There’s an old saying, the best defense is the best offense. It applies to all games, including the game of strategy, Chess. Do you want to learn how to get pro at defending? We’ve everything you need!
Winning routines in a chess game extensively depend on intuitive patterns. Acing chess is not a single-day endeavor. You cannot learn essential skills in chess by following a specific set of examples. The key to becoming a good chess player is relentless practice and repetition. In the beginning, you have to solve over dozens or sometimes hundreds of chess strategies like tactics, patterns, and themes and store them in your memory bank. However, even the world’s best players pay less attention to defense than the offense, even if you play chess online.
In a game of chess, indeed, some players rush in to make their moves, whereas others spend hours to make a single calculated move that would lead them one step close to victory. Other than hand speed, wits, and strategic movement, the defense is the core element in a game of chess. Several endgame studies, as well as checkmate puzzles, comprise the best defense moves to protect your favorite arsenal till the end.
Curating the best defensive strategies involves long-term planning. The art of strong defense involves sacrifices, tactics even while you play chess online. Let’s dig into the defensive chess techniques strategies that you need to implement right away.
1. Identify The Forthcoming Threats
When the game begins, the first and foremost step you need to do is formulate the defensive move. You need to identify threats on the board after every single move of your opponent, whether you’re playing online chess or physically. There are specific questions that you should always ask when you’re about to make a move, such as:
- Why did your opponent make this move?
- Is your opponent threatening you rather than making the real move?
- How strongly should you respond to your opponents’ moves?
2. Always Protect The High-Ranking Pieces In The Back
Your entire game will stumble down if you, irrespective of the best chess techniques if your back-side rank pieces are not utilized to the fullest. In addition to this, keeping your king safe and protected at all times should be your only priority. If one of your essential back rank pieces is missing, then your king is entirely vulnerable.
While practicing chess before a tournament, you can utilize one of the best chess strategies, i.e., enhance your positional stance in chess. Moreover, it would be best if you also opted to convert middlegame positions more to win. Several training courses on the internet can enhance your skills during middlegame playout.
3. If Possible, Protect All Of Your Pieces
If you want to play safe and sound, then protecting all pieces for a long time will benefit you greatly. Players have a terrible tendency to make advancements on most of their details right into the enemy’s territory. Playing safe and calculative is best for amateurs as they need to keep defending all their pieces to win big. In addition to this, you can also protect yourself from a double attack, or a quick fork or skewer if you protect all of your pieces. Remember, making the most useful move speaks a lot about your intuitive thinking where you’re under duress.
4. Simplify Your Move When Most Of Your Pieces Are Down
So far, this is the most basic rule that players tend to overlook or miss. For instance, if you’ve lost all of your essential pieces, mainly those belonging to the back rank, that doesn’t mean the game is over for you. Fewer pieces signify less hassle, and you should have nothing else to lose kind of an attitude. When you begin to exchange each of your pieces, your gameplay becomes much more seamless than your opponent’s. Additionally, you also have plenty of space on the board to aid you in repositioning the rest of your pieces. Further, you can also combine defense & counter attacks in chess better and negate the space advantage to trap your opponent in every move.
5. When In Trouble, Launch A Counterattack
It is already mentioned above that the best defense is the best offense. This mantra isn’t only for motivation; instead, the rule is very much applicable to change the game’s face in a flash. Whenever your opponent makes a move that makes you numb for a while, you tend to waver from your goal to win. However, these trying times would help you to become a better chess player than you were yesterday. Even if your defense has to collapse, critical thinking will make you victorious, irrespective of all odds.
Final Words
The chess game is as much a game of robust psychology as it is about tactics. These defensive chess strategies are necessary to hone your skills and prevent you from making irreversible mistakes. Even if you’ve begun to play chess online, ditching the physical board game, make sure that you follow these chess game strategies for an effortless win. A keen sense of observation backed up by cutting-edge tactics may turn you into a great chess player..
