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Chess Improvement Guide Welcome to your chess improvement journey! Whether you're just starting or looking to get serious, this guide will help you go from a complete newbie to a strong player. 🔹 Guide Structure ✔ Newbies (0-800 Elo) – Learn the rules, basic movement, and avoid blunders. ✔ Beginners (800-1400 Elo) – Master tactics, openings, and board vision. ✔ Intermediate (1400-1800 Elo) – Learn advanced positional play and endgames. ✔ Advanced (1800-2000+ Elo) – Deep calculation, high-level strategies, and mastery. Chess is not about memorization, but understanding. Train correctly, and 2000 Elo is achievable! Section 1: Chess for Newbies (0-800 Elo) If you're new to chess, don’t worry! Every strong player started from zero knowledge. Your first goal is to build a solid foundation by understanding the rules, piece movement, and basic strategies. Mastering these basics will help you avoid common mistakes and develop a better understanding of the game. Understanding the Chessboard Before diving into moves, it's important to understand the chessboard itself. Knowing how the board is set up and how to read the coordinates is crucial in making sense of the game. The chessboard has 64 squares (8×8 grid), alternating light and dark. Ranks (rows): Numbered 1-8. Files (columns): Labeled a-h. The bottom-right square should always be light-colored. A strong foundation in chess begins with board awareness. Never place your pieces randomly! How Each Piece Moves (Master This First!) Each chess piece has its own unique way of moving across the board. Understanding how they move and how to use them effectively will set you apart from other beginners. It’s important to practice moving them to get familiar with their abilities. Pawns: Move forward 1 square (2 squares on the first move), capture diagonally. Knights: Move in an "L" shape (2+1 or 1+2), can jump over pieces. Bishops: Move diagonally as far as possible. Rooks: Move horizontally or vertically. Queen: Moves like a rook and bishop combined (most powerful piece!). King: Moves 1 square in any direction. The best players know how to maximize piece movement. Learn it, and you’ll never feel lost on the board. Common Mistakes to Avoid At the beginning stages, it's easy to make simple mistakes. These mistakes can cost you the game, so it’s essential to avoid them. Here's a quick look Moving the same piece multiple times in the opening – This wastes time and loses control of the board. Bringing the queen out too early – The queen can be attacked easily, forcing unnecessary moves. Not castling – Your king will be unsafe if you delay castling. The 3 Golden Rules of the Opening The opening phase of the game is extremely important. It sets up the game for the mid and endgame. If you’re not careful, you could find yourself in a disadvantageous position. Keep these opening principles in mind: Control the Center → Move pawns to e4 or d4 (or respond with e5/d5). Develop Pieces Quickly → Knights and bishops should come out before the queen. Castle Early → Get your king safe as soon as possible. If you ignore opening principles, you'll fall into early traps and lose quickly! Training Plan for Newbies (0-800 Elo) Now that you have a basic understanding of the rules, movement, and mistakes to avoid, here’s a simple plan to follow to quickly improve: Play 10+0 or 15+10 rapid games (avoid bullet chess as it promotes bad habits). Solve 5-10 easy tactics puzzles daily (this will help you stop blundering). Learn one simple opening (., London System for White, Caro-Kann for Black). Before every move, ask: "Is this safe?" Check if your piece is vulnerable or your opponent has a tactic to attack. If you've already crossed the 800 Elo threshold, congratulations! You're officially in the beginner range, and it's time to get serious about your improvement. At this level, you should focus on understanding tactics, developing your pieces, and mastering the opening principles. Consistency is key to improvement. Build strong habits, and your rating will climb! Section 2: Chess for Beginners (800-1400 Elo) At the beginner level, you’ve already learned the basic moves and rules, and now it’s time to delve deeper. The key concepts to focus on are tactics, piece development, and understanding opening principles. Importance of Tactics and Pattern Recognition At this stage, tactical awareness is crucial. By learning common tactical motifs and recognizing patterns, you will drastically improve your ability to spot opportunities and threats. Tactics like forks, pins, skewers, and discovered attacks should become second nature to you. The goal is to practice solving tactical puzzles daily so you can spot these patterns during your games. Forks: A single piece attacks two or more of your opponent’s pieces. Pins: A piece is immobilized because moving it would expose a more valuable piece behind it. Skewers: Similar to a pin, but the more valuable piece is in front of the less valuable one. Discovered Attacks: A piece moves, revealing an attack by another piece behind it. Training with puzzles will allow you to spot tactical shots during games, often turning a losing position into a winning one! Opening Principles (No Need to Memorize Lengthy Openings) At this stage, it’s tempting to memorize long opening lines, but that’s not the way forward. Instead, focus on the key opening principles. Understanding why these principles work will help you navigate any opening without memorization. If you get the opening right, you’ll have a strong position heading into the middle game. Control the Center: Try to control the central squares (e4, d4, e5, d5) with your pawns and pieces. Central control gives your pieces more mobility and influence. Develop Pieces: Move your knights and bishops out early, aiming to get your pieces active. Avoid moving the same piece multiple times. King Safety (Castle Early): Your king should be tucked away behind pawns. Always try to castle early to keep your king safe and connect your rooks. Develop your pieces, don’t rush to bring your queen out early, and always get your king to safety! Common Mistakes to Avoid At the beginner level, you might make some errors that could affect your progress. Avoiding these mistakes will speed up your improvement: Moving the Queen too Early: Bringing the queen out early makes it vulnerable to attacks. It can be easily chased around, costing valuable time. Ignoring Development: Not developing your pieces or moving pawns aimlessly will leave you with poor positions and weak defense. Overextending Pawns: Pushing too many pawns without proper support can create weaknesses and holes in your position. Avoid these traps, and your game will improve significantly! The 3 Key Areas to Focus On As a beginner, it's important to focus on three main areas: tactics, opening principles, and piece activity. If you get these right, you'll be in a great position to win more games and start climbing the ratings ladder. Tactics and Pattern Recognition: Practice daily by solving puzzles, and look for tactics in every game. Strong Openings: Develop pieces early, control the center, and castle quickly. Avoid memorizing long lines. Piece Activity: Always aim to improve the position of your pieces, especially your rooks and bishops, and avoid placing them on squares where they have no influence. Focusing on these three areas will lay the