Exeter Chess Club: Steve Martinson on 30 maxims of chess

30 Maxims of chess

  1. [k]
  2. The King plays a most important part in the endgame and gains in power and activity as the number of pieces on the board diminishes
  3. Castle when you will, or if you must, but not when you can
    [q]
  4. Pawn snatching with the Queen is an art -- when it succeeds
  5. Pawn promotions are frequently an integral part of Queen and Pawn endings
    [r]
  6. The genesis of a Rook: occupy the file, take the seventh rank, double on the file, make room for the second rook, double on the seventh rank
  7. The Rook's place is behind the passed Pawn.
    [b]
  8. Bishops are better than Knights in open positions
  9. Do not place your Pawns on the color of your Bishop
    [n]
  10. A Knight on the rim is dim
  11. Develop Knights before Bishops
    [p]
  12. Every Pawn is a potential Queen
  13. The passed Pawn is a criminal, who should be kept under lock and key; mild measures, such as police surveillance, are not sufficient.
  14. A passed Pawn increases in strength as the number of pieces on the board diminishes
  15. Gaining the exchange is one thing, making it pay is another
  16. To study opening variations without reference to the strategic concepts that develop from them in the middlegame, is, in effect, to separate the head from the body
  17. Never move a piece twice before you have moved every piece once.
  18. The art of treating the opening stage of the game correctly and without error is basically the art of using time efficiently
  19. Your only task in the opening is to reach a playable middlegame
  20. Attack! Always attack!
  21. Expeditious return of material is a mark of the master
  22. If I win it was a sacrifice. If I lose, it was a blunder.
  23. After an attack has been repulsed, the counterattack is generally decisive.
  24. The direct exploitation of an open file is sometime impossible. But its indirect exploitation -- denial of counterplay and the opportunity to operate in another sector -- can often prove advantageous, too.
  25. The control of the centre confers the possibility of influencing activity on both wings at one and the same time.
  26. Weak points or holes in the opponent's position must be occupied by pieces, not Pawns.
  27. Reduce when ahead.
  28. Spot the weakness! Mobilise against it! Rack up the point!
  29. It is not one move, even a very sharp one, that must be sought, but rather a workable strategy.
  30. Always assume your opponent will make the correct reply.
  31. No-one has ever one by resigning.
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 This document (sm2.html) was last modified on 28 Jun 96 by [cool blue cat]

Dr. Dave