Chess Strategies For Beginners

When you buy your kids a wooden chess set or an electronic chess set, you are buying them an important piece of culture, history, and mental stimulation. But whether they're playing on a traditional wooden chess set against another human being or an electronic chess set against an artificial intelligence, they will need to know some basics of chess strategy. The same goes for you if you are getting into this great game for yourself.

Strategy is of paramount importance to playing chess. This is not a game that can be improvised (at least not in full), and if you want to win you cannot simply depend upon luck. Any improvisation in chess really should only come from responses to your opponent's moves. You want to have a mapped-out strategy in place before the game even begins. If you are a chess beginner, you will in time develop your own style of play, but that doesn't mean you ignore some of the most basic, elemental chess strategies that have been developed over hundreds of years and been proven to work for all players.

Let's look at some of the most basic chess strategies which you can begin applying immediately.

• Make highly effective use of your pawns. Don't just use them as sacrifices and don't just try to get them out of the way. Keep your opponent's power pieces threatened or "clogged up" with wise pawn use. At the same time, capture your opponent's pawns ruthlessly--don't tell yourself "oh, they're just pawns". Make it a point to wipe them out.

• Start using your knights very, very early in the game--you may even want to develop an opening where your very first move uses a knight instead of a pawn.

• Castle as early as possible in the game.

• Some chess masters say you should never deliberately sacrifice a bishop to capture a knight. Others say that a bishop should capture a knight whenever possible even if that means the bishop will be captured by the opponent's next move. Be mindful of both of these ideas and see which one works better for you as you develop your own style.

• Always attempt to set things up so that your opponent will pay a price for capturing one of your pieces. The cost to him should be heavy. I.E. if your opponent takes your rook, make it so that you will immediately capture one of his power pieces such as his bishop, knight, or rook (or queen if possible, of course). Don't let one of your power pieces get taken when all you'll make your opponent pay with is a pawn.

• As an unwritten rule, the best piece to use to attempt to capture the opponent's queen is a knight. Absolutely never sacrifice your own queen except where you will capture the opponent's queen as a result. Never hesitate to sacrifice any of your pieces to capture the opponent's queen--except for your own queen.

• Attack your opponent ruthlessly, but only make moves that are carefully thought-out first. Be aggressive, but also be patient. Impatience in chess is a death trap.

• In general, the best way to use your rooks is to align them vertically. I.E. for example, have one rook at D2 and the other at D6 at the same time.

These strategic tips work on any type of chess set! The material doesn't matter, just the mentality!