"Tactics"

I have found by playing various opponents (good players & beginners alike), that there was some interesting things in common by putting up a good fight. Below is listed some "tactics" that have proven to be very effective, win or lose.

1. Think of your pieces as being part of a "castle", use your pawns as walls and the rest as your army. See examples of "wall patterns"
2. Sometimes it's smarter to take a bishop or a rook for the price of one of your knights. Each piece has a certain amount of "points" allocated to themselves, these points are measured by the pieces' strengths. View
3. If you manage to perform tactic #1, at this point, it is best to play defensively and to wait for your opponent to slip up (or) wait for him to give you an effective opening to attack. There's no point in putting anyone in "check" if you can't follow up on it by keeping him in check or even moving in for the kill. If you play defensive along with tactic #1, you may never need to move your king!
4. Sometimes, after you've setup your "pawn-defense", you may find it difficult to generate a good attack sequence. This usually happens when your opponent also has a good defense setup. At this moment I think this is where a lot of players either take control or lose by making unthought-moves. Instead, do not think of winning or losing, it may just be a good idea to setup a "focussed attack". A focussed attack is when you concentrate several pieces on 1 square (this is usually done to create an opening). Simply select one of his pieces to attack, preferably one that you can attack with a pawn. Your opponent may have 1, 2 or even 3 pieces guarding the piece you wish to attack, therefore, you'll need to setup and sacrifice some pieces. And do it so that you are the one to win the square and not him... if the piece you wish to attack is on his half of the chess board, it may be a good idea also if your Queen was the one to finish off the sequence of give-and-take.
5. All in all, to play effective, it is a good idea to play defensive & smart-sacrificial. You should learn all your pieces so that even if you lose your Queen (and other), that you can still put up a good fight. Ex: I'd rather attack a pawn and sacrifice my bishop to his rook, only to grab his rook with my Queen. (2 for 1 deal caused by my bishop).
6. Last and not least, another good stategy is to play the "fake". Examples: (i) Making it look like you're moving your pieces around to play defense, but in reality, at the same time you might be preparing a sequence of attacks. (ii) Make it look like you'll attack from one side (so your opponent focusses some of his pieces on that side) and instead attack somewhere else.

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