http://chess.emrald.net/index.php

pawns can be the most important pieces if you use them correctly.
I usually am defensive before I strike, I make sure I know what my opponent is doing before I decide to move offensively.

Also protect the king :)

if your not thinking a few turns ahead then your already behind

There are two alternative strategies to surviving chess... asprin or beer.

aspirin* (must get a new keyboard)

Best tip is a bit like this game......look for the support and take it out.

Don't blunder! Before you make any move, work out whether what you've got in mind allows your opponent to take your piece, or another piece which this move would leave undefended.

And take your time. Beginnners always rush.

Don't move with a single figure too much - develop your whole position equally.
Early game shenanigans with queen usually result in lost tempi and nothing more.
Learn to love your horses.

Whatever you do don't get beaten by a complete arse barely into his teens doing that checkmate in 4 moves nonsense

It's worth getting a book on opening plans. There are a number that suggest four or five openings that you can use in most situations - this means you only have to learn a small number of opening strategies and you wont make any silly early mistakes.

bishops stay on the same colour and knights alternate between colours. This really helps to quickly way up the possibilities for the beginner.

Yeah, being beat by the 4-move is no fun Octavious. I usually do a standard opening where I advance the two pawns infront of the king and queen, and then advance the kinghts towards the center and its quite a secure position. Bad thing is that it ties up your bishops and rooks early on

The advice anyone can give will depend upon how much of a novice you are (and I am no expert). But assuming you are relative beginner....
Here are some tips on openings from Emanual Lasker's book "Common Sense in Chess":
I. Do not move any Pawns in the opening of a game but the K and Q Pawns.
II. Do not move any piece twice in the opening, but put it at once upon the right square. (In my practice I have usually found it strongest to post the Kts at B3, where they have a magnificent sqay, and the KB somewhere on his original diagonal, if not exposed to exchange at QB4.)
III. Bring your Kts out before developing the Bishops, especially the QB.
IV. Do not pin the adverse KKt (by B-KKt5) before your opponent has castled.

There are exceptions to above guidelines, but the principles are worth knowing.

Spyman, I disagree with (I). The b, c, and g pawns are all important components in the opening stages.

Could you possibly also rewrite that? I don't think most of us are old enough to remember descriptive notation.

I'll add a few extra points.
Avoid bringing your Queen out early, as it will end up being chased around the board, thus wasting the opportunity to devop your pieces.
Same as above don't bring your Rooks out early. Develop your Rooks via the centre more so than the sides). Castling will help this.
There is a lot that can be said about pawns. They are very important (their full power realized in the end game), so don't waste them. I'll give one tip here. Double pawns are weak. Your opponent might exchange a Knight or Bishop if he sees an opportunity to disrupt.
Learn the basic tactics: pins, skewers, discovered attacks, forks
Practice the end game: learn how to checkmate a sole King, for example, using just a King and a Rook (and other combinations). Learn to do this in as few moves as possible.

typo... You opponents might exchange a Knight or Bishop if he sees an opportunity to disrupt your pawn line.

Spyman, want to play a game of correspondence? We could use this thread and be instructive, for example explaining each move for Thucydides.

@ Curious George, like what books?

@ all, question about developing pieces:

what is the counter for this situation:

you develop a piece into an offensive pos. then, in response your opp. develops a pawn poised to attack the piece. sinceyou cannot afford to lose the piece to a pawn, protection is irrelevant. how do you avoid this problem? do you really have to play *that* conservatively?

i know it sounds like a silly thing but it seems like anything i try is confounded by that.

aoe3rules. The above opening principles are guidelines aimed at beginner. There are of course opening with pawns other the centre pawns. Sicilian defense for example. But a beginner is best to understand the King and Queens Pawns openings first. The underlying principle being that you must develop your pieces as quickly as possible. You want to get to a stage where you are one step ahead of your opponent.

Descriptive notation is really easy. Each column is named after the Piece. Thus (white) QR1 (Queens Rook 1) is a1. The numbering is relative to the colour though. Thus (black) QR1 is a8. And KKt5 is f5 for white and f4 for black and so forth.

Thucydides, you should not move pieces forward to agressive posts until after the enemy pawns on adjacent files have been eliminated or advanced beyond the point where they can threaten your piece. That leaves you with an excellent position, ie a white knight on d5 with no black c-pawn and a pawn on e5.

ao3rules I'll give you game sometime (maybe today). I played a game in this forum a while back with Fasces using a board that gigantic posted. It was a blast. Notation is fine, but seeing the visual representation might be better for a forum game. I am going to look for it shortly (it is somewhere in the Last Person to Post Thread - January 3).

The importance of tactics has been mentioned by many, but it cannot be emphasised too much. Like in diplomacy, there are some basic trics one needs to learn before real strategy can begin. Don't bother learning opening theory before you have a good grips on tactics.

One mistake that beginners often tend to make is to focus on their own tricks, and not on their opponent's. A good way to avoid this: look at the position from the point of view of your opponent. What would you like to play next? This enables you to spot your opponents threats, even if they're hidden.

Another piece of general advise: use all your pieces, especially in the opening. An out-of-play piece is worth nothing. Sometimes it's worth to sacrifice a pawn, exchange (rook vs bishop or rook vs knight) or even a piece in order to win time.

I don't think you should worry much about pawn structure. Yes, you can lose or win games based on having a better structure, but this is not easy. Activity of the pieces is much more important.

If you're halfway through the game and your enemy's bishops are both on the same colored squares, it is legal to punch him in the face.

www.chess.com
"Lummis" is my nick.

@abgemacht: That rule is outdated. FIDE has since changed it to "if you're halfway through the game and your enemy's bishops are both on the same colored squares, you can combine your rook and knight to make a tank"

www.chess.com
"alanrobinski"

So you guys play online hey? I would say you both be a lot better than me. I play very infrequently. I played most of my games when I was a teenager in school (chess club) a long time ago. To become really good at Chess you need to play a lot (and study) and I was never as obsessed as some people I knew.

I think I had an unfair advantage in high school - our physics teacher was an IM and he offered an elective class on the game.

Three tips for the rooks in the mid-game -

1) Get them on open files (columns) preferably at, or near to, the centre of the board.

2) If you double them up, the one behind the other, on an open/semi-open file, they become v.powerful.

3) If you manage to securely plant one on the opponent's 7th rank (file) you will likely win

Correction:
3) If you manage to securely plant one on the opponent's 7th rank (row) you will likely win

Lasker's little book, previously mentioned in this thread, is indeed excellent. Many thousands have been written since but it stands out as a beacon of clarity.

Finally, when you are ready, have a run through some of the games by Paul Morphy; a mad genius at the game. This site does it for you if you have java installed -

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1336494