Chess strategy starts from ideas

Game opening

1. In the chess game opening try to develop your pieces quickly and seize the most perspective positions

Correctly placed pieces can help you to develop a good position, and start to attack enemy before he can do it himself. And eventually it will help you to gain an advantage

2. Do not make extra moves with pawn in the game opening

You must realize that every move with pawn in the game opening is a waste of time. Of course it's quite clear that it's impossible to avoid moving pawns in game opening at all, because there will be no way to develop other pieces, but you should perform such moves very accurately. Also the move with pawn which helps you to seize the center of the board can be claimed as a waste of time, such moves are useful. But the general rule is: It's better to develop pieces first, and then move pawns

3. Make castling. Castling is a way to keep king save.

It's vital to make castling very quickly in the game opening, because it's very unsafe to leave the king in the center of the board. Actually the king in the center is a very good target to attack, so please make castling to prevent such cases. Also there is another aspect: the king in the center makes it hard to organize communication between heave pieces (e.g. rooks)

4. Do not perform several moves with one piece in the game opening.

Making several moves with same piece in the game opening can also make huge problems. You should understand that such moves is a waste of time, which must be used to develop other pieces and to seize initiative.

5.  If you have an advantage in pieces development, try to open the position

It's important to realize that advantage in pieces development is quite temporary thing. So if you will not be determined the advantage will disappear after your partner will make several developing moves. So it's quite important to start attacking him before it. Usually the side with better developed pieces can easily beat undeveloped opponent

6. Don't be keen on capturing opponent's pieces in the game opening 

You must realize that time that you have spent to capture your opponent pawn in the game opening can be easily used for pieces development by your partner. And eventually it will help him to develop attack on your undeveloped position. Also there are some special game opening (such as "Evans's Gambit"), which are based on idea of a pawn sacrifice, which helps white to develop their pieces really quickly and start to attack. The general rule here is: Use your time to develop your pieces, and avoid wasting your time in order to capture everything that your opponent is trying to give you

7. Try to gain a tempo to develop your pieces

Seizing a tempo in the game opening is an interesting way to develop more pieces then your enemy and gain an advantage. Sometimes it's reasonable to sacrifice some pieces to achieve such advantage.

8. Try to occupy space

If you have more space then your opponent, you can use for quicker pieces relocation. It will be hard for your opponent to relocate he's pieces with the same speed on the smaller board space, and eventually it will cause some coordination problems between his pieces. And when you feel it's starting to happen, then it's time to start massive attack against the opponent.

9. Try to occupy the center of the board

It's really clear that some pieces are much stronger in the center of the board. The side which controls the center can use it for their pieces to control the board. Lets check following diagram:

In this position blacks knight is located in the edge of the board, and it controls only 2 board cells.

On the other hand the white knight is located in the center of the board, and it controls 8 cells, so we can say that white knight is in general 4 times stronger that black college.

10. Work on openings theory. Try to look up some opening that will fit your style of playing chess 

It's very important to work on the openings theory. Sometime it happens that your opponent will make 20-30 moves without actually thinking about something (because all these moves are already described and analyzed in some chess books). So it's quite easy to gain a bad position in such case. So prepare theory, and don't let your opponent to reach advantage only because he knows openings better. The other case to avoid opening theory traps is to use really rare openings. 

The other aspect of preparing game openings is to make openings style match your own style of the game. So if you prefer positional game, with many strategy ideas, try to look after "closed" openings. And if you like combination style of game look after some opened openings. 

Middle game

1. Do not place your knight on the edge of the board 

The knight is one of the pieces, which power is a dependency of the place it's located in. So as it was already shown above knight in the center of the board is 4 times stronger then knight in the edge. So the general rule is: avoid placing knights in the edges of the game board.

2. Occupy open lines with heavy pieces (rooks or queen)

Open line is a roadway to the opponents headquarter. So occupying the open line is a first step on this road, which usually leads to invasion into opponents base and gives you ability to have clear advantage.

3.  Invade with your heavy peaces to the opponent's 7-8 (1-2) rows

Invasion to the opponents headquarter with your heavy pieces usually leads to big advantage. It's quite hard to defend your position if enemy is dominating in the headquarter.

