Lesson 21: TOP TIPS to up your game

TIP 1: Ignore false threats (if an enemy piece threatens your piece but your piece is already guarded in such a way that if the enemy DID take it then it would be taken back)

TIP 2: To take is a mistake (if the enemy initiates - i.e. a sacrifice or trade - as this helps to activate THEIR pieces! only take if you have initiated the attack)

TIP 3: Think prophylactically at least 2 moves ahead (know what your enemy's intention is for every move they make - if it is not making a threat, then it may be moving into position to make one) - and then prevent this in advance (perhaps by placing a defender on a key square so that if they moved there NOW they would be taken - this is the secret to positional play - so only use this when getting into position (lest you be defeated by a truely tactical player). Use tip 4 when you are about to engage or are being engaged.

TIP 4: Tactics:  the best way to employ tactics are to find an end (it could be an endgame position OR one of the following strong attacks on a piece: fork, double attack, discovered attack, trap).  Once you've spotted the potential to apply one of these, then look at what is stopping you doing this (i.e. the enemy has defended a key square, etc). Now see if you can overcome these obstacles with any of the following tactics (Check, Pin, Sacrifice: to Remove defender, Clear a Square or Block a Square & Superior Concentration of forces) - What? you can use one of these but it doesnt help you to reach your goal? then use it a second time! i.e. Sacrifice to clear a square, then pin a piece, NOW you can do your attack. Use the "check, pin, sac" as many times in a row as you can in order to setup your attack (the more you use - the harder it will be for your opponent to see). To remember all that use the acronym: "CHECK.PIN.SAC (RE.CLEAR.BLOCK.) CON --> FOR.DOUBLE.DISCOVERED.TRAP"

TIP 5: Once ahead in material, reduce (an enemy bishop for your knight, etc), this reduces your enemies possibilities for tactics and getting ahead and also increases your advantage (2:3 is greater than 3:4)!

Lesson 20: End Game

In the endgame - as a general rule - you should develop the pieces in order of the strongest fitst (king, queen to pawns last)

Also, Recognising key patterns are important to ensure a speedy win or warn you of immanent danger so that you can act accordingly. During Endgames you are on the look out for Mating Patterns.  I shall list some here - you should memorise them all through practice - it will seriously improve your game.

3+ pieces

• Horwitz bishops ( Queen & Rook & [-2 bishops])
• Greco's Mate (Queen & Bishop & [-Knight])

2 key pieces combined attacks

• Back-Rank 2 Rooks Mate (Rook & Rook)
• Anastasia's Mate (Rook & Knight)

• Pilsbury's Mate (Bishop & Rook OR Rook & Bishop)
• Morphy's Mate (Bishop & Rook)
•  
• Boden's Mate (Bishop & Bishop)
• Double Bishop & King+2 Bishop's Mate (Bishop & Bishop [&King])
•  
• Blackburne's Mate (Bishop & Bishop [&Knight]) 
• Bishop & Knight Mate (Bishop & Knight [&King])

• Corner Mate (Knight & Rook) 
• King & 2 Knights Mate (Knight & Knight & King)

1 (possibly defended) key piece

• Queen Mate (Queen) 
• Epaulette & Swallow-Tail / Gueridon's Mate (Queen)
• Damiano's & Damiano's Bishop Mate (Queen)
• Max Lange's Mate (Queen)
• Dove-Tail / Cozio's mate (Queen)
• Lolli's Mate (Queen)

• Back-Rank & Box Mate (Rook [&King])
• Anderssen's & H-File Mate (Rook)
• Opera Mate (Rook)
• Arabian & Hook Mate (Rook) 

• Reti's Mate (Bishop)

• Phillidor's Legacy / Smothered  & Suffocation Mate (Knight)

• David & Goliath Mate (Pawn)

*Remember - all moves that use a rook / bishop can also be done with a queen (however the reverse is not true -as some moves requiring a queen can only be done by her)

