With the Chess Punks Tournament Final just 3 days away, we wrap up our Coach's Corner series. 

We're interviewing each of the 8 coaches preparing the players for the final showdown, soliciting their top chess improvement tips. Our last (but certainly not least!) featured coach is FIDE Master Kamil Plichta.

FM Plichta is a master opening theoretician, blitz chess specialist, and popular Chessable author. His blitz triumphs include knocking out such giants as Hikaru Nakamura, Vladislav Artemiev, and even Magnus Carlsen. 

Yes, that's right - this guy knows his stuff! So without further ado, here is Kamil's chess improvement advice: 

What's your coaching philosophy?

Most importantly, my job as a coach is to help and I give 110% of myself to be able to help. My help is dependent on the needs of specific students. I never do the same thing with two different players and I always adjust my approach individually. I truly believe in teaching/learning in a good atmosphere and I always try to create a friendly environment. In general, when a student has a will to work, then my main job is to guide him/her in the right direction, but most of the work is done by the student. Some people think that it is enough to have 1-2 hours weekly with a coach and no other work has to be done. It is just a waste of time. The vast majority of work has to be done by the player himself. 

Suppose a player only has 3 hours a week for chess training. How should they spend their time?

It is impossible to answer this question with 100% certainty that it will serve all players. We are all different and every single person will have different aspects of the game that require a lot of work. In general, those 3 hours should be divided into working on the weakest and strongest points for sure and a lot of time has to be spent on analyzing games played by the student (preferably classical and rapid games). 

What is the biggest factor for improvement for players under 1200 (Chess.com)? Under 2000?

U1200: God forbids spending more than 1 hour a week on openings. In general, unless your rating is at least 1500-1600+ on Chess.com, you should base your games on opening rules, not on knowledge of specific variations. There is just a very limited number of variations that you should know by heart, but all the rest can be played basing the game on opening principles such as taking the center, quick castling, not moving the same pieces twice, not pawn grabbing, not developing the queen too early, etc. 

Note that even if you lose in the opening from time to time, it is because you broke one (or a few) of the above rules in 99% of cases. If your rating is under 1200, you will lose the vast majority of your games because of blunders. The best way to get better is to acknowledge the opening rules, play according to them and spend a lot of time doing quality puzzles. Tactics trainer on Chess.com is a great tool. 

U2000: You can spend more time on openings, but don't go crazy. You should still spend a lot of training on tactics. If your rating crossed around 1700, you should definitely be familiar with checkmating patterns. I strongly recommend a Chessable course The Checkmate Patterns Manual by CraftyRaf. It teaches you one of the most important skills: how to end the game with a tactical sequence without giving your rival a chance to defend. You should also spend some time on basic endgames. 100 Endgames You Must Know is a good start and you shouldn't learn the whole thing, just the 15-20 most important basic endgames. Also, checking your games with a good coach when he quickly notices your weaknesses is invaluable and works on all levels. 

What is your preferred way to improve at tactics and strategy?

Tactics: Tactics training, quality puzzles, and chess studies also help with calculation and visualization a lot. I believe that checking the games with the engine doesn't improve your tactics because engines will show you WHERE you made a mistake but won't show you WHY. It is way more important to see the pattern and understand why mistakes have been made. I noticed that players tend to miss tactical opportunities when playing on autopilot and without putting longer thought into the game. 

Strategy: analyzing games with a good coach, checking annotated games from the past (when computers did not influence the game and the games were more "human" and plan-based). Ideally, check the games by some strong player, annotated by that player. I love the sries Lessons with a Grandmaster by Boris Gulko. 

What is your preferred way to improve at the opening? And, what's the approach to chess openings that you try to teach students?

Openings should be improved gradually. I am some sort of exception because I truly love working on openings and it gives me huge satisfaction. However, unless you reach a rating of around 1500-1600 your opening should be mostly based on playing along the opening rules. If you are rated lower than 1500-1600 online, you shouldn't spend a lot of time on openings, and most importantly, you should play openings that lead to healthy pawn structures and good piece play such as the Ruy Lopez, Italian, Open Sicilian, Queen's Gambit Declined (with Black). I am a huge fan of teaching the opening basing it on understanding certain plans, not memorization and this is how I approach creating my Chessable courses. Only when you get better should you devote more time to expanding your knowledge, but it is a very individual thing. A Good indication of when to work more on openings is that when you get better, people start to get dangerously good positions against you in the opening. This means that knowledge that you have is probably not enough and it is time to work more. 

What is your preferred way to improve at the endgame?

If you are a club player, learn the most basic endgames such as how to checkmate with a queen, with a rook, with two bishops, and maybe knight + bishop. Then opposition, rook and pawn vs. rook, and so on. In general, it is good to know the basic endgame rules such as passed pawns, have an active king, etc. The better you get, the more typical and theoretical endgames you should learn. 

Kamil's Courses

If Kamil's advice resonated with you, be sure to check out his Chessable courses! You can try some of them for free here:

Short & Sweet: Plichta's Trompowsky Learn the very weapon that FM Plichta used to take down Magnus Carlsen! A great start to learning the wild and dynamic Trompowsky. 

Short & Sweet: Damiano Petroff Another one of Kamil's trusted blitz weapons. Start learning this tricky opening that will be sure to throw your blitz opponents for a loop!

Short & Sweet: Accelerated Dragon Learn the basics of one of the most beastly Sicilians...souped up in the lab of master opening theoretician Kamil Plichta.