Chess Rules from a Novice

I've started more regularly playing/studying chess since around August. Here is what I've learned in my first five months to defeat those who've defeated me...and that's what it's all about.

The Rules:

Don't move into unprotected squares.
Don't leave pieces unprotected.
Don't remove a threatened piece's protection.

I hesitated when first writing this because I wasn't sure that I would like to start off with such a negative opening phrase - but I'm finding that Chess isn't so much a study of the perfect move to make but rather avoiding catastrophic moves not to make. It's about walking the narrow path with death on either side and watching for your opponents misstep.

Rule: Don't move into unprotected squares; or at least don't move into immediately threatened squares.

The aim of this rule is to avoid giving your opponent the easy advantage. Unprotected pieces are low hanging fruit; they provide the opponent an opportunity with all the upside of capturing a piece with zero downside of losing a piece.

The capturing of an unprotected piece creates a Piece Advantage. A piece advantage is when the sum of a player's piece value multiplied by piece quantity. The probable result of a game with a piece advantage is similar to the probable outcome of a soccer match between a professional team and a middle school squad.

Piece Advantage = Σ(Piece Value * Piece Quantity)

Unprotected pieces provoke a Piece Advantaged Game. They limit your ability to properly develop your team in a secure offensive position and can lead to giving your oponent control of the game. Eventually, your oponent will target your weakness (unprotected pieces = low hanging fruit) and instead of bringing the fight to your oponent and making aggressive moves that disrupt their mobility, you will be forced to give up your cadence to fall back and defend unprotected pieces.

Cadence

Having the cadence is similar to the team who has the flag on their side during of a tug-of-war. That team is pulling hard to keep the flag moving in their direction. They have the advantage. They have the cadence. The game is already falling in their direction. They have the other team in their grip and just need to finish the job. They need to move the flag just 25% more in order to win. The other team, though, is at a disadvantage - they need to reverse the entire movement of the game before having the opportunity to win. It is much better to get ahead, keep the lead, and control the direction of the game than fall behind, need to catch up, and make defensive moves.

Moving into Unprotected Squares

There are times when moving into an unprotected square is okay while ensuring that square isn't immediately threatened. However, like it was stated above, too much of this (more than one, maybe two pieces) is precarious and can quickly hand over control of the game to your oponent. The only time I've seen this work out favorably is when your unprotected, unthreatened pieces is threatening a piece of equal or greater value. So in the non-zero chance that your opponent moves into a threatening position, your unprotected piece can engage in a trade - their piece for your piece. Though in this scenario, they end up with the positional advantage (you take their piece, they take your piece) which may not be critical depending on the stage of the game.

Rule: Don't leave pieces unprotected.

If you take the opportunity to capatalize on an opponent's unprotected piece while placing yourself in an unprotected position, look to return your piece to a secure sqaure immediately. Not returning to a secure square, at best, can easily result in nullifying your very valuable, but unfortunately brief, piece advantage, or worse, creating a piece advantage in your opponents favor depending on the value of the relevant pieces.

Rule: Don't remove a threatened piece's protection.

Removing a threatened pieces protection without replacing it first can cause the development of a piece advantaged game in your opponents favor.

If the piece's original protection must be moved, and there is no convenient way to provide alternative cover to that threatened piece, consider moving the threatened piece to another square - preferably one that is 1) protected and 2) unthreatened.

If a square with both of those qualities is not available, chosing a square becomes somewhat conditional on the development of the game. Below are some questions to ask yourself to help find the best move to restart your cadence and take control of the game:

Protected but Threatened:
- Can you be threatening one of their pieces in return?
- Can you be preventing the movement of one of their pieces because of your new position since it may expose a high value piece or position in your advantage?

Unthreatened but Unprotected:
- Can you quickly cover the new square?
- Can you move into a strategic position with another of your pieces under the protection of your unthreatened but unprotected piece?