Kidlat Chess Manual
You Are Going to Lose
Some chess players hinder their ability to improve by being too concerned about losing or worry too much about their chess ratings. Worrying too much about your win and loss record or your chess ratings are going to hold you back from learning how to better play the game. Ratings and records are just numbers. The good news is that you will lose some games of chess. You will probably lose many games of chess before you start to dramatically improve.
You improve your chess game when you add something positive or subtract something negative. Do not take losing personally; take the view that any chess game where you do not learn something is the real bad game, not your losses. When you lose at a game of chess it is likely that you have done something identifiably wrong during the game, so work on learning from that mistake so that you do not repeat the same mistake in the future.
A chess player who worries too much about losing often seeks out weaker chess opponents who will not force the player to learn from his or her mistakes. It may be gratifying to rack up a number of wins, but the lessons that you learn are not there. While playing almost exclusively against players who are rated above you can be demoralizing and hinder your chances to learn good technique, a mixture of about sixty-five to seventy five percent of games played against higher rated players than you and the rest equally rated or less seems to be about right for a positive learning curve. Do not tempt yourself into going for the easy wins; you will not improve your game very much at all.
A Winning Attitude
A chess player's attitude probably has as much to do with winning and improving their chess game than anything else. A chess player can spend months reading books, practicing games, and memorizing openings, but if that chess player does not posses the winning attitude he or she will only advance so far in his or her abilities.
I am not going to suggest that you need to be an overly joyous soul to be good at chess, but you do need to work on some attitudinal skills such as confidence, respect, determination, discipline, etc. All of these traits can help make you a better chess player and perhaps a better person. Confidence in your game and your skills does not equal an arrogant person, confidence means that you know you are an intelligent person with some chess skills who could beat anyone on a given day. Confidence means that you are approaching the game with an attitude that you can in fact win the game at hand if you play well.
Respect for other players is important as well since you do not want to take an opponent so lightly that you do not try your best when you play. Determination means that you are willing to put in the practice and time that it takes to become a great chess player. If you look towards grand masters as people you would like to emulate, then understand that they got to where they are by practicing, studying, and learning from their mistakes.
Finally discipline is needed to have a winning attitude. The discipline to critically think through your moves, the discipline to sit and analyze the games that you have played, and the discipline to analyze the games of the chess greats is needed to develop a winning attitude. Disciplining yourself into good study habits will definitely help improve your game and your attitude.
Take a Risk
Playing chess is meant to be fun for the players. It can be quite fun to watch how your game and your rating improves over time and to know that you are a much better chess player today than you were a year ago. To improve your game, it is important to play against players who are better than you at chess. Higher rated players will exploit the mistakes that you make in your game that a lower rated player may not recognize. Playing against higher rated players will allow you to learn from these mistakes so that you do not repeat them in the future.
Focusing only on your rating or your winning percentage is a mistake if you truly want to improve your chess game. I can go undefeated in chess or have a very high winning percentage if I only play against those who do not even know the rules of the game. What would I learn from doing this though? Play games against those rated higher than you and learn from those games.
It is often recommended that you sit down with that more experienced player and ask them to help you identify the flaws in your game that allowed him or her to win. This is a great learning tool for less experienced chess players. The higher rated player will be able to tell you at what point you lost the tempo and gave away critical positions. This more experienced player will also be able to give you suggestions as to what you can do differently the next time you face the same scenario in a game. Try to find a more experienced player who is willing to sit down with you and review the game and your chess playing skills will grow immensely.
Play the Board
Some chess players down play the role that psychology plays in attempting to win a game of chess. Psychology plays an important role in not only your confidence but in the confidence of your opponent to win a game. This is particularly important if you are playing someone that you have lost to before. If you approach a game assuming that you will lose the game, then you will probably make a mistake which results in your opponent winning because of your lack of focus on the game. Conversely, if you are playing against someone who you have defeated a number of times, it is easy to lose focus and assume that you will win. Assuming that you will win will likely lead you into making foolish mistakes in the game.
If you are playing in a tournament against a higher rated opponent it may be that you feel out gunned. The most important thing that you can do to eliminate the psychology of the game is to play the board, not your opponent. Play against how the pieces are shaping up and what tactics and strategies your opponent appears to be executing. Try not to fall into the trap of believing that since your opponent is higher rated that you will lose. The truth is that any player can beat any other player if you are able to limit your mistakes and capitalize on your opponent's mistakes.
