The basic necessity to being a good chess player is to understand the importance of chess strategy. Chess is not just about moving a single piece on the board. It is the development of position of strength on the board by the combined placement of all the pieces, not just ONE. Each and every move has to be evaluated to get an edge over the opponent and to check mate your opposing opponents King.
Chess strategy also calls for small adjustments during the game, called tactics. These moves & tactics are essential to make adjustments to the overall game plan in relation to your opponent’s performance. To accomplish a good strategy, you should take your time and study and evaluate each and every move made by your opponent, analyze its implication on the chess strategy and make necessary changes, if necessary.
There are phases of chess game which are classified into three distinct stages as shown below. Good chess strategy should address all these stages always.
• Opening Game
• Middle Game
• End Game
Starting a game with chess strategy in the opening game is important to achieve. A position of strength by trying to place the pieces in the best possible positions on the board, especially controlling the center four squares is essential. Use the best possible position aims at achieving the following essential position on the board:
• Safeguard the king from exposure to opponent attacks
• Achieving decent mobility to all the pieces on the board that can help to make offensive moves in the middle game
• Sound pawn structure on the board without restricting movement of other pieces
An opening chess strategy can be created to suit one’s own preferences. Ranging from defensive opening to very aggressive beginning, standard options are well documented and analyzed in many good chess books as well as online articles.
The middle game in chess starts when a actual assault on the opponent is initiated after gaining positional advantage on the board through the opening game chess strategy. You may be trading off of pieces, sacrifice of pieces to get advantage on the board, pinning the opponent mobility are some of the motives of the middle game chess strategy.
Middle game involves lot of tactical adjustments to counter your opponent’s moves and strategy. Every move of the opponent has to be watched to understand his chess strategy for effective counter attack.
The end game is when a player who has more power and better positional advantage on the board will have distinctive advantage in the end game over the other player. The basic goal of the end game is to immobilize your opponent king and gain victory with a check mate. This is the primary motive of any chess strategy.
Chess strategy in the end game can take different paths depending on your position of strength gained in the middle game. Two such situations would be:
• To score a win for the position of power
• To salvage a game into a draw from a position of weakness, thus scoring a moral victory.
Learning to play effective Chess using these three requirements takes allot of home work and planning before the start of the chess game. Creating an effective and flexible chess strategy and applying it on the chess board in relation to the opponents’ response and reactions are crucial for success in a game of chess.