Chess Strategy Tips for Beginners
Are you a chess beginner and want to improve your chances of victory in your training games, or even in tournaments? We got you covered!
You are in the right place! Here we have the best chess strategy tips for beginners, helping you get to know and understand the basic chess principles.
Best Chess Strategy Tips for Beginners:
- Try to obtain control of the center from the opening to the end.
The center is the most important section of the board since your pieces can pretty much have access to the whole board when they are correctly located in the center.
That’s the reason why this strategic principle is so important, and it has been proven over and over by the best players in the world. This players always try to keep their pieces adding pressure to the center.
- Always develop all your pieces as quickly as possible.
Developing your pieces quickly is also a very important strategy concept since your pieces are like your army, they are the ones that will help you dominate the board, and eventually help you win the games.
Not developing your pieces quickly can be a very serious mistake, by not developing your pieces quickly you might be allowing your opponent to take more space on the board and He/She will quickly swap you off of the board, eventually.
- Try not to move the same piece multiple times in the opening.
Not moving the same piece multiple times in the opening goes along with the concept of developing your pieces quickly, this is because by moving the same piece multiple times, you allowing your opponent to develop his/her pieces much faster than you’re doing it.
There are occasions in which you’ll need to move the same piece multiple time in order to avoid losing the piece or something else, but this principle needs to be kept in mind at all times.
- Protect your King by castling, as soon as possible.
One of the main principles in chess strategy is to always keep your king in a safe position, while you try to create weaknesses around your opponent’s king if it’s possible.
That’s the reason why you should always castle your king as soon as possible so that it moves away from the center, which is the area of the board where most of the action usually takes place, and this also helps you bring your rooks to the center in a faster manner.
- Don’t move your queen too early.
Not moving the queen too early in the game, is one of the most important chess strategy tips for beginners. Most beginners try to move the queen too early in order to create mating threats on f7 or f2.
These threats are usually not real and the player who moved the queen usually loses several tempos on trying to get the queen back to a safe square.
You’ve probably heard this many times before, not to move your queen too early in the game is a rule that can be omitted sometimes, let’s say your opponent makes a huge mistake that you can punish immediately by starting an attack with your queen.
- Connect your rooks and place them on the columns that will be open.
The rooks are usually the most difficult pieces to activate, this is because they can only move horizontally and vertically, therefore, it’s not easy to move these heavy pieces when there are not open columns or files.
That’s one the reasons why castling your king early is very important since it helps you bring one of the rooks closer to the center.
You should also, always try to anticipate which columns are the ones that most likely to be opened during the game, so that you are the first one to take advantage of the open columns with your own rooks.
- Think twice before moving your pawns, they can’t go back.
As you already know, pawns can only move forward, they can’t go back. That’s the reason why this is a fundamental chess strategy principle for players of all levels, not only for beginners.
Also, another very important chess strategy tip is to always know that since pawns are the pieces with more limitations when it comes to mobility, the pawns are always very important to determine the nature of the position and the plans that each player should follow.
- If you have a bad piece, try to exchange it very quickly.
Being able to identify when any particular piece doesn’t have a bright future is a very important aspect of chess strategy at all levels. This actually makes a difference between novice players and masters.
When a bishop is blocked by pawns its own pawns because they are located on squares of the bishop’s same color, usually the bishop is considered to be a bad piece, therefore it’s a wise decision to exchange it by another piece of the same value whenever it’s possible.
Also, the bishops tend to be better pieces than the knights when the position is wide open, while the knights tend to be a better piece in closed positions because they are the only ones that can jump over other pieces.
Check out the following video in which GM Damian Lemos also provides some valuable chess strategy tips for beginners:
Many beginner chess players suffer frustrating experiences during their first chess games. They get mated quickly, lose control over their positions without even recognizing what has happened.
They often stalemate their opponents with numerous extra pieces, throwing away a win for only a draw. Every chess player remembers the days when he or she tried to capture as many pieces as possible without any significant clue about how to checkmate the opponent with all the extra pieces.
These situations can be very discouraging, especially for children getting started on a chess career, following the above-mentioned chess strategy tips for beginners can help you avoid them.
Opening Choice
Your opening choice is essential for the progression of the game. Openings are often very complex and for beginners, it can be extremely difficult to learn them properly by heart.
Therefore it would be wise to choose to play simple chess as a newcomer instead of cramming in certain theoretical lines.
Not all openings are as suitable for beginners as they are for experts.
Many openings require intimate knowledge of deep, strategic ideas and move-order subtleties. First of all, it is key to always remember these 5 opening principles:
- Control the center. (Specifically the e4, d4, e5, d5 squares)
- Develop your pieces to actively create threats.
- Try not to move a piece twice.
- A knight on the rim is dim. (Developing towards the center greatly increases the mobility and scope of your pieces)
- Get your king safe. (Leaving your king in the center can dangerously expose you to tactics)
Once we’ve familiarized these essential chess opening principles, we can look for suitable beginner chess openings.
The best chess openings for beginners should meet the following criteria:
- Easy to learn so you can start playing it straight away.
- Be based on key ideas, not memorization of endless theory.
- Should give you a comfortable middlegame.
Taking into account these criteria, the Italian game for White with 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4and the Sicilian Defense for Black with 1. e4 c5 are pretty easy openings that follow very logical patterns which are easy to understand for beginners. Here is a quick overview of both chess openings:
Chess Tactics Training
Chess Tactics often decide the chess games of players of any level, from starters to masters. For that reason, one of our main chess strategy tips for beginners is that it is very meaningful to start getting to know tactical themes and motifs like pins, forks, double attacks and discovered checks right from the beginning of your chess career.
Join a Chess Club
When choosing a hobby most people join a club to get to know others who share their interests or to profit from a membership. Becoming a member of a chess club does not only mean finding new opponents or a chess trainer but also finding friends and connecting socially with people who share their interests with you.
A membership in a chess club is one of the best chess strategy tips for beginners and has plenty of advantages. You can have fun together with new friends, share your ideas and thoughts, get tips from your fellows, gain playing experience, profit from weekly training and so much more!
Social contacts are essential, especially for beginners who are motivated to get to know more, to improve and to find people who share ideas with them!
So, if you want to meet new friends with the same interests, stand up from the computer with a boring chess engine and find a suitable chess club for you! There are so many of them in search of new motivated members!
