How to Win at Chess: What Decides Games

How games are decided at each level

The reason players lose changes with their rating, and so does the fix. The pattern below is how George sees it in lessons.

• Beginners. Games are decided by a single piece left hanging. The player who stops making that mistake wins. The fix is the blunder check, which takes a few seconds.
• Club players. Games are decided by tactics: forks, pins and discovered attacks. The fix is daily tactical practice and a habit of looking at every check, capture and threat.
• Strong club players. Games are decided by plans and by technique in better positions. The fix is learning pawn structures and basic endgames.
• Masters. Games are decided by preparation and by small positional edges, and the fix is detailed study.

Find your level in the list, and spend your time on the fix at that level. Study that belongs to a higher level, such as deep opening lines for a beginner, pays little.

The blunder check

A blunder check is a short routine before every move. It takes about ten seconds and prevents most lost games. Use the four questions below in order.

1. What did my opponent's last move do? Name the piece that moved and the squares it attacks now.
2. What does my opponent threaten? Look for captures, checks and attacks on my pieces.
3. Is my move safe? Check that the piece I move and the pieces I leave are defended.
4. What can my opponent do after my move? Look at every capture and check they have.

Say the answers silently, or write them in the margin of your scoresheet if you play slow games. In the first month you will forget, and then you will lose a piece and remember. After a few weeks the routine runs on its own.

Fast mates to know

A few short checkmates catch beginners again and again. Learn each one from both sides: how to play it and how to avoid it.

Scholar's mate is a four-move mate against the pawn on f7. It works only if Black does not defend f7. The page on scholar's mate shows how to stop it. Fool's mate is the shortest mate, and it punishes the moves f3 and g4 early in the game.

The back-rank mate is the most common mate at every level. A rook or a queen checks along the first or eighth rank, and the king cannot escape because its own pawns block the way out. The defense is simple: make a small space for the king with a pawn move such as h3 or h6 once your pieces are developed.

Before you castle and before you push the pawns in front of your king, check whether your own pawns could one day become the walls of a mating net.

How to avoid fast losses

Three habits prevent almost every fast loss.

• Defend the weak squares. At the start the weak squares are f7 for Black and f2 for White. Do not leave them attacked twice and defended once.
• Castle early. A king on the first rank behind pawns is much safer than one in the center.
• Develop all your pieces before you attack. A piece at home does nothing, and an attack with two pieces rarely works.

The page on chess strategies for beginners lists seven rules that cover these, and the page on how to get better at chess explains how to practice them.

How to win a won game

Players often get a winning position and then lose it. The reasons are always the same, and the cure is a few habits.

1. Do not relax. A won position still needs the blunder check. Many wins are thrown away in one careless move.
2. Trade pieces. When you are ahead in material, each trade makes the advantage larger. Avoid trades only when you are the one who needs complications.
3. Take away counterplay. Ask what your opponent's best chance is, and stop it before you press on.
4. Use the clock. In a won position, play fast enough to leave time for the difficult moments.
5. Finish with a known method. A rook and king mate or a queen and king mate must be second nature. Practice them until you can do them in your sleep.

The endgame decides close games

Many games reach an endgame, and the player who knows the basics wins the points that others draw. Learn how to win with a king and pawn against a king, how the opposition works and how to use a rook behind a passed pawn. Two hours of study give you results for years. A chess coach can show you which endings you reach most often and teach them first.

What to do when you are losing

A player who is losing should make the game as hard as possible. Keep the pieces on the board, avoid trades and set small problems for the opponent. Many players resign too soon, and many winners go wrong when pressed. A losing game that lasts forty more moves is a chance to learn how your opponent converts, and a few of them turn around.

A plan for the next ten games

Play ten games in the next two weeks, and in each one use the blunder check on every move. Use a slower time control, such as fifteen minutes per side, so that you have time to run the four questions. After each game, write down the moves where you forgot it and the moves where it saved you. At the end you will have a clear picture of your weak spots, and you will probably have won more games than usual. If you lose a game anyway, replay it and mark the first move where the check would have shown the problem.