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The game of chess is is a strategic game, drawing upon and hopefully improving your abilities to think ahead, to patiently wait while another person does the same, and to react intelligently to change. Improving your chess strategy is an intelligent pursuit, and will help you think better in all areas of your life.

Chess strategy and tactics are popular subjects among enthusiasts, and players use chess to help hone their cognitive skills as well as to compete and test their abilities against other, like-minded individuals. To play better chess, you need to practise, ideally against a variety of opponents.

While each player moves their 16 pieces around the board, they are simulating strategic battle moves such as attack, defense, and counterattack. In order to win the game, one must keep their wits and apply intelligent, strategic thinking.

Following are some tips for helping with your chess strategy:

• Plan your approach. Have a basic strategy in mind before you begin, and move your players aggressively into place as soon as possible.
• Be alert to changes in your opponent’s expression or demeanor, to help you learn when they are nervous or even confident. Like playing poker, you can learn much from your opponent by watching them as well as the chess board.
• When called upon to make a decision to sacrifice a piece, get rid of your lesser pieces first and save those with more value.
• Think of your pieces like a team or army, and you as their coach or strategic leader. You can look and see the entire board and play out various possibilities in your head before physically moving.
• Play chess often, and with different people. You will find that frequent chess playing improves your skill markedly, and by involving different opponents you will learn new and varying strategies and tactics.
• Practice guessing what your opposing player will do next, and as you get better at this you will be more easily able to think ahead and make strategic plays.
• Always protect your king. Lose your king, lose the game.
• Some experts claim that an important strategic tactic is to control the center of the board.
• Stay alert and attentive. Such things as drugs, alcohol and a lazy manner will hinder your ability to win in chess.
• Keep your eye on the prize. Always look from the ‘big picture’ perspective to ensure you can take advantage of opportunities to win.

At ChessTipsOnline.com, we want to be your source for everything you want to know about the exciting game of chess. You may want to play online chess games to improve your chess strategy, or you may be in a school chess tournament and want to beat your opponents. You may even want to just play chess with your kids at home.

Whether you’re a lifetime chess player or just beginning to learn, you’ll find all you need here:

• CHESS STRATEGY
• CHESS ARTICLES
• CHESS GAMES
• CHESS ANALYSIS
• CHESS BASICS

…and more.

Chess strategy and expertise takes years to learn and craft, but you can get started right away. As mentioned, you can begin with the basics and learn from there, whether you want to play internet chess or play in chess tournaments.

 The game of chess can be enjoyed by everyone from young to old, and is very useful for developing and maintaining cognitive abilities such as strategic thinking, patience and planning, weighing of consequences, etc..

Enjoy the articles and product recommendations here. May your next move be a good one!

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For beginners, the game of chess can seem intimidating, but while chess is a game of depth and strategy it is also a fun way to stretch and exercise your brain. Swallow your pride and learn chess basics, and if possible find a patient and intelligent teacher or chess mentor.

The game of chess offers many benefits, including improvement in cofnitive abilities such as spatial awareness, concentration and consideration of consequences. Everyone from children to adults can benefit from playing chess.

The Basics of Chess

At its simplest, chess is a boardgame played by two people, with characters – the same for each player – beginning on each side of the board and moving towards each other until the end point or winning move, which is called check mate and involves capturing the other side’s king. The board is checkered and looks a little like a checkers game board, however because is so popular and also considered a game of intellect, there are many very beautiful and upscale chess sets in the world.

In chess basics, one of the first things you’ll learn is that the various chess pieces have different rights and abilities, as well as specific limitations. There are only 16 pieces per player, but the strategy of playing chess can be very complex indeed. A well-played chess game can last for many hours, and chess tournament players can test their strategies and abilities against other chess enthusiasts. An added bit of tension is included in some chess tournaments by limiting the time a player can take to make their moves, thus forcing the participants to think both strategically and quickly.

The pieces involved in the game of chess are (for each side):

• Eight pawns: can only move forward in a straight line
• Two rooks: can only move in a straight line, either across the board left to right, or forward and reverse
• Two bishops: can only move diagonally, either forward or backward
• Two knights: can only move in a ‘L’ shape, either forward two squares on the board and over one, or forward one and over two
• One queen: can move in a straight line in any direction, including forward, backward and diagonal
• One king: can only move one square at a time, but in any direction

The goal in chess, as mentioned above, is to ‘capture’ the other player’s king, and when you are one move from doing so, you declare ‘CHECK.’ This alerts the other player to the imminent danger of losing the game, and they may move to protect their king if they are able.

Once you have taken out the king and won the game, you declare ‘CHECKMATE.’ Game won!