Letter #01 -  2010

Sub:    Strategy and Tactics in Chess
Date:   01/02/10  11:11:42 AM EDT
From:  Barry Warner
To:      service@Chess-poster.com

I believe that the beauty of playing good Chess lies in how creatively and effectively a player can move the pieces. Being Chess a war-like game, do strategy and tactics play a role in this game?

If so, can you please define for me the difference between strategy and tactics in Chess?

B. W.

Dear viewer,

Strategy: Chess strategy is concerned with the evaluation of Chess positions and with setting up goals and long-term tactics for future play. During the evaluation, a player must take into account the value of the pieces on the board, Pawn structure, King safety, position of pieces, and control of key squares or groups of squares (e.g. diagonals, open files, black or white squares), and the possible moves the opponent will make after any move made.

Pins also fall into this category to some extent, although it is common for a defending player to relieve neither of the two threats posed by a pin, in which case the attacking player commonly maintains the pin for a longer period of time. A pin is therefore sometimes more strategic than tactical.

Tactics: Chess tactic refers to a short sequence of moves which limits the opponent's options and which results in tangible gain. Tactics are usually contrasted to strategy, in which advantages take longer to be realized, and the opponent is less constrained in responding. The fundamental building blocks of tactics are two-move sequences in which the first move poses a double threat.

The opponent is unable to respond to both threats in one move, so the first player realizes an advantage on the second move. This includes forks, skewers, discovered attacks, x-ray attacks, undermining, overloading, and interference.

Source: Wikipedia

Thank you for visiting us,
chess-poster.com