Anything Goes, teach me to play chess.

by **NorthView** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 6:46 am

General Tips
As White you have the initiative, and against an evenly matched opponent are trying to convert this into a win via either an advantage of space, time, material or some combination of these. Black is trying to equalise, and will be aiming to counter-attack in one way or another.

The centre is by far the most important area of the board, and control of it should give you an advantage, as long as you haven't made too many other serious compromises.
In the opening, you're generally fighting for control of the centre. This can be done through occupation by pieces, pawns, by control from distance, or some mix of these. You're trying to develop your pieces (ie bring them out) by putting them quickly onto good squares (ie where they influence the game), though again there are numerous exceptions to this rule. To do this you'll often need to move your centre pawns, so choosing the right square for these is paramount. You're also trying to castle quickly, and usually on the King side (numerous exceptions again, though).

Once both sides have completed their development and castled, convention says the opening is over and the middlegame is underway, though with the advent of computer databases, the openings "book" often extends as far as move 30 or more (at GM level).

Openings
As White you can make life easier for yourself at first by learning only the openings for either d4 or e4. Which of these you choose is a matter of taste: d4 typically leads to a more positional type of game where you try to convert a small advantage into a win; e4 is often more violent and often precipitates an attack on the Black king; though, as in poker, this isn't a hard and fast rule, and everything depends on many other constantly-changing variables that requires constant (and often subconscious) re-evaluation.

Given what I know of you, which admittedly isn't a great deal, I think you should go for e4. Buy an openings book, and learn and understand Black's typical responses to e4 (the Lopez, Sicilian, Petroff, Caro Kann etc), and find a decent line against each for White that you feel comfortable in. Actually, you'll need to find a decent line for each of the sub-variations for each of these, but this can be a gradual process while you learn the more technical aspects of the game, such as endgames.

As Black, you'll need to learn at least one decent defence to e4, one to d4 and maybe ones to c4 and Nf3 (though it's often possible to transpose from these last two into regular d4 or e4 openings).

Middlegames
This is the main creative area of the game, and there's little you can learn from books about this other than when and how to leave a middlegame and enter an endgame. The middle game is commonly where White consolidates his advantage, or Black nullifies it and pursues his own plan.

Endgames
These are much overlooked, and are the most technical aspect of the game. In hindsight I wish I'd learnt these before the openings, because it's hard to evaluate the success of your opening and middlegame unless you can recognise a favourable endgame position. Buy a book on endgames.

There are many websites where you can play random opponents for free. My favourite recently disappeared, but a quick Google should uncover more.

by **Jarren** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:03 am

by **Al Golagnic** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:48 am

Anything Goes, teach me to play chess.

Anything Goes, teach me to play chess.

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