Lesson #12: Counting

We returned back to basics with some simple exercises counting the number of attackers and defenders. In the simplest case:

• if you are defending and have at least as many defenders as your opponent has attackers, you are safe
• if you are attacking, you need more attackers than your opponent has defenders to move in

But what about other considerations? What are the value of the pieces? What about any intermediate checks? We borrowed from a nice website I found:

http://www.chessfornovices.com/chesscountingexercises1.html

http://www.chessfornovices.com/chesscountingexercises2.html

which summarizes nicely:

We've learned a number of important lessons through these exercises:

• The number of attackers and defenders matters.

• The value of the attackers and defenders matters.

• The order of the attackers and defenders matters.

• You aren't forced to play out exchanges right to the end.

I encourage you to visit the chessfornovices.com website links above to support their work. But here also is a condensed printout of the puzzles presented: