For Playboy Readers who know the basics of the board, but would like to strengthen their game, here are five tips that can be given practical application at your very next bout:
1. Perhaps one of the greatest failings of inexperienced players is to restrict themselves to the use of one or two pieces instead of their whole army. The watchword should be: Get the wood out! In the opening keep your Pawn moves to a minimum and try to develop one piece after another until all your forces are ready for action. Anything else would be like fighting with one hand tied behind your back.
2. Don't bring out the Queen too soon. This mistake is usually due to a desire to make the earliest possible use of the most powerful piece. The trouble is that a premature development of the Queen will expose her to attack by inferior pieces and she will simply have to retreat ignominiously in order to avoid being captured. Mobilize your other pieces first, then find a square for the Queen where she will be both safe and effective.
3. Of prime importance is control of the center. The center consists of the four squares in the middle of the board. The twelve squares surrounding the center are almost equally vital.
Why is this region of the board literally of central value? The answer is that a piece posted there has maximum mobility -- it can reach more squares and reach them faster than if stationed on the side of the board. Moreover, control of the center means ready communication between the wings, which is essential if your army is to operate as a unit rather than as a mob of uncoordinated detachments. In fact, not to control the center is to be dangerously crippled.
The center may be occupied and thus controlled by unassailable Pawns, as in the following diagram:
It is also possible to use pieces for secure control of the center, as in this instance:
4. A chess master once laid down the law, "Castle if you will or if you must, but not because you can." Well and good, but the inexperienced player will find it a practical rule, for the sake of safety first, to castle as early as possible, usually on the King side.
5. Since the safety of the King is a key consideration, the Pawns trouped protectively around the castled monarch should be disturbed as little as possible. To push them forward recklessly is to deprive the King of his natural bodyguard and to invite infiltration by enemy forces. The special positions in which such headlong advances are correct need not concern us here, inasmuch as they are of fairly infrequent occurrence.
The more you learn about chess, the more you will enjoy it for it is that best of all possible games: one at which you can progress quickly and yet never fully master. Once caught up in it, the royal game can become a good deal more than a game for you. It can be an ever more challenging, ever more fascinating and rewarding dedication.
King
The center and its surrounding squares
The White Pawns constitute a permanent occupying force
The White pieces prevent any freeing Pawn moves by Black
Queen
