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This article seems not to be written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia entry.
Please improve the article or discuss proposed changes on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. Chess strategy and tactics are moves aimed at achieving long-term goals (strategy) and immediate combinational maneuvers (tactics). In chess, the maximization of winning chances requires the rapid mobilization of chess pieces - increasing maneuvering room, while simultaneously limiting the opponent's plans. This so-called "positional" approach to chess is the basis for modern chess strategy. Of course, good positioning of pieces only creates opportunities for victory. In order to close the game and win, a player must make accurate tactical calculations of sequences of moves (variations) that lead either to outright victory, or to a significant advantage, all the while preventing such sequences from being played by the opponent. Chess is an abstract strategy board game and mental sport for two players. ...
Chess is an abstract strategy board game and mental sport for two players. ...
In chess, each player has one of two equivalent sets of pieces of different colors. ...
In contrast to the positional concepts that underlie chess strategy, chess tactics enable a player to leverage the way the pieces move, along with the geometry of the chessboard, to immediately accomplish various useful objectives, often against the will of their opponent. These objectives include such things as bolstering or thwarting attacks on the kings, eliminating a larger portion of the opponent's fighting force than one's own, or otherwise posing undesired difficulties for the opponent.
It has been considered by Chess masters that increasing the positional advantages leads to a greater number of favorable tactical possibilities. A chess master is a chess player of such skill that he can nearly always beat players of the general strength found in chess clubs, who themselves typically can nearly always prevail against the level of play generally possessed by the average player in the general population. ...
- "Strategy requires thought; tactics requires observation." - Max Euwe
In describing tactics and strategy, we will use the algebraic chess notation. Machgielis (Max) Euwe (last name is pronounced /ø:wə/) (May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess player. ...
Algebraic chess notation is the method used today by all competition chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers to record and describe the play of chess games. ...
Values of the pieces - Main article: Chess piece point value
Material advantage applies both strategically and tactically. Generally more pieces, or an aggregate of more powerful pieces, delivers greater winning chances. A fundamental strategic and tactical rule is to capture opponent pieces while preserving one's own. In chess, the chess pieces are often assigned certain point values that help determine how valuable a piece is strategically. ...
A knight is about as valuable as a bishop (these two are called minor pieces), but less valuable than a rook, and less still than a queen (rooks and queens are called major pieces). Bishops are usually considered to be slightly better than knights in open positions (such as toward the end of the game, when many of the pieces have been captured), whereas knights have an advantage in closed positions. Having two bishops is a particularly powerful weapon, especially if the opposing player has lost one or both of his bishops. The knight moves in an L shape. ...
A bishop (â™—â™) is a piece in the board game of chess. ...
The white rook may move to any square with an X. The black rook may move to any square marked with a dot or capture the white pawn. ...
Queen. ...
Three pawns are likely to be more useful than a knight in the endgame, but in the middlegame a knight is often more powerful. Two minor pieces are stronger than a single rook. Two rooks are stronger than a queen, but not by much. Initial placement of the pawns. ...
One commonly used simple scoring system is 1 point for a pawn, 3 for a knight or bishop, 5 for a rook, and 9 for a queen. Under a system like this, giving up a knight or bishop in order to win a rook ("winning the exchange") is advantageous and is worth about two pawns. This of course ignores such complications as the current position and freedom of the pieces involved, but it is a good starting point. In an open position, bishops will be more valuable than knights (a bishop pair can easily be worth 7 points or more in some situations); conversely, in a closed position, bishops will be less valuable than knights. The king is infinitely valuable since its loss causes the loss of the game. The King (♔♚) is the most important piece in the game of chess. ...
Tactics
Attacking and defending pieces A piece is said to attack an opponent's piece if, in the next move, it could capture that piece. A piece is said to defend or to protect a piece of the defender's color if, in case the defended piece were taken by the opponent, the defender could recapture right away. Attacking a piece forces the opponent to respond only if the attacked piece is undefended, or if the attacking piece is of lower value than the attacked one.
Forks - Main article: fork
A fork is a move that uses one piece to attack two of the opponent's pieces at the same time, hoping to achieve material advantage (because the opponent can only counter one of the two threats). Knights are often used for forks: they jump to a position from where they attack two pieces. A quite common situation is a white knight jumping to c7, thereby threatening both the rook at a8 and the king at e8. Such "king forks" are particularly effective, because the opponent is forced by the rules of the game to counter the threat to the king; the opponent cannot choose to defend the other piece, and thus cannot use a zwischenzug (see below) to complicate the situation. Pawns can also fork enemy pieces: by moving a pawn forward, it may attack two pieces: one diagonally to the left and one diagonally to the right. A common situation is the move Pawn d2-d4 forking a black bishop at c5 and a black knight at e5. The white knight is forking the black king and rook. ...
