Chess Teaching Archives

Stalemate

If the player whose turn it is has no legal moves the game has to end. If this player is not in check it is called stalemate. Stalemate ends the game and the result is a draw, even when one of the players has a big material advantage.
The following two diagrams are stalemates.

So you have [...]

Twofold attack

In the previous lessons we have learned how to attack and defend pieces. But the other player will also defend the pieces you are attacking. If an exchange doesn’t give you any advantage you may be able to attack the piece once more.
As an example in the diagram on the left white is able to [...]

Defending

Now that you know how to move the pieces and to capture the free pieces your opponent is offering it is time to spend some time on a lesson about how to deal with an attacked piece.
If one of your pieces is attacked you have to know how the piece can be defended. There are [...]

Take free pieces

In almost all chess games one of the players wins by first obtaining a material advantage. The easiest way to obtain such a material advantage is to take the free pieces offered by the other player.
One way to localize these pieces is to look at each of your own pieces to see whether one of [...]

Knowing the rules: Some tips

Knowing all the rules, moves and starting position isn’t enough to become a good chess player. More chess lessons will follow, but this may be a good moment to emphasize that you also have to move this theory into practice. Nobody can learn to play chess without playing chess games.
Here are some tips especially targeted [...]