35 Vital Chess Principles | Opening, Middlegame, and Endgame Principles - Chess Strategy and Ideas 

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One good tip that I've realized after years of playing is that you should think of Chess as a single player game, and therefore always plan out the moves for both sides. It can be easy to tunnel vision on your own side, but if you always prepare yourself by thinking "what would I do if i were my opponent" you often can perform better and formulate more complex ideas.

I don´t play hope-chess, i play hopeless chess.

I want to add: 36. Don't play "Defence chess" which is essentially you trying to NOT LOSE. You only defend and try to protect and preserve your pieces, but there's no attacks or any goal to checkmate your opponent. I see this in a lot of players that are afraid of losing.

My elaborate notes *General principles* Look for a better move when you see a good move Know the right times when to ignore chess principles (so basically know why you use the principles) *Opening* Control the center Go for kings safety Develop pieces: first knight, then bisschop, queen not immediately because you may have to move your queen and you miss out on the chance to develop other pieces Develop pieces on side you want to castle When developing your pieces, don’t move already developed pieces if possible Connecting rooks is powerful after you have castled and you have developed your pieces *Middle Game* Put rooks on open files or half open files (half open file is file with one pawn) knights have more options in the centre Avoid double pawns (two pawns on the same file) Avoid isolated pawns (if no pawn is next to his file) Avoid backward pawns (pawns that have no protection from side pawns) Don’t trade bishop for knight without good reason Avoid moving pawns in front of castled king Don’t open up the center if your king is still centered (because your king can get exposed) 2 minor pieces are better than rook and pawn 3 minor pieces are better than queen Rook is strong on 7th rank Double rook on open file is strong (e.g., can prevent opponent from placing rook on open file) Bishops are better in an open game, knights are better in closed game (closed game can be a game with pawns that block bishop lines) Deal with a flank attack (from pawns) with a counter attack in the center Capture towards the center if you have the option to capture a piece with two pawns Attack the base pawn of a pawn chain (pawns that are protected by each other) Trade pieces to open up a cramped position (when pieces are blockaded and can not move) Opposite coloured bishops are dangerous in the middle game because you can not do anything with your bishops against his bishop. His bishop with his queen are particularly dangerous *Endgame* It is strong to protect passed pawn (= a pawn that could walk freely to 8th rank) with a backward rook 2 connected pawns (= two passed pawns next to each other on the same rank) always beat a rookand one pawn gets a queen. Knights are good to blockade passed pawns Trade pieces when you are up in material but don’t trade pawns. E.g., if you are up 2 points in material with a rook against a knight, the rook becomes more valuable after you trade pieces because it can then capture pawns. - The opposite of that is also true, try to trade pawns when you’re down material In endgame, opposite coloured bishops (without queen in the game) can easily result in draw

1. Control the center of board 2. Develop pieces quickly 3. Knights before bishops 4. Dont move same piece twice in opening 5. No queen too early 6. Castle before move 10 7. Connect rooks 8. Rooks should go on open or half open files 9. Knights on the rim are grim 10. Avoid double pawns 11. Avoid isolated pawns 12. Avoid backward pawns 13. Dont trade bishop for knight 14. Avoid moving pawns in front of castle king 15. Dont open center if king is still there 16. 2 minor pieces are better than rook+pawn 17. 3 minors is better than queen 18. Rooks are strong on 7th or 2nd rank 19. Doubled rooks on open file are very strong 20. Bishops are better in open, knight-closed 21.deal with attack on flank with atk on cntr 22. Capture toward cntr with pawns 23. End game, king is valuable 24. Rooks go behind passed pawn 25. 2 connected pawns on 6th rank beats rook 26. Atk base of pawn chain 27. Knights are best blockaders of pawns 28. If position is cramped, trade pieces 29. When ahead, trade pieces but not pawns 30. When down, trade pawns but not pieces 31. Opposite colored bishop pieces dangerous 32. End game, games are drawish 33. Dont play hope chess 34. When you see good move, stop and look for better move 35. Know right time to ignore principles