foundation for reaching 1400+ Elo and beyond! Training Plan for Beginners (800-1400 Elo) To become a better player, it's essential to incorporate consistent training into your daily routine. Here’s a simple training plan to follow: Solve 10-15 tactical puzzles every day to sharpen your tactical vision. Play 15+10 rapid games to give yourself time to think about each move. Learn one new opening (., the Italian Game for White, e5 openings for Black). Watch beginner-level tactics videos and follow chess streamers to get new ideas and strategies. If you're reading this, you’ve likely hit a roadblock and are stuck in the intermediate range (1400-1800 Elo). This is a crucial stage of your chess journey because it’s where players often plateau. In this section, we will dive deep into the advanced principles, strategies, and tactics that will help you break through and push your rating to new heights. The key to reaching the next level is refining your positional understanding, learning to calculate deeply, and mastering endgames. Section 3: Chess for Intermediate Players (1400-1800 Elo) At the intermediate level, your foundational understanding of tactics and openings should already be solid. The focus now shifts towards improving your positional play, calculation skills, and endgame techniques. If you are stuck here, it is essential to improve your thinking process, decision-making, and adaptability in complex positions. Positional Understanding and Piece Activity One of the most significant hurdles intermediate players face is a lack of understanding of positional play. Unlike tactics, which are concrete and often involve immediate moves, positional play is subtle and focuses on improving the long-term quality of your position. Here are key concepts to keep in mind: Piece Placement: It’s essential to place your pieces on squares where they have maximum influence. Bishops should ideally be on long diagonals, knights should be placed in central squares or advanced outposts, and rooks should be on open or semi-open files. Avoid passively placed pieces that don’t contribute to the position. Pawn Structure: Be mindful of pawn weaknesses, like isolated or backward pawns. The pawn structure dictates the plans for both sides, so aim to maintain a strong, flexible pawn structure while trying to create weaknesses in your opponent’s. Weak Squares and Outposts: Look for squares that are weak in your opponent’s camp and see if you can place a piece there. Knights are particularly good at occupying outposts, and controlling these squares can give you a significant advantage. Mastering the art of piece placement and understanding pawn structures will separate you from average players Calculation & Calculation Depth At the intermediate level, a common issue is a lack of deep calculation. A lot of players rely too much on their intuition and don’t calculate moves deeply enough. At this stage, it’s essential to calculate variations in more depth, including visualizing future positions. Look for forcing moves: Always start with checks, captures, and threats. These moves force your opponent to respond and narrow down your calculations. Visualization: Train your ability to visualize moves in your head. The better you get at this, the more variations you can calculate without needing to physically see the board. Two-Move Thinking: Think two or three moves ahead in every position, not just your move but your opponent’s reply as well. This is key to avoiding blunders. Calculation Training: Solve calculation-based puzzles where you have to figure out multi-move combinations, not just one-move tactics. The ability to calculate deeply will allow you to outplay your opponent in complex positions. Strategic Planning and Maneuvering While tactical sharpness is important, a large part of intermediate play is about understanding how to maneuver your pieces in a way that improves your position. You need to build up small advantages, and this requires understanding strategic concepts like: Creating Weaknesses: One way to improve your position is by subtly forcing your opponent to create weaknesses in their camp. This can be done by provoking pawn moves that leave holes or weakening their king's position. Transitioning to Endgames: Learn how to exchange pieces in a way that benefits you. For example, if you're ahead in material, trading pieces rather than pawns will make it harder for your opponent to create counterplay. Space Advantage: Controlling more space allows you to maneuver your pieces freely while limiting your opponent’s options. This can be achieved through a combination of controlling the center and limiting your opponent’s piece activity. Strategic maneuvering and understanding the advantages of space and piece activity will elevate your chess to the next level. Common Pitfalls for Intermediate Players Even experienced intermediate players often fall into certain traps that hinder their progress. Be aware of these pitfalls: Over-Reliance on Tactics: While tactics are important, they shouldn’t dominate your thinking. If you focus only on tactics, you might miss out on more important positional opportunities. Neglecting King Safety: Intermediate players sometimes fail to realize the importance of king safety as their attacking skills improve. Don't get carried away attacking and forget to defend your king. Over-Complicating Positions: Sometimes players try to force complex tactics when simpler, more straightforward moves are available. Learn to recognize when simplification is better than complicating things further. Avoiding these mistakes will accelerate your journey towards mastering intermediate-level play. The Three Focus Areas for Intermediate Players To take your game from intermediate to advanced, it’s important to focus on three critical areas: calculation depth, positional understanding, and strategic maneuvering. Calculation Mastery: Make sure you're calculating deeply and not missing key tactical shots or defensive moves. Positional Understanding: Work on improving your ability to assess positions, plan long-term, and place your pieces on optimal squares. Strategic Play: Focus on maneuvering, creating weaknesses, and avoiding overly tactical or forced solutions in favor of a more strategic approach. These areas will refine your play and open the door to mastering the next level of chess! Training Plan for Intermediate Players (1400-1800 Elo) Incorporating advanced study habits into your training will push your rating higher. Here’s a focused training plan to help you: Solve advanced tactical puzzles that involve multiple moves and deep calculation. Play longer time controls (30 minutes or more) to give yourself more time to think and practice deeper calculation. Study grandmaster games and try to understand the plans behind each move. This will help you refine your strategic thinking. Work on endgame theory, particularly king and pawn endgames, rook endgames, and other key basic endgames. As an advanced player, you're already proficient in most aspects of chess. However, breaking through the 1800-2000 Elo range requires a refined understanding of deeper positional concepts, advanced endgame techniques, and a more critical approach to every aspect of your play. In this section, we will provide you with the necessary tools to take your game to the next level. At the advanced level, the focus shifts towards mastering deep