Do not exchange pieces unless you obtain an advantage by doing it, but when you have an advantage, then do it as often as possible. Sometimes you can with advantage give an M for an N or an O.
If one of your men is attacked and you cannot defend it, then try to make a counter-attack, and always consider the subsequent moves. Do not always take a piece which is offered to you, but consider the consequences.
If your L and another officer (M, N, or O) be attacked, and you can save the former but not the latter, then you will do well, if you can, to give the L for two minor officers, and then save your officer.
When you have a passed P, try to preserve it and to protect it by P’s. A P in the sixth or seventh row well supported is generally worth an officer.
Towards the end of the game you must use your K as an attacking officer. Keep it from an adverse O, so that it cannot easily be checked—that is, so that it stands in the same diagonal with one square intervening.
When each of you is left with an N and two or three P’s, then the game, as a rule, is easily drawn if the N’s stand on squares of different colours. Your K should generally be kept on a square of a different colour from that on which the adverse N stands. Let your P’s and N protect one another if you are afraid of losing, but keep the P’s on squares of a different colour when you wish to prevent the adverse K from coming near them.
Do not exchange an N for an O indiscriminately, for an N can impede the march of P’s more readily than an O. And when the major officers are off, remember that two N’s are stronger than an N and an O, or two O’s. Prevent an isolation and doubling of your P’s, for two of them protect each other against the K if the topmost is a passed one and no officer left. You can often give your last officer for one or two P’s, for these latter may win, whilst a minor officer very rarely can. Two P’s in the sixth row win, in most cases, against an M.
Lastly, when you are about to give mate, be mindful of stalemate.