Winning Moves in Chess Explained to Kids

Chess is a game reflecting your intellectual abilities to a great extent. And it is often that beginners face difficulties trying to begin with the game. They look for improvement strategies.

You may know that chess is not all about checks, attacks, and captures. But, it is also about you being creative as well as strategic when playing the popular global sport. It may take time for the game to be a minded one. But having some guidelines about winning moves in chess will certainly help you learn it fast.

Why it is Important To Learn These Winning Moves in Chess

Many beginner chess players suffer frustrating experiences during their first chess games although they are familiar with piece moves. They get mated quickly. Or lose control of their positions without even recognizing what happened. Or stalemate their opponents with many extra pieces, throwing away a win for only a draw.

Every chess player remembers the days when he or she tried to capture as many pieces as possible without any significant clue about how to checkmate the opponent with all the extra pieces.

Winning Moves in Chess

A checkmate pattern is a particular and recognizable arrangement of the pieces that deliver the checkmate. You can further improve your chess tactics skills by studying all the different checkmates that commonly occur in chess games. Improving your tactical skill is one of the main focus areas of chess training.

These are some of the important winning moves in chess that every player who wants to excel in the game should know:

1. Budapest Defense Smothered Mate

The Budapest Gambit, 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5, is a different beast from the Vienna Gambit. First of all, it’s a weapon from Black’s arsenal. It’s an interesting side-tracking device for Black which can be used to counter or even discourage the Queen’s Gambit. When you see White start with 1.d4, very often you can expect to see the Queen’s Gambit. If you play something like 1…d5 it’s not quite inevitable but very likely.

If you don’t like playing the Black side of the Queen’s Gambit you can begin instead with 1…Nf6 which is practically a waiting move. You can transpose into just about anything from there so you’re keeping your options open. White may abandon his Queen’s Gambit plans, he’s more likely to do so in the face of 1…Nf6. But if he presses ahead undeterred and plays 2.c4 anyway you then have the opportunity to play 2…e5, entering the Budapest.

2. Caro-Kann Defense Smothered Mate

The Caro-Kann is a chess opening for Black against 1.e4 characterized by the moves 1.e4 c6, when black will follow soon by playing ..d5. It is named after two German chess players, Horatio Caro and Marcus Kann.

The Caro-Kann Defense is a popular chess opening for Black and enjoys the reputation of being one of the most solid responses to 1.e4.

3. Englund Gambit Mate

The Englund Gambit is a rarely played chess opening that starts with the moves: 1. d4 e5?!

Black’s idea is to avoid the traditional closed queen’s pawn games and create an open game with tactical chances, but at the cost of a pawn. 

Black has numerous ways to continue after 1.d4 e5 2.dxe5. Black can offer to exchange the d-pawn for White’s e-pawn with 2…d6, arguing that after White captures with exd6, …Bxd6 will offer Black a lead in development to compensate for the pawn. After the continuation 2…Nc6 3.Nf3, Black may round up the e5-pawn with 3…Qe7, intending to meet 4.Bf4 with the disruptive 4…Qb4+ and ensuring that White’s only way to maintain the extra pawn is to expose the queen with 4.Qd5, but in subsequent play, the queen can prove to be awkwardly placed on e7. 3…Nge7 intending 4…Ng6 is another way to round up the e5-pawn, but requires two tempi, while Black can also offer to exchange the f-pawn with 3…f6, or 3…Bc5 intending a subsequent …f6, with similar play to the Blackmar–Diemer Gambit except that Black has one tempo less.

The gambit can be considered an inferior relative of the Budapest Gambit and Albin Countergambit, as by comparison with those gambits, White has not weakened the b4-square with c2–c4, and may be able to put that tempo to better use in order to avoid giving away any key squares. Accordingly, with careful play White should be able to obtain a greater advantage against the Englund than against the Budapest and Albin, against all approaches by Black. However, since Budapest and Albin rely upon White continuing with 2.c4, and can thus be avoided by continuations such as 2.Nf3 (when 2…e5? can be met by 3.Nxe5 in either case), it is easier for exponents of the Englund Gambit to get their opening on the board and avoid getting into a typical queen’s pawn type of game.

4. Fool’s Mate

The mate is an illustration of the kingside weakness shared by both players along with the f- and g-files during the opening phase of the game. Black can be mated in a complementary situation, although this requires an additional move. A player may also suffer an early checkmate if the f- and g-pawns are advanced prematurely and the kingside is not properly defended, as shown in historical miniature games recorded in chess literature.

In chess, Fool’s Mate, also known as the “two-move checkmate”, is the checkmate delivered after the fewest possible moves from the game’s starting position. It can be achieved only by Black, giving checkmate on the second move with the queen. Fool’s Mate received its name because it can only occur if White commits an extraordinary blunder. Even among rank beginners, this checkmate rarely occurs in practice.

5. Bird’s Opening (Fool’s Mate Pattern)

This bird’s opening fool’s mate pattern is for black; just like the king’s pawn opening, the final checkmate is performed by a minor chess piece (bishop). All you need to assure is your opponent captured the Queen and did not anticipate the impending checkmate for the White King.

6. Dutch Defense (Fool’s Mate Pattern)

The Dutch Defense is an offbeat opening choice but it is employed by players at all levels, from beginners to grandmasters. There are more than a couple of fast checkmates to know in this opening, including the five-move mate below. The Dutch Defense begins with 1…f5 in response to 1.d4. As you can see, 1…f5 takes control of the e4-square early but weakens Black’s kingside. If Black is not careful then they can get checkmated early.

7. Grob’s Attack (Fool’s Mate Pattern)

Grob’s Attack is an unconventional chess opening in which White begins by moving the king’s knight’s pawn two squares: g4. Along with several other uncommon first moves for White, the Grob is classified under the code A00 (“irregular openings” or “uncommon openings”) in the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings. White has three main plans: to support the g4 pawn with h3; pressure against d5 or on the h1–a8 diagonal, preventing Black from playing …Bxg4 (e.g. 1.g4 d5 2.Bg2 Bxg4 3.c4, exploiting the pin against the b7-pawn); or advancing the h-pawn in a kingside attack. The Grob is generally considered inferior and is rarely employed in serious competition.

8. Italian Game Smothered Mate

In chess, a smothered mate is a rare checkmate delivered by a knight in which the mated king is unable to move because he is surrounded (or smothered) by his own pieces.

The mate is usually seen in a corner of the board since fewer pieces are needed to surround the king there. The most common form of smothered mate is seen in the adjacent diagram. The knight on f7 delivers mate to the king on h8, which is prevented from escaping the check by the rook on g8 and the pawns on g7 and h7. Similarly, White can be mated with the white king on h1 and the knight on f2. Analogous mates on a1 and a8 are rarer because kingside castling is more common than queenside castling and brings the king closer to the corner.

9. Scholar’s Mate

In chess, Scholar’s Mate is the checkmate achieved by the following moves, or similar:

1. e4 e5

2. Qh5 Nc6

3. Bc4 Nf6??

4. Qxf7#

The same mating pattern may be reached by various move orders. For example, White might play 2.Bc4. In all variations, the basic idea is the same: the queen and bishop combine in a simple mating attack on f7 (or f2 if Black is performing the mate).

Scholar’s Mate is sometimes referred to as the “four-move checkmate”, although there are other ways to checkmate in four moves.

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