Using the knight

Hey everybody I'm farely new to chess about 2 months in. I was losing a lot until I started getting the hang of it now I win almost all my games. Having some feedback on my winning will help me as well. The real question I have is I hardly use my knights properly to there full effect. I wanna use the knights more effectively since they are a powerful. If someone can give me tips on using them or how I can Practice that would be great. The only way I find them effective is when I check the king and take the rook. Thank you

if you are new to chess- then probably you have more troubles seeing the knights move instantly than other peices.

the best way to address this issue of visualization is lots of tactic puzzles

 Well, that's a really broad question. Here are the general things that come to mind:

Other than tactics, minor pieces (knight and bishops) like to be centralized. Knight like outposts (a protected square where no enemy pawn can chase it away).

Minor pieces are also the 2nd best defender (the best is pawns) and the 2nd best attacker (the best being pawns). I say this because when a pawn attacks something it's forced to run away, but when a queen attacks something for example, as long as it's defended you can ignore it. So bringing knights (or bishops) into contact with weak pawns (either yours for defense, or your opponent's for attack) usually means you've given them a useful function. Especially pawns that are in the center. So knights on f3 and c3 (or f6 and c6 for black) are the most natural squares in the beginning.

A knight on f3 (f6 for black) or f1 (f8 for black) is often a good defender when you have castled kingside. When attacking the enemy king, sacrifices on any of the pawns near the king can be good to open lines.

They move in an 'L' shape.  Simple!

I understand the movement it's not like I can't move the knight there's a difference. I'm having trouble learning how to use the knight to full capacity such as traps.

Thank you everyone

If anyone has traps or cool tricks with the knight besides checking the king and taking rook please share

Try to create a checkmate position with only a knight and a rook against a king on an empty board. Well almost empty 'cept for those pieces.

When you finally find it you have discovered the so called arabian mate.

Sometimes just for fun when I promoted pawns, I would promote to a knight instead of a queen. You could try it against a weak computer setting I believe, get 3 knights, and checkmate the king. If this is hard try 4 knights. Its really just for fun, and helps learn the knight more effectively.

Another fun way to learn the knights more effectively, is setup the opponent with all his pawns, and his king, Against 2 knights, and your king with a few pawns, you may need 4 pawns to start with, but as you get more effective with your knights, and king working together, the fewer pawns you need to win. Start off in starting positions, for both sides.

When you can do it easily with your pawns on c2, d2, e2, and f2. start spacing them out, and varying starting positions for them, when you can win without any problem, raise the level of the computer.

Keep doing it till you have mastered it, then try with 3 pawns, all the way to one pawn if you can, which is extremely difficult depending on the computer's setting of course. If you do this, believe me you will be feared for your knight ability once you have mastered it. On a computers highest level you may not even be able to beat it with a single pawn, but you at least try to get a draw.

You can even start with a single pawn 1st, and try it on easy setting, it isn't as simple as people think.

One other thing I heard some people like to do sometimes, is one of their bishops, as a bishop, or a knight. Its both, and can change square color, but to do so must move as a knight 1st. Obviously this is a powerful piece, some put a rubber band around it to mark it as the jester, and call the piece that, its more powerful than a rook.

Both players have one. You can decide which bishop you want to make your jester.

Have fun, and good luck.

ok, well I don't doubt you know HOW the knight moves, yes and you can easily see all the knights moves.  yet the Peice is tricky, it coordinates well with other peices espacially if it can get close to the opponent position

for example take the basic trap of the russian

Thank you to everyone for there help God bless

I checked a couple of your games also. Your most recent, the one you won, you could have won sooner by taking his f8 knight with your rook, instead of bishop. That was checkmate, I guess you were worried about your bishop being captured, but it was check, and mate if your rook would have captured the knight instead.

The game you lost. You should have moved your bishop to c6 not e6. You could have then moved your knight to d7 then, and your b pawn wouldn't have been vulnerable.

Which enabled him to build his attack on you. You don't really want to attack until you have as many of your pieces aimed at the opponents king as possible, also your c6 bishop would have been aiming right at his kingside pawn, check that position out. Also moving Pg6 was ok,  but you should have moved your king to g7 after moving it. It would have prevented Bh6, which was the beginning of the end for you.

With proper knight play even after that you could have prevented mate. By going to h5 then g7 blocking the bishop, check out those positions on a board, and you'll see. Also if you can get CC's computer to analyse it, I am sure it will also give you more insights. Best of luck in the future.

A knight works particularly well with the queen.  For much of the game it is said that knights work better from behind pawns rather than in front of them.  In principle a knight is better placed in the centre of the board (where it attacks eight squares) than on the edge where it attacks four ("a knight on the rim is dim").

You have understood the fork, where the knight attacks two pieces at once.  This is the main "trap" and building awareness of when this situation already exists in your games or can be brought about is part of developing tactical awareness.

The knight moves more slowly across the board than bishops or rooks or the queen, taking several moves to go from one side of the board to the other.  Which is a drawback.  Having two bishops when your opponent has two knights or a knight and a bishop is generally a slight advantage for this reason.  But in a closed position (one in which no pawns have been exchanged) the knight can find a way through a congested position better than other pieces and can be markedly superior to a bishop.

It is a fun piece and when you manage to spring a surprise on your opponent it is quite often a knight move that is involved.

Good luck integrating the knights into your play.

More than any other piece the knight can surprise you with unexpected maneuvers and threats so that even very strong players may overlook its powers.  Even Kramnik once missed a 1 move checkmate on h7 with Q guarded by N. I'd guess that  the  unusual position of the N on f8 was a factor.

I often overlook the opportunities for my opponent's knights in blitz games (not that I am claiming the be amongst the very strong players). The knights do less well against me in slow games where there is more time to check out tactical possibilities.  Things might be different for a player with better developed intuition.

I was being sarcastic :) I am sure you can move the chess pieces.

Good luck on your exploration of the knight!

Thank you everyone for the help

0110001101101000 wrote:

 Well, that's a really broad question. Here are the general things that come to mind:

Other than tactics, minor pieces (knight and bishops) like to be centralized. Knight like outposts (a protected square where no enemy pawn can chase it away).

Minor pieces are also the 2nd best defender (the best is pawns) and the 2nd best attacker (the best being pawns). I say this because when a pawn attacks something it's forced to run away, but when a queen attacks something for example, as long as it's defended you can ignore it. So bringing knights (or bishops) into contact with weak pawns (either yours for defense, or your opponent's for attack) usually means you've given them a useful function. Especially pawns that are in the center. So knights on f3 and c3 (or f6 and c6 for black) are the most natural squares in the beginning.

A knight on f3 (f6 for black) or f1 (f8 for black) is often a good defender when you have castled kingside. When attacking the enemy king, sacrifices on any of the pawns near the king can be good to open lines.

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Good stuff from Binary....thanks!