It’s actually not that hard to think a couple of moves ahead in Chess, even for a beginner. A player should always make a move that gives them a strategic advantage.

This also goes for your opponent. Let’s say an opponent moves a piece into the firing line of one of your pieces. Do not quickly assume that your opponent is an idiot, and take the piece. Think to yourself, why did they do that? Is it a trap? If I don’t take that piece, can I make a better move that would give me a better strategic advantage? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, you have actually thought a number of moves ahead.

The video above shows just how important strategy can be at the elite level.
Chess strategy is the difference between a good chess player and a great chess player. There are many books, videos, tutorials and websites that focus solely on chess strategy. Some can be found here.
There are a couple of concepts that the beginner should take time to learn:

Protect your King.
When checked, you will most likely be forced into making a move you weren’t planning on making.
Advance your pieces.
Every move you make should be aimed at placing a piece into a better attacking position. If you attack, attack, attack, your opponent is forced to defend, defend, defend/
Own the center.
If you can place some pieces into the center of the board, and defend them with other pieces, this effectively gives you control of the center. Your opponent will be limited to advancing down the sides, thus limiting the effectiveness of any attacking piece.
Sacrifice if required.
This sounds counter intuitive, but it may be of strategic advantage to relinquish a piece to bring an opponents piece out into the open.

Just when you thought we’d finished covering piece movement, a couple more rise from the deep. There are a couple of advanced movements that can be performed.

Pawn Promotion

Remember that a Pawn can only move forward? What happens if a Pawn reaches the other end of the board? Actually, the Pawn can be promoted to any other piece, other than a King. The Pawn is removed from the board, and replaced with another piece.
Some people play a rule that states a Pawn can only advance into a piece that has already been taken from the board. This is generally played as most chess sets do not have spare pieces.

Castling

Castling is often used to provide additional protection for the King, or to bring the Rook into a more offensive position. Beginners may avoid castling for there first few games. To paraphrase the narrator of the video, Castling involves one Rook and a King. Both the King and the Rook must not have moved. There must be no pieces between the King and the Rook. When castling, the King must not be in check, or pass through check.

En Passant

En Passant may be invoked when a Pawn moves two squares on the first move. If the opponent has a piece attacking the first square the Pawn moves through, the opponent can remove the Pawn and place the attacking piece in the first square. Sound a bit confusing? As a beginner, don’t worry too much about this. Beginners have the unwritten right to to not play any rules they do not understand.

A Chess Myth or Two

Let’s start off by exposing a few myths that often stop beginner chess players from picking up their first pawn:

Chess can only be played by tea-touting, IQ celebrating, super brains.
Chess only has a few basic rules and beginners generally find it easy to learn. Chess is however hard to champion as mastering strategy is often a life long endeavour. In later lessons we introduce basic beginner chess strategy, so don’t worry too much at this point.
Chess is soooo boring…
Actually, a great game of chess is both extremely exciting and nerve wracking. Beginners with a heart condition have been warned.
A single chess game is so long that play is normally passed down from generation to generation.
A chess game is as long as you want it to be. You can impose time limits or resign at any point. Most beginners chess games will last no longer than half an hour.

It’s A Beginners Chess Game

Beginners should try to find another beginner chess player to learn chess with. Once the rules are learned, and some basic strategy imprinted, mano-a-mano of the beginner kind is much more fun than taking on a chess champion.

So What’s the Aim of Chess Anyway?

The aim of chess is to force the King to surrender. This is often achieved through diligent use of strategy. Beginner beware… the aim is not to kill as many of your opponent’s pieces as possible.
Every move, every piece taken, every trap set, every piece lost should be part of an overall strategy. In a good game of chess, moving without purpose is often cruelly punished. We’ll introduce you to beginners basic strategy a little further on.

The King can move one square in any direction. The diagram on the right shows the Kings starting point and all the possible positions he can move into. Note that the King is white. If any of the marked squares are occupied by another white piece, the King can not move into it. Two pieces can not share the same square. This is true for all pieces. Beginners may note that the King is one of the weakest pieces on the board.

The Rook can move any number of squares in the horizontal or vertical direction. It is moved by sliding it along the board in the chosen direction. Beginners must move in one direction only. The Rook may move into any of the marked squares, however, a Rook can not jump over another piece.

The Bishop may move any number of squares diagonally in any direction. Think of the Bishop as a Rook tilted 45 degrees… all the same rules apply. Beginners may note that being stuck on a 45 degree angle means that the Bishop must always remain on the same color.

The Queen can move any number of squares horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. A Queen can not jump. It is easy to see that a Queen is one of the most prized pieces. The beginner chess player should always try to safe-guard their Queen, as she is often called upon to defend the King. It is tempting to use the Queen as a powerful offensive piece, but this puts her at considerable risk.

The Pawn can only move one square forward at a time. However, to speed up the opening game, pawns are allowed to move two forward squares on their very first move. They can not jump another piece however during this move.

The Knight is the only piece that can jump. It can not move in straight lines though. A Knight must move in an L-pattern. Beginners often find this is a bit tricky to grasp. Knights move two squares up, then one square over, or two squares over and one up, or any combination thereof. A Knight must land on a different colored square. The beginner chess player is advised to practice moving the Knight. Memorize the picture to the right.

Whose Turn is it Anyway?

So now you feel like you are most learned beginner in the world. You know the name of each chess piece, how each chess piece moves and where each piece is initially located on the chess board. You have an opponent (preferably another beginner), and you are rearing to go. So now what?
White always makes the first turn. If you are not white, don’t worry too much as it has been proven that starting a chess game has no significant advantage. To play a turn, you simply move one piece. Your turn ends when you have finished moving that one piece. Your opponent then takes a turn and so on until the game ends.
There are a couple of rules that some people like to play:

As soon as you touch a piece, you must move that piece if you can legally do so. A legal move is of course a move made by a piece that it is allowed to do.
After you lift your hand from the piece, and you have made a legal move, your turn ends.
Once your turn ends, you can not ask to take your turn back.

In other words, don’t touch a piece unless you have already decided that is the piece you want to move, and don’t take your hand off the piece until you are absolutely sure you have finished your turn.
Beginners often find it difficult to visualize moves. If you are a beginner, ask your opponent to be lenient with these rules.

	The King rules the land. When cornered, he will surrender quicker than a mouse in a cheese factory. At all costs, the beginner must protect the King.
	The Queen has the real power, the King just thinks he does. Unfortunately, the Queen is often required to lay down her life. Beginners beware… you will end up loving your Queen, and despising her opposite.
	Initially, the Bishops flank the King and Queen. You never know when you many need religious guidance, especially in the heat of battle.
	The Knight, often called the ‘Horsey’ by the beginner, is the Kings cavalry. Being on horseback it is not always easy to move in a straight line, as a result the Knight moves like a madman.
	Rooks can be both a King’s best defense, or his greatest offense. These are often called ‘Castles’ by the beginner chess player.
	The lowly Pawns provide the King’s real power. What they lack in maneuverability, they gain in number.