Strategy
Chess Strategy for Beginners (5 Key Principles)
Chess strategy is what turns a collection of legal moves into an actual plan. If you already know how to play chess and you are looking for practical ways to organize your game and improve, this guide to chess strategy for beginners is for you. We are going to walk through five great principles, the same chess strategies coaches teach their students first, and each one comes with concrete examples you can use in your very next game.
Here is what you will discover.
- The development race
- Strong squares and weak squares
- The good bishop and the bad bishop
- The techniques for attacking your opponent's king
- King activity in the endgame
Chess Strategy Principle 1: Win the Development Race
We begin with the techniques for handling the main chess openings well. The first player who manages to mobilize all of their pieces can seize the initiative, attack, and take over the game. That is called winning the development race, and it is truly a fundamental strategic principle of the opening phase. Two habits will get you there.
Develop your minor pieces to active squares, and do not move them twice without a good reason
The idea is simple. Your minor pieces, the bishops and the knights, are the ones that come out first, and every move counts when you are trying to outpace your opponent. Each of those little units of chess time is called a tempo, and if one of your pieces needs two tempi to find a decent square, your opponent will have developed two pieces in the meantime.
What is an active square? It is a spot where your piece has a real impact on the game. Most of the time that means a square from which the piece strengthens your control of the center of the board.
And what exactly is the center? In chess, the center refers to the four squares below.
Whoever controls the center better will smother the enemy pieces while enjoying all the space needed to develop their own in peace. That is why, on the first move of the game, it is recommended to push a pawn to the center. It is not mandatory, of course, but it is excellent advice, and probably the first lesson in chess strategy for beginners. Here, the white e-pawn has been advanced to the center.
The goal is then to bring a second pawn to the center and build what is called the ideal pawn center, the duo on e4 and d4. With that duo in place, White controls the central squares beautifully. Naturally, your opponent will want to prevent this, and there is a good chance they will plant a pawn of their own in the center.
Find active squares for your pieces
This is the moment to start bringing your pieces out. We already know they belong near the center of the board. For the knights it is fairly easy, since they have natural home squares.
So you will usually develop your knights first, and only then your bishops. Speaking of bishops, they love open diagonals, so be careful not to bury them behind your own pawns.
Placed on c4, the bishop controls the central square d5 and also aims at f7, which can be considered a weak point in Black's position because it is defended only by the king.
Now compare that with developing the same bishop to d3. There it would be hemmed in by its own pawns. So choose the destination of each piece with care while you build your opening plan. Playing a random move is not allowed. Every move should be an opportunity to put one of your pieces on its best square.
Do not bring your queen out too early
On to the second idea for winning the development race, and it is a very simple one. If you bring your queen out too soon, your opponent will almost certainly attack it on the next move while developing their own pieces. An attacked piece usually has to move a second time, so your opponent develops faster. This is genuinely important to remember. If you want to create problems for yourself, there is no better way.
Here is an example.
Here the white queen came out to f3 early and for no good reason, most likely hoping for the Scholar's Mate. Black will use the opportunity to attack it while developing, and there are two good ways to do it.
- Put the knight on d4, where it radiates across White's position.
- Or, even better, develop the light-squared bishop with Bg4. The white queen has to move again, Black gets to develop the f8 bishop next, and the development race is won.
So much for the development race. Note that if you want to play the opening well, you should also castle quickly to tuck your king away, and activate your rooks by placing them on open files. Far too often the rooks sit unused in the corners of the board while king safety gets neglected.
If you want to go deeper into this phase of the game, read our guide to the chess opening principles. And to see these ideas at work in real openings, our guides to the Italian Game, the Ruy Lopez, the French Defense and the Sicilian Defense show the plans move by move.
Chess Strategy Principle 2: Strong Squares
What is a strong square?
A strong square (or a weak one, depending on which side of the board you sit) is a square that can no longer be controlled by an enemy pawn. Pawns cannot move backward. In other words, if you install a knight there, your opponent will never be able to chase it away with a pawn.
In the diagram above, look only at the pawn structure, not the placement of the pieces. Two strong squares stand out. First d5. It is a strong square because no black pawn will ever be able to control it again. White can comfortably plant a piece there, and since it is a central square, that piece will have a major impact on the board.
The f6 square is also very interesting because it sits even closer to the black king, right in the heart of the enemy camp. It is a strong square too, but this time a lot of work will be needed before White can hope to put a piece on it.
The squares c7, d7 and e7 can no longer be controlled by black pawns either, but they lie so deep inside Black's position, covered by Black's pieces, that treating them as usable strong squares would be theoretical at best. One more square deserves a mention though, and its potential may pay off later in the game. That square is h6. It matters when you go after a black king that has castled kingside, but it sits on the edge of the board, and a piece on h6 is only useful for attacking the black king or the dark squares around it.
