Lesson #10: How to Swindle Your Opponent (Part 2): Instant Headbang

Hi everyone!
I am back for another chess lesson.

This time, we will be looking at how to CRUSH your opponents. If you haven't read part 1, the link is here:  https://www.chess.com/blog/leonquinplayz/lesson-8-how-to-swindle-your-opponent-part-1-opening-destruction

So let's get right into the topic.

In last part, we talked about how to exploit mistakes in the opening. Today, we are going to take the idea a little bit further: recognizing combinations immediately as soon as they are spotted so that you just CRUSH your opponent.

The key here is pattern recognition. We want to recognize tactical motifs and play them immediately. This is especially helpful in fast games (e.g. blitz and bullet), for you don't have much time to spare.

A great example is the Greek Gift.

This is my personal example. I played all the moves in less than 20 seconds.

White played way too carelessly. Theory ignorance is the core of how he/she lost miserably.

Notice how I played the Greek Gift Sacrifice quickly. By learning theory and recognizing tactical motifs, we can save a lot of unnecessary time.

So we need to learn tactical motifs. Train. A LOT. Start out with slow timing (e.g. focusing on accuracy instead of speed), and then move on to speed training (e.g. puzzle storm, puzzle rush). Make sure to TRAIN HARD! Slow training is always a MUST for chess.

You might not start out fast, but as time goes by, you will get faster and faster.

So let's look at this puzzle.

It's from lichess.org. A great site for those who can't pay or won't pay for chess.com.

I rather want chess.com, but when I can't pay, I have to go with what I can.

This is a 2038 lichess.org rated puzzle. But it is way too easy. Think about it. It is a discretion of what to use to capture a piece.

Maybe for some of you, this is a hard puzzle, but the more you train, the more you get better. Training makes you faster and more accurate when it comes to solving puzzles or determining the best move in a game.

This is a game I played. I demonstrated tactical use very well.

I am not bragging, but I saw the forced win immediately. Using my instinct, I could see that the two bishops and two rooks are enough to take down black's castle. Notice also theory came to work. The tactics are tactical, but the theory is theortical. Yes, this sounds repetitive, but it is how it is. You can spot tactics all on your own without theory, but theory would let you see them quicker or just see them, so in those positions, you won't say "I didn't see that! How brilliant!"

So that's it. Make sure to train. Try to develop instant recognition for tactics. Basically, as soon as they are played, you can spot them. Then, DESTROY YOUR OPPONENT!

That's it! Have a nice day!