Chess: Knight Forks

As we saw with Bishop Forks, a Knight Fork puts two of your opponents pieces in jeopardy.

Int he example below, you can see that White's Knight is attacking Black's Queen and Black's Rook at the same time,..this is a Knight Fork.

Black will have no option but to move the Queen to safety and thereby losing its Rook.

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Chess: Bishop Forks (No, it's not something you eat with)

A bishop fork is when you move your bishop in that it now attacks two of your opponent's pieces at the same time. This also allows for a potential to capture of one of these pieces.

In the diagram below, you see that white is about to move the bishop and attack both black's knight and  his rook. Now black can either move the knight on d4 but then lose the rook,...or he can move the knight on g8 to block the bishop, but then white will take the rook and also go on to capture one of the knights.

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Chess: Don't Move a Piece Twice in a Row

Seems simple enough right? Sometimes, these simple pieces of advice will go a long way in helping you avoid simple mistakes.

Try to move each piece only once in the opening. As you develop your pieces avoid moving them to squares which can easily be attacked by your opponent. This will only drive your piece to another square. 


It's also a good argument for not developing your queen early in the game. 




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Chess: Pinning Your Opponent's Pieces

As you develop, make an effort to threaten something or make it difficult for your opponent to develop.

In this example, white's bishop is pinning black's knight to his queen.

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Chess: The Most Popular First Move for White and Why?

Pawn to King 4. (also written as P-K4 or in algebraic notation: e2-e4 or simply e4)

This is the most common single opening move in all of chess.

The reason for this is that it offers you the most coverage.

As you can see below, the bishop is protecting 5 squares and the queen covers an additional 3. The pawn also attacks 2 squares, one of which is in the center. The rest of your pawns are covering the entire third row That's 18 squares. (almost 1/3 of the board).

If you're black, the counter move is move is to move your king pawn up to block the white pawn. The same reasons apply.

Chess: What are the First Six Pieces to Open With

A good rule of thumb (at least until you gain more experience and learn some openings) is:

When opening, rhythm is important.

Your tempo should be pawn-piece-pawn-piece . . .

This will ensure a nice even distribution of your resources throughout the board.

Chess: To Sacrifice or Not to Sacrifice?

First let's define "what is a sacrifice". A sacrifice is a move giving up a piece in the hopes of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value.

Any chess piece except the king can be sacrificed. Because players usually try to hold onto their own pieces, offering a sacrifice can come as an unpleasant surprise to one's opponent, putting him off balance and causing much precious time to be wasted trying to calculate whether the sacrifice is sound or not and whether to accept it.

While players of any level should take advantage of this strategy, beginners should use extreme caution since it can throw a game to your opponent's advantage very easily.

In the opening, never sacrifice a piece without a very good reason. Reasons can include: 

1. Gaining control of the center
2. Advancing in development
3. Build up a strong attack
4. Prevent your opponent from castling
5. Etc . . .

Here you can see that white intends to sacrifices his bishop by taking white's king rook pawn and putting black in check. White hopes that when and if, the black king takes the bishop it will expose the black king to immediate further attacks. Once black takes the bishop, white can move in for an attack with the knight and the queen.