Restless Knights

The Opening

 

The first moves of the game (often about 10-15 first moves, but hard to pinpoint). Tons of books have been written on how to play the opening, which consequently is often played by memorizing the theory. The opening usually ends when most of the pieces have been developped and the kings brought to safety. When the rooks protect each other, that’s also a good sign that the opening is over.

 

 

The Middlegame

 

The part of the game that is between the opening and the endgame. This is where the two sides start to clash for real. Middlegame positions come in different shapes. The centres can be closed, with maneuvering behind the lines, or they can be wide open, with sharper play where even a small mistake can easily be fatal. If kings are castled on opposite sides, the game tends to get quite violent, with both players usually racing to be first to attack and checkmate the enemy king. In those cases, time and initiative are often more important than material, meaning that sacrificing pawns and even pieces to get faster to the enemy can be a good idea (since checkmate wins the game). With kings castled on the same side, a direct assault is less likely to happen although it can and frequently does. The attacker often compromises his king safety, because he pushes pawns that were his king’s shelter. With same side castling, a player might opt for totally different strategies than a mating attack. This often involves trying to create weaknesses in the opponent’s position and then exploiting them to gain material, space, outposts etc. Material balance greatly influences middlegame strategy, the player with a material advantage will be quite happy to trade pieces and go into an endgame, even at the cost of for example damaging his pawn structure, while the disadvantaged player will avoid it and often desperately attack the king because he knows that if he doesn’t checkmate, the ending will be lost.

 

 

The Endgame

 

Here, the number of pieces on the board are greatly reduced. Like the transition between the opening and middlegame, there isn’t a clear line between the middlegame and endgame. Usually the queens have been traded off, but not necessarily. The best indicator that it’s an endgame is that if it’s safe to bring out his majesty the king. This is his time to shine. In the earlier phases of the game he’s had to constantly be on the alert for checkmate, whereas in the endgame, the opponent likely doesn’t have enough pieces left to seriously threaten him. Pawns become more important, as one of the main endgame strategies revolves around trying to promote them. The stronger side (the one with more material) tries to exchange pieces (knights, bishops, rooks and queens) and avoids the exchange of pawns, which he wants to promote. The defending side should try for the opposite. If he can get the last pawn (even at the cost of a piece) and his opponent has for example only a bishop left, then he knows that he won’t be checkmated. The pawn was more dangerous.