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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.

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.

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.

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

Did you know that there are more possible variations of chess games than there are atoms in the observable universe? A big reason why the game of chess is so fun is because no two matches are ever the same. And even though patterns and plays are re-used, the game as a whole will not likely ever be repeated

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.Bonus Principle: Have a Plan

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: ...

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!

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”.

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.

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

Vera Menchik – the defending champion and the greatest female player of the first half of the 20th centuryPaula Wolf-Kalmar – third prize winner from 1927Wally Henschel – a German chess player and a debutant in this competition. Incidentally enough, just like Robinow – she would also later have to emigrate to the USA due to her Jewish originsKatarina Beskow – the 2nd prize winner in the 1927 Women’s World Chess ChampionshipAgnes Stevenson – the only other British competitor, apart from Menchik