0:46 Principle 1 - Control Center 0:57 Principle 2 - Develop Pieces 1:16 Principle 3 - Knights before bishops 1:24 Principle 4 - Don't move the same piece 2 times, while developing 1:36 Principle 5 - Don't bring queen out too early 2:03 Principle 6 - Castle Before move 10 2:16 Principle 7 - Connect your Rooks 2:33 Principle 8 - Rooks should go on open or half open files 3:09 Principle 9 - Knights on the Rim are Grim 3:25 Principle 10 - Try avoiding doubled Pawns 3:56 Principle 11 - Avoid Isolated Pawns and Double Isolated Pawns 4:26 Principle 12 - Avoid Backward Pawns 4:49 Principle 13 - Don't trade your bishop for knight; without good reason 5:27 Principle 14 - Avoid moving the pawns in front of your castled king 5:50 Principle 15 - Don't open the center if your king is not castled 6:12 Principle 16 - 2 minor pieces (Knights/Bishops) are generally than 1 Rook and 1 Pawn 6:44 Principle 17 - 3 minor pieces is better than a Queen 6:55 Principle 18 - Rooks are very strong on the 7th rank 7:19 Principle 19 - Doubled Rooks on an open file are Very Strong 7:38 Principle 20 - Bishops are better in open positions -Knights are better in closed positions 8:16 Principle 21 - Best way to deal with flank attack is counter attack the center 8:39 Principle 22 - Capture towards center of board 9:03 Principle 23 - Utilize King during end game 9:22 Principle 24 - Rooks go behind Passed Pawns 10:00 Principle 25 - 2 Connected Passed Pawns on the 6th rank Will beat a Rook 11:06 Principle 26 - Attack Base of Pawn Chain 11:31 Principle 27 - Knights are best blockaders of Pawns 12:00 Principle 28 - If Position cramped, Trade Pieces Principle 29 went on vacation 12:39 Principle 30 - When Ahead material, Trade Pieces but not Pawns 13:17 Principle 31 - When Down material, Trade Pawns but not Pieces 13:57 Principle 32 - Opposite colored bishops are dangerous in middle game - 15:15 Opposite colored bishops are draw-ish in end game 15:43 Principle 33 - Don't play "Hope chess" 16:44 Principle 34 - When you see good move - Pause and look for better move 17:11 Principle 35 - Know when to go against Principles

I also love Levy Rozman's principles of "Checks, Captures, Attacks" for analysis importance, and "disprove the move" in calculation (the latter basically means you should never justify how a move could succeed, but instead justify why the move can't fail)

Also don't forget to try to force your opponent into breaking the principles. Eg try to put them under pressure to double up their pawns, try to pressure them into moving their knights to the edge of the board, pressure them into moving the same piece multiple times during the opening, etc.

Principle 5: Dont move your queen too early Nelson: So i took that personally

Whenever your opponent has a single bishop in the end game, you neutralize it by keeping your king off of that bishop’s color (as much as possible).

For a ""beginner+" player like me this was a perfect video. Clear, logical, and brief/helpful explanations! Thank you so much! 👍

Wow, this is incredibly insightful! Thank you, Nelson for breaking down those principles in such a clear way.

Great list! I can totally relate to #34 "When you see a good move, look for a better move". Against lower-level players, I have often turned a winning game into a draw with a single move. Other times, I have excitedly taken a piece only to be checkmated on the next move. Ugh! Never let your let your guard down in a game of chess. As GothamChess said, "chess is a game of one blunder".

I'm playing hope-hope-chess : hoping my opponent plays hope-chess and then blunders

That was really valuable. I knew just about all these rules, but really useful to see them all together. A couple of them, such as three minor pieces are better than a queen, I had suspected, but wasn’t sure. A couple of them, such as when to exchange pieces and when to exchange pawns, was new. Great video. Keep it up!

Great video. Thanks for clear, quick explanations and no BS.

This is one of the best beginner level instructional/informational videos I've seen. Spoken very clearly and well articulated. Great job!