Lesson 19: Middle Game

WHEN AT PEACE - you should use strategy/positional play to develop your army as a whole and create more opportunities for when you battle

(use this pneumonic to remember your priorities when developing = "Check And Shuffle") 

1) check, 2) anticipated defence (paraphylaxis), 3) Shuffle - find your worst placed piece and ask yourself where would it be ideally placed OR find any strategically important or weak spots and overdefend it (a good defence will always have one more defender than the number of pieces attacking - so if there are no pieces threatening  have 1 defender, if 1 piece threatens it you MUST have at least 2 defenders - 1 is insufficient and is a tactical weakness)

Tip#1: Naturally there are some areas where pieces work best and others where they cannot perform their best:

• keep one rook on the back rank to protect the castled king & provide support to passed pawns. 
• a knight on f6 best protects a castled king (on g6) 
• Pawns should capture towards the centre
• the centre (defend it with pawns) is the best place for ALL pieces except the rooks (who are the only pieces that work equally well on the rim) similarly, keep all other pieces away from the  rims and corners
• rooks should use open files to penetrate the back or 7th rank (to trap the enemy king from escaping)! Bishops should use open diagonals in a similar manner - fiancettos are good. 
• a Knight is well placed on a defended outpost to fork enemy pieces 

Tip#2: connecting your pieces helps your army to work together for greater attacks and also keeps every piece defended by something (There are some connections that work well and some to avoid: 

• Pawns are best used as defenders of main pieces or as walls (know that the weakness of a pawn chain is at its base & always avoid isolated pawns
•  Knights work wellside-by-side or behind /diagonally behind a pawn (either your own passed pawn, to block an enemy pawn, or on an outpost behind an enemy pawn)- but avoid defending knights with knights as it ties them down!
• Rooks behind enemy passed pawns blockade them and get ready to occupy an open file if that pawn moves to another file an dif  behind friendly passed pawns provide support 
• Bishops side by side are very strong (horwitz bishops), 
• Rooks lined up OR Bishops lined up diagonally are strong (battery) -
• Avoid lining up the King and Queen and avoid lining up other pieces with the King or queen (except bishops or rooks in the case where the queen is behind)as this is a recipe to get pinned

WHEN IN BATTLE - You should use tactics

(use this pneumonic to remember your tactical arsenal = "Double Check For Pin, Discover Threats SeConD")

1) double attack (a piece being double attacked must avoid / cannot be blocked), 2) check, 3) fork, 4) pin (a pinned piece poses no threats), 5) discovered attack (a discovered attack on the King means all other pieces pose no threats), 6) threats, 7) sacrifice, 8) concentration of superior force, 9) defender

You should always  go into battle with a mini plan/goal in mind your plan can be based on a position you'd like to have  - perhaps one that foils your enemies plan OR one that prepares you for a winning endgame - and be creative in how you combine tactics together to achieve it (whilst exploiting any weak squares in your enemies position or defending pieces (especially overburdoned ones) -if there are any - if not create som - perhaps with a sacrifice that changes your enemies pawn structure?e!).  -  and dont worry if your plan gets foiled by the opponent, just  change plans

Lesson 14: 21st Century Army

Modern Army
The pieces are all as normal. The only difference is they have guns and can shoot to kill pieces without moving. If a piece could be killed by the piece - then the piece kills it...without moving onto that square!

Secret Agent
If the King is in check, it must switch places with a predesignated secret agent pawn (if still alive).


