7 Strategies to improve in chess!

We all want to improve in chess, but we don't just jump to 2000 rating goals. We take simple steps and strategies to improve our chess skills. Some play with chess lessons, some play with just experience and history and some others play with  knowledge or for fun.This Blog shows you a few strategies you might wanna know to improve your chess.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Counter a pin aggressively

2. Castle within 10 moves

3. Keep your pieces connected

4. What's your opponents idea?

5. Develop your king-side knight to f3 (f6 for black)

6. Use forcing moves (check,capture,attack)

7. To take is a mistake

Counter a pin aggressively

Let's take this game as the example.

So basically, your knight is pinned. So like most players, you do e2. But this is the worst reaction. Your knight is already defended by the g2 pawn, so there is no need to fix something that is already broken. As there are more active choices for white, you play d5, attacking Black's knight. But the knight instead moves to e5 placing more pressure on our knight. So you want to do the Be2 all over again, or you just ignore it, because with whatever piece Black captures our knight with, our pawn recaptures, and it would just be an equal trade. So your decide to attack one the queen-side. You either move Bb5 or Qa4. Checking the King.

Or you could do the  brilliant sacrifice Kxe5! Letting our opponent to take our queen with their bishop. We then do Bf5! Now, their only choice is to protect their king is by Qd7. Our bishop takes and then we are up in material.

The game where 2650 rated player lost and how

Let me quickly show you a game where a 2650 rated player lost and how.

The 2650 rated player was Jonas Bhul Bjerre and it was a rapid game. More or less both sides played meaningful moves, Trading pieces and after that Black realized that white wanted to attack on their queen-side and fork the king and rook.

So they played pawn a6, threatening the square that the knight was supposed to go. But White still plays Nb5 anyway! Black just captures it, But hey, then white trades their bishop for their queen-side knight so it can't move to c6 and block White's checkmate attack Black recaptures, Then we continue our attack with Bxb5 checking the king. 

Black is left with one move, Nf7. But after that, White captures the knight with it's rook. Black has no choice. With any move, White's rook will move, but will be still staying on the d-file  so Black's king officially can't move and is Checkmated.

  Keep your pieces connected

Keeping your pieces connected is a good idea. Try to keep your pieces together, so they defend each other. Then this reduces the chances of you blundering and they can also work together, which can make your attacks work a lot more successfully.

So here is a random position, as you can see White's rook is not protected and therefore, the knight on b1 was blocking it's connection with the other rook. So to move that knight, you could move the queen somewhere and the knight could develop. So let's just say a random move for black, then we develop our knight. And after that, look how harmonious the position is now.
    

What's your opponent's idea?

Let's say that you're in this position:

This is a game played by Ian Nepomniatchi and Hans Niemann played. Ian was White and Hans was Black. Ian won the game, Black failed to think what Ian planned.

Imagine you are playing black in this position, your opponent moves queen to c8, so you play Ne3 which looks good but it is instead a blunder. Why? because the queen on c8 can checkmate on f8.

So that's why it's a good idea to think what your opponent is planning after he plays his move.

Develop your king-side knight to f3 (f6 for black)

Develop your knight to f3 if you're playing white, but if you're playing black, develop your knight to f6 (king-side knight) for each side.

Let me quickly show you a game. It was the center game and after a couple of moves, Black checks White. And White blocks, now it's time for Black to decide whether to move his knight to f6  or not. But Black moves Ne7 instead. At first, it looks good, but imagine what if White plays Qg3, Black king castles, But what if White pushes their f-pawn closer and attack the black king's castle, or play Bh6 also attacking, since there is no piece to control those squares.

Full game:

Use forcing moves (check,capture,attack)

Use forcing moves, likes checks or attacks.

Imagine this position, The first thing most players notice is that if the queen can somehow go to g7, it'd be checkmate. So White moves h6, but the only problem is that it's black's turn to move and they have a chance to save themself from checkmate. Like f6. So don't waste time for something that can be easily blocked.

Checks,captures or attacks are the forcing moves you could use. For example let's do the brilliant move, Qh7! When black recaptures, Rh4 and black is forced to move back to g8 and white's rook goes to h8, delivering checkmate.

To take is a mistake 

In this game, after the en passant, It was a disaster for black, Black was still optimistic about their queen being attacked and Qxd4 but after that, White does the brilliant move Nd5! Black greedily takes the free bishop but after Nc7 by white, it is checkmate. This happened because it was a mistake to take the pawn on c4 b en passant the knight attacked the queen, and then the queen did Qxd4 the mistake.

So that's it for this blog I really hope it helped you, and be sure to read my other blogs!