between everyday players, games are almost always decided by a piece left where it can be taken, or a simple threat that nobody noticed. A few steady habits will win you far more games against family, friends and our computer player than any book of openings. If you need a refresher on how the pieces move, read the chess rules first.

1. Make the Safety Check Before Every Move

The single most useful habit in chess takes a few seconds. Before you move, ask two questions:

• Can my piece be taken where it lands? Look along every row, column and diagonal that reaches the square, and check for enemy knights an L-shape away.
• What did the piece stop guarding? Moving a piece can leave a neighbor undefended, or open a line to your king. This is the question people forget.

A piece that can be taken for free is called a hanging piece. Never leave one, and always look for your opponent's.

2. Checks, Captures and Threats

Strong players look at forcing moves first, because forcing moves leave the other side the fewest choices. After your opponent moves, ask: what checks, captures and threats does that move make possible for them? Then ask the same about your own position. Do you have a check that wins something? A capture that is simply free? A move that attacks two things at once?

That last idea, attacking two pieces with one move, is called a fork, and knights are especially good at it. A knight that lands where it attacks both the king and the queen wins the queen, because the king must get out of check first.

3. Opening Principles

Instead of memorizing moves, follow a few simple principles in the first ten or so moves:

• Take the center. Move one or two center pawns forward two squares. Pieces in the middle reach more squares than pieces on the edge.
• Develop your pieces. Bring out knights and bishops toward the center. A good rule of thumb is knights before bishops.
• Don't move the same piece twice in the opening without a good reason. Every move spent shuffling one piece is a move another piece stays at home.
• Don't bring the queen out early. She can be chased around by smaller pieces, and your opponent develops with every chase.
• Castle early. Usually by move eight or ten. It hides the king and brings a rook toward the middle.
• Connect your rooks. Once the pieces between your rooks have moved out, the rooks protect each other and are ready for the open columns.

4. Count Attackers and Defenders

Before you capture on a square, or when you wonder whether one of your pieces is safe, count. How many of your pieces attack the square? How many of your opponent's defend it? If attackers outnumber defenders, you can usually win the piece. If the numbers are equal, the exchanges go back and forth and come out even, so long as you start with your least valuable pieces.

The values help here: a pawn is worth about 1, a knight or bishop 3, a rook 5 and a queen 9. Capturing a defended knight with your queen is a bad trade, because you give up 9 to get 3. Capturing a defended rook with a bishop is a good one.

5. Keep Your King Safe

Once you have castled, leave the three pawns in front of your king where they are for as long as you can. Every one of them that moves forward opens a door. Later in the game, when the danger of a back-row checkmate appears, moving one of those pawns a single square to give the king a breathing hole is often wise.

Watch for open lines toward your king, too. An enemy bishop or queen on a long diagonal pointing at your king deserves attention even if nothing is happening yet.

6. Trade When You Are Ahead

When you are ahead in material, even trades make your lead count for more. A knight up with all the pieces on the board can be hard to use; a knight up with only a few pawns left usually wins easily. When you are behind, avoid trades and keep the position complicated.

7. Checkmating a Lone King

Every player should know how to finish off a lone king. Both of these are wins, and both are good practice against the computer.

King and queen against king

Use the queen to fence the enemy king into a smaller and smaller box. A handy method is to place your queen a knight's move away from the enemy king: it covers a whole row and column around it without giving check. Each time the king moves, move the queen to stay a knight's move away, shrinking the box until the king is on the edge of the board. Then bring your own king up, two squares away, and checkmate with the queen right next to the enemy king, protected by your king.

Watch out for stalemate. When the enemy king has only a corner and one or two squares left, check before each move that it still has somewhere to go. If you take away every square without giving check, the game is a draw.

King and rook against king

This takes longer, but the idea is similar. Use the rook to cut the enemy king off along a row or column, so it can't cross. Bring your king forward. When the two kings face each other with one square between them, give check with the rook along the enemy king's row, and the enemy king has to step back toward the edge. When your king isn't facing it yet, make a quiet waiting move with the rook along its line, keeping it far from the enemy king so it can't be attacked. Repeat until the king is pushed onto the edge, then check along the edge for checkmate.

8. Pawn Endgames

When only kings and pawns are left, a few ideas decide most games:

• Use your king. In the endgame the king is a strong fighting piece. March it toward the middle and the pawns.
• Lead with the king. When pushing a pawn toward promotion, your king usually belongs in front of the pawn, clearing the way, not behind it.
• The square rule. To see whether a lone king can catch a passed pawn, picture a square running from the pawn to its promotion row and the same distance sideways. If the king can step inside that square on its move, it catches the pawn.
• Facing kings. When the two kings stand face to face with one square between them, the player who does not have to move usually has the upper hand, because the other king has to give way. Chess players call this having the opposition.
• A pawn on the edge is the hardest to win with, because the defending king can sit in the corner. If you have a choice, keep pawns nearer the middle.

9. Practice With the Computer

Our computer player is a patient practice partner because it explains itself. Start on Beginner, which looks only a move or two ahead and makes real mistakes, and practice spotting the pieces it leaves hanging. Move on to Easy, then Normal, which plays like a careful club player, and finally Hard. Use Hint when you are stuck and Why? to understand the computer's moves. When a game goes wrong, Undo My Move lets you try another idea, and Replay This Game plays the same game again from the start.

Enjoy games where the better plan wins? Try checkers, Reversi or backgammon, or read about the chess variations your family may have played.