Offense/Defense against a Knight

I have a lot to learn. I am on my 6th game now. I won 3 and lost 2.

I did about 3 months of study before my first game.

I looked through my notes, and I do not see anything that suggests how to use offense or defense against a Knight. I know not to position my pieces so they could be forked, but other than that, I don't know the best strategy.

If I could get advice, I would be most grateful.

Thank You

My advice is to play more games.

ivandh's advice is probably the best.  As far as specifics against knights, they are mostly dangerous when they get in close in the heart of your position.  The best thing to do is to keep this from happening in the first place.  Be aware of where your opponent's knights could infiltrate your position and keep those squares guarded by pieces or pawns. 

knights can sometimes get across the board faster than you might think.  look for jumps that threaten major pieces, causing them to move to protect their piece and allowing the knight to have an unanswered move.  if a knight is attacking any other piece on the board besides another knight, it can't be killed by that piece.

Are you familiar with The Knight's Tour?  It isn't a cure-all for everything dealing with offense/defense concerning the knight, but it has helped me in the past when I was struggling with the knight movements, and I still enjoy exercising my ability with the knigth by playing it.  

If you are not familiar with it, go to: http://www.borderschess.org/KnightTour.htm

I am interested in your comment about it.

First, it's good to notice that the knight changes it's square color on every move.  So if a knight checks you and you're on a white square, if you move to another white square it's impossible for it to check you on the next turn.  Also, maybe you notice a weak pawn is on a light square, can the enemy knight sitting on a light square move to attack it?  If it can't in 1 move, then it will take at least 3. 

Next, draw a 5x5 grid and mark the center square with the number 0.  Pretend it's a knight.  Now label each square with the number of fewest moves it takes a knight to reach.  One thing you'll notice is to move two squares diagonally takes a minimum of 4 moves -- this can save you time and trouble in a game trying to calculate a fast rout... if you automatically know it will take 4 moves, then unless you have lots of extra time you know it's just not going to happen.

Those are the basics.  Then you should know that while bishops like long and clear diagonals, and rooks like open files, knights like outposts.  An outpost is a forward position protected by a pawn.  A good outpost will either be on a square that no enemy pawn can advance to attack, or the enemy pawns have already moved past thus making what's called a "hole" in the enemy position.  A knight on an outpost on the 5th rank (close to the action) is sometimes noted to be worth 4 or so points, and on the 6th rank (close to the action) sometimes as much as a rook.

To play against knights we have the old rule, take away their squares/outposts.  Be careful when moving pawns and creating the "holes" -- be aware if an enemy knight could hop in and cause you grief.

And if you're in an endgame where you have major pieces, you can avoid royal forks (from a knight) to an extent by not keeping your major pieces (and your king) on squares of the same colour. (Because as orangehonda pointed out, all squares a knight can move to are of the opposite colour from the one it's standing on; i.e. all squares it attacks from a single position are the same colour.)

First, it's good to notice that the knight changes it's square color on every move.  So if a knight checks you and you're on a white square, if you move to another white square it's impossible for it to check you on the next turn.  Also, maybe you notice a weak pawn is on a light square, can the enemy knight sitting on a light square move to attack it?  If it can't in 1 move, then it will take at least 3. 

Next, draw a 5x5 grid and mark the center square with the number 0.  Pretend it's a knight.  Now label each square with the number of fewest moves it takes a knight to reach.  One thing you'll notice is to move two squares diagonally takes a minimum of 4 moves -- this can save you time and trouble in a game trying to calculate a fast rout... if you automatically know it will take 4 moves, then unless you have lots of extra time you know it's just not going to happen.

Those are the basics.  Then you should know that while bishops like long and clear diagonals, and rooks like open files, knights like outposts.  An outpost is a forward position protected by a pawn.  A good outpost will either be on a square that no enemy pawn can advance to attack, or the enemy pawns have already moved past thus making what's called a "hole" in the enemy position.  A knight on an outpost on the 5th rank (close to the action) is sometimes noted to be worth 4 or so points, and on the 6th rank (close to the action) sometimes as much as a rook.

To play against knights we have the old rule, take away their squares/outposts.  Be careful when moving pawns and creating the "holes" -- be aware if an enemy knight could hop in and cause you grief.

Hi i had to Register to this site just to thank you. I was playing with stockfish and suffered a devastating 2 knights attack, i felt really helpless , so i googled " how to defend from knight " . This site poped up, and i could read your post. This is probably the most helpfull and practical advice i read on the subject. So even if it's more than 10 years later, i really appreciate the way you explained it so i could grasp that concept. Again i wanted to thank you for it. Have a nice day.

Rolest, 3 months of prep before starting a game is nuts.

That's like reading books about soccer before starting to play - it's not going to help you much.
You just have to get on there. Right now.

Chess is learned on the board.

Maybe you're afraid of losing or being scorned, but who cares. It's part of it.
Learn to lose before you can win. After all, losing is nothing but learning how to beat the opponent.

There are 1,000s of possible defenses against 'a knight'.  It depends on the specific position. Keeping a knight close to your king is generally a good defensive idea. And instead of defense, always look for offensive ideas first to see if your attack is worth more than his/hers.

I also had this problem. Here is the best video I found about how to defend from a knight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAQCLIA_gMQ

"How to STOP falling for KNIGHT forks" by "NM Robert Ramirez" from youtube. Great video.

Knights land on a different color square every time they move. A Knight on a light square will always move to a dark square, and vice versa.

If your King and Queen are on different colored squares... one on light and one on dark... then there is no way an enemy Knight can fork them.

Another anti-Knight tip is that there is a safe square two squares away diagonally from the enemy Knight, where he will find it almost impossible to attack you.