The Very First Thing You Need To Know

The very first thing you should realize about the game of chess is that the goal, (i.e., getting set up to jump on the king with as much grouped force as possible), is really almost incidental to successfully emerging victorious.

As you already know, chess is a game of strategy. And, since you cannot achieve checkmate with your first move, it follows reasonably enough that, if you control useful areas of the board, victory will be assured.

So, learn this, know this, live this: Chess is not about overwhelming forces! Chess is about controlling the application of force, both that of your opponents’ as well as your own.

Here’s a handy example: Assume you have just moved your Bishop to cover a diagonal in the middle of the board that stretches from one of your Rooks on one end to one of their Rooks on the other. Not only has that one move given you control of all eight of the squares between the two Rooks, it actually prevents your opponent from making that same move, as, if he did, he would end up loosing both a Bishop and a Rook.

He may only want to control one square. He may only need to control one square. But, with that one move, you have not only increased your area of control, you have also lessened the number of your opponent’s available choices.

So always think of each and every potential move in terms like this: will this move give me more critical areas on the board? Increase the number of squares this piece will be able to control? Not open up a more valuable piece to attack?

These three questions alone will insure an error-free game, but that is not Victory! That only comes from the controlled application of force! Let’s look at some of those applications now.