This is one of the best explanations chess videos I've seen

I've been trying to play against a chess app in the level hard and had been repeatedly beaten by it in the opening. On my first game after watching this video I did significantly better. Thank you!

I have watched and re-watched this several times. . What a great and helpful overview for those of us who are still learning! THANK YOU!

I really enjoyed how you were thorough yet succinct. 35 important principles in less than 20 minutes. Great job.

This is a great video. Loved how you sped through the principles whilst still making the points. You're a good teacher. Keep it up!

Thorough, yet succinct. And as others have said, well articulated. Really enjoyed this video and no doubt will come back to it. Thanks for your work here. Haven't played in decades and only as a kid. Now keen to learn to play properly and teach my niece and nephew!

Amazing! Thanks a lot! Great to see genuine people wanting to help others!

Something that helped me was to look for attacking moves as a way to interrupt the opponent if you need to escape danger or develop a stuck piece. If I can safely threaten one of my opponent's pieces, many times he needs to defend it or move it, which can buy me an extra turn, and with the board a little bit different on my next turn it can sometimes give me better move choices without the opponent having made much progress, if that makes sense.

Great video. I had missed some of these basics

The most helpful, informative approach to chess I have seen on any platform, at this level. THANK YOU!!

Love how you explain, demonstrating basic principles visually & with reasons. Thank you.

wow, that was super useful. even the ones i knew implicitly - it's good to have them confirmed explicit. will enjoy applying the new ones!

Fantastic instructional video! I knew nearly all of these, but never had them explicitly explained and validated. The three or four I didn't know will really help my end game.

I can not thank you enough for this youtube. I was so rusty and struggling. Following your suggestions i was finally able to beat my PC normal mode! I realized I have been doing so many mistakes. I am finally organized. Very condensed information, everything is important.

Was doing pretty rough at first but after coming and watching these principles I’ve been able to get 2 checkmates! Great video!

This video has helped me so much, and I've still got 5 or so more to understand and add to my game. Having said this, I want more! Give us more like this!

This is fantastic. So much great info packed into a relatively short video.

Best informational video for chest and helpful information. If you came across so far, thank you sir!

i like how you made the tutorial. you broke down a lot of fundamentals in a quick efficient style. i feel i learned a lot. cheers

I've enjoyed playing chess for a while, but am only just now starting to learn some theory. This video has been the best so far! Quick, straight to the point, and many pieces of info in one place. Thanks man!

Fantastic video! Thanks. Can you give us some more principles, or even tricks? Some principles I've learned as a novice: 1. Beware of focusing too much on your own attack. You may miss major threats from your opponent. Stay vigilant! 2. Beware of intuition. It lies! You must calculate, calculate, caculate. 3. Beware of sneaky moves from your opponent in a winning endgame. You may be suckered into a stalemate.

BRAVO, BRAVO. Great lesson. Thank you.

Thanks for your amazing content bro. Straight to the point, loud and clear! Cheers!

As a new chess player, I gotta say this was a fantastic primer. Very helpful. Thank you!

Wow I was skeptical about a Top 35 video but this was very amusing and helpful. I haven't even seen this guy play but I know he's good. I learned more in 20 minutes than all my games I've played. Thank you so much for the tips. They feel like secret weapons.

super helpful and informative, you communicated all of this very transparently, thank you!

Thanks. I have actually intuitively adopted all the principles over time. Principle 21 is the one I'm struggling with, as is EVERY beginner: "attack". This is what makes you an intermediate player: being able to plan an attack, i.e. predict more than 2-3 moves.

This is an incredibly well done video. Very concise and nice fast pace. Thank you for not wasting time.

This is one of the best, and most synthetic video I've ever seen ! Congrats !

When I saw 35 in less than 20 mins I didn't think you'd be very detailed, but was pleasantly surprised with your performance. Well done!

I would add Principle #36. Always think twice before moving a pawn because you can't move it back. If you make a poor move with your other pieces you can move them back, but pawns only go forwards. A lot of beginners make pawn moves when they can't think of any other moves and often they do it with little thought. I think beginners tend to underestimate their pawns.