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 | | Kasparov vs. World Team 1999
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
In 1999, Garry Kasparov agreed to play a game of chess, via the Internet, against the rest of the world in consultation, with the World Team moves to be decided by majority vote. ...
Kasparov played 12.Nc7+ | A variation of the Three Knights Opening
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Bc5 4.Nxe5 Nxe5 5.d4 | A queen move also often attacks two pieces at the same time, but this is only useful if both pieces are undefended, or if one is undefended and the other is the opposing king. The queen is more valuable than the pieces it is attacking, so it is usually not profitable for it to capture a defended piece.
Pins - Main article: pin
"The defensive power of a pinned piece is only imaginary." - Aron Nimzowitsch Here there is an absolute pin on the black knight because moving it would illegally expose the black king to check from the white bishop. ...
Aron Nimzowitsch (also Nimzovich or Niemzowitsch) (November 7, 1886, Riga – March 16, 1935, Denmark) was a Latvian chess grandmaster. ...
A pin is a move which forces one of the opponent's pieces to stay put because moving it would expose a more valuable piece behind it. As they move in a straight line, bishops, rooks, and queens can pin other pieces.
In the left diagram, black can't move the knight without losing the queen, and Black's rook can't be moved at all. In the right diagram, Kramnik pins black's bishop and soon wins it with a4-a5.
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 | | Morphy vs. Consultation Team 1858
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
The Opera Game was a famous chess game played in 1858 between the American chess master Paul Morphy and two strong amateurs, the German noble Karl, Duke of Brunswick and the French aristocrat Count Isouard, who consulted, playing together as partners against Morphy. ...
after Morphy's 14th move | Vladimir Kramnik vs. Alexander Morozevich 2002 Rapid Play
Vladimir Kramnik at the 2005 Corus chess tournament. ...
Alexander Morozevich Alexander Morozevich (ÐлекÑандр МорозеÌвич) (born July 18, 1977) is a Russian chess player. ...
For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ...
Kramnik played 31.Rb1 |
Skewers - Main article: skewer
A skewer is a move which attacks two pieces in a line, similar to a pin, except that the enemy piece of greater value is in front of the enemy piece of lesser value. After the more valuable piece moves away, the lesser piece can be captured. Queens, rooks, and bishops can skewer. In chess, a skewer (or thrust) is an attack upon two pieces in a line and is similar to a pin. ...
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 | | Lasker vs. Bauer 1889
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Lasker played 33.Qg7+ | Tal vs. Botvinnik 1960
Tal played 30.Bc4 | Because of possible pins and skewers, one should be extremely cautious if king and queen are located on the same vertical, horizontal or diagonal line, or can be forced into such an arrangement.
Discovered attacks - Main article: discovered attack
A discovered attack is a move which unmasks an attack by another piece. A piece is moved away so as to unmask the attack of a friendly bishop, rook or queen on an enemy piece. If the attacked piece is the king, we speak of a discovered check. Discovered attacks are powerful, because if the moving piece manages to pose a second threat, the opponent is in trouble. In chess, a discovered attack is an attack revealed when one piece moves out of the way of another. ...
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 | | Torre vs. Lasker 1925
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Torre played 31.Rg5+ | Byrne vs. Fischer 1956
The Game of the Century usually refers to a chess game played between Donald Byrne and 13-year old Bobby Fischer in the Rosenwald Memorial Tournament in New York City on October 17, 1956. ...
Fischer played 22...Nc3+ | A special case of a discovered check is a double check, where both the piece being unmasked and the piece being moved attack the enemy king. A double check requires that the opponent moves his/her king as the king is under attack from two directions and it is impossible to counter both at the same time in any other way.
Zwischenzug - Main article: zwischenzug
The German zwischenzug means "intermediate move"; it is a common tactic that occurs in almost every game: instead of countering a direct threat, which the opponent expects, a move is played which poses an even more devastating threat, often an attack against the queen or the king. The opponent has to counter that threat first, and this will ideally change the situation to a disadvantage. In chess, zwischenzug (German for intermediate move) is a common tactic that occurs in almost every game. ...
When a player plans the tactics, he or she should always watch out for a zwischenzug. Don't assume that the opponent has to counter all threats immediately. It is good practice to always check whether the opponent has a check or a move threatening the player's queen. Conversely, it is good to anticipate the opponent's threats and plan a surprising zwischenzug.