calculation, psychological resilience, and making fewer mistakes under pressure. Section 4: Chess for Advanced Players (1800-2000 Elo) At this stage, your tactical skills and positional awareness are likely solid. To push towards the 2000 Elo mark, you need to elevate your game by focusing on subtle aspects of the game that make the difference between winning and drawing, or even losing. These include advanced techniques in calculation, endgame mastery, psychological factors, and decision-making under time pressure. Deep Calculation and Visualization One of the most significant challenges faced by advanced players is the depth of calculation. You are no longer simply looking for one or two-move combinations. Now, it's all about being able to foresee and evaluate multi-move sequences in highly complex positions. Advanced players need to: Calculate Several Moves Ahead: Go beyond tactical patterns and calculate deeply. Think 5-6 moves ahead, and start considering your opponent’s responses as well. Each calculation should factor in the changing dynamics of the position. Visualize Positions: The ability to visualize multiple variations in your mind is crucial. The more you train your mind to "see" the board without physically looking at it, the faster and more accurately you can calculate complex lines. Assessment of Key Positions: In deeper calculations, don’t just count material. Focus on key factors like piece activity, king safety, pawn structures, and the dynamics of the position. Assess whether a sacrifice is worth it based on these factors. The deeper your calculation skills, the more you'll be able to control complex, tactical positions. Advanced Positional Understanding At the advanced level, understanding the nuances of positional play can make a significant difference. While intermediate players focus on improving their piece activity and pawn structure, advanced players must move beyond these basic concepts into long-term strategic plans. The focus should be on: Dynamic vs Static Factors: Understand the difference between dynamic and static advantages. A dynamic advantage is one where you can create threats or generate counterplay (., space advantage, open files), while static advantages are long-term, like a superior pawn structure. Mastery comes from knowing how to exploit your dynamic advantages and convert them into static ones. Weaknesses in the Position: As an advanced player, you must recognize weaknesses in your position or your opponent’s. For example, overextended pawns or a poorly placed piece can be targetable. Know when to attack or defend these weaknesses without rushing the process. Flexibility and Pawn Structures: The pawn structure will often dictate the plans for both sides. Be prepared to adapt to your opponent’s pawn structure, and be cautious not to commit to a plan too early. Keep your pawn structure intact, but know when to break it strategically to gain a tempo or control key squares. Positional understanding is about knowing when to act, when to wait, and how to capitalize on small advantages. Mastering Endgames Endgames are a critical part of advanced-level chess. While many intermediate players neglect endgame study, advanced players know that every endgame scenario requires precise calculation and technique. The endgame separates the strong from the weak at the 1800+ level, and here's how to hone this skill: King Activity: The king becomes a powerful piece in the endgame. Learn how to centralize your king and use it effectively. In many endgames, the king's activity can be more crucial than that of the pawns or minor pieces. Pawn Endgames: These are among the most critical aspects of any advanced player’s toolkit. Learn how to convert material advantage into a pawn promotion, and understand the concept of opposition, passed pawns, and key squares. Rook Endgames: Mastering rook endgames is essential. These are some of the most common and tricky endgames that often arise from middlegame positions. Focus on understanding the positions of the king, rook, and pawns, and how to work them together for the win. Studying Classic Endgames: Familiarize yourself with classic endgame positions (such as the Lucena and Philidor positions in rook endgames). These positions are essential to understanding how to convert advantages efficiently. Endgame precision will make the difference between a win and a draw or even a loss. Train thoroughly to avoid slipping in this stage! Psychological Strength and Decision-Making Under Pressure At the advanced level, your game’s success is increasingly dependent on psychological strength. This includes maintaining focus, dealing with time pressure, and overcoming the urge to make impulsive moves. Key points to consider: Managing Time: Learn how to handle your clock efficiently. Advanced players often find themselves in time pressure, so learn to make quick, reliable moves in certain positions. In crucial moments, prioritize the quality of moves over speed. Resilience: Stay calm and collected in tense situations. Avoid getting too excited when you have a winning position or too anxious when you're losing. Being able to maintain a clear mind during tough moments is essential for consistency. Analyzing Your Opponent: Use psychological tactics to outplay your opponent. If they tend to make mistakes when under pressure, take advantage of this by applying more pressure and controlling the pace of the game. Psychological toughness will allow you to maintain focus and execute your plan even in the most challenging positions! Common Mistakes to Avoid for Advanced Players Even as an advanced player, there are still critical mistakes that can prevent you from breaking into the 2000 Elo range: Underestimating Opponent Threats: At the advanced level, you must carefully evaluate every threat posed by your opponent. Don’t get too focused on your plans without assessing the dangers they may be creating for you. Not Playing Actively Enough: Advanced players sometimes overthink and become too passive. Take the initiative when you have an advantage. Passive defense often leads to tactical shots from your opponent. Ignoring Endgame Fundamentals: Some advanced players focus too much on opening theory and middlegame tactics but forget to improve their endgame play. Don’t underestimate the power of precise endgame knowledge. Avoiding these mistakes and staying sharp in all phases of the game is essential. The Path to 2000 Elo To break through the 2000 Elo barrier, focus on: Precise In Depth Calculation: Always be able to calculate complex positions accurately and visualize multiple moves ahead. Advanced positional play: Master the strategic aspects of the game and learn to exploit small advantages effectively. Endgame precision: Understand how to convert advantages into wins and learn to outmaneuver your opponent in the final stages of the game. Developing these advanced skills will push you beyond the plateau and allow you to break into the 2000 rating zone! What's Next? Once you've incorporated these advanced strategies and techniques into your game, you'll be well on your way to mastering chess at the highest levels. The journey to 2000 Elo may not be quick, but with consistent practice and focus, you will achieve it! P.S. Guessing about my rating? Well i'm at 2200. Thank you for reading and good luck on your chess journey! Got questions? Drop your queries below, and let’s improve together! 😊

