9 Chess Tips You Should Know

Sometimes, it can be hard to know where to begin learning more about chess. From the innumerable books, videos, and articles, it can be tricky to pick out useful practical advice. This is where chess tips come in.

This article is designed to give you 9 chess tips (plus a bonus) that are easy to understand and can make you a better player. There are three for each section of the game: the opening, middlegame, and endgame. All of them can be studied in more depth, but considering these small ideas in chess can help you to grasp important principles and concepts that are crucial to becoming a strong player.

Chess Tips for the Opening

The opening is arguably the most theoretical part of a chess game. As such, there are plenty of tips to help you improve your opening chess strategy. Let's take a look at a few.

1. Control the Center with Pawns or a Hypermodern Opening

One of the first chess tips you learn is to take control of central squares in the opening. What is lesser known among beginners is that you can do this by developing with pawns or with pieces on the flanks of the board.

Traditionally, chess players tried to take control of the center by putting pawns on central squares (e4, e5, d4, d5). More recently, opening theory has included hypermodern openings. This involves allowing your opponent to control the center with pawn moves and attacking from the side of the board with fianchettoed bishops and knights. By doing this you can gradually build up pressure and often win material in the center of the board. The Grünfeld and King’s Indian are two common examples.

2. “Knights on the Rim Are Dim" 

This common rhyme is based on the simple idea that you should position your knights to control the most squares. By developing your knight to the edge of the board (h3 or a3 with white, h6 or a6 with black) you are positioning it so it only controls 4 squares, while developing it to the center (f3 or c3 with white, f6 or c6 with black) allows it to control 8 squares.

Of course there are times when developing to the edge of the board is the right move. In general, the idea is to try to maximize the number squares your pieces are controlling.

3. Develop With Tempo

One of the main ideas of the opening is to develop your pieces to active yet protected squares. If you can develop your pieces while also attacking or threatening your opponent’s, you can force them to make bad or repeated moves. This gives you more time or “tempo,” and often the opportunity to attack.

Chess Tips for the Middlegame

The middlegame is full of tactical opportunities, positional complexities, and stopping points. Here are a few tips to help you when you are not sure what to do in a complex middlegame.

1. Trade Off Your Opponent's Strongest Pieces

As a chess game progresses, it will become clear that your opponent’s position has strengths and weaknesses. An excellent tip for getting into a favorable position is to identify their strongest pieces – that is, the most active and well-positioned – and find a way to trade them off.

If they have a knight on an outpost for example and you have a weak or undeveloped knight, finding a way to trade one for the other will often be your best plan.

Related: Positional Vs Tactical Chess: Which is Best For You

2. Minority Pawn Attack

A minority pawn attack is an idea that seems counterintuitive but is the best way to get an advantage in many positions. Simply put, it means pushing pawns on the side of the board where you have fewer pawns. Often, this means attacking three pawns with two. 

This sounds unwise; because wouldn't your pawns be overwhelmed?

The idea is to weaken your opponent’s majority pawn structure. By pushing pawns strategically, you can often isolate those of your opponent or create a backward pawn, which can be targeted.

3. Simplify the Game When You Are Up Material

If you are up a piece or even a pawn, simplification usually works in your favor. It can be difficult in a middlegame scenario, even when you have more pieces. The positions can still be complex, and it is still easy to lose material or get checkmate. By simplifying the position (trading off pieces), you can create a simple endgame scenario in which you simply have a material advantage.

Chess Tips for the Endgame

Endgames present a unique set of challenges compared to the rest of a chess game. Here are some tips to help with endgame strategy.

1. Two Rooks Can Be Better Than a Queen

In many endgame positions, it is better to have two rooks than a queen. Here’s why:

• To deliver checkmates, a queen has to coordinate with another piece. If your only remaining pieces are a queen, pawns, and a king, you may have a difficult time finding mating opportunities when there are two rooks on the board.
• Rooks can coordinate. Connected rooks are strong attackers and defenders. They can create threats and defend pieces, making it very difficult for a single queen.

2. Triangulation and Zugzwang

Often in simplified endgames, being able to promote a pawn and win the chess game comes down to a matter of timing. Triangulation is a trick in which you move your king in a small triangle that enables you to get to the same position, but it will be your opponent’s turn. 

For example, in this position, white can win by making the indicated moves. This puts black in Zugzwang, meaning it has no good moves. In this case, it means moving back and allowing white to infiltrate the position and win the game.

3. The Rule of Square

The rule of square, or square rule, can save you lots of time counting moves. If you have a passed pawn against a king, you can draw an imaginary square from the pawn's position. If the king is outside of that square your pawn can make it to the end of the board to promote before the king can reach it. 

Related: Must-Know Chess Endgames for Beginners: How to Checkmate

Bonus Tip: When to Underpromote

When you get a pawn to the end of the board, you can promote it to any major piece. In most cases, a queen is the best choice. However, chess is a tricky game, and sometimes the best move is to underpromote.

Take a look at this variation in the Albin Counter Gambit.

The Lasker Trap

The Albin Counter Gambit starts after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e5. White’s best move is to take, accepting the gambit. Black advances the pawn to stop white from developing naturally. If white plays the move e3, we have the start of the Lasker Trap.

Black plays the move Bb4+ and White defends with Bd2, expecting black to capture. Black ignores the threat with dxe3, sacrificing the bishop. If white takes the bishop, they are instantly losing. 

Black plays exf2+. If the king recaptures, the queen is undefended and black captures it and has a winning advantage. White may see this and play Ke2, the best move. In this case, if black promotes to a queen, white first captures the black queen with check and then recaptures the promoted queen and the game is equal.

Instead, black has to underpromote to a knight, checking the king again. White recaptures and black plays the death blow: Bg4 skewering the king and the queen, and giving black a massive material advantage. Underpromotion wins the game. 

Related: The 5 Best Openings for Black

Learn Chess the Right Way

Chess is full of tips, tricks, and rules of thumb, many of which can help you to quickly win games at the beginner's level. Applying some of the chess tips above are guaranteed to win you games.

That said, chess requires in-depth study and plenty of practice. You can try to play the Lasker Trap, but what if your opponent plays different moves in the Queen's Gambit? Before playing the Lasker Trap, you need to know the Albin Counter Gambit and why it makes sense as an opening.

Learning chess tips is a great way to improve your game. Not only because the tips themselves are helpful but because they allow you to understand some of the principles and concepts that make you a good player. After reading this article, why not take a deeper look at some of the concepts we've mentioned.