A nice collection of "Vital Chess Principles." Yet, if there are many out there that prefer memorizing fewer Principles, A number of the listed can be summarized and taught as 1. Identifying or striving for dominance of a network of squares (White vs Black). Dominance means having the "Good Piece" that can take advantage of that network of squares vs your Opponent having the inferior piece, suffering from lack of Dominance (And hopefully you'll never be in that inferior position yourself). 2. Similar to the first rule, Identifying or striving for dominance of individual critical squares. This is usually a bit more difficult than the first rule because this requires understanding of various pawn structures and being able to recognize why certain squares are more valuable than others. A short list of possible reasons are... Unassailable because the opposing pawn structure has weaknesses. A piece on a particular square can have "blocking qualities" like plugging an open file so your opponent can't use it. A critical square for a particular piece for a particular combination pattern. A particular square that can enable transit to another critical square or multiple possible squares. 3. Mobility can be a crucial winning (or losing) characteristic. The only reason why for instance a Queen is worth more than any other piece is because she can move to so many squares on an open board... Otherwise, she is like any other piece on the board, a piece of wood (or plastic). Therefor, for each and every of your pieces, strive to enhance the absolute number of possible squares it can move to, but balance that thought with the first and second rules because the quality of squares also makes a difference. So, what leads to an advantage in Mobility? Stuff like dominating the center, control of more space, control of open lines like files and diagonals. And, this can become complex as advanced technique can require certain piece and pawn strategies or even sacrifices that lead to necessary mobility that was originally denied. 4. The inverse of the above 3rd principle is also extremely important, and numerous successful strategies can be built on simply restricting the scope of your opponent's pieces and denying them access to a network of files and critical squares. The above few principles encapsulate the underlying principles of Chess, but may suffer compared to this author's 35 Vital Principles by being less specific with concrete examples. The idea of these are that hopefully the Student learns how to think of chess strategically with all pieces working in coordination rather than as individual, disconnected moves.

This video is very instructive. I'm a beginner player myself and I've read various beginner books and some principles here I kinda learned by experience but never have seen them explained like this in any of the books I've read. Thank you very much.

Fantastic video! Thank you for posting this! It was well put together and easy to understand, an extremely helpful! Thank you!

Thank you so much for the quick and easy explanation !

You're the Man Master Lopez. This is great and easy for my students to see. "Stay Sharp, play smart and take care."

another aspect of rule 27 i just realized about knights being great blockaders of pawns is that if they do jump forward on the rank behind the pawn it also protects the square the pawn might push to! :)

Thank you for the very well made and informative video. I like that you just go to the point without any extra unnecessary talking and time wasting. Just subscribed.

Thank you mate. You are brilliant at explaining things easily.

When I play a cutie, I develop feelings instead of pieces

Another thing to add about blocking pawns with knights is that when you move the knight away it isn't the easiest for the pawn to immediately move up since the square it would enter if it moved up 1 space is in the Knight's vision.

Great great explanation. Thank you for sharing this knowledge.

Very helpful principles. Thank you for this video!!

Watched your videos all night. Man you have a lot of great information that is paced well and easily digested. Please keep it up man you're doing great. Thank you

This is probably the most valuable chess video I’ve seen to help me improve my game. My 11 yo son has started to surpass my skill level, so I need to up my game, LOL. Thanks for this vid!

Fantastic video. Straight to the point and very helpful. Thanks.

Excellent advice! Thank you for this.

based on experience, principle 34 is really important 😏

I am a rather regular player (1600) and although most of these principles I know, it is really good to have them all mentioned together, thanks! I'll suscribe

This was awesome, brother. Thank you. I knew almost all of these, but I still learned something. And, it’s great to have a sort of mental checklist when working through the game.

Terrific effort! Well done. Graphics were quick-top notch visuals. Thank you

Solid advice. Only several games in, bouncing around 700-800 elo. Trying to learn openings, but this is really helpful seeing the principles of the game, thanks!!

