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Chess Tips for Beginners on How to Win a Lost Game || Quick Tips in Chess - Episode 01

Chess Tips for Beginners on How to Win a Lost Game || Quick Tips in Chess - Episode 01

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Hello everyone, this series I have today is called the "Quick Tips in Chess" series, which, as the name implies, is a list of very quick tips in contrast to my other blog posts under the series the #askachessmaster show where you ask your questions and I answer them.

Today's quick tip comes in the form of what to do and what not to do when losing a chess game, especially when down material.

One of the things that I found to be one of my strongest strengths when climbing my way up to National Master was the fact I was able to be calm in the face of the strongest opponents, and keep my cool when losing the worst of games. 

One of my proudest games recently was when I was facing off against Fide Master Tarasov in an OTB tournament and despite going down a queen quickly in the opening, I was able to pull through and actually receive a winning position, only to offer a draw and get it accepted.

So what are some key things to focus on when one begins to lose their grip on a chess game and gets into a losing position.

My quick fundamental tips are as follows:

  • Once a losing position occurs, take a step back and calm one's own nerves. Especially if one was in a must win situation, keeping calm is the last thing on one's mind but I can assure you that getting upset has never increased one's chess skills.
  • Understand you are losing, so you have nothing to lose. You can take more risks you wouldn't usually do and surprise your opponent. More often than not, some crazy moves would make your opponents pretty scared and get them to either lose a lot of time on the clock, or mess up in general.

My quick technical tips are as follows:

  • Do not trade pieces! The more pieces on the board, the more comeback potential you have.
  • Try to get as many active pieces as possible. As you have probably seen in many of Morphy's famous games, he's often down a lot of material but the activity of his remaining pieces makes up for the lack of pieces he has.

I go into more details in this video. Watch it to get a more in-depth analysis! Tell me in the comments below if you enjoy these articles and videos. It means a lot to me!

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Thank you everyone!