Beginners Gone Pro #2

BGP:   Space, and also the sub issue "How to get better at chess"

  In this 2nd issue of Beginners Gone Pro, I will discuss the importance of space. "Space" is the term describing the amount of squares one controls of his opponent's side. Examine the following position:

   Notice that White's center pawns remain uncontested (for now), and that Black seems to be keeping to his 1st - 3rd ranks  in development. This opening, known as the King's Indian Defense, is favored by many grandmasters, most notably Teimour Radjabov, and me, because of the struggle that ensues from the closing of the center - achieved after Black plays e5 or c5.  In this case, White's extra space only gives him a slight advantage, as Black is able to find a way to gain play - by pushing his pawn to e5 (as stated before) and forcing White to choose to capture on e5 (unusual) or push d5 (usually delayed 1 move).

In the next example, space plays a key role in the game, ultimately spelling the doom for Black:

Subissue: "How to get better at chess"

One of the most common questions in the beginner community is "How do I get better at chess?"  As we all have been there before, I can give you the steps that I took to transform my online chess rating from 1200 to 1800, all in 6 months or less.

1.  Take more times to think per move.  If you can eliminate blunders, and try looking for the best move every move, your rating should instantly rise to 1300 +

2. Go over grandmaster games. What I did was get obsessed and decided to go to chessgames.com for an hour a day and just go through games of former masters, mostly of Bobby Fischer, Teimour Radjabov, and others (Paul Morphy is the most exciting).

3. Pick a few openings (1 for white, 2 for black - against 1.d4 and 1.e4) to base your game around, and buy some chess books. While chess books are expensive, they are readily available in many used book stores (just check, you wouldn't believe!) and are the best way to learn not only openings, but the moves after the opening, basically the game itself!

4. Keep a good spirit and your love of chess - that always is most important. You gotta love something to get better at it!

shuttlechess92