Goals During A Game

I talked to an adult improver just picking up chess recently.

He asked: besides “checkmate opponent’s king” as the end goal, what are the intermediate goals to go after during a game?

Here’s my answer.

1. Capture opponent’s pieces (similar goal as checkers) with tactics or taking advantage of opponent’s blunders.
2. Learn checkmate patterns to go after opponent’s king when opportunity strikes
3. Improve our pieces and limit opponent’s piece activity.
4. Combine all of the above to win pieces and eventually checkmate.

For Chess 1000 Students, 1) and 2) are enough. Board vision (long range captures) and pattern recognitions (tactics and checkmate patterns).

Make these as the smaller goals before each move and we’re making progress in each game.