The First Move
McHenry Area Chess Monthly Bulletin
Volume 1 Number 6                                 August 2004                                             Page 11 of 13

Now that you’ve gone through the checklist and you’re armed with this essential information, you can think about the other principles of good strategic and tactical play. Do your pieces coordinate well? How’s your use of space? How’s your pawn structure? Are there tactics to consider? However you do it, do what you do to decide the best move. Then, after you’ve made your decision, but before you touch the piece, imagine the board in that changed position, and apply the following execution checklist.

1) Are you leaving a piece undefended that you can’t afford to lose? In other words, did you forget something and hang a piece? Usually this happens because the piece you moved was defending
 

the piece that’s hanging, but sometimes the move might have exposed the piece to a discovered attack. It pays to check before you’ve committed yourself.

2) Are you exposed to any checks now? Most checks you should have identified by your preliminary checklist, but things have changed, and you want to be sure.

3) Do you own the square you’ll be moving to? That is, do you have more pieces defending it that the opponent has attacking it? Remember that the piece occupying the square no longer attacks that square. You don’t need to answer this question with a yes—after all, you might be making a sacrifice, or the opponent’s move order might not allow any captures (a knight attacked
 

by two rooks is safe even if it’s only protected by one pawn). The point of the checklist is to make you aware. It doesn’t do your thinking for you.

4) Are you sure you really want to make that move? If you can’t say yes, then keep looking for a better move. But if you’re sure, do it and be confident you haven’t overlooked anything out of carelessness.

If you have the discipline to do this before every move, you’ll make far fewer mistakes. That will take your game to a new level. All it takes is practice.