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İ want everyone to block and report this creep (@Jeh_in_boots) who wants to caught some attention. İn the previous months me and some other people witnessed her SENDİNG İNAPPROPRİATE PHOTOS AND TROLLİNG PEOPLE in some clubs and now she is still acting in the same way we blocked and reported her months ago after that event but İ'm shocked how she's still here do it before it gets late❗❗❗

Once you have set your plans straight, the next step will be to understand why chess openings are crucial in a game. One element connects them all: world champion Magnus Carlsen, the young French-Iranian chess sensation Alireza Firouzja, or Indian chess prodigy. They all vigorously practice chess openings whenever they sit for their training sessions You, too, shall get busy with this aspect of the game if you want to see your game develop. Having the knowledge of a plethora of chess openings will arm you with that edge. In competitive chess, good openings can make or break your chances of a win. Hence, a considerable amount of time every day should be spent engaging with this particular area of the game.

It is said that more than working ceaselessly, it is more important to know how to work hard intelligently. The same goes for your chess training; you must chalk out a plan of how your training will take shape. Playing chess like a grandmaster involves thoughtful planning and implementation. Chess is a game of wits, so it is imperative that you understand how the human brain functions. By inculcating this basic concept into your training, you will find yourself scaling new heights sooner than later. The various techniques and patterns which all grandmasters memorise can be learnt by beholding the power of repetition. By going through a chess lesson a number of times, you would most definitely internalise the formula once and for all. This is precisely what chess grandmasters have done for a long time. Naturally, when they compete on the floor, the well-memorised moves come forth effortlessly. By following this process of learning and relearning every new chess approach, you would mimic what every chess grandmaster does in a week. And with the help of AI-powered chess engines, it will undoubtedly become seamless for anyone to train like a grandmaster.

