* Remember:
1. every position is capable of being ruined
2. minor details can affect the outcome
3. if there is only one way you can lose, make sure you secure against it
4. if the position changes, re-assess your previous conclusions
5. actively search for danger as a routine part of your choice of move

* You mustn't ignore genuine threats, but don't be panicked or distracted by them - especially when faced with a King's-side attack [when you must pursue your own attack with extra vigour.]. Don't worry needlessly, resulting in panic and retreat - you need to keep active and keep counterplay.

* In particular, don't panic and refuse sacrificed material that you could have for free. Don't decline "on principle". This is declining from fear, not knowledge. Play the strongest move, which may well be to take the material and make your opponent prove their judgement was correct.

* Don't allow counterplay, e.g. a Pawn race, a counterattack against the other wing, if you don't have to. Defensive play is difficult, and playing the downside of a position without active chances of your own is doubly so. [Many of the best players are masters at snuffing out the opponent's plans.]

* Patience is a virtue. Good nerves are essential: this doesn't mean you shouldn't ever feel nervous during a game (boy, do I wish I could manage that!) but that you should not let your nervousness tempt you to poor decisions: e.g. make back away from a critical line, or make you try to force the issue too soon.

* If you stand worse:
o Fight, don't just react to threats. Mednis calls passive play "awaiting the undertaker"! It is much harder for the attacker to keep their nerve if the defender has active play, and without counterplay your opponent will just keep building up their position. It used to be said of Alekhine that to beat him you had to win three games - once in the opening, once in the middlegame, and once in the endgame. Make the same be true for you.
o Don't stop looking for your own opportunities. Many games have been lost that could have been drawn or even won (don't I know it!). But also, people resign with a saving move available on the board - they were just going through the motions until resigning, instead of planning their comeback.
o Never give up. There is always hope if you fight. Don't play for one last cheap trap and then resign. Play the move that will make your opponent groan, the move you would hate to see if you had the advantage. Defend with endless determination.
o If your best hope is for your opponent to fall into a trap, then you can play for a swindle, but only when you know you are losing. Otherwise, play good moves, not trappy ones.

* Everyone is vulnerable. Play without fear. Play to win from the first move against every opponent. That doesn't mean, attack like a mad thing from move 1, but each move should be played accurately and seriously.

Good players drop games to lesser lights every year - make sure it's you that they drop them to.

The best way to get a draw is to play as well and actively as possible, just the same as if you were trying to win!

* When playing weaker players, don't go for the throat, don't try to bamboozle your opponent in a complex position (you might get lost too!); instead, play steadily and wait for a mistake - in fact, don't try to jump all over their first mistake, you can wait for another mistake to turn up. If your opponent is only a bit weaker than you, you may need to mix things up a bit, but generally the message is 'steady does it'.

* If you have a space advantage (or any other long-term advantage, like the Bishop pair), don't rush to attack. Milk your advantages - don't feel obliged to cash in immediately. You should not try to force the issue, but rather maintain or increase your advantage while preventing counterplay. Don't lash out justy becaiuse you feel there ought to be a winning combination by now. Avoid exchanges and build up your position so that when things do come to a head the situation is at its most favourable to you.

* Good positions don't win games - good moves do. Silman says, "Make good things happen". Play with a positive plan (although part of your plan might be prevention). The initiative goes to the side than can devise and (at least threaten to) put into action a realistic plan.

* Your plan must be based on the actual features of the position. Work out what each side should be up to. You can't attack the King just because you want to. Play where you have some advantage. Silman talks about the 'pawn-pointing' rule: you have more space to attack where the Pawn-chains point. This is also true for blocked positions, like the French where opening a file with ...c7-c5 will not leave you with a backward Pawn as does ...f7-f6.

Don't play a move with a one-move threat that can be easily stopped.

"Play a move which improves your position no matter what." - SILMAN

But don't dither - decide what your basic choices are at the start - narrow it down to the two or three most likely - and decide. [If you know which plan you are following the moves can come fairly easily.] If you get it down to two moves which look equally good, find some other way of deciding between them (most centralising, least forcing for your opponent...). [You know the story of Buridan's ass, which died of starvation between two equal-sized piles of hay because it never could choose which one to start on].

Rules are meant to be broken (or, at least, checked to see if they apply in the actual position in front of you!)

Quiet positions demand patience. They are not to be abandoned as a draw or played carelessly - you must learn to concentrate and outplay your opponent in these positions as well as when it's very tactical.

Dynamic positions require energetic play. You must make the most of your own chances, and not just react to threats or coast along until you have to do something.

Decentralising is always suspicious, particularly for knights, but also for long-range pieces like Queens. This is a corollary of Stean's assertion that the most important feature of any position is the activity of the pieces, since pieces are most active in the centre.

* An attack on the wing is best met by play in the centre.

* QUEEN: Not very useful right at the start, because it may be harassed, but always powerful. Place it near the centre in the opening, behind the minor pieces - e2,d2 or f2/c2 are good squares - ready to jump out to make a raid in combination with other pieces. After some pieces have been exchanged, or you have a clear advantage, you can move the Queen further towards the little centre (e4,d4,e5,d5).

* ROOK: Rooks must have open lines. This may take some time to arrange, and because they can be chased by minor pieces they are best place in waiting (like the Queen) on the central e- and d-files. Later, they can move strongly up the board using these central files - for example, in the middle game, to e3 and then move over to g3 to help attack the Black King, or right up to the seventh rank on e7 or d7, where it can attack pawns right along the opponent's second rank. This control of the seventh rank is very powerful, particularly in the endame if your opponent's King is stuck on the last rank (a8-h8). Rooks work even better in pairs - for example, by putting them on e1 and e2 they can control the e-file and then often Black cannot swap off by playing their own Rook to e8. Even stronger is to control the seventh rank absolutely with eg. Rook on d7 and e7, where they can gobble up pawns and often Ks.

* Open files are precious. If there is one around, with Rooks on the board, you must seek to control or challenge it. Particularly in open positions, control of files is paramount.

* Very often the first priority in the early middle game in closed positions is to see where you can open a file. (Like in the French defence: after 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Black should immediately see about opening up space on the Queen's-side with 3...c5.)

* BISHOP: like the Rook, also needs open lines. The long diagonals a1-h8 and h1-a8 are useful, but often it is more important to point them at your opponent's King's-side , for example, by putting them on c4 and e3. Two bishops side by side can be very powerful in attacking from a distance, for example on b2 and c2.

* Knights need to be near the centre and forward; they thrive on outposts (whether absolute = can't be dislodged by a Pawn, or relative, like on f5, when a pawn move (...g6) would weaken the opponent's position).

* The struggle of Bishop(s) against Knight(s) is crucial: the Bishops are not always better but in all positions you must strive to make your minor piece(s) better, or make the position suit them more.

* If you have the Bishop pair you must try to open up lines for them, and deny the opposing Knights any central posts.

* If the pieces don't suggest what plan you must adopt, the Pawns will.

* Pawn structures usually have positive and negative features, e.g. every doubled Pawn yields a (half)-open file.