Principles

There's that pause when my opponent realizes I took their queen. It really is a good strategy not to get the queen out early, least of all that if you make a mistake the, the cost is less. You put the least valuable players out first. You put pawns to try and get bishops and knights. Development is an important idea, getting locked in is really dangerous. I've had a lot of good checkmates, against me, where I was bottled in out of defensiveness. 

There's also balance between being defensive and offensive. I've had some spectacular fun wins being really aggressive. That's a fun game, but a good player can defend themselves well enough to take advantage of aggressive play. Same with defense. Just clearing the back line so you can castle isn't a bad goal, but there's a hierarchy of goals.

Sometimes there is no good move, so you make the least bad one. Notice when you're in a loop. You have to value every move, the more efficient player usually wins.  

If you don’t have a plan you’re moving pieces willy nilly. Sometimes in speed games it’s OK to advance a pawn so you don’t get King trapped down the line. Let the other person confront no easy moves on their time. In blitz games, move quickly to overwhelm your opponent, and even if you go down materially, you can win on time. You can think on their time.

Bishops are more than Knights. Don’t swap a knight for a bishop without a greater strategic gain or an extra pawn.

You attack F7 with white, until it’s foiled (easily by experienced players, but you’d be surprised). How you defend that is Black’s strategy. Then you fight for position, look for hanging unprotected pieces and set traps. Look out for traps. Lining up queen with king, the knight fork, two pieces near with a pawn coming in between. Pawns after the bishop moves out. Unprotected pieces, hanging pieces. Do the easiest, most efficient, and most destructive thing. Watch for your opponent's mistakes, avoid mistakes yourself. 

People often lose track of the queen or how pieces are supported in the sequence of play. You can beat most people by understanding sequences better. Wishful thinking happens way too often. Sequences of moves can leave one down or up, depending who thinks better about sequences of moves, with the most clarity. 

You can play for the kill to end it quickly or chip away at material to make things easier and you look smarter. Losing track of the quick kill attempts by your opponent because of distractions of vulnerability are a common balancing act. 

Checkmating can be powerful even if you can’t get the kill. It robs the other player of moves.

Development, supporting and linking, pawn structure are everything. Conversely, you can use your King to attack, I always move into trouble. It’s not as easy to trap the king in the open, as you’d think, and you know if you’ve tried to do it over and over and over with the other person able to figure out what you’re going to do based on analyzing your moves.

Play till the end because most people give up at the slightest material loss, and don’t learn the end game. Be resilient and fight back after mistakes, nobody you’re playing doesn’t make mistakes. 

Or quit when you don’t want to play any more, you don’t have to rub your nose in it. I might quit because I can’t think of any good moves, and it’s just not fun any more. They win. You have to be OK with losing to really learn chess unless you’re a genius and you’re not a genius. But thinking you’re strong and positive thinking can make you play better. Examine your mental state when you lose and when you win. You’re not as good as you think you are when you win and you’re not as bad as you think you are when you lose.

Stalemate is surprisingly easy at the end, keep it in mind. I can’t tell you how many times I got a draw because someone couldn’t finish even with material advantage or ran out of time. Same goes for missed checkmates because of stalemate. If you’re losing, then play for stalemate. If you’re winning, watch out for stalemate. It might take up time, but check for it when you have the obvious advantage. Good players know how to trick you into stalemate. Putting them in check isn’t going to be a stalemate, but other than that, watch out in the endgame. 

There’s 3 parts to the game, opening, middle and endgame. Most players aren’t good at all 3 phases of the game.

There is no one idea that will hold the good moves or the bad moves, in the end the move is good or bad based on future results and how coherent you attack and defense are. Accuracy is a good metric. Raise your accuracy rating. 

Attack premature queen development, but beware, sometimes the queen can find some good moves. Don’t force your opponent to find the good moves. Attack other pieces, if none are vulnerable, always use value to attack. Attack with less value to greater value. Pawn to knight to bishop to rook to queen. Bide your time trying to win the pawn war, or just swap to destroy a strong structure. Look for forks and traps always. Bishops are more valuable than knights because they can traverse the whole board. Figure out how to make knights useful. They go out first.

Sometimes you just have to wait for the opponent to destroy their own defenses. Most people just move and destroy themselves. But you have to make a move, and sometimes the other player just has to wait for you to expose yourself. It’s hard to predict many moves into the future, but accuracy, seeing all the possibilities in the present clearly is perhaps the top skill. Assessing the possibilities. Can’t tell you how many times people missed simple things, how many times I missed a simple move because my thinking was in a groove or otherwise “thinking”. Pass over the whole board once before every move and hold all the essential details. Hiding a bishop in the corner can often be missed by inexperienced players. Expanded field of play often flummoxes people. 

Don’t forget the king back line trap, defend against, and attack it. The problem should be drilled out of you with a few puzzles. 

If you’re playing a lot you’re going to see some crazy checkmates, maybe even ones that you think up, and are surprised it worked. I often move and don’t know it’s checkmate, because you have to move fast, and can’t check that all day in speed games. Makes me feel bad, but the win makes me feel good.

My friend adds: Never telegraph or look at the clock if your opponent forgets to stop his time. When possible, cover your riskiest moves with ego damaging comments.