[1] A player with the initiative will often seek to maneuver their pieces into more and more advantageous positions as they launch successive attacks.
The player who lacks the initiative may seek to regain it through counterattack.
Due to moving first, White starts the game with the initiative,[2] but it can be lost in the opening by accepting a gambit.
Players can also lose initiative by making unnecessary moves that allow the opponent to gain tempo, such as superfluous "preventive" (prophylactic) moves intended to guard against certain actions by the opponent, that nonetheless require no specific response by them.
Grandmaster Larry Evans considers four elements of chess: pawn structure, force (material), space (controlling the center and piece mobility), and time.