Keep the Initiative

There’s a chess strategy mentioned in many books called “keeping the initiative”. Beginners have no idea what this means. But don’t worry, even advanced players only have a vague idea what this means. It’s kind of a general statement of a mish-mash of other strategies. The “initiative” means the ability to play powerful moves, piece mobility, space advantage, to have control, to dictate the game, to have the opponent respond to your actions rather than you responding to their actions.

In practice, having the initiative means things like: control the center, choose active play (avoid passive play), try to play aggressive and attacking moves, don’t waste time with waiting moves, develop pieces quickly in the opening, and so on.

Related Chess Tactics

Read more about these related chess strategies:

• General Chess Strategies
• Attacking Strategies
• Active Play
• Passive Play
• Development
• Control the Center
• Waiting Moves