We’d always like to play for our own chances, but in this defensive course, we will pay attention to the opponent’s threats as well. Whenever you look at a position, it’s one of the first things to do. Whether it’s dealing with a mating threat, a tactical trick, a hanging piece or an opponent’s passed pawn, immediate action is required!

You already know the rules of the opening: develop your pieces, put a pawn in the center, and then, bring your king into safety; so you often castle your king. You do that because the pawns in front of your king are still there; they are protecting it as a shield. However, once the game progresses, pawns are often pushed on the wings, trying to open up the position in front of that king.

Many times, your opponent sacrifices material to develop an initiative and you end up with extra material; you enjoy your material plus. But, on the other hand, the opponent develops a very dangerous initiative against your king. Now you feel uncomfortable and the way to solve that problem is giving back the material plus.

Whenever you are on the defensive side, you bring your king into safety in the opening, but once you come out and attack, you try to look at ways fending off the attack, or at least, bring your king into safety and that can be done by a king walk.

Defense doesn’t have to be passive. You have to see if you can attack your opponent in return – make a counterattack! It’s a well-known saying that attack is the best possible defense. We should always look at counterattacking possibilities against the enemy king.

Trading off the best piece of the attacker and giving away material can be very helpful to consolidate our position. They really change the course of the game and they are a very comfortable weapon in defensive play.

It’s about trying to understand your opponent’s intentions, what he/she is going to do next and how to prevent that. It can be applied at different stages of the game (opening, middlegame, endgame), but also in a tactical or more positional type of play.

Very often, one side comes out of the opening with space advantage; your pawns are more advanced, so it creates more opportunities for your pieces to maneuver, finding the good squares and building up an attack. But it’s not the end of the story. Space advantage is usually not enough to win a game; after that, you need to prove that it’s really valuable too.

The past lessons have been about some general ideas on how to defend. But, of course, everything in chess also depends on precise calculation. We see some interesting examples to test your calculation skill. It’s something you can train and improve. The deeper you can calculate, the stronger you become.

It’s very nice if you’re in a lost position for a very long time, and then you come up with an idea which is completely overlooked by your opponent. From my own experience, you can feel incredibly stupid about your own play, whenever you’re falling into such a trap. On the other hand, whenever you find a trap yourself, it can really bring a smile on your face. ☺