Over the many centuries that Chess has been around, players have compiled large compendiums describing the "ideal" strategies and techniques that can be used. Major tournaments are likely to feature announcers who describe them with fancy names, like the Catalan Opening, Alekhine's Gun, or the Sicilian Defense.

All of this can make the game seem very imposing and complicated, but the fact is that many of these more complicated schemes are built on several simple tactics, some of which are described below.

A decent understanding of these tactics will do a new player more good than any of those lengthy tomes, as you can learn to build these tricks into more complicated ones on your own.