King safety

Most successful attacks in club games are not brilliant. They work because the defending king was left in the centre, or because the pawns in front of it were pushed, or because the pieces that should have been near it were somewhere else. Take those three away and most attacks simply do not exist.

Castle, early, by move ten

The king in the centre is the target of every open file and diagonal the middlegame will create. Castling takes it out of the traffic and connects the rooks in one move. The question is not whether, but when: as soon as the centre could open. If the position is closed and nothing can open it, you can wait. If either side can play a pawn break in the centre, castle first.

The pawn shield

The three pawns in front of the castled king are the shield. The rule for them is simple: do not move them unless you have a reason you can say out loud. The reasons that count:

• Luft, one square for the king, when a heavy piece can reach your back rank (the back rank article).
• Stopping a piece. h3 to keep a knight off g4 or a bishop off the pin. Legitimate, and usually cheap.
• A pawn storm when the kings are castled on opposite sides. Then your kingside pawns are attackers, not a shield, and the race is who arrives first.

The reasons that do not count: “gaining space”, “it looks active”, “I did not have another move”. Each pawn you push creates a square the opponent's pieces can use and one they can no longer be evicted from.

Keep a defender home

A king with no pieces near it is a king with only pawns to hide behind. The classic defender is a knight on f3 or f6; it covers h2/h7 and g5/g4 and blocks the long diagonal. Before you send that knight on an adventure on the other wing, look at what arrives at your king while it is away.

The three moments the rules are wrong

1. Queens are off. With no queens, the king is a fighting piece. Leave it in the centre, walk it towards the action. Castling in a queenless middlegame is often a wasted move.

2. The centre is locked. If the pawn structure means nothing can open in the middle, the king is safe there for a while and you may need the rook on the other file. Do not castle out of habit into an attack.

3. Opposite-side castling. Then the shield rule inverts: push the pawns in front of their king, keep the ones in front of yours, and count tempi. The side that opens a file first usually wins.

The tell

Your king has been in the centre past move ten and a central pawn break is possible. Or you have pushed two of the three shield pawns and the opponent still has a queen and a bishop pointing that way.

The habit

At move ten, and again whenever the opponent moves a piece towards your king: "Where is my king, and what is between it and their pieces?" If the answer is “the centre” or “one pawn”, fix it before you do anything else.