Chess Prophylaxis: Preventive Strategies

Stop Your Opponent Before They Start
 Master Chess Prophylaxis

Feeling overwhelmed by your opponent's threats?
 Wish there was a way to shut down their plans before they even get off the ground?

 This guide introduces you to Chess Prophylaxis, a powerful strategy used by top players to think ahead and make moves that prevent your opponent from attacking or gaining an advantage.

  Learn from articles, puzzles, and video lessons by Chess Masters, and discover how to control the flow of the game with proactive thinking. Take your chess to the next level and become a master of prevention!

The term prophylaxis comes from the Greek προφύλαξις, profýlaxis, "guarding or preventing beforehand".

Chess Prophylaxis Wikipedia Page - Just a General Description

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Prophylaxis Chess Articles

• The Art of Prophylaxis in Chess - Nice Chessable Blog Article - w/Embedded Johan Hellston Video - Examples of Opening, Middlegame and Endgame Prophylaxis w/ Model game.
  
  
• Prophylaxis – Learn from Anatoly Karpov - Nice article w/example games - GM Swapnil Dhopade Blog on LiChess
  
  
• Prophylaxis - Chessworld Article by WGM Raluca Sgircea, IM Renier Castellanos - How it works w/ 3 Detailed games.

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Prophylaxis LiChess Studies

Explore interactive training tools to solidify your understanding of the concepts.

• PROPHYLAXIS - 11 Chapter study (120 Hearts) - Examples in the Opening, Middlegame and Endgame.
  
  
• Endgame Tactics Prophylaxis - 24 Chapter Study (Use the Computer to solve Positions)
  
  
• Prophylaxis - 10 Chapter Interactive Study (Looking at Opening, Middle game and Endgame Examples)

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Chess Prophylaxis Video Lessons

IM Andrey Ostrovskiy

• Improve your Chess with Prophylaxis | Part 1 | Prophylactic Thinking | IM Andrey Ostrovskiy - 18 Min - Dive into the topic of prophylaxis. Prophylactic thinking in chess
• Improve your Chess with Prophylaxis | Part 2 | Prophylactic Thinking | - 17 Min -  This time we draw our attention to the importance of the active prophylaxis.
• Improve your Chess with Prophylaxis | Part 3 | Prophylactic Thinking | - 15 min - Will focus on how prophylactic thinking helps to reduce your opponent’s resources and at the same time increases your advantage.

GM Sune Berg Hansen.

• Prophylaxis in Chess - The Prevention Strategy - A GM Tool - 21 min - GM Talks - Sune gets to play a nice prophylactic game in the Swedish League against a strong IM. Nice Carlsbad Pawn Structure Lesson as well.
• The Hidden Art of Prophylaxis: Transform Your Game With This Strong Chess Tool - 22 min - GM Talks - The various prophylactic moves are explained in depth in this video from the highest level. Nepomniachtchi, Ian vs. Ding, Liren
• Use Prophylaxis As Your Weapon Of Dark Empathy To Destroy Your Opponents - 20 min - GM Talks - Another World Championship Game.
• Magnus Carlsen dominated Hikaru Nakamura with a strong concept: Prophylactic Thinking! - 20 Min -GM Talks -  This is a small masterpiece and very instructive.

St.Louis Chess Club

• Prophylaxis and Dynamics | Grandmaster's Choice - GM JJ Ali Marandi - 56 min - Prophylaxis is the prevention of your opponent's ideas. See JJ's own games that demonstrate prophylaxis.
• Prophylaxis: Chess Prevention | Strategy Session - WGM Sabina Foisor - 53 min -  Shows examples of prophylaxis, which like medicine, is preventive care in chess. See moves that stop an opponent from following through with a plan.
• Chess Prophylaxis | Strategy Session with Jonathan Schrantz - 26 Min - Prophylactic moves preventing the opponent from taking action somewhere on the board w/ 4 Example Games.

Grand Master RB Ramesh - Learn Chess the right way! - Prophylactic thinking and Prophylaxis - 2hr 7 Min - Live Stream with one of the top Chess Coaches in the World.

Understanding Prophylaxis - Play Like a Master! - IM Valeri Lilov - 60 Min

Defense Mastery with IM Mat Kolosowski - Chapter 1 Prophylaxis - 26 Min

How to Think in Chess: 🤔 Prophylactic Thinking with GM Artur Yusupov & GM Jan Gustafsson - 24 min - Takes two excellent games of GM Sergey Dolmatov to explain the details behind the way of thinking that will catapult your chess knowledge.

Prophylaxis against Pawn Levers - Strategic Planning | Chess Middlegame | GM Alex Lenderman - 20 Min

Live Stream: Chess Prophylaxis - Chess Strategy with IM Valeri Lilov - 23 Min - , IM Valeri Lilov will teach you how to think prophylactically. Ask yourself every move "what does my opponent want to do?” is only the first step. Next, you need the ability to find a good move that prevents the opponent from carrying out that plan!

Chess Strategy: Prophylaxis - 12 Min - Chess website

Destroy Your Opponents With the Magic of Chess Prophylaxis - 7 Min

Chess Lesson # 82: Prophylaxis - 15 Min - NM Rober Ramirez - We are going to start with a few positions to make sure you understand prophylaxis in its simplest form and then we are going to analyze one of Capablanca’s games where he took this idea to a whole new level.

Chess Strategy: Prophylactic Thinking - 17 Min - Remote Chess Academy - Manuel Ocantos will show you some examples of prophylactic moves in the chess openings Benoni Defense and the Ruy Lopez. He also shows you a couple of interesting games played by Karpov, Kasparov, and Nimzowitsch.

Pro Chess Training - GM Surya Ganguly explains Importance of Prophylaxis - 26 Min

Svitlana's Smart Moves - The prophylactic moves - 50 min - ChessBase - Svitlana shows us the smartest moves in difficult situations, and explains how to approach a rough position like this.

Chess Stream #108 A Lesson in Prophylaxis - 91 Min - GM Simon Williams - A lesson from a stream with Bjorn (about 1700 ELO) in 'prophylaxis'. Prophylactic moves are aimed at not just improving one's position but preventing the opponent from improving their own.

GM Alex Lenderman: Prophylactic Thinking | U.S. Chess School - 41 Min - intro to Prophylactic Thinking and 10 Examples.

Online Chess Survival! : Prophylaxis as a way of surviving on the chess board as long as possible! - 15 min - kingscrusher

Instructive Prophylaxis discussion! King Safety moves such as Kh1 and Kb1-a1 - 14 min -kingscrusher

Back to our favorite theme, prophylaxis - 12 Min - GM Irina Krush

CTCA Advanced - Prophylactic Thinking - 88 Mins - Cape Town Chess Academy - Recording of CTCA Advanced session presented by Dione Goredema. 17/6/2021