Chess Study Guide: Notation, Tactics and the Endgame

Three special rules cause most of the mid-game arguments between beginners. Castling moves the king two squares towards a rook, and the rook then jumps to the king's other side. Four conditions apply: neither the king nor that rook has moved yet, the squares between them are empty, the king is not in check, and the king does not cross or land on a square the opponent attacks. Kingside castling is usually ready sooner, since only the knight and bishop on that side need to leave first.

En passant applies to a pawn that has just advanced two squares from its starting position and landed right beside an enemy pawn. That enemy pawn may capture it as though it had moved only one square, but only on the very next move. Miss the chance and the right is gone. For White this can only happen with a pawn on the fifth rank; for Black, with a pawn on the fourth.

Promotion happens when a pawn reaches the last rank. It must become a queen, rook, bishop or knight, whichever the player chooses, and the queen is the usual pick. Now and then a knight is the better choice because it gives check or a fork on the spot. All three rules can be tested in the Lichess Learn modules, which offer short positions for each rule until the movements feel ordinary.

The squares d4, d5, e4 and e5 are the most contested ground during the opening, roughly the first ten to fifteen moves. Pieces near the centre reach more squares: a knight on e4 controls eight, while a knight on a1 controls just two. So a healthy opening begins with a central pawn, 1.e4 or 1.d4 for White, and Black answers with moves that also challenge the centre, such as 1...e5, 1...c5 or 1...c6.

The second principle is development. Ideally, each move brings out a new minor piece. Knights usually come first, heading for f3, c3, f6 or c6, because their best squares are clear early on, and the bishops then look for diagonals free of their own pawns. Moving the same piece twice without a tactical reason wastes a tempo, and the opponent spends that tempo getting another piece into play.

The third principle is king safety through castling, ideally by move nine or ten. The queen stays back until the knights and bishops have settled, since a queen that wanders out alone gets chased around while the opponent develops with gain of time. The opening is complete when every minor piece is out, the king has castled and the two rooks are connected on the first rank. That checklist works in any game, whatever the opening is called.

Nearly every combination in chess is built from four motifs. A fork is one piece attacking two targets at once, so the opponent can save only one; the knight fork on king and queen is the classic, and pawns and queens fork often too. A pin happens when an enemy piece is stuck because moving it would expose something more valuable behind it. Bishops and rooks deliver most pins.

A skewer turns the pin around. The more valuable piece stands in front, is forced to step aside, and the piece behind it falls, as when a rook checks a king that shares a line with its queen. A discovered attack comes when one piece moves away and uncovers the line of another piece behind it, so two threats appear in a single move. Its sharpest form is the discovered check, because the opponent has to deal with the king first.

When solving puzzles, learners check forcing moves in a fixed order: checks, then captures, then threats. That order narrows the options and makes the motif show itself sooner. In the first month, a whole week can go to a single motif using the theme filter on the Lichess puzzle trainer, starting with positions that have only a few pieces. A trained eye starts to get suspicious whenever two enemy pieces share a line or a piece stands with no defender.

The endgame begins once most of the pieces are gone, and from then on the king joins the attack. Three basic positions are worth practising until they flow, ideally within the first few months: king and pawn against king, pawn races measured with the rule of the square, and king and rook against a lone king. All three come up again and again in beginners' games, and a single extra pawn is often enough to decide the result when the technique is clean.

The rule of the square tells you whether a king can still catch a passed pawn. Draw a line from the pawn to its promotion square, then build a square with that line as one side, extending towards the defending king. If the king can step inside that square on its move, the pawn can be caught. The opposition describes two kings facing each other with one square between them. Whoever has to move must give way, and that decides whether the pawn can be escorted to the last rank.

The king and rook mate is drilled by herding the enemy king to the edge. The rook cuts off a rank or file, your own king walks up to protect the rook, and the defending king's space shrinks step by step. Learners also need the fifty-move rule: if each side has made fifty moves with no pawn move and no capture, a draw can be claimed. This is also the stage for learning stalemate, a position where the opponent is not in check but has no legal move, which ends in a draw however much material you are ahead.

A rating is a number that reflects playing strength based on results. Under the Elo system, beating a higher-rated opponent earns a large gain, while losing to someone rated far below costs more points. FIDE uses this system for international ratings, and Lichess and Chess.com run similar systems for their own internal ratings.

In Indonesia the official ladder is run by Percasi, the national chess federation. National ratings come from official Percasi tournaments, starting at city and regency level, and FIDE Elo comes from events registered with FIDE. The three numbers sit on separate ladders, so 1500 on an app cannot be equated with 1500 on an official list. Official events usually use long time controls and the Swiss system, which means learners need to be comfortable with long games, managing a clock and writing every move on a scoresheet.

For everyday training, an online rating works well as a barometer, judged month by month. The graph rarely moves in a straight line: there are climbs, plateaus and dips after a losing streak. Lost games are often the most honest material for review. Learners who want to try competitive play can start with a school championship or the nearest city-level tournament, bringing along the notation and blunder-check habits built up in rapid games.