Chess Strategy

The 7 best variations of the Sicilian Defense are: The Oapen Sicilian, the Najdorf, the Dragon, the Moscow, the Rossolimo, the hyper-accelerated Dragon and the O’Kelly.

The king can certainly capture while he is in check. As long as capturing gets him out of check and doesn’t put him in a new one, the king can capture any piece except for the opponent’s king. Not only that, but there are often some very good reasons for the king to capture his way out of check.

The Sicilian Defence is so popular because it allows for a fairly aggressive defence for black. It is often seen as a way for the black pieces to gain momentum after white moves first.

Pawns are extremely important in chess. The idea that pawns are weak because of their constrained movement is completely inaccurate. Together, pawns form an army and their strength is in numbers and formations. They are absolutely vital to the defence of the most important chess piece, the king!

In this article, we’ll walk through a step-by-step guide for everything you need to know about playing the game under time pressure. We’ll talk about how you set a clock, the time standards in common use, the etiquette of using a clock, what you do when the flag falls on a player and how you can better manager your time in the game to keep as many seconds on your clock as possible, let’s take a look at that in closer detail.

You can play chess without a queen. You can, and often should, continue playing the game if you lose the queen, especially early on in the game. Although the odds will be against you, playing without a queen can force you to think out of the box, try new tactics, and learn something new. It is definitely worth the mental exercise of playing chess without the queen.

When we start to learn chess, we’re encouraged to castle on the king side because it offers a higher level of protection for the king. However, it’s important to realize that there can be real advantages to playing to the queen’s side, specifically you gain the benefit of opening up your queen side rook in a more aggressive position.

Openings are very important in chess. A good opening will give a player an advantage when heading into the mid-game, prepare the pieces to launch and attack, and build a defence at the same time. They are so important that many top players will spend years of their lives just studying openings to see how they can impact on their game.

You can’t checkmate your opponent’s king with just a single bishop and your own king on the board. That’s because you can’t position the two pieces to place the king in check and cover all his escape routes. In this case, the game is drawn.

Yes, if the players play perfectly and are both relying on one rook (as well as their own king), then a draw is inevitable. With a rook versus a rook, a draw can only be avoided if one player makes a significant mistake.