First and foremost, playing like a grandmaster will require you to genuinely love the game. By loving the daily grind, grandmasters keep learning and improving their game. Since there is no end to learning new tricks and moves, you, too, will practice new techniques every day. Most grandmasters active today started their chess journey at a very young age. Take, for example, GM Abhimanyu Mishra. He made headlines in 2021 by becoming the youngest chess grandmaster in history, and he achieved this incredible feat at just twelve. In his case, Abhimanyu Mishra began learning to play chess at the tender age of 2 years and eight months. On a typical day, GM Mishra trains for at least eight hours, and this includes playing lots of chess games and seeking the help of coaches and mentors to sharpen existing skills. In case you are aiming to become the next chess grandmaster, you will also need to adhere to strict disciplinary standards every day. It is estimated that a chess grandmaster has the knowledge of a minimum of a million chess patterns at their fingertips. Therefore, you will have to train yourself in those same patterns in order to get closer to the GM title.

As has been mentioned in the previous section, chess activates both sides of the human brain. This means that if you play chess regularly, you will have a better chance of becoming a more creative person. In other words, by spending time with chess, one will have a more powerful shot at giving birth to original ideas in their minds. A school-level study by a man named Robert Ferguson tested students’ creative prowess in grades seven to nine. All the students were asked to take up one extra-curricular activity and give time to it at least once a week for 32 weeks. After the 32 weeks were up, the same students were made to sit for a series of cognitive examinations. The results showed that the group of school children who took up chess as their after-school activity ranked the highest in the exams.

Chess, in many ways, is like food for your brain. It can enhance your concentration levels and develop memory, intuition, and creativity. It can also aid in sharpening the skill of extracting valuable information from a set of given principles. Studies in recent years have shown that chess has the potential to increase the capacity to make better decisions, solve intricate problems, and learn new things at a faster rate.

We live in an age where focusing on a single task at hand can be the most challenging thing to do. With so much distraction around us all day, we are losing our mental strength to just sit and concentrate on one job. This can all change with chess, playing which can drastically elevate your concentration levels. As you have noticed, playing chess requires a very high focus and concentration. If you play chess every now and then, you stand a chance to magnify your attentiveness to a whole new degree. This can be used in other areas of life, where a decision made with a focused mind can go to great lengths to ensure that the right choice has been made.

