Common Beginner Mistakes In Chess

For chess beginners it is essential to know a few basic rules that apply to the first part of the game, known as openings. Some of the basic principles that must be upheld and followed are:

• To control (and if possible, to occupy with one's pawns) the center of the board

• To develop minor pieces (bishops and knights) as soon as possible

• To castle early in the game, to keep the king safe

Usually, when you start playing, these rules are either unknown or disregarded which is precisely where the rookie mistakes happen. So let's look at the opening mistakes and fix them in future games!

• In the opening you should play few moves with the pawns, and they should be aimed to controlling and occupying the center of the board.
• But many amateurs make the mistake of making too many moves with their pawns, which delays the development of bishops and knights.
• Also, the king remains exposed in the center for too long.

• When we learn the rules of chess, we find out that there is a super powerful piece: the queen.
• This may lead us to think that it's really useful to take advantage of her power at the very beginning. However, this is a mistake, it is much better to develop knights and bishops first.
• Moving the queen too early and trying to create threats with it can put it under the attack of enemy pieces.
• In many cases what can happen is that our opponent will put in play pieces that attack our queen so that while they are developing, we are forced to move around the queen to avoid its capture.

• Your King's safety is top priority in a game of chess.
• Rookies tend to delay the castling in the beginning but in fact it is very useful to maintain the king's safety especially in the first learning stages.
• Take it as a rule: CASTLE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

If you have followed the basic principles of the opening, you middlegame position should be favorable.

Still there are some common mistakes in this part of a chess game you should avoid so let's see what they are!

• Start by knowing piece coordination: your pieces must occupy good squares (where they're active) and preferably where they can take joint actions.
• The best positions should be where your pieces can defend each other.
• Some pieces will eventually fall pray to your opponents advances but you must pay attention to try not to leave too many pieces undefended.

• In the middlegame our major pieces (queen and rooks) must come into play.
• It's considered important to clear our first rank in order to connect the rooks (that is, to look for a good square for the queen so that the rooks are coordinated).
• Best option for middlegame: Rooks should be in open or semi-open files. An open file is that in which there are no pawns from either side. A semi-open file is that in which we have no pawns but our opponent does. And so, as the game moves forward and pawns are traded, some files are emptied and we must try to use them to activate our rooks.

• During the opening, we castle in order to put our King to safety, but during the middlegame we must keep our castling protected.
• For this, it is important not to advance the pawns that protect the King. Their mission is to keep it safe and, when they move, they leave the King unprotected.
• We will also try not to double pawns in the castling, so be careful with trading in that area of the board.
• For a castling to be safe we must keep the defending pieces near, especially if the opponent can bring his pieces close to initiate an attack.

So far we focused on keeping him safe but in the endgame the King must play an active role.

In fact, there are cases in which one of the players is incapable of activating their King and the situation is similar to being down a piece.

• Passed pawns are undoubtedly the great protagonists of most endgames.
• When we learn each piece's value we are told that a pawn is worth one point... and that is forged in our minds!
• Well, remember that as there are fewer pieces left, the pawns' value gradually increases and more so if they become passed pawns (that's how they call the pawns that can't be stopped or blocked by other pawns on their way to promoting).
• The key in many endgames is how to create passed pawns.

• You shouldn't think that in order to improve your chess it's enough to practice.
• Study a little bit and, in the endgame, it's very helpful to know some theoretical positions.
• Learn your mates and keep them in mind during games.
• Endgame theory can be just as exciting as Openings, so we highly recommend you check them out by clicking the button below!