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"There are 9 skill one must master to play effective chess. They fit together like building blocks to a puzzle. If one piece is missing the picture as a whole is left distorted. Strong player have at at least some degree of mastery of all these skills. To often thou the novice player is left in the dark, potentially excellent chess players give up on the game because they are never given the tools to improve on these basic skills. I have read tons of chess books and for some time I did not improve. I would ask strong players, "If I have all this knowledge from all there books, why cann't I get better?" This is not a fair question to ask anyone. So after much evaluation of myself as a chess player, I throw aside all the chess books and started at the basics of how the game is played. Here is what I have come up with. Chess play has two fundamental aspects to it. Analysis and Strategy. Analysis is actually a set of four sub skill that work together to form concussions about a given chess position. These abilities are the first important step to good chess play. They are: Visualization - The art of seeing the relationship between the pieces after a few moves are made. If you can follow a game without the need for a board then you have good visualization. Calculation - This is purely a logic function. The act of "If I move here the he goes there." Calculation is the primary function need for assessing and creating tactics. Evaluation - This Has two sides to it. Static and Dynamic. Static is to assign a value to the current position. This is based on such things as the material balance, Scope of Pieces, Space, and strength of the pawn structure. Dynamic Evaluation is bit more complex, seeing a position as fluid and looking with a far reaching eye is often the hardest thing about chess. This side of evaluation is closely tied to the strategic side of chess. Both are need to complete the Calculation task. Good evaluation skill allows us to assign a value to the end of a calculated line. Pruning - Narrowing down of the potential moves to only those moves that need to be investigated is a bit of an art. Mostly I find experience governs this process but there are ways to help you. If you where to calculate all the possibilities you would quickly get lost as the analysis tree grew. Novices have the impression that expert players are able to calculate all these lines. In truth the expert calculates less then the novice because of a good feel for the skill of pruning. ---------------------*-------------------- The strategic side of chess is also comprised four sub skill but these skill tie in to the aforementioned skill to bring together the effective chess player. These skills are: Planning - To have a plan is better than no plan at all. Planning is sometime misunderstood at the lower levels of chess. Yes having an overall Idea of what you want is the goal here, but the rout to this goal is also made of several smaller plans. Planning is also part of the pruning process. Whit out a plan there is no direction to our plan, and therefore no easy way to pick candidate moves. Adaptation - Once you know what you want, and you have made a plan to get there, this does not mean you will realize that plan. Your opponent will have plans of his own, and for every good plan you make there could be a counter plan. The ability to adapt and rethink your plan on fly is key. For the faster your plan reacts to change the better the chance for success. Pattern Recognition - From the simple patters such as a fork or a skewer to more complex patterns such as Anastasia's Mate. Knowing and recognising these patterns is very important for several reasons. Knowing these patterns can set in motion a plan. Recognizing the pitfalls that could put you in such a position can also set a plan in motion. Patterns can help in the pruning process by eliminating inferior moves from you mind and guiding you on a path to a winning Idea. Prophylaxis - Playing with Prophylaxis is to play from the opponents point of view and find the move that is most damaging to there potential plan. Knowing when to use such moves is a bit of an art. But the skill comes in to play constantly. After every move the opponent makes we need to see what that move is telling us, to recognize the potential threats that may come our way. I would say that Active play is of the up most importance, this is only trumped by king safety. The last skill is an Eye for Error. Since you are human and you are playing against other humans, blunders will happen. It is important to check your self before deciding on a move, but also be aware of the opponents errors so when you have the chance you can capitalize on them." http://www.chess.com/blog/AAlikhine/the-nine-skills-of-an-effective-chess-player

If you love chess tactics, chess improvement, and winning chess games you will want to sign up for the FREE Tactics Time Chess Improvement e-mail Newsletter. http://tacticstime.com/newsletter/ The Tactics Time Newsletters each contain: a Chess Tactics problem to solve Interesting Quote related to the topic The complete game score (along with a link to an online click and move version of the game) An interesting story or idea related to the topic of Chess Tactics and Chess Improvement. The answer to each tactics problem is given with a verbose explanation of why the move works.

I usually don’t share games but this was a really fun game for me and had lots of tactical positions I enjoyed figuring my way through. Don’t let my opponents rating fool you, he is a 1900+ rated Blitz player. Check it out and share your analysis.