By the way, a strong square occupied by one of your pieces has a name of its own. It becomes an outpost, and we dedicate a full article to finding and using them.
Knights love strong squares
Look at the knight sitting on d5. It radiates across the enemy position and controls a remarkable number of important squares. Never hesitate to undertake a long knight maneuver in the middlegame to find such a home for your knight, especially if the position is closed and your opponent gives you the time for it.
Knight maneuvers toward strong squares belong to the essential plans every improving player must master. Quite often, a middlegame plan simply consists of finding a better square for one of your knights. It is a great way to boost your attacking potential and to be better placed for winning material. Whether a knight on a great square outshines a bishop is a classic debate, and our article on the bishop versus the knight explains how to judge it in your own games.
Make your pieces work together
Of course, placing your pieces well is not enough by itself. The goal is to make them play together so they cooperate toward one common objective. A well-placed army pulling in three directions achieves nothing. Coordination is what converts nice-looking positions into wins.
The art of making a plan
Strong squares are one of the criteria you use to build your plans. A sound plan always starts from an honest look at the position, and our method for analyzing a chess position walks you through that evaluation step by step. From there, the classic middlegame plans take over. You might launch a minority attack to create a lasting weakness, or clamp down on your opponent's pawn breaks with a bind such as the famous Maroczy Bind. And a good plan never ignores the other side of the board. Asking what your opponent wants to do, and quietly preventing it before it happens, is a skill of its own called prophylaxis.
Chess Strategy Principle 3: Good Bishop, Bad Bishop
We are talking here about a particular situation, when the position is relatively closed and pawns are locked against each other. That creates what we call pawn chains.
Look closely at the pawns in the center of the board. White's pawn chain is d4-e5, Black's chain is e6-d5. Small chains, granted, but the important point is this. Those chains define a good bishop and a bad bishop for each player.
The bad bishop is the one that runs into its own pawns. Here that means the bishop marked on c8 and its white counterpart on c1. For Black the case is crystal clear. The c8 bishop is the worst piece in Black's camp, and activating it is very hard even though it is a long-range piece. The white bishop on c1 is a little more active, but it is a bad bishop all the same. Imagine developing it to e3 or f4, where it would bump straight into its own pawns, while the g5 square is covered by the black queen for the moment. Its mobility is clearly limited.
The two other bishops in the position are good bishops. They are the ones that will someday be able to attack the enemy pawns. As you can see, the very same piece can have a completely different value depending on the situation on the board. Keep in mind as well that when the position opens up, two bishops working side by side become a famous long-term asset known as the bishop pair.
The exchange technique
The key technique is to identify your bad bishop, force its exchange against an enemy piece, and at the same time prevent your opponent from trading off their own bad bishop. It is an extremely important skill to master when you want to play chess well, and it is a theme we work on with Grandmaster Tigran Gharamyan, French champion, in our course on the foundations of positional play.
Chess Strategy Principle 4: How to Attack the King
The next step is knowing the main techniques for putting your opponent away.
The two golden rules
Attacking chess rests on two ideas.
- Attack the enemy king with at least three pieces.
- Keep the center closed.
Why attack with at least three pieces? Because one of them will often sacrifice itself to rip open your opponent's castled position. You then need at least two more to deliver mate. With three pieces aimed at the enemy king, you give yourself the chance to become unstoppable.
Why keep the center closed? Because when you commit your pieces to one wing of the board, you risk getting hit in the center. Before starting an attack, it is essential to close the center, or at the very least to have it firmly under control. Watch your opponent's pawn breaks in particular, since a well-timed break is exactly how a defender blasts open the center and punishes a premature wing attack.
Finer attacking techniques
Beyond the golden rules, each type of king position calls for its own methods. Attacking a fianchetto usually revolves around trading off the fianchettoed bishop and invading the weakened squares around it. Against a king castled kingside, sacrifices on h7 and f7 and pawn storms with g4 and h4 are the classic weapons, while a king castled queenside asks for a different plan again, usually a pawn storm on the a and b files, and when both players castle on opposite wings the game turns into a pure race where every tempo counts. There is a whole family of attacking methods to learn on the road to checkmate.
One encouraging note. Amateur players often struggle in defense. If you learn these attacking techniques, you will have every weapon you need to put your opponents under pressure and force them to defend. You will also get a much clearer sense of your own style.
Chess Strategy Principle 5: Activate Your King in the Endgame
In the endgame, the guiding principles shift a little. The king that had to stay tucked away in the middlegame, safe from any mating attack, must now join the fight. With queens and most pieces off the board, the risk of being checkmated drops sharply, and the king becomes a strong piece in its own right, worth about four points in fighting value, more than a bishop.
