The 5 Main Objectives
Strong chess-players consistently make purposeful moves that are focused on achieving their objectives.
Objectives serve as pointers that will help you to:
- Make moves with a strong purpose and to
- guide your thinking-process in the right direction.
If you don’t keep your objectives in mind, you will waste a lot of time thinking aimlessly about moves that don’t serve a purpose. On the other hand, when you know what to aim for, you will have the necessary motivation to search for the best way to implement your plans.
Summary of the 5 Objectives
- Objective of Material: Win material when you can because the player with more material (pieces) can use the extra force to overpower their opponent.
- Objective of Development: Develop your pieces to their full potential because well-developed pieces have more fire-power than undeveloped pieces.
- Objective of Center-control: Aim to control the centre because most of the action take place in or through the centre.
- Objective of King-safety: Keep your king safe and try to expose your opponent’s king because an exposed king is very vulnerable.
- Objective of Pawn-structure: Keep your pawn-structure strong and try to weaken your opponent’s pawn-structure because the pawn-structure affects the development of the pieces and determines where the weak squares are.
Next Lesson – Objectives in Chess: Material Advantage
Previous Lesson – Why understanding the objectives in chess is so important
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The 7 Skills Training Model
