Miscellaneous notes

These are just random excerpts from my personal notes, not polished, and in no particular order. The principles are mostly heuristics; there are no absolute rules. Use analysis and common sense to assess when they are applicable. I'm a chess novice, and these notes are intended for other novices.

The embedded games are interactive in most browsers, but it can be a bit glitchy. If the arrows or circles render in the wrong place, try refreshing. If the arrows are missing from a study board, it might be because clicking the board (easy to do while scrolling on mobile) makes the annotations disappear, but you can bring them back by pressing the 'previous move' button in the embedded frame.

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If your opponent has only one bishop, default to placing your pieces on squares of the opposite color. Making a habit of doing this preemptively significantly reduces the likelihood of getting pinched by a tactic later.

Below, black's dark-square bishop is unable to touch any of white's pieces - it is effectively taken out of play.

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Knights and bishops can only attack one color at a time, so you can avoid forks and pins by keeping your pieces on opposite colors. This is another habit that I try to execute on auto-pilot during endgames, as it makes calculations faster (reduced search space) and deprives the opponent of opportunities for tactics.

With white's king and rook on opposite colored squares, black's knight has no way to land a fork.

With white's king and rook on opposite colored squares, black's bishops have no way to create a pin or skewer.

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Don't give a check if responding to it helps your opponent develop.

For example, here white's Bb5+ is wasteful because black's natural response c6 simultaneously strengthens the pawn structure and forcibly pushes the bishop back to e2 (or f1). White would have been better off moving the bishop to e2 in the first place (or not moving it at all).

I found this stunningly bad move that I made many years ago, before I knew better... I gave a pointless check Bb5+, which helped my opponent connect their pawn chain, and then I incorrectly retreated with Ba4, rendering my bishop useless for the rest of the game.

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Don't trade your active pieces for an opponent's passive pieces.

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In the very early game, don't waste time opening up two windows for the same bishop.

For example, here white has opened two windows for their dark-square bishop, but the light-square bishop is still entirely blocked in. It's not necessarily fatal, just inefficient.

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If you can't figure out what to do, find your least active piece and make it less inactive.

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When you spot a good move, stop and look for a better one. It might be one leg of a bigger tactic or strategy.

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"If you decide to spend a certain sum, get as much for it as you can." - Princess Irulan (Dune Messiah, 1969)

If I'm considering trading off some piece, I'll look for plans that would yield additional benefits, whether material (like an extra pawn) or non-material (like forcing your opponent's king to move, so that they can't castle).

As a corollary: If a piece is going to be accidentally lost, use it to do as much damage as possible on the way out. If I realize that I've blundered a bishop, I'll slam it right into the base of the nearest pawn chain. (Never let your opponent get anything for free).

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If you fianchetto kingside you should castle kingside very soon after.

This is a very vulnerable position, where the bishop is hanging undefended, and if the bishop is captured, then the rook is likely to fall as well.

Castling into a fianchetto brings a lot of 'bang for your buck' because with a single move you (1) move the king to safety, (2) defend the bishop with the king, (3) defend the rook with the king, and (4) partially activate the rook by moving it from the corner to f1.

For many years, I religiously avoided playing a fianchetto setup in serious games. Whenever I would try it on for size, I'd blunder at least the bishop and usually the rook too. I realized a few months ago that all of those blunders were only possible because I failed to castle into a defensive position in a timely manner.

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When playing a fianchetto setup, pay close attention to its diagonal. An opportunity to spring the trap may present itself for only one or a few moves. If you don't spot that opportunity when it appears, then you've just squandered at least 2 moves and a bishop.

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If you have plans to fianchetto kingside, or already did, be especially wary of playing king's pawn to e4. If your opponent locks the position by parking a piece in front of that pawn, your bishop is basically bricked.

When planning to play a fianchetto I will happily push pawns to c4 or d4 but never e4.

Also, keep an eye out for opportunities to block in your opponent's bishop similarly. Here's a recent game where I had an opportunity to use my own (well defended) pawns to blockade the h1-a8 diagonal on move 8, preventing white's light-square bishop from actively entering the fray until move 22.

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If your opponent opens the d-file early, trading queens can be a nice cheap shot to leave their king exposed in the middle of the board and permanently unable to castle to safety.

It is important to note that this is mainly effective when your opponent must retake with their king (if they can retake with a different piece to complete the trade, then they retain castling rights).

If you have traded queens in this way, you may have an opportunity later to rub salt in the wound by castling queenside with check. From the same game as above:

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Knights tend to be slightly more useful in closed positions; bishops tend to be slightly more useful in open positions.

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If you're ahead in material, try to trade down, to make it harder for your opponent to pull of tactics or other unforeseen shenanigans. Conversely, if you're behind in material, try to hang onto your pieces.

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Recapture towards the center.

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Replace captured pawns with pieces not pawns.

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It's never too early to look for tactics.

Occasionally there are early opportunities for winning a piece or the game. Here's a recent example where I was able to sacrifice a knight on move 4 to deliver checkmate on move 5.

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Develop knights before bishops, for quick control of the center.

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Trade your flank pawns for your opponent's center pawns, if given the opportunity.

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A move that does more things is better than a move that does fewer things. I learned this the hard way, during many games where I was quickly wrecked by much stronger players.

Upon review, the most glaring difference in gameplay was that every single move they made achieved multiple things (3 or 4, maybe more that I didn't even see). By a few moves in, I'd still be trying to figure out how to develop my bishops, and they'd already have a full army deployed and applying tactical pressure.

When every move I was making achieved 2 things, and every move they were making making achieved 4 things, each turn would give them an additional edge. These incremental advantages accumulate (and accrue interest).

To give a very concrete example of "doing more things" consider this position:

Sure any pawn move is going to poke some square.

What's even better than that? A pawn move that pokes 2 squares AND makes it harder for your opponent maneuver in their 4th row.

What's even better than that? A pawn move that does all of the above AND makes your opponent waste a knight move.

What's even better than that? A pawn move that does all of the above AND activates your bishop and queen.

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Don't play "hope chess" - assume your opponent will respond with the strongest move.

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Knights are not very effective towards the edge of the board. I've heard various sayings like "a knight on the rim is grim" and "a knight on the rim is dim".

This is true in general, but it's especially dangerous if your opponent still has their bishop corresponding to the opposite color - it can singlehandedly take the knight out of play.

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... to be continued at some point