Its number one job is to help its own pawns march down the board. You will very often need your king to escort a passed pawn all the way to the last rank and promotion. A beginner might feel nervous about walking their king up the board, and it is true that this reflex does not come naturally. Yet it is the correct method, and for experienced players it is second nature. The first player to centralize their king frequently wins the whole game.
This is most obvious in pawn endgames, where king activity decides everything and where a single tempo, or a position of mutual zugzwang, separates a win from a draw. It is just as true in rook endgames, the most common endgames in practical play, where textbook techniques like the Lucena position rely on the rook rather than the king for shelter. The king has already reached the square in front of its pawn and is stuck there, so the rook builds a bridge on the fourth rank to block the checks while the king steps out and the pawn goes through.
One last practical point. By the time the endgame arrives, both players are usually short on thinking time, so having the right reflexes matters enormously.
If you prefer learning from books, Yasser Seirawan's Winning Chess Strategies is a classic on this whole subject and a pleasure to read.
Going Further: Pawn Structure
Plenty of other techniques would deserve a place in this article, and pawn structure is probably the theme to study first once the five principles above are second nature. The skeleton of pawns dictates the right plan in almost every middlegame, which is why we devote a complete guide to pawn structure and a full series of articles to its key features.
- The isolated pawn, the most famous structural theme of all, both a weakness and a source of activity
- Doubled pawns, and when they help you rather than hurt you
- The backward pawn, a favorite long-term target
- Pawn weaknesses in general, how to create them in the enemy camp and how to avoid them in yours
A few more things before we wrap up.
Chess Strategy FAQ
What is strategy in chess?
Chess strategy consists of evaluating a position and defining a long-term plan to obtain lasting advantages over your opponent, such as control of the center, more space, a better pawn structure or more active pieces.
What is the difference between strategy and tactics?
Strategy deals with long-term goals and the overall organization of your game, while tactics are concrete short-term blows, usually based on combinations. The two complement each other, and you need both to play well.
What do "good" and "bad" pieces mean in chess strategy?
A piece is called active, or good, when it controls a large number of important squares and takes part in the plan. Conversely, a piece is passive, or badly placed, when it does not contribute effectively to the game.
Does strategy change with the phase of the game?
Yes, it does.
- In the opening, the strategic goal is to develop your pieces quickly and castle to keep your king safe.
- In the middlegame, you improve your pieces, build plans and exploit weaknesses.
- In the endgame, the king becomes active and the pawns often take on a decisive strategic role.
How do you build a strategic plan in chess?
A solid plan rests on the evaluation of the position. Examine the pawn structure, identify the active pieces, spot the weaknesses in the enemy camp, and choose a coherent objective, such as attacking the king, controlling an open file or exploiting a strong square.
Do grandmasters always think in terms of strategy?
Yes. Experienced players combine strategy and tactics on every move, which lets them build coherent plans while staying ready to pounce on any tactical opportunity.
Know the Basic Tactics
Tactics are the tools of a skilled craftsman. They are the sharp, precise blows that can change the course of a game in an instant. The most elementary of them are the fork, the pin and the skewer, along with a few others such as the X-ray and the in-between move. Knowing and mastering these fundamental patterns is essential if you want to make progress at chess.
Forks
A fork is a powerful move in which one piece threatens two or more enemy pieces at the same time. Its strength lies in the fact that your opponent can usually save only one of them, so material is lost. A knight fork, for example, can threaten a rook and a bishop simultaneously, forcing your opponent to choose which piece to give up. You are going to win material. Note that putting the king in check while threatening to capture another piece is a fork that often proves fatal.
Pins
A pin occurs when a piece is immobilized because moving it would expose a more valuable piece behind it. For example, if an enemy rook attacks your knight along a file, and your queen sits on that same file just behind the knight, the knight is stuck. Move it and the rook takes your queen. When the piece behind is your king, moving the pinned piece is not even legal.
Skewers
A skewer happens when a piece attacks an enemy piece and, once that piece moves aside, captures a second piece standing behind it on the same line. Your opponent is forced to choose between the piece directly attacked and the one behind it. Skewers are particularly devastating in the hands of queens and rooks, since they can slice across the whole board to hit vulnerable pieces.
Understanding Strategy to Deliver Checkmate
The heart of the game lies in the pursuit of the final blow, checkmate. It is the ultimate goal of every chess strategy, and reaching it requires a deep understanding of the principles we have covered.
