Chess tips

A useful collection of chess tips to improve your skills and rating include:

20/40/40 Rule

Players should divide their time spent on improvement as follows:

• 20% on Chess Openings. It is helpful to memorize a few standard openings, such as 1.d4 or 1.e4, and a repertoire of surprise openings, such as the Queen's Gambit.
• 40% on the middle game.
• 40% on the end game.

How many moves away from checkmate?

Each move it is useful to quickly ask yourself: how many moves am I away from checkmating the other side, or being checkmated? In blitz chess where surprise checkmates can happen often, this is a useful part of one's algorithm. It is easy to overlook in blitz chess the opportunities for checkmating the other side while the other side attacks.

Know the basic patterns for checkmate. In blitz chess be particularly wary of vulnerability to the "back-rank checkmate." A variation on that checkmate is when an opponent's knight controls spaces on the row adjacent to the back rank and thus enables checkmate just as blocking pawns would.

When an opponent's queen has advanced against your king, beware of your king being trapped on the bank rank behind pawns or other pieces such that there is a surprise checkmate.

Minimizing blunders

Most games, particularly in blitz chess, are lost through blunders: a move which results in the capture of one's queen or other valuable piece, or an immediate checkmate. A rapid mental algorithm after choosing a move but before finalizing it can sharply reduce the blunders and resultant losses.

A common blunder, particularly in blitz chess, is to recognize a minor attack (such as a threat to a pawn) while not seeing a larger simultaneous attack (such as a threat to the queen or even checkmate.

Forking

An effective way to capture valuable pieces is through the use of "forks", which is putting two pieces on the other side in jeopardy with one move. Forks by knights ("knight fork") are often difficult for an opponent to anticipate or defend against, since the knight is not in a straight line of its targets. In blitz chess, it is important in particular to be vigilant against knight forks, and one way to avoid this is by making sure the spacings between the rook, queen and king are not vulnerable to a knight fork.

A fork which places the opponent in check is particularly effective, as the only possible response (other than capture) is for the opponent king to move out of check and thereby give up the other jeopardized piece. Forks that jeopardize the opponent queen are likewise effective.

A fork by an advancing, protected pawn is often overlooked by beginners, and should become part of the repertoire of every player.

Stacking

Stacking against an opponent's piece or strategic space is the loading of attack pieces focused on that piece or space. For example, stacking two rooks is considered to create more than double the power of those rooks.

Blitz chess

Various strategies are useful in blitz chess:

• waiting and watching for a blunder by an opponent who moves more quickly in blitz chess can be a successful approach to victory.
• when playing the black pieces, imitating the early moves by your opponent can be a way to safely save time while not sacrificing position.
• castling in blitz chess can be a mistake, particularly if there is a better available move or if the opponent is already attacking the side of the board being castled into.
• if ahead on time in blitz chess, it can be helpful to shift to a more defensive strategy, such as using the queen to defend the king rather than to try to attack.

Potential check

A good way to freeze and capture a position on the other side is by placing it in the line of check such that it cannot move without placing its king in check. This is a particularly effective way to capture the other side's queen, which usually suffices to win the game.

It is essential to be watchful of this defensively. For example, placing one's queen in direct line of attack of one's king will often result in losing the queen, because it cannot be moved to safety if attacked by a bishop or rook. Also, between of the vulnerability of the queen if it is in a position that can be forked relative to the king.