Do not doubt your abilities to win a game and do not doubt the abilities of your opponent to win if you are not focused on the game. There are many famous stories of young children shamelessly defeating a high-ranking player. Part of this was due to the high-ranking player assuming that a child could not possibly beat them. Play against the board, not your opponent's personality.
Simplicity
Sometimes when playing chess we are looking for the complex gambits or trying to memorize openings. While chess is a very complex game that requires many complex strategies and tactics it is easy to overlook some of the more simple principles of the game of chess. Staying focused on the basic principles of chess is much more important than being able to rattle off the sequence of your preferred openings. Sticking with basic principles will simply help you to win games when your opponent's may be trying too hard to carry out some ultra complex tactic that rarely works.
One of the basic principles in chess is that when your opponent gives up control over a square you should move into that square. There are only so many squares on the board that you can safely move pieces into. As the game progresses these available squares become much harder and harder to find. Therefore, if your opponent is surrendering one of these precious squares, you should move into it. By moving into this free, or unguarded square, you will be able to mount an attack much more easily. The main thing to watch for when doing this is to make try and determine if your opponent is trying to set a trap for you.
Generally, even if your opponent is trying to set a trap for you, it will be apparent. Most of the time though moving into that unguarded square will work to your advantage. With only sixty-four squares on the board, moving into that free and open spot is helpful. Again, try not to get too focused on the complexities of strategies while forgetting the most basic principles in the game. Successful chess players always stay in touch with the simple and basic principles.
Welcome to Kidlat Chess Manual
A collection of teachings from Grandmasters, books they have written, articles they made.
Contents:
Good and Bad Bishops
A Bad Bishop to the Defense
Exchanging the fianchettoed bishop
Bishops of Opposite Color
Opposite-color bishop as “top dog”
Cutting Off a Piece from the Main Action
When the Bishop is Stronger Than the Knight
When the Knight is Stronger Than the Bishop
Two bishops as an advantage in the middlegame
How to play against two bishops
Fighting on the Long Diagonals
Open Files and Diagonals
Exploitation of open and half-open files
Open files and the attack on the king
Outpost on the open file
The 7th (2nd) rank
Weak and Strong Squares
When a Complex of Squares is Weak
Weak and Strong Pawns
Pawn islands
Doubled and tripled pawns
Backward pawn on the half-open file
The passed pawn
Isolated pawn in the center
The Significance of the Center
The Idea of the outpost square as a permanent advantage.
The Idea of weak color complex.
Occupation of an advanced outpost square, fast mobilization while maintains the bind and exploit the space advantage.
Good and Bad Bishops - The activity of the bishop greatly depends on the location of the pawns. A bishop that is not blocked by its own pawn is a good bishop, while a bad bishop is one whose mobility is limited by its own pawns (and sometimes opponents pawn too).
When your opponent has a bishop, you should place your pawns on the same color as the bishop. However, if you have a bishop yourself, then you should try to keep the pawns on different colored squares than your bishop, no matter if your opponent has a bishop or not.
Of cource, the general correctness of these principles does not mean that we should follow them dogmatically.
The Black Bishop on d7 is a good bishop. Its movement is not obstructed by its own pawns and it protects the light squares from enemy invaders. Hte bishop and its own pawns complement each other in controlling both light and dark squares. In particular, black controls e5, an important central square that cannot be attacked by a white bishop or pawn.
The bishop on g2 can be condemned as bad bishop because its movement is greatly restricted by its own pawns. White's position contans weak dark squares because neither his pawns nor his bishop are able to protect them.
1...Kf6 2.Ke2 Rh5! 3.Rh1 Ke5! 4.Kd3 h6 5.h3? Rg5? 6.Rh2 Rg3 7.h4 Rg8 8.Ke2 g5 9.hxg5 hxg5 10.Kf2 g4! 11.Rh5+ Kd4 12.Rd1+? 12...Kc3 13.Rh7 gxf3 14.Bf1 <14.Bxf3? Rxf3+ 15.Kxf3 Bg4+ 16.Kxf4 Bxd1, with a winning advantage for black> 14...Kc2! 15.Rd3 <15.Ra1 Bg4 16.Rxc7 Rh8, with a decisive attack> 15...Bh3!? 16.Rxf3 Rxf3+ 17.Kxf3 Bxf1 18.Rxc7 Rf8 19. Rd7 Kd3 20. Rxd6 Be2+ 21. Kf2 f3 22. Rh6 Rg8 23. Rh2 Kxe4 24. Rh4+ Kd3 25. Rh2 Rg6 26. b4 axb4, White resigns. Black dominance of the dark squares allowed him to bring his king deep into white's position, with decisive effect.