Classical games: Magnus Carlsen beat Hikaru Nakamura 12 to 1, with 21 draws. Including rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Hikaru Nakamura 33 to 14, with 39 draws. Only rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Hikaru Nakamura 21 to 13, with 18 draws

A German research team has found out that when we play chess, both sides of our brain – the logical half and the creative half, get engaged in solving the problems on the chessboard. This revelation stands opposite to what earlier posited with regard to chess. It was said that chess only stimulated the logical half of the human brain, which is the left hemisphere of the brain. And in extension, the right hemisphere, or the brain’s creative side, was not that involved while a person played a chess match. However, this has been debunked by German researchers, and we can confidently say that chess is an excellent tool to train both hemispheres of the human brain.

So does a younger player with a high rating mean that he is a much better chess player than someone older than him with the same rating? In general, with a sufficient number of games in a player's rating history, a higher rating means a better player, regardless of age

Here are some of the benefits of playing chess tournaments:Developing problem-solving skills: ...Enhance memory: ...Improve cognitive skills: ...Boost creativity: ...Build social skills: ...Reduce stress: ...

Attack the Center Squares.Develop Your Minor Pieces (Knights before Bishops)Don't Move Your Queen Too Early.Castle and Move Your King From the Center.Don't Move the Same Piece Twice.

https://www.chess.com/club/lilys-and-ellies-cutely-horrifying-studios/join/031e98 It recently got striked by a minor ban attack only 18 members but we are trying to build a great community. (Permisissiom from @FattyPower was given for me to make this forum)

One of the reasons I hear quite often on why someone lost a game is they "Didn't see" something: the bishop that took their queen or the combination their opponent played on them, or the combination they missed that would have won. But there are many reasons why you didn't see something and, if you want to improve, simply writing it off as "I didn't see it" will not help minimizing your chances to have the same problem recur again and again. So let's list some of the reasons you might not see something and then briefly discuss what you might do to minimize recurrence: Failed to look for ALL the opponent's threats from his/her previous move, Failed to look for the opponent's forcing moves (checks, captures, and threats) that he/she could make in reply to your move (common!),Failed to look for your checks, captures, and threats,Literally did not see the piece that moved before it did (board vision),Looked for his checks, captures, and threats but didn't calculate that one correctly (analysis error),Played too fast for the situation (another common one), and/orWas a tactical pattern I tried to recognize but was unfamiliar (lack of pattern recognition/tactical problem study).OK, now let's briefly discuss/link what you can do to minimize each from happening: #1 often occurs when you erroneously ask "Why did he/she make that move?" instead of "What are ALL the things my opponent's move does?" It only takes one reason you miss to lose the game so finding just a reason for the move may be fatal. See The Ways a Move Affects the Board and the chapter "Just Because it is Forced" in my Everyone's Second Chess Book. #2 is the infamous "Hope Chess" - see The Secrets to Real Chess #3 is partly covered in Making Chess Simple and many books on how to spot tactics like Hertan's Power Chess for Kids or my Back to Basics: Tactics. #4 You can improve board vision many ways - see The Amazing Power of Board Vision #5 A big subject. Some of my articles include Bootstrapping Analysis Skills, Analysis Insights, Quiescence Errors, and Analysis Tips plus included references. #6 - See Real Chess, Time Management, and Care, Putting it All Together, and Slowing Down. #7 - see Tactical Sets and Goals and its included links To summarize, if you can break down "didn't see" to the root cause, that often helps you decide how you can work to minimize that problem in the future. Good luck!