Sacrifices - Main articles: gambit, exchange sacrifice
Often it is necessary to throw the opponent's position or tempo out of balance by first sacrificing some material, sometimes to be regained with interest a couple of moves later. Pawn sacrifices in the opening are known as gambits; they are usually not intended for material short-term gain but instead to achieve a more active position. A gambit is a chess opening, where something is sacrificed in order to achieve a better position. ...
In chess an exchange sacrifice occurs when one player gives up a rook a minor piece (knight or bishop). ...
In chess, tempo refers to the time taken by a move. ...
Direct attacks against the enemy king are often started by sacrifices; a common example is a bishop sacrificing itself on h7, checking the king on g8 who has to take the bishop, after which the white queen and knight develop a fulminant attack. The King (♔♚) is the most important piece in the game of chess. ...
Attacks against the king
 | Colle vs. O'Hanlon, 1930
Colle played 12.Bxh7+ | Attacks against the castled king are usually justified by some imbalance: the attacker has more firepower on the king's side than the opponent, or the opponent weakened his king's position by moving one of the pawns in front of the king. Example of a bishop sacrifice on h7 in the Colle system File links The following pages link to this file: Chess strategy and tactics Categories: GFDL images ...
Many mating attacks are introduced by sacrifices: if mate is the goal, material doesn't matter anymore. The queen is almost always the most important piece in a mating attack, since she has various ways of mating a king. The most common is a direct "contact check" while being protected by one of her own pieces. For instance, white knight g5, black king on g8 and the queen mates at h7, or white bishop at f6 or h6 and the white queen on g7 mates the black king on g8.
One should not assume that every move in a mating attack has to be a check. Often, a check just drives the king to a better position, or weakens the attacker's setup. It is good to look for "quiet" moves which seal the deal.
Zugzwang - Main article: zugzwang
In chess, zugzwang (German for "compulsion to move") occurs when one player, because it is his turn to move, must make a move but every possible move weakens his position. The player is put at a disadvantage because he would like to pass and make no move, but a move has to be made. Situations involving zugzwang occur uncommonly; when they do occur, it is most commonly in the endgame, where there are fewer choices of available moves. Zugzwang (German for compulsion to move, IPA: ) is a term used in combinatorial game theory and in other types of games (particularly in chess). ...
Strategy
Opening - Main article: chess opening
For beginners, it is not helpful to memorize opening moves. Instead, by carefully following a handful of principles, one can typically achieve a decent position for the middle game unless facing an exceptionally skilled opponent. A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game (the opening moves). ...
The most important part of the board is the center (e4, d4, e5, d5). The first goal is to position pawns and minor pieces in such a way as to control the center. The second goal is to move the king away from the dangerous center by castling. The third goal is to mobilize (develop) as many major pieces as possible.
Every move should contribute to these goals and one should avoid losing time by making useless moves. The white knights are usually developed to c3 and f3 upon their first moves. The queen should avoid moving too early and too far into enemy territory because otherwise the opponent will be able to play developing moves which at the same time threaten the queen. Once castling has been achieved, the remaining bishops and knights should be moved out of the way so that the two rooks protect each other and operate more effectively. This usually requires the first 10 moves or more and ends the opening phase of the game.
Space All other things being equal, the side which controls more space on the board has an advantage. More space translates into more options, which can be exploited both tactically and strategically. So if all your pieces are developed and you don't see any tactical tricks or a promising long-term plan, try to find a move which will enlarge your influence, particularly in the center. However, in some openings, one player will accept less space for a period of time in order to set up a counterattack in the middlegame. This is one of the concepts behind hypermodern play.
Defending pieces In general, it is a good idea to defend your pieces, even if they are not currently attacked. This way, many tactical tricks of the opponent won't work. In fact, this approach has an antecedent in the theory of Aron Nimzowitch who referred to it as "overprotection." Conversely, if you spot undefended pieces of the opponent, you should think about exploiting the situation with a tactical combination.
Exchanging pieces Main articles: chess piece point value, The exchange, minor exchange In chess, the chess pieces are often assigned certain point values that help determine how valuable a piece is strategically. ...
This article needs to be wikified. ...
In Chess, the minor exchange refers to giving up a bishop for a knight (or, more recently, giving up the stronger minor piece for the weaker). ...
To exchange pieces means to capture a hostile piece and then allow a piece of the same value to be captured. Often it's the same type of piece that was captured that is subsequently captured by the opponent. As a general rule of thumb, exchanging pieces eases the task of the defender who typically has less room to operate in.
If you have a material advantage, exchanging pieces is usually desirable, since in the endgame even a single pawn advantage may decide the game.
