I need help with a chess strategy?

Question

Im 17 and been playing chess for a few years. Everytime i play i lose. No matter what i do i lose. I try going for a good strategy but it never works. I know how all the peices move but i need some tips on what to do. Usually on the first move I move the kings pawn 1 or 2 spaces. What is the best opening move? What strategy should i do? I really need help winning? I played against people with very low ratings and i still lose.

Answer 1

In the opening, avoid moving the same piece twice.

This will help you get your pieces activated quicker. Clear out the area between your king and rook as soon as possible so you can castle early.

Move pawn to e4 on your first move.

Then focus on controlling the center of the board.

Always capture towards the center whenever possible.

Avoid placing knights and bishops on the edge of the board.

Use pawns to support bigger pieces, never have bigger pieces support other big pieces or pawns. This will keep stronger pieces available for attacks.

Always ask yourself, "If I were my opponent, what would be my next best move?" Then find a way to either prevent that move or plan a counter move that will make your opponent sorry for making his.

If you are even in material or slightly ahead, don't be afraid to trade off pieces evenly including queens. This will clear the board of clutter and make your lead more obvious. It will also make for a quicker game.

*Remember that a lone bishop can only capture on 50% of the board. (White squares only, or black only depending on the bishop). But a lone knight can capture on 100% of the board. (Both colored squares as he alternates on each move.) This may be important if you have to decide which one to sacrifice or trade off near the end game.

*Pawns are insignificant at first, but they become mightier as they move forward towards the eighth rank and become queens! Don't underestimate them!

Seek out a target and hit it! Whenever your opponent leaves a piece unprotected, make that your target!

Most pieces work better as a team closer together than they do apart.

Don't just watch for opportunities for forks, pins and skewers. Look for ways to create them! Entice your opponent into those situations with small sacrifices.

RESOURCES:

Bruce Pandolfini's book, Beginning Chess is the best book by far that I've seen which will train your eye to see golden opportunities that are regularly overlooked. It's a fun way to learn because it gives you chess drills and scores your perfomance. That way, you can always go through the book again and try to beat your previous best score!

Also, Susan Polgar's book, Chess Tactics For Champions ($17 at Barnes & Noble) is a great way to learn how to create forks, pins and skewers. My game improved greatly after reading just the first 10 pages! A very exciting book! After spending a little time with it you can't wait to play a game and try out what she shows you! A really great book!!You would probably enjoy her website, too: http://polgarchess.com/

For $10 at Staples you can get the PC software called Majestic Chess. I highly recommend it for this reason...It has a very unique "story mode" which is the most entertaining way to develop your chess skills that I've ever seen! In the story mode, you are riding a horse to progressive locations. At the first location, you are taught chess basics (you may skip any location at any time if you feel already know that particular lesson.) Then, after it teaches you, you are challenged to a drill (a test on what you've learned.) If you pass the test you are given a chess piece to play with in the next challenge. You are given additional pieces as you pass the tests along the journey and you will need them to win the challenges that lie ahead. So, you are being trained piece by piece until you have built an entire chess set to play with. The challenges are excellent and really make you think. The training really does develop your ability to recognize opportunities and pitfalls that you wouldn't have seen before playing this excellent chess game. And a word should be said about the magnificent environments in which you play your games. Very soothing and pleasing visuals and music make this game a joy to play. And of course, you can just play a regular chess game against the computer at any time as well...so you have the nice story mode, or you have the computer opponent ready to play a regular game at any time. So it is a well rounded chess tool.

You can also download this free demo of Chess Mentor which is a chess training program. The demo is a very generous sampling of 100 chess problems designed to help improve your game. I liked this so much that I ordered the Deluxe version and found it to be well worth the money. Click here and download the free demo: http://chessmentor.com/

Good luck! I hope this helped!

Castle early!

Answer 2

The easiest way to improve would be to get a chess coach, even a average player could help you a lot at this point. If you do not have a chess club near where you live there is a very good site on the web to help beginners.

http://www.chessville.com/

If you have limited time on the Internet there is a Series of books by GM Yasser Seirawan.

Winning Chess Tactics

Winning Chess Strategies

Winning Chess Endgames

Winning Chess Opening

this is the order you should study the books and you should go through each of them several times so that you really get what the Grandmaster is trying to teach you.

you should be able to pick these up cheap used at amazon.com

If you don't have the money to buy the books go to your local library and look for them.

Answer 3

Move pawn in front of Queen 2 spaces and the the pawn infront of king 1 space the send both knights out to infront of the pawn infront of the bishop move one bishop 2 spaces and the other 1 space then castle.

YOU MUST DO IT IN THIS ORDER!!!

Hope it helps

Answer 4

Start out moving every other pawn 1 space and any remaining pawns 2 spaces. Makes a great wall. Move your rooks bishops knights queen around king in box. Prevents checkmate.

Answer 5

It helps to remember that control of the center is important right from the beginning of the game.  I suggest you start with these basic steps:  within the first ten moves of the game you should accomplish these objectives -

1. Move your King and Queen pawns to a place in the center.

2. Develop (move from their original position) both bishops and both knights.

3. Castle your King.

That's a total of seven moves.  The order in which you do it is up to you and your responses to your opponents moves.  Once you've done these things, you'll be able to work on taking control of the center away from your opponent and deciding on an attack to launch.  Don't give up!  Chess is d**n tough, no doubt about it.  But its a great game that you can share anywhere in the world.

If you can, pick up the book "Bobby Fisher Teaches Chess."  It'll help you to learn checkmate basics.  Good luck!