Chess skills

The building blocks — forks, pins, skewers, and seeing one move further than your opponent.

If you want to become a really good chess player it is essential to play, learn and practise as much as possible. Lichess.org and chess.com are both good websites to look at, and there are some very good instructive videos on YouTube which can help with openings, tactics, the middlegame and endings. Just ask if you need guidance on any of these items.

The topics below are typical of what will be covered over a period of weeks. Copies are available; ask if you would like one. Learn sections 1 to 6 and your rating will go from 0 to 1000.

What we work through

Where a section has a video it is linked in the table. They are by NM Nelson Lopez, on his Chess Vibes channel, and they play on YouTube rather than here.

The club’s skills list, section by section
Section	What it covers
1. Rules of the game Video for section 1	Board setup Piece movements Check, checkmate, stalemate Castling Promotion En passant Notation
2. Point value of pieces Video for section 2	Understand good vs bad trades
3. Very basic opening principles Video for section 3	Control the centre Develop your pieces Castle before move 10 Don’t bring queen out early
4. Types of pieces	Pawns Minor pieces (knights + bishops) Major pieces (queens + rooks)
5. Blunder check Video for section 5	Check your king Check opponent’s king Check your major/minor pieces Check opponent’s major/minor pieces
6. Basic tactics Video for section 6	Knight forks Pawn forks Queen forks Bishop pins Rook pins Back rank mate
7. 1 move tactics Video for section 7	Mate-in-1s 1 move fork, pin, skewer, etc
8. Basic endgame mates Video for section 8: king and queen Video for section 8: king and rook	King + queen vs king mate King + rook vs king mate
9. Basic endgame principles Video for section 9	Activate your king Create passed pawns Push passed pawns Watch out for opponent’s passed pawns
10. Basic positional ideas Video for section 10	Holes/outposts Good vs bad bishops Weak squares Weak vs safe king Dominated knights Rooks are good on 7th rank Rooks should go to open or half-open files
11. Very basic opening repertoire	Systems as white against black’s 3 most common replies System as black against e4 System as black against d4
12. Basic opening ideas	Understand the key ideas with your white systems Understand key ideas with black systems
13. Intermediate tactics	Trapped piece Batteries Double checks Discovered checks Discovered attacks Deflection Overloaded defender Skewer
14. 2–3 move tactics Video for section 14	Mate-in-2s Mate-in-3s 2 move combinations to win material 3 move combinations to win material
16. King and pawn endgames Video for section 16	Opposition (what it is) King in the box (to catch pawns) King + pawn vs king (winning) King + pawn vs king (drawn) Opposition (when and how to use it) The power of passed pawns Crooked king path Zugzwang
17. Pawn structures Video for section 17	Pawn islands Pawn chains Passed pawns Tripled pawns Connected pawns Isolated pawns Doubled pawns Backward pawns Pawn majority vs pawn minority
18. Mating patterns Video for section 18	Queen next to king Back rank mate Ladder mate Lolli’s mate Damiano’s mate Dovetail + Swallow’s tail mate Epaulette mate Greco’s mate Blind swine mate Anastasia’s mate Hook mate Opera’s mate Morphy and Pillsbury’s mate Vukovic’s mate Reti’s mate Boden’s mate Double bishop mate Legal’s mate Knight and bishop combo mate Smothered mate