Chess: A Play in Three Acts

Beginners Basics is intended to broadly cover the most basic rules for how to play the game. Bare minimum. However, I'd like to take one quick moment to talk about the three "Phases" of a chess game. Hang with me because this is a lot of text - I don't have a lot of cool graphics to explain this one.

The anatomy of a play goes back to the ancient Greeks. Our first act introduces our main characters. The second act sets in motion a conflict or challenge for our characters. The third and final act is where the characters resolve the conflict, one way or another.

Just like a play, chess has three acts. The first act is the "Opening Game" where players begin mobilizing their pieces. The second act is the "Mid Game", where the heart of the conflict plays out and players go back and forth capturing pieces. The third and final act is the "End Game" where the smoke has cleared and the players resolve their conflict in either a checkmate, resignation, or a draw.

Chess is a really complicated game. The rules are pretty straight forward, but the choices and combinations that unfold on the board are complex. It is very easy to get lost if you are not careful.

I am not a chess computer, nor am I especially gifted in running long calculations of moves and counter moves in my head; therefore, I need to simplify the game for myself in order to stand a chance. To make things simpler, I give myself "jobs" that need to be done in each phase of the game. If I do my jobs, I know I will remain competitive. So, let's look at our to-do list.

OPENING GAME

We'll go back into this in later posts, but the Opening Game typically consists of the first 10 moves of a chess game. In the Opening Game, I want to do three things:

1. Challenge the middle of the board

2. Develop my pieces

3. Keep my King safe

If I can scratch all three of these items off my mental to-do list in those first 10 moves, I can be satisfied that I have given myself a fighting chance. "How do I do all these things?" you are probably asking. We will look at various chess openings in our "Opening Acts" series with these three jobs in mind.

MID GAME

Mid-Game is what trips a lot of people up, including me! After both sides have positioned their pieces, the Mid-Game is where much of the action takes place.

It is really important to remember that sometimes you have a window to win with a checkmate in the Mid-Game. However, if you are playing tougher opponents, you won't get many chances to win early in the game. The key to solid Mid-Game play is not to win the game outright, but to set yourself up for the win in the End-Game.

In the Mid-Game, my jobs are:

1. Get a material advantage (or avoid a material DIS-advantage)

2. Simplify the board by Trading Pieces

3. Move my pieces onto squares where they can do the most damage

I am not going to lie; this is hard. At the end of the day, I want to take as many pieces off the board as possible. When it is all over, if I do exactly what I want, the only pieces left on the board are the pieces I need to trap the king with a checkmate.

Anytime where I have both my knights and my opponent has only one (or none), I have an advantage. Better yet, if I have my queen and my opponent does not, I have a serious advantage!

In every piece exchange during the Mid-Game, I am asking myself if I am coming out ahead or, at worst, is it an even swap of pieces. Sometimes, I want even swaps. I will give up my queen to take your queen away. If I have been studying, I should know several different ways to win without my queen.

Finally, if I cannot capture pieces to get an edge, or at worst evenly trade pieces away, I want to move the pieces onto squares where they can be the most threatening. Usually this means a nice middle square for a knight, camping rooks out on long files or my bishops on diagonals that can cut into the heart of the opponent.

END GAME

There is no real turn that is the start of the End Game, but you'll know it when you see it. The End Game is the point int he game where the board is almost empty. The dust has settled and only the King and a handful of survivors on each side are still standing.

Again, it is easy to get lost in the End Game because you have so many more options for moves with all those extra pieces off the board.

My End Game jobs are more straight forward:

1. Look for ways to threaten/checkmate the King

2. Promote my pawns

3. Eliminate remaining opponent threats

First, I want to attack the king and keep the attack up as long as possible. As long as the king is under attack, my opponent can do nothing but run.

If I have pawns still on the board, I want to march them across the board to promote them. This means I'm going to need to ensure they have body guards to protect them so they don't get captured as they make a break for the back rank. Many times, it will be the King that escorts the pawn all the way across the board.

Finally, I want to be opportunistic, and knock out any remaining threats like annoying rooks or bishops, that my opponent still has out on the playing field. The less they have to work with, the better my chances get for a win - or at least a draw.

So - that's a breakdown of the three phases of a chess game. Look for more posts as we explore how to do our jobs as efficiently as possible.

#OpeningGame #MidGame #EndGame