Q&A for How to Win at Chess

Yes, there are several different ways that can happen. The most common, especially at higher levels, is that your opponent might resign if they can see that a checkmate is inevitable in the next few moves. You could also win because your opponent loses on time. Rarely, you might even win because your opponent doesn't show up for a match.

The best strategy for getting better at chess is to solve tactics. You can do that by working through a book on tactics, or you can solve them online. There are patterns in chess that you'll see repeated, and studying tactics helps you become familiar with these patterns.

Chess is absolutely a game of intelligence, but it also requires memory, hard work, and natural instinct. I think chess makes you smarter because it helps improve your decision-making skills. It teaches you to be calmer as you think about the best approach—you can't just look at your own threats; you also have to guard against your opponent's threats.

Keep calm and observe his game. Try putting him under the greed of taking a piece, and take advantage. Even if you lose, playing against a talented player is an opportunity to learn more about the game.

Experience and practice. Play as many games as you can to improve. Read about chess strategies and use them.

You can protect your king by castling. It is always safer because you have the rook in front of you targeting the last rank if an enemy enters. Also, by castling you keep three pawns in front of your king. Sometimes castling in the endgame is bad because eventually the opponent might back-rank checkmate you. In order to prevent that, when you castle always make sure your rook is in the last rank with your king.

In chess, you need to use every piece as an advantage, meaning you can even use pawns to checkmate an opponent. In a tough game like that, every resource is useful and needed. So yes, you can win with a knight, king and bishop. Of course, it does depend on what pieces your opponent has.

It depends on how confident (and aggressive) you feel against your opponent. Go into a defensive mode (by castling) if you're worried about your opponent. Attack if you're not.

It depends. If it will get the king out of check, then yes, it can. Otherwise, no.

You might try to trick your opponent into making the wrong move, but make sure all your bases are covered.

You have to attack their king and they will make a really bad move. He will either blunder mate, or blunder a piece.

Yes. While pawns play an important role in the game, they are not technically known as "pieces."

A pawn may capture an opponent's piece anytime it can move one square diagonally forward into the square occupied by that piece.

Play on value. Make sure when you lose another piece that you get multiple in return. If the game goes on for too long, and you can't recover, try to force your opponent into losing his queen/rooks. Try to force a draw.

Yes. See the wikiHow article "Use the Scholar's Mate in Chess."

Assuming opponents of equal skill level, the latter player should win.

When a pawn reaches the end of the board, the player controlling the pawn can promote it to a knight, bishop, rook, or queen (generally a queen). This is another important tactic that needs to be mastered to win at chess.

Keep studying and practicing, play a game every day. Try to play against better opponents so you can learn.

As many as you still have. Not more than the 16 you start out with, of course.

The best you can hope for is a draw, because a king and a bishop cannot by themselves checkmate the opponent's king.

Put the rooks at 2 corners opposite each other diagonally. Just make an offense with the king and a bishop and prepare your move by expecting what your opponent will do next so you can assign your other bishop defensively.

Once you start losing, you have to button up and go on the defensive, waiting until your opponent makes a mistake. When they do, exploit it and make a comeback.

There are many ways. In general, you force your opponent into a position where his/her king is in check without a way to escape in the next move.

Nope. The points are the same in every country.

No.

No. The two kings can never get close enough to each other for one to capture or block the other.

If you're asking about your opening move, moving the king's pawn two spaces to e4 is a popular move, because it opens up diagonals for both the queen and the king's bishop. Be careful with the queen, however. Moving her early in the game can often mean trouble for her.

Yes. A rook is a very powerful support tool for the queen. However, try not to move her aggressively early in the game, because it's easy to get her in trouble when your opponent still has a lot of pieces on the board.

No.

Yes.