It gladdens my heart to say we are now in the eighth lesson of my intermediate guide to chess mastery. So far, we have covered topics centered on
Introduction to the Lichess platform and how to use it.
Rules that defile the Opening Principles.
Knowing what to play in the middlegame
Combination in Chess.
Calculation in Chess.
When Tactics prevail.
And we are going to be looking at simple tricks and when to pull them off. If you missed any of the past lessons, you can check my blog and read up on them, there are some insight knowledge you wouldn't want to miss.
Trick 1: Attack more pieces
This trick works best in bullet or blitz games, that is, games with shorter time control or when players are in a time scramble. How the trick works is when you attack your piece and they respond with a counterattack, you simply attack another piece again. In other words, placing more than one of your opponent's pieces in danger of being captured by your piece.
Here is an example from a game
In this position, white is attacking the black bishop on f5 with a white pawn on g4. Then black responses with a counter attacking move, cxd4, threatening the white knight on c3. If white captures the bishop, black captures the knight.
Black's counterattack with cxd4
Using the trick of attacking more pieces, white goes for a brilliant response. Try to take your time and see if you can see. If you are done looking for it, then I hope you found the move: Na4! This move creates a threat to the black queen on b6, and that's not all, it takes the white knight out of danger.
Now black has to choose which piece is of more value, is it the bishop on f5 or the queen on b6. And you know obviously black will save their queen since it is of more value compared to the bishop.
Trick 2: Give emergency checks
This second trick should strictly be used in a bullet game or when down on time in seconds, let's say less than 10 seconds. Mind you, do not try this in a time increment game unless the checks are good moves or lead to something better.
In this position, if you look closely at the time section, white is down to 5.5 seconds, and black is at 12.9 seconds. Being up on time, Black decides to go for an unexpected move, which also happens to tactical deflection of removing the defender, the white king, from the defended piece, the white queen. Once again, can you give it a shot by looking for what the move is? Rook to h1 square is not only a tactical move to gain the queen on f1, but it also uses the trick of giving an emergency check. White is down on time, so black makes an emergency check in an attempt to make white waste more time looking for a legal move for the white king. Also, this trick should only be used when both players are down to 10 seconds or less. Do not try this in a long-time control game or time increment game, it could backfire badly on you. With that said, this last trick requires you to move your king when you and your opponent are fighting to make the other person run out of time. At this point, nobody is focused on checkmating unless you have a mating combination that you can play out fast enough before your time runs out. In this position, from the few seconds remaining, you can easily predict that the next few moves are going to be king moves. No thinking about it twice, at this point, both sides are playing fast to flag the other player. And that is a wrap for this lesson, and I hope to see you in the next lesson. I am @samostically,I love to talk and write about chess because i benefited alot from playing chess and I love writing about chess. ♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟
Rh1+!
Trick 3: In a time scramble, move your king.