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Qc2 e6 5. g3 Nbd7 6. Bg2 Bd6 7. 0-0 0-0 8. Bf4 8... Qc7?! 9. Bxd6 Qxd6 10. Nbd2 h6?! 11. e4 Nxe4 12. Nxe4 dxe4 13. Qxe4 13... Nf6 14. Qe2 Bd7 15. Rad1 Rad8 16. Ne5 16... Bc8 17. c5! 17... Qc7 18. b4 Nd5 19. Qb2 Rde8 20. Rfe1 Qd8 21. a4 21... a6 22. Nc4 Nc7 23. h4 Qf6 24. Re5 Rd8 25. Rde1 Qg6 26. Be4 f5 27. Bg2 Qg4 28. Nd6 Rd7 29. Qd2 g5 30. hxg5 hxg5 31. Qd1 31... Qxd1 32. Rxd1 g4 33. Kf1 Kg7 34. Ke2 Kf6 35. Rh1 Kg6 36. Kd3 Rh7 37. Rxh7 Kxh7 38. Re1 Kg7 39. Rh1 Rd8 40. Ke3 Ne8 41. Nc4 Bd7 42. Kf4 42. ... Rc8 43. Ke5Rc7 44. Nb6 Kg8 45. Bf1 Black resigns
A “bad” bishop to the defense! - Sometimes a “bad” bishop is not so bad in defense.
In Diagram 1, Black’s pawns are located “correctly”, but White’s king can win them all!
1. Ke5 Bd1
After 1. ... Kg6 2. Kd6 Kf6 3. Kc6 Ke5 4. Kxb6 Kd4, then 5. Kxa5 and 6. b4 secures the draw.
2. Kd6 Bxb3 3. Kc6
And Black’s pawns will be captured by the White king, resulting in a draw.
Diagram 2 is a different story. This position is winning for Black regardless of who is to move. Here Black has what may ordinarily be called a bad bishop since its activity is somewhat limited by his own pawns and it has no targets. But in this position, Black’s goal is to use his bishop to protect his pawns from being destroyed by the enemy king until his own king can join the game. Then, through the combined action of his king, bishop and pawns, he will gobble up all the White pawns and win.
Thus the extent to which a bishop is blocked by its own pawns (the usual criterion that determines whether it is good or bad) is not the only measure of a bishop’s usefulness in practical play.
Exchanging the fianchettoed bishop - Chess players frequently wish to exchange an opponent’s fianchettoed bishop. A fianchettoed bishop, as a rule, is a good one if its mobility is not limited by its own central pawns. In addition, the exchange of this bishop leads to the weakening of a complex of squares. In the case of a fianchettoed bishop near the king, this weakening may open up avenues for an attack. In general, if your opponent has a good bishop, it makes sense to exchange it. Such an exchange creates weak squares throughout the opponent’s position as a result of the bishop’s absence. Thus we not only get rid of the opponent’s active piece through the exchange, but we also receive an opportunity to operate on the weak squares in his camp.
Finally, there is one other point that we need to make. At the beginning of the game the activity of the other pieces may mask the effect of a bad bishop, but when these pieces are exchanged in the transition to the endgame, the bad bishop is often the cause of defeat.
Position after Black’s 14th move
With his last move, Black offered the exchange of his bishop for the long- range fianchettoed White bishop on g2. How should White respond?
15. e4!
Facing the prospect of an exchange of bishops, White changes the pawn structure, closing the diagonal for the g2-bishop and preparing for a pawn assault with f2-f4. This negates the value of its exchange. Now if Black reconsiders trading and retreats his bishop to e6 or d7, losing two tempi, then f2-f4 will follow, with better play for White.
Conclusion: After 15. e4! White stands better.
have just stopped writing group articles.....
im on process of finishing this one....
this blog is still under construction
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