When playing against stronger players, many beginners attempt to constantly exchange pieces "to simplify matters"; this is a poor strategy. Stronger players are normally relatively stronger in the endgame, whereas during a complicated middlegame, even they can make mistakes.
Note that "winning the exchange" has a special meaning as mentioned above: winning a rook for a bishop or knight. This article needs to be wikified. ...
Specific pieces
Pawns - Main article: pawn structure
In the endgame, passed pawns, those which cannot be hindered by enemy pawns from promotion, are strong, especially if they are advanced. A passed pawn on the sixth row is roughly as strong as a knight or bishop and will often decide the game. (Also see isolated pawn, doubled pawns, backward pawn, connected pawns). In chess, the pawn structure (sometimes known as the pawn skeleton) is the configuration of pawns on the chessboard. ...
Whites b, c, and e pawns are passed. ...
Promotion is a chess term describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches the eighth square into the players choice of a queen, knight, bishop, or rook. ...
Whites b, c, and e pawns are passed. ...
In chess, an isolated pawn is a pawn for which there is no friendly pawn on an adjacent file. ...
In chess, doubled pawns are two pawns of the same player residing on the same file. ...
In chess, a backward pawn is a pawn that is behind the pawns of the same color on the adjacent files and that cannot easily be advanced. ...
Whites pawns on the a, b and, c files are conneced, and whites g and h pawns are connected. ...
Knights - Main article: knight
Knights are easily chased away with pawn moves. Therefore it is important to spot "holes" in the enemy position where a knight cannot be attacked, because the pawns have already moved past. Once such a hole is identified, a knight should be maneuvered to that location. An unchallengeable knight on the fifth row is a strong asset, and a supported knight on the sixth row usually decides the game. Unless there is a good reason for it, knights shouldn't be placed at the borders (and almost never in the corners) of the board, because there they control far fewer squares and can often be captured. The knight moves in an L shape. ...
Bishops - Main articles: bishop, fianchetto
A bishop always stays on squares of the colour it started on. This is not a big concern if you still have both bishops, but once one of them is gone, you should keep in mind that you now have a hard time attacking or defending squares of the other colour. If you have only one bishop left, you typically want to move your pawns to squares of the other colour so that they don't block the bishop and so that the enemy pawns are stuck on the right colour and can be attacked. A bishop (â™—â™) is a piece in the board game of chess. ...
In chess the fianchetto (Italian little flanking) is a pattern of development wherein a bishop is developed to the second rank of the adjacent knight file, the knight pawn having been moved one or two squares forward. ...
If you don't see a good square for development of a bishop, you can consider a fianchetto: pawn g2-g3 and bishop f1-g2. This forms a strong defense for the castled king on g1 and the bishop can often exert pressure on the long diagonal h1-a8. After a fianchetto, you should not give up the bishop too easily, because then the holes around the king can easily prove fatal.
To decide whether in a given position a knight or a bishop is more powerful, several aspects have to be taken into account: if the game is "closed" with lots of interlocked pawn formations, the knight will be stronger, because it can hop over the pawns while the bishop is blocked by them. A bishop is also weak if it is permanently blocked by his own pawns, which are arrested on the wrong colour. In an open game with action on both sides of the board, the bishop will be stronger because of its long range. This is especially true in the endgame, if passed pawns race on opposite sides of the board, the bishop will usually win over the knight here.
An endgame in which the parties have bishops that live on different colours is almost always drawn, even if one side is two pawns ahead.
Rooks - Main article: rook
Rooks are powerful on half-open files -- files which don't contain pawns of your own colour. Rooks on the seventh rank can be very powerful as they attack pawns which can only be defended by other pieces, not by other pawns, and they can lock in the enemy king. A pair of white rooks on the seventh rank (or black on the second rank) is often a sign of a winning position. The white rook may move to any square with an X. The black rook may move to any square marked with a dot or capture the white pawn. ...
In the endgame, if there is a passed pawn which is a candidate for promotion, the rooks, both friend and foe of the pawn, generally belong behind the pawn rather than in front of it, see Tarrasch rule. Tarrasch stated the rule that rooks should be placed behind passed pawns — either yours or your opponents. ...
Queen - Main article: queen
Queens are the most powerful pieces in a chess game. Queens are extremely versatile, and can threaten many pieces at once. For this reason, checkmates involving the queen are much easier to achieve than those without her. Because the loss of a queen usually results in the loss of the game, it is generally wise to wait to develop a queen until after the knights and bishops have been developed. It is important, however, to remember that the loss of a queen does not always result in the loss of the game. Queen. ...
