Relating Football to Chess

Hello Everybody,

I love the game of football.  Since I am a new student to the game of chess, I thought I would try to incorporate a football tactic.  As we all know, if you keep tremendous pressure on a quarterback, it will force him to make mistakes.  Is being aggressive and keeping solid, constant pressure effective?  Just trying to find a way to play against people who like to be conservative and break their defenses.

Chess is open to many playing styles.  That's one of the reasons it's so popular.

Well, if you can achieve and maintain the initiative that is basically the same thing as putting constant pressure on the quaterback.

( I love football too!!)

yes, it's very true, if you keep playing strong consistantly and keep adding on pressure then your opponent is most likely to blunder if he already has the bad position. finding analogies between chess and other stuff in life is easy, making good moves is hard...

Chess is...like chess. There is no substitute.

That's a central tactic in chess too. Find a weak spot, or a spot where there is deadlock, and slam every piece into that single square until your opponent blunders or loses material in the end. It's why getting the rooks on the center files and getting knights in the center to block pawns is so important/widely applied. In fact, now that I think of it, chess and football share many commonalities. Pawns and freshmen are the same - expendable but possible to promote :D

Nevertheless, I like both games, and constant pressure is always a good tactic.

Thanks for the tips!

On different sides of the Atlantic football means different things.  Just so we are all talking about the same thing...

College football is best..But anyway, think of your opponents king as the quarterback. Put pressure on him, sack him, etc..You'll figure it out.

Christoph25

Well chess is like football in that if you move fast and strong, you should be able to sack the QB. However, the main difference between chess and football is that in football your team comes out of the huddle already assembled and ready for action.

In the chess, the opening move is like leaving the huddle: you have to assemble your line before you can press your attack. If you decide to rush in with just a few pieces, you'll run into an army and a brick wall. And for the remainder of the game, you'll be the one playing defense.

Some chess/Gridiron Football analogies for you...

Pawns are lineman, often underappreciated but play a critical role and can often determine the winner of the game. The bishops and rooks are like wide receivers, they are long range threats. Knights are like tight ends, more of a short range, special situation option. The Queen is the halfback, whose versatility can beat the opponent in a number of ways. The king is the quarterback, very important and needs a lot of protection.

Aggressively pressuring the king may work... assuming the defense doesn't pick up the blitz. Also, if you're too busy going after the king, a WR or RB may bust a long play deep for a touchdown/checkmate. And a single play/move has the possibility of determining the winner of the game.

Amazing! Great analogies. It's all coming together for me now.  I just need practice..and lots of it. Thanks for your help and input everybody.

Balding referees are really hard boiled eggs with feet. They get all hot under the collar after only three minutes.

 Or what about all out attack without necessarily paying as much attention to being solid at the beginning? Give away a piece and make your opponent pay before he can make his material advantage count for anything!

http://www.chess.com/groups/forumview/halloween-gambit4

This has a lot to do with football.  But there are some problems with this.  For example, positional play is ignored because the defenders can not pick up the wide receivers long enough.  Also, football does not take the loss of material into account