Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

All I can come up with is qd8-f6

It maintains the offensive, it prevents any imediate threat of a checkmate and it protects my pawn.

Originally Posted by Letum

Is that the official move?

Originally Posted by Skybird

1. In the opening, move each of your pieces only once, if possible. Do not use one and the same figure to start crisscrossing the board. Avoid openings doing that as a beginner. In the opening, and later, try to make moves that pose a direct or indirect threat to the opponent. If he is busy needing to react to you, he cannot claim the initiative.

2. consider that a bishop or a knight close to the sides of the board controls fewer squares than if positioned in the centre. Corners are worst. Centre fields tend to be of primary importance very often.

3. Open with the king’s pawn e2-e4. In principle, it is the most logical first move possible, d4 already is inferior as long as you cannot handle the hidden intricacies behidn that different set of strategies. So be logical, and stick with e4. Keep away from the other systems. You need experience with the basics first, before trying the exotic stuff.

4. Chess has three dimensions: material, space and time. Each quality can be traded for and transformed into one of the others – but that is an art that is part of the experience that separates good players from not so good ones. Nevertheless even as a beginner you should spend some focus on keeping them in mind all the time, but as a starter you stick to keeping your material together: do not tend to waste material for gaining a vague image of winning “room”. This will become important to master – but later on. Avoid openings that play gambits: that is sacrificing a pawn for winning an advantage in time and winning space. It looks chic and makes the audience go "wowh", but that noise is worth nothign for you if you do not know why you sacrifice that pawn.

5. Move only one, at best two pawns in the opening.

6. Develop the knight before the bishop. Develop the Queen last, by tendency develop all light pieces (bishops and knight) before the heavy pieces (Rook and queen). Develop the king’s side first, Queen’s side second. Always try to keep at least one pawn in the centre (d4, e4, d5, e5).

7. Castle early on, preferably to the king’s side, it moves the king further away from the centre line.

8. check carefully this “ideal” textbook opening and see how the principles outlined until here result in both fast development, and gaining covering space in the smallest amount of time possible: (white moves only): e2-e4, Ng1-f3, Bf1-b5, O-O, d2-d4, Nb1-c3, Rf1-e1. In principle, this is the Ruy Lopez opening, and there is a reason why it is the oldest known chess opening, and maybe the best analysed. If you play it like this, Letum probably will know ways to deal with it, so you maybe will have to accept changes. However, the idea behind the sequence, behind each move is that should give you an idea of how to play chess instead of just moving pieces around.

9. Make sure your pieces do not stand around uncovered. Like an army in real life sees it’s different units and branches interacting (“combined arms”), the pieces should provide mutual cover, and support not many different attacks, but one major plan.

10. Do not waste moves.

11. Isolated pawns are weak. Doubled pawns on one line are weak. Weakest are isolated doubled pawns. the one blocks the other, and none of them can support the other.

12. Try to gain and keep control of open lines and diagonals. On open lines, consider doubling your rooks.

13. Watch out for “pins”, that is a figure cannot move without exposing an even more valuable fig-ure or the king behind it to a threat (in case of the king it is forbidden: such pins can be costly, even lethal). Guard yourself against enemy pins, try to fight the enemy by using pins on him.

14. Watch out for “forks”, that is a pawn or figure moves and then is able to attack several enemy pieces at the same time. A pawn advancing and then threatening both a rook and a knight in his new position, is a pain. A knight moving in and greeting your king with a check while threaten-ing you queen or rook at the same time, is real drama.

15. Watch out for “skewers”, that is like a fork, but with the threatened figures standing in line: the one cannot move away without exposing the other. Obviously, pawns cannot do that.

16. Watch out for discovered attacks: his one pieces moves away and poses a thread somewhere else or not – but behind it, another piece is suddenly posing a threat that before was hidden.

17. Always calculate precisely how many attacking pieces and how many defending pieces focus on a disputed square. Try to overload the opponent’s defence of one field, avoid facing getting overloaded yourself.

18. When it is your turn, always ask yourself: “What threats are there?” Check each of his pieces, and where they can move, and can strike. And when I say “each”, I mean “each”. It’s like a pilot checking all his main instruments once every 30 seconds.

19. A pawn is like 1 point in value, a knight is like 3 points, a bishop is like 3.3 points, a rook is like 5 points, a queen is like 9 points. However, the value of rook and bishop may decrease if the position is closed and lines are blocked – in this case, knights often become a bit more valuable.

20. If you have passed pawns, design your plan to push them. If you have combined passed pawns that can support each other, they potentially can become a force – turn brutal in pushing them (but not easyminded!).

21. You wrote in your last mail you believe in the principle of leading from the front. Well, that is the military world, but it is not you and not in chess! Keep your king well-hidden and protected, away from the centre and away from open centre lines. Do not open “breathing holes” and “escape hatches” (h2-h3, h7-h6) until you have to, it weaknes the pwan structure eventually, and makes you losing one move. Once the figure pieces are gone and you are in endgame with pawns only, however it all changes – then the king becomes a warrior and should lead the fight – move him out fast and early, move him to the centre, he is the most powerful around, then. Let him lead the attack, use him to block the enemy king.

Originally Posted by Letum

I have only ever played by instinct.

Originally Posted by baggygreen

but moving the bishop has the added advantage that you are a piece closer to castling.

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

IBut perhaps I am too obsessed with gaining the intiative here. Thoughts?