Chess strategy: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:42, 29 January 2002

Revision as of 15:51, 25 February 2002

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One of the charms of the game of [[chess]] is the interplay between tactics and strategy. ''Tactics'' refers to "tricks" or "combinations" that achieve material advantage or checkmate in a couple of moves, ''strategy'' refers to long-term planning and the proper placement of the pieces on the board in the absense of any short-term opportunities.

In describing tactics and strategy, we will be using the [[algebraic notation]] for squares on the [[Chess/Board|chess board]].

== Tactics ==

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==== Forks ====

A fork is a move that uses one piece to attacks two of the opponent's pieces at the same time, thereby achieving material advantage. 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 threatingthreatening both the rook at a8 and the king at e8.

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.

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==== Bishops ====

A bishop always stays on squares of the color it was bornstarted 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 wrong color. If you have only one bishop left, you typically want to move your pawns to squares of the other color so that they don't block the bishop and so that the enemy pawns are stuck on the right color and can be attacked.

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.