10 Tips on how to become a better chess player

1) Fight for the central squares. “One of the laws in chess is that a flank attack is usually met by an attack in the center and beginners very much like to attack at the flanks and move their rooks out, and against an even slightly experienced opponent that is going to backfire pretty badly, because they will play in the center and soon they will control the whole board.”

2) On every move, check whether any of your or your opponent’s pieces are unprotected. “It’s amazing how far that will get you. Also look out for any checks in the position, because if there is a check in may be checkmate.”

3) Play white. “If you have the first move, the price of a mistake is much lower. So if you have the first move you can make a mistake and still be in the game. If you’re playing black and you made a mistake you’re likely going to be out, just because of that half-move advantage.”

4) Remember patterns rather than individual moves. “Good players actually use their long-term memory much more than inexperienced players, who use their short-term memory. Good players try to recall patterns, something familiar about this position that can tell you something that helps you. More inexperienced players who don’t recognize those patterns have to start anew in every position. As you get some experience in chess you can easily visualize the board in your head, and then seeing far ahead is not very difficult.”

5) Don’t sit for the full game. “Whenever it’s your opponent’s move, as long as you don’t leave the playing hall, you can basically do whatever you want. You can walk away. In general I don’t think you can keep full concentration for very long. I couldn’t bear to sit there for seven hours.”

6) Don’t overthink a move. “If I’m thinking for more than 20 minutes about one move, it’s usually a waste. Sometimes you can come up with some amazing solution but most of the time you just end up looping: you consider a move, you reject it, then you’re desperate, you come back to the move, you don’t remember why you rejected it, you have to make a move so you make it – then your opponent replies and you remember why you rejected it. The longest wait I ever did between moves was one hour and five minutes – and the move was horrible.”

7) Have a poker face. “You can’t look too annoyed or they’ll look for the mistake you’ve made. A lot of the time it’s about looking for these opportunities and if you give them a clue, the good players will find it.”

8) Don’t just play online. “It’s a good way to start but eventually you need human guidance.”

9) Learn some checkmating techniques. “Once you’ve outplayed your opponent and you’ve grabbed basically all of their pieces, you still need to find a way to checkmate, otherwise the probability in the game ending in a stalemate is pretty high. It’s frustrating not to be able to checkmate so knowing some basic techniques, like checkmating with a queen and a rook, is very useful.”

10) Learn the scholar’s mate – then let it go. “The scholar’s mate, or the fool’s mate, is when you bring out your queen and bishop and attack your opponent’s bishop pawn in front of the king. At a beginner’s level it’s the simplest, fastest and most effective way to try and checkmate, but against an experienced opponent it won’t work: your pieces will be driven back and your opponent will gain the advantage.”

By Magnus Carlsen