Suicide Bomber!
The idea is that you secretly pick one of your pieces at the beginning of the game to have a bomb. To self-detonate it must be your turn and you must not have moved the piece - i.e. the pieces move is to explode itself - so it cannot move somewhere and then blow up at the end of its go and equally it cannot simply blow up when it is being killed during your opponent's turn. - the suicide bomber (which ends its turn) and kills itself- as well as any pieces in a 1 square radius - i.e. a 3x3 grid surrounding the piece. To make the game slightly easier - you could allow more then one suicide bomber or - for more of a challenge - only allow higher pieces to be bombers (pieces other than pawns).  There is also the obvious choice of making the suicide bomber a random piece by selecting the piece using a deck of cards (King=King, Queen=Queen, Jack=Bishop, 10=Rook/Castle, 9=Knight/Horse, 8-1 = 8th-1st pawns)

Lesson 15: 4-Player Chess

This is a chess variant known as BastardO: its great for four players on the same board. Set up is like so:

This is great. Pieces all move the same as normal. There are some slight rule additions:

• All 4 players take in in turn to move and all are against all (unless players agree to make alliances - although these are not RULES so much as negotiations and can easily be betrayed - hence the name of the game) and If you kill an enemy king then they are out, and you take control of their army! Winner is the last in the game. 
• You do NOT have to declare CHECK - but of course another player may wish to! hehe - this is where the cursing begins
• The top two teams move down the board and the bottom two teams move up the board. 
• En passant is as before - except any pawn may do this (not simply the one facing the enemy pawn) and as before it would go into the square the killed pawn would have moved into had it moved one square instead of two (on its first go - refer back to the rule of en passant if you have forgotten how )
• Pawn promotions still apply - although the only piece it can be promoted to is a SPECIAL piece that moves like a queen and a knight combined (the only useful piece in such a game).
• Castling is not allowed in this variant
• A person may choose NOT to move on their turn

There is a variant to this variant called GRAN BASTARDO - in which the initial setup is random. Each player takes it in turn to lay down each piece anywhere on the board they wish. The only exception is that pawns can not be on a square that gets them immediately promoted, and you may not place a piece where it checks a king during setup.

Lesson 17: Tactics

"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near."

 Tactics are all about multiple stage attacks - an attack which takes more than one move to complete and which anticipates the opponents move. (This means you will need to start thinking a few steps ahead. Start small: just picture what your enemy will do. Then increase this by thinking what you would do if they did that. And then what they would do to that. The more steps you can think ahead the better).

The golden rule for tactics are this: Don't be too hasty to Take easy kills. Firstly, it may be a poisoned pawn (a trap tactic) which you will learn about shortly. Secondly, even if it is not a trap, it is far better to anticipate what your enemy will do after you make that attack and then put other pieces into position first to counter those moves before you make the attack - thus - the attack will cause greater devastation! This is where tactics come in -  "When you see a good move, wait – look for a better one" 

 
Here are some well-known Tactics to try (treat each tactic as a separate lesson - do not advance to the next until you have managed to use the tactic in a game. as a hint, the minimum number of steps ahead you will have to visualise to use the following tactics are written in brackets beside it)

MANIPULATING ENEMY MOVEMENTS 

• (passive) Quiet Move  = (+2steps+) This is where you move your piece into a position that neither kills nor threatens the enemy but limits the manouverability of one of the enemy pieces by occupying a square (perhaps your piece is protected and cannot be taken). This is useful for limiting the enemies options.
• (passive) Attraction/Clearance = (+2steps+) A bait/trap to lure a piece onto (attraction) or off of (clearance) a specific square! This is usually done by offering a piece to be sacrificed onto that square. This works best where the piece you wish to lure has no option but to kill the "sacrificial" piece - (i.e. if it doesnt the sacrificial piece may kill it anyway)
• (aggressive) Coercion = (+2steps+) This is where you lure an enemy piece onto a square without using a sacrifice but by threatening them and limiting their escape routes to the square you want them to go onto.

