25 Chess Principles For Beginners (with examples)

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Timestamps
0:00 - Principle 1 - Protected Passed Pawns
0:54 - Principle 2 - Too Many Pawn Moves
2:02 - Principle 3 - Develop To Most Active Squares
2:49 - Principle 4 - Develop + Attack At The Same Time
3:25 - Principle 5 - Greek Gift Sacrifice Idea
4:12 - Principle 6 - Positional Pawn Sacrifice
5:37 - Principle 7 - Don't Untangle Opponent's Pieces
6:40 - Principle 8 - Don't Block Your Own Pieces
7:42 - Principle 9 - Develop All Pieces Before Pawn Moves
8:19 - Principle 10 - Rooks On Open Files
9:10 - Principle 11 - Develop and Castle First
11:09 - Principle 12 - Attack Weakest Squares
11:31 - Principle 13 - Don't Forget En Passant
11:57 - Principle 14 - Make Worst Piece Best
13:11 - Principle 15 - When Attacking, Don't Trade Queens
13:54 - Principle 16 - Rooks On 2nd/7th Ranks
14:23 - Principle 17 and 18 - Pawn Decoys and Active King
17:00 - Principle 19 - Don't Block e and d Pawns
18:22 - Principle 20 - Careful Opening h5-e8 Diagonal
19:04 - Principle 21 - Delay Castling
19:48 - Principle 22 - Counterattack The Center
20:10 - Principle 23 - Knights Better In Closed Positions
20:46 - Principle 24 - Keep Files Closed When Defending
21:44 - Principle 25 - Don't Underestimate Passed Pawns
22:27 - How To Reach 1500 ASAP

[kamnasharma]

Considering these principles are for beginners, some of these are even useful for a 1400-1500 player! Thanks, keep up the top notch content!

[BobChess]

As an intermediate player, this is still very useful, because sometimes we forget to follow the principles and only go for the attack! Love your content 👍

[LightningWing]

I like the clear and concise manner in which you present and explain these principles. Great vid

[nacho__]

Loved this vid. These kind of examples are so helpful because you explained whats going on. When analysing with the engine it doesnt tell you why some moves are unaccuracies

[bigl]

The last six minutes of this video are examples from the game I sent in. My reasoning for retreating my white-square bishop to e-2 was I did not want to exchange a bishop for a knight. I did not see that moving to g-2 would have opened my rook. As for the black-square bishop, I fully intended to develop it by moving the kingside pawns out as you covered. The risky manner in which I did was due to the white queen being blocked, forcing the knight to retreat, and preparing longside castling. Your input on that castling was premature is greatly appreciated. The fatal flaw was forgetting about the passed pawn the a-file. My idea was to activate my king to pick-off pawns to free mine to promote, but where I moved allowed an unchallenged pawn to promote first. I was up a pawn and bishop. If I eliminated that pawn, my king and bishop would have easily overwhelmed the white king, allowed a pawn promotion, and won.

[davidbardot]

Was looking for a channel that would genuinely help improve my game and I think I found it🙌🏻

[mikkey]

3:23 the Greek gift is what I was curious about with bishops
11:43 en passant and castling are still something I am not comfortable doing but too move up I think I gotta learn them
13:14 smh I love doing this, gotta remember this rule

I love these tutorialz

[Dustin_the_wind]

Thanks for the lessons, appreciate it.

[charanko.]

Nelson! Please be more encouraging as you tutor! Your wealth of knowledge is life saving for those of us who struggle. You should instruct without being so personally critical! Instead of phrasing your advice by saying "i dont know why you made that move" or "if you would have made this move like ive been saying, " try to share your tips without harping down on our mistakes! You actually do teach exceptionally well, but as someone who can get easily discouraged i feel like we can all learn best by continuing to encourage each other! That being said, keep up the great work man! We appreciate the time you take from your daily life to make all these incredible videos!

[Matt-hyqj]

When I was a beginner I had no idea that developing pieces was so crucial. My whole concept of using pawns to open is that they are generally a low risk move. I thought they were strong almost like a barrier for my other pieces

[johncarlisle]

Excellent, very instructive you have a very good teaching style

[BlaBlaBlaInDaHouse]

Hands down the best chess channel on YouTube. Keep it up!

[SmokesOnMe]

Principle 7: don't untangle their pieces.

Such an obvious point, but sometimes in a difficult position I just let it go because I don't know what to do, and want to release the tension

[joeptak]

AWESOME...you are an excellent teacher with a talent for expressing things simply. Thank you!

[patament]

I like your teaching. Simple and clear.

[DevyK.]

As a professional 600 rated i can tell you guys that he's right👍

[WaveDDD]

Im gonna play against my physics teacher in chess for free exam, and this video definitely what i needed rn. Thank you so much!

[sammarks]

Another great video for us beginners! I've been playing for a couple years, currently around 1000. In your Greek Gift example, if the queen on h4 targeted f2 instead of h2, it looks to me like you've got a free rook. I may be missing something, though.

[TheSpiritualCamp]

Amazing video, so clear ! Hey, what's the process to be coached by you like these guys in the video ?

[tuxedobob]

While I feel bad for black, I have never seen the bar go from so black to so white as it does at 22:02. :D