King - Main article: king
During the middle game, the king mostly stays in a corner behind his pawns. Moving these pawns should be avoided because that weakens the king's position. However, as the rooks leave the first row, there is a danger of an enemy rook invading the first row and mating the king, so sometimes it is necessary to move one of the pawns in front of the king to counter these mate threats. The King (♔♚) is the most important piece in the game of chess. ...
In the endgame, the king becomes a strong piece. With reduced material, mate is not an immediate concern anymore, and the king should be moved towards the center of the board.
Endgame - Main article: endgame
Once most pieces have been exchanged off the board, it becomes impossible to mount direct attacks on the king. In this situation, the focus of the game switches to attempting to bring a pawn to the eighth rank and promote it, usually to a queen, while preventing one's opponent from doing so. The promoted queen, provided it is not immediately captured by the opponent, is enough to ensure a win. In chess, the endgame (or end game or ending) refers to the stage of the game when there are few pieces left on the board. ...
If only one pawn is left (and maybe one other piece on either side), then both players should attempt to direct their kings in front of the pawn in order to gain influence, keep the other king away and ensure (or prevent) the pawn's promotion. See the article on king and pawn versus king endgames for more discussion on this topic. The chess endgame with a king and a pawn versus a king is the most important and fundamental endgame, other than the basic checkmates. ...
In endgames that involve only kings and pawns, the concept of opposition (See Wikibooks - The Chess/Endgame for opposition) is important: by moving to a square which is horizontally, vertically or diagonally two squares away from the enemy king, one "gains" the opposition. This is an advantage, because it forces the enemy king to give way. // Definition Diagram 1. ...
 | | Moving his king to d5, white gains the opposition and
wins the game. All other moves result in white losing the opposition and black can save the game by controlling and keeping this opposition. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
| Sometimes, all pawns will be eliminated from the board and one player will be left with a king and some combinations of rooks, knights and bishops against a lone king. These give rise to the elementary checkmates: Checkmate (frequently shortened to mate) is a situation in chess (and in other boardgames of the chaturanga family) in which one players king is under attack and there is no way to meet that threat; it is a check from which there is no escape. ...
- King and queen vs. king
- King and rook vs. king
- King and two bishops vs. king
- King, bishop and knight vs. king
The first two are relatively easy to learn and commonly arise in beginner games. See Wikibooks - The Chess/Endgame for a demonstration of these two checkmates. Many beginners, notably children, fail to win games simply because they have never learned these procedures. The other two require more skill, but arise much less frequently. A king and one minor piece is never enough to win and thus the game will be a draw. A king with two knights against a king is insufficient to force a win; however, since this inability is partly a result of poor timing inherent in the knight's awkward moves there are circumstances where a win can be forced if the opponent also has a pawn. Although a king and three knights versus king is also sufficient for a win, such a situation rarely occurs because, for such a position to arise, a pawn must have been promoted to become the third knight whereas most players would usually choose to promote the pawn to become a queen to quickly end the game.
See also In chess, a tactic refers to a short sequence of moves which limits the opponents options and which results in tangible gain. ...
The white knight is forking the black king and rook. ...
Here there is an absolute pin on the black knight because moving it would illegally expose the black king to check from the white bishop. ...
In chess, a skewer (or thrust) is an attack upon two pieces in a line and is similar to a pin. ...
In chess, a discovered attack is an attack revealed when one piece moves out of the way of another. ...
Promotion is a chess term describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches the eighth square into the players choice of a queen, knight, bishop, or rook. ...
Triangulation is a tactic used in chess endgames to put ones opponent in zugzwang. ...
The chess endgame with a king and a pawn versus a king is the most important and fundamental endgame, other than the basic checkmates. ...
The chess endgame of a rook and pawn versus rook is of fundamental importance, and has been widely studied. ...
The Lucena position is one of the most famous and important positions in chess endgame theory. ...
Philidors position is an important chess endgame. ...
This article or section seems not to be written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopaedia entry. ...
This page explains commonly used terms in chess in alphabetical order. ...
The chess endgame of a queen versus pawn (with both sides having no other pieces other than the king) is usually an easy win for the side with the queen. ...
Further reading - John Nunn: Understanding Chess Move by Move, Gambit 2001. An International Grandmaster explains the thinking behind every single move of many world-class games.
- Jeremy Silman: The Amateur's Mind: Turning Chess Misconceptions into Chess Mastery, Siles Press 1999. A chess teacher analyzes and corrects the thinking of advanced beginners.
- James Eade: Chess for Dummies. This is a comprehensive guide for beginners.
John Denis Martin Nunn (born April 25, 1955) is an English chess player and mathematician. ...
The title Grandmaster is awarded to world-class chess masters by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. ...
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