What to Check Before You Make Any Chess Move

ChessSkill

Making a habit of running through these questions before making any move will help you to avoid the most basic chess blunders and mistakes that can cost you the game. While this may not help you see the deeply complicated tactical maneuvers, it’ll give you the foundation for more complicated analysis.

What did my opponent just do?

Your opponent’s move may have completely changed the board. Their move might now be opening up a file, threatening your pieces or creating threats of their own that would enable them to fork two of your pieces. When evaluating what your opponent has just done, be on the lookout for:

  • What new squares their pieces could now move to?
  • What new pieces are under threat from their pieces now?
  • What new squares or pieces can now be influenced in terms of files, diagonals and ranks?
  • Is there some sort of threat of a fork, pin, discovered attack, back-rank weakness etc. that I should be aware of?

What are the threats on the board?

This is where you should take a look at the board and see if there are any major threats for either side, for tactics that could be implemented or weaknesses that could be attacked. Be sure to consider:

  • Could either side make any checks?
  • If my opponent was given a free move, what would they play?
  • Are there any pieces under threat?
  • Are there any undefended pieces in my camp?
  • How has the number of attackers and defenders changed on certain pieces?
  • Are there any pieces that were protected on the last turn that may not be now?
  • Are there any pieces that are pinned and therefore unable to defend other pieces?

What are two or three good moves?

You should always try to develop some good candidate moves for what you want to play on your turn. This will help you avoid impulsive and automatic moves, and it’ll give you a couple options to pick from.

These moves may include improving your king’s safety, capturing an opponent’s piece, or developing another piece to a better square. When choosing your candidate moves:

  • Consider what you’ll gain actively from playing a certain move.
  • Consider any weaknesses, or important squares you may abandon, when you play a certain move.
  • Try to pick two or three different good ideas that you can then calculate with and choose the best of the three.

Now it’s your turn!

So that’s what to consider before making any move in a game of chess. You can practice this concept by finding some tactical positions on a physical or digital chessboard and running through the process with the position. Then, to check your work, calculate a few replies for two good candidate moves. If you saw a fork and avoided it but ended up leaving one of your pieces unprotected in the final position, then you know you need to work on one of your first three questions.

You’ll need to do this a lot for it to become second nature, but eventually, you’ll be able to make all of these assessments in a quick glance when looking at any position on the board.