Chess Strategies – How to Checkmate with King and Queen vs. King
checkmate, chess strategies August 22nd, 2008
One of the first chess strategies that every beginner needs to learn is how to checkmate the opponent. So many beginners’ games end as a draw simply because the superior side doesn’t know how to turn an overwhelming material advantage into a checkmate.
I faced the same problem when teaching my children how to play chess, and I came up with a simple set of rules for checkmating the opponent’s bare king when you have a king and queen.
Here are the rules:
Get your king in the center;
Make the box smaller;
Cut off the row;
Get the king in position;
Checkmate with the Queen, 1, 2, 3.
The first rule is to get your king in the center. If your opponent has his King in the center (and he should) you will need to use your Queen together with your King to drive him out, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to do.
The second rule is to make the box smaller. What I mean by a “box” is this: if you draw imaginary vertical and horizontal lines from your Queen to the edges of the board, you will see 1, 2, or 4 rectangular boxes. Your opponent’s King will be in one of those boxes. He will try to keep his King in the biggest box; your job is to make the box that the opponent’s King is in smaller and smaller, one step at a time. You do this by moving your King and Queen together to constrict the space your opponent has available.
Third, you cut off the row. That is, eventually your making the box smaller will drive your opponent’s King to one of the edges of the board. When your opponent’s King stands on a square at the edge of the board, use your Queen to occupy the adjoining row (it can be either a vertical row or a horizontal row), which will keep him permanently stuck on the edge.
Fourth, get your King in position for the checkmate. Specifically, move your King to a position directly opposite your opponent’s King.
Fifth, checkmate with the Queen, one, two, three. “One, two, three” refers to the pattern that the pieces will make in the final position. The opponent’s King will be on the edge of the board, one; your Queen will be in a line next to the opponent’s King in the next row, two; and three, your own King will stand next to the Queen, protecting it from capture.
The ability to checkmate your opponent is one of the first chess strategies you should master. You can look at the video I’ve uploaded to see how to do this; I even show how my seven-year-old daughter used these rules to checkmate me … in practice, of course. 
Chess Strategies
chess strategies August 20th, 2008
Any chess player who wishes to learn to defeat his opponents consistently must learn the basic chess strategies that have stood the test of time. Chess learning can be divided broadly into strategy and tactics. Tactics refer to opportunities to win material or gain a particular objective; strategy tells you what to do with that extra material or what objectives you’re aiming for. It is commonly acknowledged that the player who has a plan – who operates according to sound chess strategies – will perform better than the player who conducts his game without a plan.
Chess strategies might include any of the following categories: endgame strategies, middlegame strategies, opening strategies, what to do with extra material, pawn strategies, or how to conduct an attack on your opponent’s king. One can even include meta-strategies, such as how to learn tactics, how to think at the board, clock management, etc.
One of the very earliest strategies that any chess player will learn is what to do when you are ahead in material. What do you do with that extra pawn or piece?
The first thing to recognize is that the advantage of a pawn is often enough of an advantage to win the chess game. One way to make the most of a material advantage is to increase that advantage by making even exchanges.
“Even exchanges?” I hear you ask. Think of it this way, if you have 8 pawns and your opponent has 7, you have roughly 14 percent more material than your opponent. If each side gets rid of 6 pawns through even exchanges, you now have 2 pawns to 1, or 100% more material than your opponent. The rule is this: when you’re ahead in material, all other things being equal, increase your material advantage by reducing the material on the board through even exchanges.
Of course, “all other things being equal” hides a multitude of opportunities for the player with less material. As one master I know said once, “chess is a difficult game.” Which is what makes it fun!
One of the best chess strategies is to add to your library of good chess literature. If you’re just starting out in chess — and even if you’re an intermediate player — one of the best books to give you a good foundation is Learn Chess: A New Way For All. The book covers all the basics for the beginning player (including the rules of chess and chess notation), a good section on tactics, opening strategy, and suggestions for ways to progress to advanced chess knowledge.
This is a must-have book for any serious chess player, as it covers the basic chess strategies essential to a good foundation.
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