TRAPPING ENEMY MOVEMENT (& CHECKMATES)

• Pinning = (+2steps+) In order to keep a piece where it is, it must be inbetween your attacking piece and a more valuable piece of it (often the King), so that it cannot move without exposing its own King to attack. This piece is now unable to move or kill until your attacking piece or the piece its pinned to is moved (if it does - it exposes the piece behind it to danger - This is called Skewing.). The best way out of a pin is to kill the threatening piece that is doing the pinning.
• Blocking = (+3steps+) When you see an opportunity to threaten a piece- you can turn it into a kill by blocking the escape route of the piece first. The way to block the escaperoutes is to manipulate the enemy's own piece to be in the way. E.g.1 where the enemy piece is trapped behind the first row of his pawns and a rook or queen is threatening down the back rank (Backrank mate if donw on the King). E.g.2. where the enemy piece is COMPLETELY surrounded by his own pieces and cannot escape is called Smothering. The deadly kill would come from a knight in this situation.
• Trapping = This is where you attack a piece from multiple angles - and since it could get killed in more than one way on its next move it is far more difficult to foil the attack.

COMBINATION ATTACKS

• (passive) Concentration of Superior Force = This is similar to a trapped piece where you have multiple pieces attacking a single enemy piece, except this time the enemy also has multiple pieces defending it. This move will only work if you have at least one extra attacking piece than they have defending - then when you go into war and pieces are killed back and forth - you will eventually come out winning the exchange - by killing one more piece than was killed! (Battery attacks are similar to this, except done in 1dimension/1file/rank/diagonal - whereas this attack may be done in 2d/from multiple directions).
• (aggressive) Reduction = This is probably the easiest tactic and should only ever be done if you are ahead in material. It is killing off enemy pieces even though your attacking piece will get killed in return. You should ideally rid pieces of equal or higher value (i.e. your bishop kills the enemy bishop - and then your bishop is killed by the defending knight). The reason for such a seemingly pointless move is clarity. With less pieces on the board - the possibilities are drastically reduced (which usually favour the one being defeated). This way - you still have a superior reduced army, except now you have eliminated many possibilities your opponent could have used to gain the upper hand. 

• (passive) Discovered Attack = (+3steps+) This is where you have a piece lined up to kill something but there is another piece blocking the way - so in order to complete the attack you first move the other piece out of the way - either by manipulating / attracting it away OR if it is your own then simply moving it out of the way.
• (aggressive) Surprise attack = (+3steps+) This is identical to the discovered attack except the piece that moves out of the way to discover the attacking piece behind, is also an attacking piece! OR if it is your own piece then to use it to attack something else so as to disguise your true attack and For instance, if your piece is hiding an attacking piece behind it and when it moves out of the way the piece behind can kill - but instead of simply moving out of the way - it also threatens another piece so as to disguise the attacking piece it was hiding and making it all the more of a surprise as, unless the player is very aware, they will not realise they are under threat from that piece until it is too late - a surprise attack!   

• (passive) Overburdened Pieces = (+3steps+) If you spot a backup piece that is defending more than one piece - it is overburdened as realistically it can only defend one of those pieces - you can take advantage of this by sacrificing a piece of yours to kill one of those pieces being protected and as the overburdened backup piece will respond to it and take your piece, it will leave its other piece unprotected and ready for the plucking. 
• (aggressive) Fork =(+3step+) This is where your piece is threatening to kill more than one enemy piece at the same time! in this case, the enemy cant defend all at once in one move so they save their most valuable and you can kill any of the others
  
 

 
• (passive) Interference = (+3steps+) This is where your piece moves in the path of a backup piece rendering its ability to backup the other piece blocked, and hence the other piece becomes vulnerable for the attack. This works best if the interfering piece is made to be the enemies own piece OR a piece of yours that is threatening another piece in such a way it cannot be ignored
• (passive) Distraction = (+3steps+) This is a tactic to move a backup piece away in order to kill your main target. The best way to do this is to lure it away using a bait/sacrifice. With the backup piece distracting and away from its post - you can go in for the main kill!
• (aggressive) Capturing Defender = (+3steps+) THis is simply killing the enemies defending piece before making your main attack on your target. If you didnt do this and simply went ahead with the attack on the target, the defending piece would end up killing you - so this step is simply an intermediate step to remove the backup before going in for the kill. 