I am a chess coach and an active professional player. I have actively trained with GMs and IMs (I still do since I am working towards getting my Norms) and during these sessions and through my sessions, I found a lot of stuff that I think will help all of us here. Here are a few pointers - Please read through them and let me know your progress! :) Play Games to Analyze. You're wasting your time if you are not carefully analyzing each and every game of yours.- I see a lot of players, especially quite a few young ones - who have a tendency to play 10-20 Games every single day but after a while, they fail to notice any improvement. There is a basic reason why. They do not realize their mistakes or simply they just assume things.For Instance: Many people say, oh I just blundered and then move on to their next games. This never helps and never will.You need to go to the Analysis Board, immediately annotate your games, and write what thoughts you were having and also if you were having any distractions, additionally add the variations you were calculating. After that, go through your game again only with the help of your own brain - Think and see where you could have improved. Only then you should turn on the engine, look through your game and post-game analysis. See why you were wrong and why the engine states you should have played any other moves. Be Curios.Openings at the lower levels (below 1800 FIDE) should be understood not remembered. By understanding - I mean you show be aware of the Plans (What to do next, where to put pieces) and also what the concept behind every move is. Remembering might help for a short-time but sooner or later, If your opponent surprises you, You might be helpless.Do not leave books halfway. If you are reading something - Finish it. This is new, alright so what is happening during this Pandemic is that many new courses and books are being released (mainly due to OTB players being at their home) - so what many new players do in the hunt for new materials, leave or skip their Books halfway and move towards another material.Learning Chess might be boring. Accept that - Many people say that they enjoying solving tactics or reading through My System. I do not and so do many other players including Grandmasters but we have to understand that while Playing Chess might be more enjoying, Learning and Reading Chess is the important thing to do to be good at it.Solve Tactics, no matter what! - Solving Tactics makes your intuition better. It increases pattern recognition skills since most of the tactics come from Real Games. Additionally, Solving Tactics keeps your Brain active and it is the most important thing to do when it comes to improving your Calculation Ability.Do not be over-confident or disappointed. There needs to be a middle ground.Now coming to Chess Principles: Openings: Develop your pieces.Try to control the centerPawn Moves should be avoided, if you have to move a pawn, preferably do it either to control/protect the center or to speed/aid your piece development.Castle ASAP! - while you may see top players sometimes not castling or doing it at a later stage - Most of the time there is a reason or a theoretical idea behind it. It is a good practice to make sure your King is safe.Connect your Rooks. Rooks should be generally played to open files or any other file where there might be a potential open file.Pawn Grabbing in the opening should be avoided. (This is the concept behind Gambits. You usually give your opponent an opportunity to develop faster than you after which they have a more active play if you take their pawn) until and unless of course, you are aware of the Theory that comes after. Pawn if available in the center is available for grabs and there is no real harm in doing so, you can consider doing it.Middle and General Game: Double Bishop advantage is real. If you have, try not to exchange your Bishop - The concept is simple: Double Bishops are very powerful since they have long control of both Dark and Light squares.Knights are generally better in closed positions. Bishops are better in open positions.Any attack should usually be done only once you have at least 3 pieces in the side where you are attacking.Endgame: King plays a very very important role in Endgame. Make sure you activate your king especially when there is no Major Piece on the board.Rooks work the best on 7th (2nd rank if you're black) ranks. Since the pawns are usually in that diagonal.Opposition plays a very important role in K vs K endgames. Make sure you are thorough with it

I just posted a story about playing a hustler on Rittenhouse Square (http://www.chess.com/article/view/my-game-against-the-hustler) but that reminded me of a story my college coach, Donald Byrne, told me. Since I consider it an obligation to not let Donald's fun stories die, here it is: In the 1940's Donald was 13 and his brother Robert (later a GM) 15. The dress code for Central Park tennis was "tennis whites" and the two teens dressed accordingly for their fun tennis match. After tennis they happened to pass an area where a park hustler was playing chess. Donald said the hustlers there tended to be in the 2200-2300 range. Older brother Robert approached the hustler and asked how much he was playing for. The answer was 25 cents per game (maybe $5 in today's money). Robert said sure, and sat down to play. They played three games, each of which Robert won easily. The boys pocketed their 75 cents, said thanks, and left, leaving the poor hustler to wonder what was happening now that he was losing to 15 year olds coming off the tennis courts (i.e., Who was that masked man?) As with all of Coach Byrne's stories, he laughed heartily when telling it and we (the eager audience of chess club players) could never help but laugh along, too. For those of you whose only acquaintance with Donald is that he lost the Game of the Century to Bobby Fischer in 1956, Donald was a super-strong player, many times representing the US in the Chess Olympiad. After he won the US Open in 1953 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Open_Chess_Championship) I believe at that point he was the second rated player in the US behind Sammy Reshevsky. Donald Byrne is a member of the US Chess Hall of Fame.

