Awesome Tips And Tricks That'll Make You A Pro!

Okay, wow what a wonderful chess website you say to yourself as you explore chess.com, Then, after a few months at chess.com, you think: 'what is wrong with me? There are so many resources, lessons, players, tactics training, etc and why am I here like a mere beginner still here unable to break the 1200 barrier? '

Does one of these sound like you?

Then you've come to the perfect place to solve your problem!

Okay, so let's start from where your weaknesses are:

1.You have no idea on how to force a win.

This means you need a 'strategy'.Well, what's a strategy? A strategy is a plan on how to do something like for example in a marathon , your strategy is to preserve your energy and use it at the last bit of the distance.

Like that chess also has it's own strategy. The strategy in short according to me is like this: develop, grab an advantage and hold on to it which will help you win the endgame. Below I say it in detail.

The strategy for chess is simple:

1.Develop,develop,develop!

Why do I say it 3 times? Because, it's so important. here is an example of what could happen if you don't develop fast enough:

Here on first move white plays f3, not a bad move, trying to support the white pawn after e4. Black replies with e5, also a good move opening up the bishop and queen. Then white plays g4?? A blunder as it completely exposes the white king allowing checkmate and wastes a move to develop.

Okay, I know that was fool's mate, sorry. It's time for a real example where for fun we will compare Developed(Us) versus non developed(Computer coach which is basically stockfish 10[]) Let's get to the game:

That felt awesome to see the coach completely destroyed all because of lack of development. 

Sometimes players even give up a few pawns for fast development. These are called gambits and are very risky so you need a bit of experience to try those.

Some good openings to develop:

The Italian game 

The Queen's pawn opening

2.Castle to safety

If you don't castle, eventually later in the game, the center will be open exposing your king. Castling will also help bring your rook into the game.

Not castling can also get you into a lot of trouble.

A common mistake when people castle queenside is they move the king 3 squares towards the queenside.

Castling queenside involves moving the king 2 squares towards the queenside.

To avoid further confusion, without further ado,I show you how to queenside castle.

Here, white castles queenside and black castles kingside. Is your confusion solved?

3.Attack,attack and defend!

In chess, checkmate doors don't just fly open that easily you have to make a plan to place your pieces try to remove the pieces guarding the king and smash them!

To learn to create your own plans you need to learn some basic checkmate patterns.

Here is a link where you can see them: (click on the smiley)                                

Okay,Problem number 1 solved. Now what's number 2?

2.'I just miss my opponent's threats and lose'

       You lack something called 'Full board vision' with which you can look at the board as a whole and see all threats and wins.

Your vision improves as you play and so does you vision. You have to like try to scan the whole board as you play and gradually it'll improve.

3.'I am a great player in real life, I was playing great in chess.com, when suddenly my rating dropped a 100 points'

  Oh this problem I've faced it too. If you see my rapid stats You'll see a 100 drop like 6 months ago.The root of the problem is simple: Stress

Whether you are playing too many games or you have a terrible headache, or it may be some unknown problem,it happens to everyone.

So,what do we do? Don't play chess when you feel like that headache problem.When it is hot in the summer, whatever you do, you get that horrible headache even though it's not that hot.

So, try changing the time from afternoon to evening or try a bit of music at very low volume(Too much music can actually hinder your performance by removing your focus).

Then after that you'll be feeling kind of down because of that drop.If you play then, you'll probably be having a tough time getting your rating up.

Watch a few videos, read a few motivating articles on chess.com, it will help you get back on track in no time!

A nice tip!:

Whenever you try out a tactic, try to create a double tactic that is making two threats at once this is called a 'multipurpose move'.These multipurpose moves or 'combinations' are what decide grand master games.

An Important reminder!:

Believe it or not, this is a rule even grandmasters sometimes forget. This rule is called 'en-passant' .

Well, what is the rule?Here it is:

Definition of en passant according to wikipedia:

It is a special pawn capture that can only occur immediately after a pawn makes a move of two squares from its starting square, and it could have been captured by an enemy pawn had it advanced only one square.

The opponent captures the just-moved pawn "as it passes" through the first square. The result is the same as if the pawn had advanced only one square and the enemy pawn had captured it normally.

Okay guys, That's all for today, if you keep practising,playing,learning,reading etc, your sure on the way to grandmaster!

Thank you for reading my blog, It's my first blog, any suggestions, let me know in the comments, you can join my club if interested. link's at the bottom of the blog, 

"Tactics is knowing what to do, when there is something to do; Strategy is knowing what to do,when there is nothing to do."

Thank you!

Link to club for serious chess players:  https://www.chess.com/club/chess-squad-ultimate-official

Link to club for bloggers:  https://www.chess.com/club/international-chess-com-bloggers-club