Chess Preparation is mostly psychological, mental and motivational by nature. Improving your chess, aside from taking professional classes, studying the training in chess openings, tactics, strategy, and endgame (how to win), a chess player be it a beginner student to even an advanced chess player, would be wise to come to each chess game mentally and emotionally ready, willing and able to play their best chess game possible every time.
Chess instructions are all designed to improve student skill and increase the ability of competitive students of chess in chess club participation, and chess study (including game review and chess puzzle solving)
The four middle squares of the chessboard are the center of the chess board. Having control those four squares, directly or indirectly, usually means controlling the most active part of the chessboard and game, leading to victory in most cases.
If a player can control the game from the center, that player has the most space to control the rest of the chessboard giving you a huge tactical advantage over your opponent. In the opening, most chess pieces will move through the center for attacking or defending. All the pieces have more squares to attack or defend when in the center. An example is a knight in the center has eight squares it can cover. A knight on the edge of the board only has four squares to cover and if the knight is in a corner, it only has 2 squares in can cover. So you can see why it is advantageous to have control of the four center pieces be it directly or indirectly.
Another example is the bishop which can cover 13 squares in the center but only 7 squares in the corner, again showing you the strength of controlling the four center squares direct or non direct. You should always try to move and manipulate your chess pieces to or around to control the center directly or in directly. That can be done directly with the pawns on d4 and e4 or d5 and e5 if you are playing Black, or indirectly in hypermodern fashion with the Bishops fianchettoed (1) to the b2 and/or g2 squares and controlling the long diagonal (a1-h8 or h1-a8). Center control is when the pieces are aiming at the four center controls. And greater center control leads to greater piece mobility with better chances for attacking or defending. The loss of the center usually means a cramped and restricted game. Controlling the center or losing control of the center in the opening could lead to a short game.
Now what is a fianchetto you ask? It is an Italian word meaning “little flanking”. It is a pattern of development where a players bishop is manipulated to the second rank of the neighboring knight file, the knight pawn having been moved one or two squares forward as well. Here is an example image of what it looks like provided by Answers.com
The fianchetto
Image Provided by Anwers.com
The fianchetto is a staple of many “hypermodern” openings, whose ideology is to delay direct occupation of the center with the plan of controlling and eliminating your opponent’s central outpost plans. The fianchetto is not usually considered appropriate in open games. A Hypermodern opening is a school of chess thought which promotes controlling the center of the board with other pieces rather than with pawns, hence allowing your opposing player to occupy the center with pawns which can then become objects of attack to set up taking more serious pieces if you control the center.
