How to Improve Your Game

According to Wikipedia.org, Fred Reinfeld is one of the most prolific authors in history, having co-written over 200 books. He wrote a book entitled "Chess for amateurs - How to improve your game" in which he states four simple but fundamentally important points:

1. Always strive to avoid oversights. They are an everpresent danger. Before every move, take a "last look around" to make certain that you have left nothing en prise. This may sound like a laborious process, but with practice it will come very rapidly-as in the case of the master, it will become second nature.

2. Don't play the first move that comes into your head. First see whether it is an oversight(as mentioned before) and then see whether it fits in with the general demands if the position. This, too, will come easier to you with practice.

3. Keep a sharp eye on the Pawn position. It will be of the greatest help to you in giving you hints of the latent possibilities in your game, of suggesting things that can or need to be done; and in addition, it will indicate the possibilities available to your opponent.

4. Try as early as possible to formulate a plan-not a grandiose or far-reaching one, but just enough to give you something to go on. If you try to have a general view of the situation, duly modified from move to move as circumstances change, your play will be strengthened immeasurably.