Chess Tips and Tricks: Gaining Tempo

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In chess, tempo refers to time it takes for you to enact your plan. You lose tempo when you have to spend a move in order to respond to your opponent’s threats or attacks. You gain tempo when you move a piece and at the same time, attack one of your opponent’s pieces.

Another way to look at tempo is the amount of time it takes you to develop your pieces and move them in good squares where their potential can be used to its maximum effect. This is the reason why it is discouraged for you to move your queen out too early because it will be highly susceptible to attacks. You would have to keep moving your queen, thereby spending more turns in bringing it to safety rather than using those turns to get your pieces out or to bring your king to safety.

However, gaining tempo doesn’t always mean that you have the upper hand because in attacking your opponent’s pieces, there are other things that need to be taken into consideration.

For example, in the Alekhine’s Defense, White pushes Black’s knight around with his pawns, creating a massive center. This may seem imposing at first but then you see that White has left a lot of holes in his position where his pawns used to be. Black would later take advantage of those squares in order to establish outposts, target weaknesses, increase pressure on White’s camp, and eventually infiltrate with his pieces.

Not all tempo gains are advantageous as well. In the Scandinavian Defense, the Black queen is attacked early on in the opening. However, that doesn’t necessarily create any inconveniences for Black since his position is still very solid which will be his argument against White. Though he may have a slight lead in development, there are no weaknesses in the Black position to exploit thus, Black can have a comfortable game looking to equalize without any difficulty. White would then be forced to create imbalances in the position in order to maximize his opening advantage.

Perhaps the best point to gain tempo and make the most out of it would be during the middle game because that’s where all of your forces have been deployed and you are working toward bringing your strategy to fruition.

It would come in handy at the most opportune times which is why you have to be completely aware of all that’s happening on the board, so that by gaining tempo, it will provide you with the right impetus to start an attack and steamroll your opponents with the momentum that you have accumulated.

Another crucial moment that tempo would be very important is the endgame especially when you are faced with a position that would require precision and timing in order to draw or win. Most of the time, it comes down to calculation and proper technique in the endgame. There are resources out there that show you different scenarios which can happen in the endgame. The most basic of these position being a king and pawn versus a king wherein it would be a lot simple to calculate in your head. But it would be very difficult if you are in the wrong position.

Tempo is key when it comes to playing chess. If you don’t think about your moves and the different consequences, then you will find yourself being left behind. All tactics make use of tempo and incorporating them in your strategy would help you become stronger and improve. Having your pieces in the right squares and not wasting any of your turns would drastically change the outcomes of your games.