Another good principle to note is "responsibility pins". It's when an opponent's piece must stay in a certain area to prevent checkmate or an immense loss of material. The piece's responsibilities keep it confined "aka" pinned to an area. For example, if I have my rooks lined up, getting ready to back rank mate my opponent's king, my opponent's rooks MUST stay on the first rank to prevent checkmate. That means I can get a piece like my bishop onto the second rank to help attack rooks and attack the king without worry about it being captured, because the instant one of the rooks goes to the second rank to capture my bishop, I can deliver back rank mate.

since watching this video. i've gotten a lot better because i can somewhat read the board better now. i appreciate this video. great work.

What a beautiful lesson. Thank you...! Well done with this video 👏👍

Great video! Especially the middle game principles. Knowing some of the general ideas of what to do in the middle game greatly helps minimize the moments of confusion about what to do once all my pieces are developed and my king is castled.

I like how you used pratical positions rather than just a position that is completely winning for the side that you’re on

Excellent video. Much appreciated, Nelson

Thank you this is inspiring! I want to learn how to properly play and understand chess but theres just too many strategies lol. Thank you for helping me understand at least basic concepts. As you explain each concept the game starts to take more shape and i began to see each piece differently. It makes more sense and the board no longer looks like just a bunch of squares. I can actually see the territory and its advantages.

Thanks for the knowledge :) great vid

Just seeing this now - sharing with everyone I know. Was a 1650 player at 15 in 1990. You nailed a lot of good ones. Two I didn’t know. I think you need a follow up video with more of these. Call them bonus rules. I have a few. 1) generally speaking, do not exchange a ‘good bishop’ for a bad bishop 2) create open lanes for bishops to increase their value 3) attack supported pawns with minority attack 4) keep tempo, or fight to get it 5) create space, when possible 6) support all pieces, when possible. Don’t leave hanging pieces 7) understand tactics like forks and pins

What a great video! Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I am a beginner for about a year now. Your 35 strategies were very well explained and extremely helpful to me. I look forward to watching more of your chess videos. I have subscribed.

Great Video... thanks man. in short all the most important principles and all of them very well explained...

Well..The best part was the "Hope Chess" Part. :D.

I really appreciate this video. I am an intermediate chess player who is trying to up my skills, and finding videos with a lot of good intermediate chess philosophy is harder than I expected. I keep finding either really obvious basic stuff for beginners or extremely advanced tactics that still feel like they are beyond my skill level for now. I especially loved the rook file advice principles because I've gotten good at developing bishops and Knights, but besides castling I feel like my rooks don't get developed or used until the endgame.

Well presented; thank you for sharing.

Valuable information. Thanks!

Well explained! Been looking for content to improve my middle game

Knew most of these - but the knights in closed - bishops in open positions info was very useful thanks.

Great video. Exactly what I’ve been looking for.

Thank you, that helped me improving my game instantly!

Hundreds of chess principles? Well I hope you do more videos on them!

Thank you man, I get overwhelmed as a beginner sometimes but this is just a logical and fun game

Bravo bro! Thanks. I learned 2 new principles. Super 👍

Fantastic guide! Thanks for outlining basic chess principles.

Great! I wish I had this kind of info when I was starting! 🙂😉

Dear sir, your session on Top 35 chess principles is worth working as it is gist of all 100 chess principles. You also nicely elaborated each of them making it really interesting and worth considering. Each chess player should take a note of them and try to implement at actuals. It will surely provide right direction playing chess and a road to chess master. Your each video session is conducted in a nice professional way. Looking forward for such session. Thanks and regards. Dmbhangaonkar

This was excellent. Lots of good info and compact for people like me that know the very very basics but are trying to learn some things to get a bit better quickly.

Thanks a lot. Good top 35 and well explained.

one of my favorites is getting pawn chains on both colors. Ideally deep and early if they are playing defensive. If you have to give up a rook do it on the far side away from the king(s)

That's damn Boom ! literally a insightful Principles which I learned from you. Thanks !!!

Love your tutorials! keep up with the good work!