Anyone else try playing against Beth (the computer)?! I was able to fairly comfortably win against her at age 15 and below. I then tried a game with her at age 17 and 2400 rating. I knew I would most likely lose, as I am guessing my rating here will settle at about 1900. I tried making a video and discussing the game. Going over my mistakes/errors was good. Below is the youtube link if you want to check it out. It is incoherent and sloppy at times, as I have not tried this post game video making much yet. https://youtu.be/kQjFQk6pDGo Jason

The vote chess seems like a fun way to play 'together' and learn, seeing each other's thoughts. Is a Vote Chess game against another club something I can start here, or does a club admin have to do this? Thank you.

Trying to show Wilder (age 4) some chess basics but then Oliver (dog) started interrupting us!

Last Month some of our members traveled to historic St Pete Chess Club to compete in a rated USCF tournament. We took lots of pics, had a great time, and stopped at Outback on the way home. It was a great day of chess and hanging out with friends from the club. Here are some pictures from our trip. Enjoy! and dont be afraid to get in on the next one (April 20th)

The 10 day/move Tourny posted is "Open" (meaning anybody on Chess.com <1900 can join it) so if you are interested in a good slow paced (a max of 10 days to submit your move) tournament that won't interfere with college or work than don't miss this opportunity before the 10 tournament slots fill up.

http://chesstempo.com/mobile

"Chess games are usually either open or closed and it’s important to know the difference between the two. Open games are those games where the pawn structure is not locking up the middle and there is lots of wide open spaces for pieces to move. Closed games are those games where the pawns have a defined structure and are blocking the mobility of different pieces. Bishops tend to fair better in open games as their strength is using long diagonals. Knights tend to do better in closed games as they can move around to every square where a bishop can easily get blocked in and become useless. Always be mindful in every chess game if it is open or closed and act accordingly." http://www.thechesswebsite.com/open-vs-closed/ http://www.chess.com/chessopedia/view/open-closed

It is often stated that for players rated <1800 that Chess Tactics should be the main focus of study for improvement. "Tactics are the heart of the game" If you are not already using the TT on Chess.com then Chess Tempo is the best alternative. http://chesstempo.com/ Described as an online chess tactics training site that includes a database of 2 million games, endgame training, and the ability to create custom problem sets.

http://www.chesstactics.org/ Farnsworth's Predator at the Chessboard Thank David for the suggestion

This is a good video going over how to analyze your games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0S7CE3KVnI

It is worth the effort to try to look for good strategies for winning at chess. There are a lot of good and bad ones around. A chess strategy worth considering is reading the play philosophy of the opponent instead of focusing on the particular strategy used. After all, it is the man that makes strategies, not the strategies that make the man. Seeing what strategies opponents use in chess is important but this is just secondary to seeing what kind of chess player the opponent is. Players are more important than strategies. Players will use different strategies but will have the same play philosophy. Play philosophy is the frame of mind or mind attitude a player has, regardless of what strategies the person is using at the moment. It is the mark or manner by which a player prioritizes certain things in the play. Often, if a player is absorbed with the queen or any particular piece, it will remain the opted piece in any game no matter what strategy is used. If we are fond of the rooks, for instance, we would prefer to use rooks to carry out a forking, pinning, skewering, Zugzwang, or any strategy preferred. We would probably even sacrifice a queen than rooks and use them in checkmates. Hence, we can use different strategies but have the same distinct preferences. A chess strategy may be lethal with one player but totally trash with another player. A discovered attack strategy may be very effective with a player and a total disaster with another. This is because players have personalities while strategies have none. Thus, when we stubbornly try to fit a strategy step by step to our play style it may just jeopardize our play in the end. We must adjust the strategy to our play, not the other way around. Thus, when we play, it would help so much not only to beat strategies but the players as well. We need to remember that we're really up against persons or minds, not just formulas for winning. When we see a player strictly playing by the book and not by what should be judged by the mind in a particular context, we easily beat that player. The player is overwhelmed by steps and procedures to perfect a strategy while we deal with what the situation is calling for. Remember, the game is not a chess strategy against another strategy. It is player versus player with emerging situational strategies. That's the realistic strategy. http://chessstratagem.com/