The center of the board is the heart of the game. By controlling the central squares you gain space and options for maneuvering your pieces. Good central control lets you coordinate your forces better and keep constant pressure on the enemy camp, which makes the final attack far more effective.
Developing your pieces quickly toward active squares is another crucial part of the job. Active pieces coordinate easily to launch devastating attacks. Make sure your pieces exert maximum influence on the center and stand ready to join the final assault.
Checkmate is rarely the work of a single piece acting alone. It is almost always a coordinated attack, several pieces working together to drive the enemy king into an inescapable net. Coordination between your pieces is therefore essential. They must operate in harmony to keep the enemy king under relentless pressure.
Most games are ultimately decided by the exploitation of weaknesses in the opposing position. Whether it is a damaged pawn structure, an exposed king or poorly coordinated pieces, identify the weak points in the enemy camp and concentrate your attack on them. Once those weaknesses fall, checkmate often becomes unavoidable.
One final warning. Be very careful to distinguish checkmate from stalemate, the draw that has robbed countless players of a completely winning position.
Boost Your Chess Rating
Improving your Elo rating is a goal shared by many passionate players. Whether you are a beginner clearing the first hurdles or an experienced player aiming at higher levels of competition, the path is well known.
The key to improvement lies in regular practice and study. Set aside time to study grandmaster games, solve tactical exercises and play your own games, in person or online. Constant practice will sharpen your understanding of the game and refine your skills, and the five chess strategies in this article give you a checklist to review every one of your games against.
Master a Specific Attack, the Scholar's Mate
The Scholar's Mate, often called the 4 move checkmate, is one of the most famous quick attacks in chess. Although it mostly appears at beginner and intermediate level, it remains a dangerous weapon when executed well, and like any concrete attacking idea it takes understanding and practice to master.
The Scholar's Mate is a short sequence in which a player uses the bishop and the queen to checkmate an enemy king that has not castled. It typically happens while the king is still stuck in the middle of the board, blocked by its own pieces and unable to escape.
Simple as it looks, the Scholar's Mate illustrates fundamental chess principles, such as piece coordination, the exploitation of weaknesses in the enemy position, in this case the f7 square we met earlier, and the need for precision in execution. It is an excellent example of the power of combined attacks, even with a limited number of pieces.
The Great Strategists in Chess History
The history of chess is dotted with geniuses who shaped the game and influenced generations of players, starting with Wilhelm Steinitz, the first world champion and the father of modern chess strategy. Among the emblematic figures who came after him, Magnus Carlsen, Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov stand out for their exceptional mastery and their lasting impact on the chess world. Three players of the very highest level, each with a unique style, whose undisputed successes have made them icons of the game. Alongside them, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) plays a central role in promoting and regulating chess worldwide, making sure the heritage of the game endures and thrives through the ages.
Magnus Carlsen, the master of modernity
Magnus Carlsen, often nicknamed the "Mozart of chess", revolutionized the game with his modern, dynamic approach. A grandmaster at 13, one of the youngest in history, Carlsen quickly stunned the chess world with his depth of positional understanding and his ability to exploit the slightest weakness in his opponents' play. His versatile style lets him adapt to any kind of position, from the quietest to the most complex. It carried him to the world title in 2013 and made him a five-time World Champion.
Bobby Fischer, alone against everyone
Bobby Fischer, the American prodigy, dazzled the chess world with his aggressive style and his groundbreaking approach to the game. He captured the public imagination by becoming, at 15, the youngest grandmaster the world had yet seen. Fischer made history by winning the World Chess Championship in 1972, ending decades of Soviet domination. His incisive play and his contributions to the theory of the game make him one of the most revered figures in chess history.
Garry Kasparov, the relentless innovator
Garry Kasparov, widely considered one of the greatest players of all time, marked the history of chess with his incredible talent and his aggressive approach. Armed with a razor-sharp strategic mind and a deep understanding of tactics, Kasparov dominated the chess scene for nearly two decades. His ruthless style and his constant drive to innovate brought him countless prestigious tournament victories and several successful defenses of his world title.
FIDE, guardian of the world's chessboard
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) plays a crucial role in promoting, regulating and developing chess on a global scale. Founded in 1924, FIDE works to maintain high standards in the game. It organizes prestigious international competitions, including the World Chess Championship. As the governing body, FIDE also works to popularize the game around the world, encouraging players of every level and promoting chess education in schools and communities.
Your Move
That was our tour of the five core principles of chess strategy. We hope it proves useful in your own games. When you are ready to keep going, here are some good next steps.
- Start from square one with our complete guide on how to play chess
- Brush up on the rules of chess before your next game
- Sharpen your finishing skills with the essential checkmate patterns
- And head back to the main chess openings to build the repertoire your strategy deserves