4. Don't move pawns near your king.

Actually, after you made a castling every move which you make with your pawn near the king makes the position weaker. So your opponent will have extra chances to attack your king, which can give him an advantage. Also it's important to remember, that to use pawns near your king to attack, you must dominate (or at least be very strong) in the center of the board. If your opponent have a possibility to attack the center after such moves, you position can became critical dramatically soon. 

5. Watch after your pawn chains structure. Don't allow your opponent to break your pawn chains, as it may cause huge problems.

The thing to remember: isolated pawns are weaker then pawns in chains.

6. Passed pawn is a criminal which must be blocked as soon as possible!!!

Usually the movement of passed pawn is associated with the possibility to queen the pawn. But there is another very important aspect. After each move passed pawn allocates more space for other pieces, and makes more and more opponents pieces to be bind with need to prevent further movement. So it's important to block passed pawn as much close to opponents headquarter as possible.

7. Attack the base of pawn chain

In the case when there are pawn chains on the chess board, the base of such chain became a weak spot in the opponents position. So if there is a possibility to organize a pressure on such spot you will gain an advantage.

8. Bishops are usually stronger in opened positions, and on the other hand knights are stronger in positions with pawn chains

9. Try to limit your opponents pieces, and leave them as few possible moves as you can

If you will succeed in disabling your opponents pieces, you will gain strong advantage with a possibility to win a game

10. If it's impossible to occupy the center, try to attack it, and paralyze the enemy with the need to defend it

Sometimes it's impossible to win a competition in the center of the board, but anyway don't hurry to resign because of that fact. Sometimes it's better to organize active game against the center of enemy, and get advantage of first attack, and paralyze enemy with need to defend the center. There are some openings build over this idea. For example Grunfield's defense. 

11. The attack on the side is reasonable only in case of strong and stable center

As it was already mentioned before, the side attack can be turned to a disaster if the enemy will find a possibility to counterattack in the center. So if your opponent started to move pawns on the side blindly attacking your position, make a strong answer in the center of the board.

12. Play against weaknesses in the enemy's position

It's pointless to attack your opponent in the place where he's strong. Actually such attack can give him some extra possibilities. The stronger approach is to find weaknesses in his position, and hit there. It will usually paralyze your opponent and will give you some possibilities even in bad positions

13. Try to substitute fianchetted  bishop of your opponent

Fiancatto is a very interesting way of developing you bishop. So sometimes it's useful to substitute such bishop of the enemy, also it will create several weak spots in the pawn chain of opponent.

14. In case you have an advantage in space try to create attack on different weaknesses of the opponent located in remote places of the board

As it was already mentioned before, if your opponent has fewer space, it will make hard for him to defend few weaknesses at once. Especially if other side has a possibility to concentrate their forces on such points quicker.

15. Learn chess tacktics .

Chess tacktics is one of the keys which helps to understand the game

Ending

1. Place your rook behind passed pawn

Rook can paralize opponents movement if it's located behind opponent's piece. And on the other hand rook can give additional power to own pawn if located behind it.

2. Use opposition

A situation in which two kings stand on the same rank, file or diagonal with one empty square between them. The player to move may be forced to move the king to a less advantageous square. Opposition is a particularly important concept in endgames .

3. Avoid doubled pawns

Doubled pawns are really weak at the end of the game. So they can easyly turned to weak points of your position. Try to avoid them

General Advices

1. If you have material advantage, try to exchange your pieces

It's easier to use material advantage in the end of the game. When there are fewer pieces, each of remaining items will have more value.

2. Plan your game

A game with bad plan is better then game without a plan at all. Plan is the thing which can chain individual moves together. So the general rule is:

Once planing a game, stop and try to answer following questions: where are my weaknesses, where can I attack (where opponents have weak spots), how will my opponent will try to attack again me. Based on such anlisys try to create general pattern of the further game and follow it.

3. Work on your combination talant

It's also very important to work on your "combinations vision". To increase your combination power, try to solve chess problems without moving pieces.

Chess etiquette

1. Respect you opponent
2. It's a good practice to analyze the game with your opponent after the game is finished. It really helps to grow. It shows some interesting ideas which didn't appeared in the game