One of my former students, Trevor Harley, is a professional psychologist. I told him about my concern about students who play too slow and consistently get into unnecessary time pressure, which costs them game after game. These students know they play too slow, have all kinds of tips about how to speed up, but still can't bring themselves to play at a normal, faster rate. So Trevor offered to make some suggestions for them, and here they are: Playing too slow by Trevor Harley Suppose you’ve just finished your life’s work - the next great novel, say. Just after you finish it you decide it’s rubbish and immediately burn the only copy. As it’s going up in flames, lost for ever, you realise how good it was. You’d probably regret it immediately. Of course you wouldn’t set it on fire, you say. But some people play chess just in a similar: they labour for maybe two or more hours creating something that is good, but then they start to run short of time, and have to move very quickly. They then blunder in time trouble, or even worse, their flag falls, or its digital equivalent, and they lose on time. All that work, all that excellence, lost in a moment because of a lack of foresight. Some people play too quickly, and some play too slowly. It’s no good complaining about the time (“I had a won position before I lost on time”) because time is part of the game just as much as the number of pawns you have. So you have to manage it. Some people try to do so by dividing the game up into sections, say every five moves, and noting on their score sheet where they should be time-wise by that point. This technique is much more difficult to employ in an online game, and in any case it doesn’t work: the opening moves can be played relatively quickly, but there will be times when you know you are in a critical position and need a disproportionate amount of time to think. According to database analysis the average game lasts almost exactly 40 moves. If you’re play 30 5 chess that’s an average of 50 seconds a move. You might play the first six moves or so very quickly before you come to the first deviation from your opening knowledge, but that’s still going to give you an average of around one minute a move. Not long. Any of us might get into time trouble occasionally (although I have never lost on time - I have the opposite problem, tending to move too fast) but we know people what are habitual time troublers. What’s more they know they’re doing something wrong, but seem incapable of correcting it. So why do some people habitually play too slowly, and what can they do about it? First, some people are perfectionists. They want their game to be perfect. You will never attain perfection: Magnus Carlsen’s play is rarely perfect. Of course you should try the best you can, but remember that time is an integral part of the game, so you should try to find the best move you can in the time. Related to perfectionism is fear of making mistakes. You can reduce the probability of making a mistake by introducing some kind of error check, such as Kotov’s “through the eyes of a patzer”, before you move, but again remember that this check will take time. Psychologists call people’s resistance to taking risks and making errors risk aversion. Some people dislike uncertainty more than others: people are risk averse, some risk neutral, and others risk loving. You can probably relate other aspects of your chess to where you are on this spectrum: if you love to sacrifice a piece in an attack without a forced win, you are risk loving. Risk averse people don’t want to take chances, and will spend time making sure they’re doing the right thing. Recognise this aspect of your behaviour. Most people have heard of Pareto’s Law, which says that for many tasks 80% of the work is done in the first 20% of the time (and variants thereof). It’s also called the rule of diminishing returns. Most of the time most of the work is done early on in your analysis for each move, and after a while you’ll be getting very little out of spending extra time on the position. Third, not every position is critical. In fact few are, and the key to success is recognising which positions are. Dan Heisman has written extensively about this topic. There is no point spending a lot of time about alternative when which one you choose makes little difference to the outcome. If you regularly get into time trouble concentrate on learning to recognise when a position is critical. Third, I think playing slowly is related to indecisiveness and procrastination. We know that the best way of dealing with procrastination is simply to force yourself to make a start on the dreaded job. Fourth, being aware of how much time they have for each move and how much is left. Some people are shocked that they might have on average only a minute a move. So if in a 30 5 game you get to move 15 and spend 20 minutes on it, you’re only going to have 5 minutes or so for the remaining 25. So then you have to speed up a lot. And of course playing fast is terrible. You’d be better off recognising that anything much longer than a minute is going to result in a defeat for you, either because you make a mistake in time pressure or lose on time, unless it’s a critical position. Fundamentally being slow in chess is being cautious. Cautiousness is correlated with the “Big Five” personality factors of higher conscientiousness, higher neuroticism (through fear of commitment), and lower openness to experience. Personality is difficult to change - it’s dependent on genetics, brain structures, and early experience - but it’s not impossible. You need to work on specific training, ensuring you don’t get into time trouble though the tips above. Although playing too many fast game is usually bad for you, this situation is one case where it will be good for you. It you’re often playing too slowly try laying a large number of blitz games to speed up your decision making and “chess reflexes”.

https://www.chess.com/blog/renzivanoyanib/qatar-masters-open-controversial-upset-part-1