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Target Skill Range: Beginner (Rated 1000-1399)
Learn to develop long-term, strategic plans and outplay your opponents!
Tasks:
Improve your piece play.
Learn the basics of pawn play.
Learn to make a plan.
Keep your king safe.
Learn to use "technique."
Take the quiz!
Whereas tactics allow you to take advantage of your opponents' mistakes in the short term, strategy flows from your understanding of more permanent aspects of the position. Awareness of strategic elements is vital in that it allows you to evaluate a position (tell who is better off, if anyone); more importantly, it is the foundation of planning in chess. Here's what we recommend to improve your strategic vision:
1. Improve your piece play.
Work through these materials on the basics of piece play, strong placements (outposts), recognizing strong and weak squares, and piece activity. Learning how to coordinate your pieces is the first step toward understanding strategy and planning in chess.
Read this: Good and Bad Pieces by WGM Natalie Pogonina
Watch these video lectures on the subject:
Nominal and Absolute Power of the Piece by GM Dejan Bojkov
Amazing Games for Beginners: Dominate the Center by IM David Pruess
Amazing Games for Beginners: Pillsbury’s Attack by IM David Pruess
Amazing Games for Beginners: Magic Outpost by FM Elliot Liu
Magic Outpost 2 by FM Elliot Liu
2. Learn the basics of pawn play.
As you become a better chess player you will realize more and more the importance of the pawns, but for now we simply need to identify good and bad pawns—as well as the basic strategies of how to exploit them—when we see them in our own games.
Read this: Strong and Weak Pawns by WGM Natalie Pogonina
Watch these video lectures on the subject:
Chess Vocabulary: Pawn Structure by IM Daniel Rensch
Isolated Queen Pawns: Introduction by IM Daniel Rensch
Do puzzles 31 and 32 (only) in this lesson:
Endings, Openings, a Taste of the Middle by IM Jeremy Silman and NM Mike Arne
3. Learn to make a plan.
You don't always need to have a long term plan; often you are just fighting for advantages in the immediate position with tactics, attacking or defending against your opponent's threats, but it would be good for you to know what plans are, if only so as not to feel hopelessly adrift when there is "nothing obvious going on." Study the following material and you will already be on a decent footing:
Read this: Try Your Hand at Planning by WIM Iryna Zenyuk
Read this: How to Evaluate a Position by IM Jeremy Silman
Watch these video lectures on the subject:
Everything You Need to Know: Tactics & Strategy by IM Daniel Rensch
Reading the Board by NM Dane Mattson
The Center in Chess by FM Tiger Lilov
Planning in Chess by FM Tiger Lilov
Member Analysis: Instructive and Unbalanced Errors by GM Roman Dzindzichashvili
4. Keep your king safe.
One of the key elements in any chess position is king safety. Watch these three videos that will increase your sensitivity to this issue, and then practice defending your king in the following set of exercises.
King in the Center 1 by FM Elliot Liu
King in the Center 2 by FM Elliot Liu
Strike While the Iron is Hot by IM David Pruess
Alekhine's Attack by IM David Pruess
Do the first 6 exercises in this lesson:
Premature Attacks on the King by FM Joel Banawa
5. Learn to use "technique."
Technique is term used to describe conventional methods to convert your winning positions into won games! Of course, one component of this is learning not to blunder when you're ahead; however, there are a few important strategical things you should understand to improve your technique, with the main one being how to convert a large material advantage:
Read this three-part article series on converting material advantages by GM Bryan Smith: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Practice this drill until you win 3 times in a row.
Practice this drill until you win 3 times in a row.
Practice this drill until you win 3 times in a row.
Practice this drill until you win 3 times in a row.