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Building Habits Study Notes: Ep 3 (600-700 ELO)

Building Habits Study Notes: Ep 3 (600-700 ELO)

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This article is my study notes for chessbrah's Building Habits v2 Episode 3 (600-700 ELO).

N.B.: Most links in this post are optional and just for reference only, and it is not necessary to review them as you follow through the lessons. Just focus on the basic habits introduced in this article and you'll make progress gradually.

Once more, let's start by reviewing the restrictions and habits we will adhere to at our level.

Don't worry about these advanced topics for now:

  • No premoves
  • No tactics
  • No gambits
  • No sacrifices

Instead, stick with these good habits:

Again, these aren't necessarily the silver bullet for players at all levels. But for beginners with low ELO, it's okay to focus on these simple yet important principles. Remember, for now, less is more.

[📺] Sometimes during the opening, the opponents will trade a minor piece, e.g. a bishop or a knight, in return for your castling right. If the minor piece takes a pawn and you capture back with your king, you are essentially exchanging your castling right + a 1-point piece for a 3-point piece: 

Another example here with a knight sacrifice:

In general, in these cases, you should accept the trade and capture their piece. Even when you can't castle anymore, you can still follow most other good habits, develop the rest of your pieces, and gradually improve your position throughout the game to move your king to a safer square.

In another word, in general, it is not advised to sacrifice your own minor piece for your opponent's castling right, unless you are confident that you have a very strong continuation attack down the line.

[📺] A miscalculation example here. If the knight decides to take the pawn, thinking it will gain 1 point after all potential exchanges, the opponent's rook can then attack the knight and pin it to the queen. Now the knight is lost.

[📺] Never resign at a "losing" game, even when the opponent is about to promote their pawn(s), especially at lower levels. Beginners tend to make mistakes at endgames and turn a winning game into a tie by stalemating, therefore, you should always play till the end of the game. In the example below, if black promotes the d-file pawn to a queen (or a rook), it is a stalemate, even when black is up huge material.

[📺] [📺] Remember we covered Fried Liver Attack in the last lesson? Turns out that white can play a similar position on the queenside where black, if not aware of how to defend, can lose a rook early in the game:

One way to counter is attack is to play the "snorkel" (i.e. "luft") move earlier, on the queenside. By pushing the a-pawn on move 3 (i.e. 3...a6), white won't be able to move their knight with 4.Nb5, and this attack won't continue:

[📺] Skewer through king is dangerous, because in many cases you can't just "add a defender" to the attacked king (unless an defender can be put between the attacker and the king, and the defender itself is defended). In this case, the king will have to move away, and the skewered piece will be taken.

[📺] Checkmate in a bishop and knight vs king (Wikipedia) endgame can be challenging, but possible. Of all basic endgame positions, this is the most difficult to force a checkmate in. Theoretically, a checkmate can be forced within 33 moves with optimal play. However, this endgame only happens in approximately 1 in 6000 real games, so many chess educators don't really encourage early learners to study this. The most important characteristic of this checkmate to remember is that it always happens when opponent's king is on a corner square that is the same color as your bishop, which will deliver the final blow. Here is an example played with engine:

[📺] And here's another actual game with a knight and bishop vs king endgame, from the full VOD ep 6.

Bonus 1

Below are some extra topics covered only in the FULL VOD ep 7 | 603-627 ELO.

[📺] The first three pawns you should move in the opening are the two center pawns and the snorkel pawns. No other pawns should be moved before these, in most cases.

[📺] Two good squares to develop the queen in the opening are d2 and e2 (for white). If Nf3 is played, the king is castled on the kingside, and the knight is pinned by opponent’s bishop, we should play Qe2 instead of Qd2, because otherwise we would have to mess up our pawn structure if opponent plays Bxf3.

[📺] Following a classical defence against scholar’s mate, we can place the bishop behind the advanced second-file pawn.

[📺] When opponent’s rook lines up with your castled king and the pawn from same side starts marching forward, it is usually a good idea to delay playing the snorkel move. This is to avoid having the castle structure ripped open.

Bonus 2

Below are some extra topics covered only in the FULL VOD ep 8 | 627-628 ELO.

[📺] We can have a snorkel for our bishop that would have otherwise been trapped by opponent’s pawn chain. (Also appeared in FULL VOD ep 10)

[📺] A successful queen-knight collaboration assault that leads to huge material gain for the opponent. We should see this coming and prepare a way to counter it instead of only focusing on playing the "habit" moves like bringing rooks to the middle, etc.

Bonus 3

Below are some extra topics covered only in the FULL VOD ep 9 | 628-651 ELO.

[📺] Avoid capturing the opponent’s knight with your knight in this series of trades. Otherwise, there will be a pawn fork where you’ll lose a whole piece after all exchange. Bxe5 instead will avoid this loss.

Bonus 4

Below are some extra topics covered only in the FULL VOD ep 10 | 651-705 ELO.

[📺] When you are down huge material and have a chance to repeatedly check the opponent, you should do so to force a draw.