RESPONDING TO THREATS OF ATTACK:

• (aggressive) Counter-Attack=  Ignore the immediate threat to the piece by threatening to kill an enemy piece of equal or higher value. This should force your opponent to consider saving their piece and shift the focus away from the attack on your piece.
  
• (passive) Retreat = This should be a last resort - as usually pieces that are being forced to move or retreat are being set up into an attack! However, when moving out of harms way it should always be done to improve your overall position on the board where possible - for example you may be able to threaten or even kill another piece with that moving piece. It is important to not simply move anywhere but into the best position for the next move or at least in a defensive position where you cannot be threatened again next move. Do this ONLY if you cannot save the piece using one of the other tactics and you really do not want to lose your piece.

 

• (passive) Sacrifice = There are times when leaving your piece to be killed is the best move - such as if there is nothing you can do to save it or if you need to clear some space or use it as a distraction. Instead of waste a go trying to defend a wasted cause you could spend that go on another attack in which you win back the material or more.
  
• (aggressive) Desperado = (+1step+) This is where one of your pieces will get taken the next go no matter what you do - and so you use it to kill a piece you wouldnt have otherwise since it would have been killed in return (in this case it doesnt matter as it would have been killed anyway)   

• (passive) Defensive Move = (+1step+) This is placing a piece to backup a piece of yours that is under threat of attack! You can build up multiple pieces to defend your piece if there are multiple threats coming your way.
• (aggressive) Zwichenzug = (+3steps+) This is a move you can make if you see the next move about to cause imminent distruction on one of your pieces and you have no way to save it - you could make another completely unrelated attack of your own on a piece so valuable that the enemy can not ignore it and has to respond to it (such as a check or a threat to the queen)which would succeed in buying you one extra turn. This is useless, however, unless this extra bit of movement now puts you in a better position to defend the oncoming onslaught than before. If not - its just plain stalling!

Practice: Try these exercises: http://www.chess-strategies-tactics.com/chess-tactics/chess-tactics-training/chess-tactics-exercises
Then Practice in games -since the best time to use tactics are after the opening - so if you want to practice quickly without having to go through an opening - play chess960 - its a form of random start and so the action is immediate

Lesson 16: Opening

strategy - building up a formation and structure in your army.

Golden Rules (in order of importance)

1. Make sure ALL your key pieces are defended by a backup piece (e.g. bishops defended by knights), even when they are not being threatened (as this saves time when they do begin to be threatened and builds up a strong structure). if possible avoid having a backup piece defend two pieces at once
2. Immediately neutralise any pieces that come onto your side of the board by chasing it or exchanging it.
3. Simplify when ahead in material or when faced with a spacial disadvantage

• TEMPO: 
• Develop using threats of attack (do multiple things at once)
• in the beginning, avoid move the same piece twice.
• POSITIONS:
• Try to maintain at least one pawn in the center.
• Keep knights off the end files and onto good outposts. 
• keep pawns from blocking your bishops - if they do then trade them off.

• PAWNS: Open with a center pawn & Make as few pawn moves as possible  (and every time you do make sure the pawn structure remains strong -Remember, pawn structures are key as they can not go back).

• KNIGHTS: develop before bishops
• BISHOPS: better than Knights in Open games but Knights are better than Bishops in Closed games (use and trade off as appropriate)
• QUEEN: Do not bring your Queen out too early in the game (It should be one of the last pieces to be developed)!
• KING: should Castle as soon as possible, preferably to the King side - this will provide King Safety until the end game where the King comes out to do the fighting.
• ROOK: one should be free to defend the BACK Rank as soon as all other pieces are now developed and the King is castled in the corner. Place your other rooks either in an open file where there is a hole created by the enemies pawn structure and nothing behind it - ready to penetrate behind enemy lines, OR behind an advancing pawn, be it your own or an enemies, in order to protect your advancing pawns or prevent your enemies pawns advancing