wut wut wut 

Get 2500 fide rating, get 3 GM norms

@SAofficial yup.

what is norms

Just search it because its too long to explain

n chess, a Grandmaster (GM) norm is a high level of performance in a tournament that a player must achieve to earn the title of Grandmaster:

Performance rating: The player must achieve a tournament performance rating (TPR) of at least 2600

Tournament length: The tournament must have at least nine rounds

Opposition: At least one third of the player's opponents must be Grandmasters, and at least half must be titled players

Opponent federations: The player's opponents must come from at least three different chess federations

Thinking time: Each round must have at least 120 minutes of thinking time, assuming the game lasts 60 moves

Officiant: An International Arbiter must officiate the event

To become a Grandmaster, a player must earn three or more GM norms in events covering a minimum of 27 games. The World Chess Federation (FIDE) awards the title of Grandmaster.

I think min time control is 90 mins woth 30 sec increment

short answer... there is No Short Cut!

I Wrote About it... some three years back...
and want to share with you .... few words... with my 20 years chess knowledge.
(i have a pdf uploaded on this linkInternet Archive: .

GETTING BETTER AT CHESS (WITHOUT CHESS COACH)

 

MIND SET

Repeat After Me

“You want to win the ALL games.” “You want your 100% accuracy!”

When you play games or solving puzzle/tactics, you want 100% accuracy.

You do not like mistakes! “You want to play the BEST MOVE ever played!”

Get your MIND SET high level…

All the Champions, All the Legends Do the Same.
(They HATE defeat with all their body cells, they even hate weak moves)

If you get low (like you say to yourself, losing one or two is OK, I fought well but lost, no problem)… this thinking will keep you low. (DO NOT DO THIS)

(But on other hand, losing is also part of game, whenever you do, you can console yourself by telling yourself. “Every lose is a Lesson, Analyse it and Learn where you went Wrong and Why. You cannot Win all the time. Losing is part of life. Get Up.. and Cheers.”

Until you don’t have this mindset, to be 100%, to be PERFECT, you cannot get high.

Biggest difference between bigger player and smaller player is this only thing (Mind Set). Low rated players don’t take it serious. High rated players take it like matter of Life and Death.

And TO GET his mindset, you need practice on Puzzles. As your rating goes high, your puzzles get tougher, you can take more time but, try HARD, give your VERY BEST to solve those puzzles….

Chess Puzzles are to MIND like, Working Out with Body Muscles.

Your Chess Brain Muscles gets Stronger, when you take heavy and heavier weight (means solving stronger and stronger puzzles)

And you know, those end sets, last repetitions are toughest ones. And those are most beneficial. You want to squeeze those last bit to get higher and higher.

Chezz Puzzles already tell us there is a TACTIC. If you Know It, still CANNOT solve it, means Brain Muscles needs to practice.

In Real Game, Player is unaware if there is a TACTIC if it arises on the board suddenly.
(If you Know It in Puzzles, still cannot solve it, then it is even harder how we can solve it if we do not know if there IS A Tactic in real game.)

But Real thing is … You Have to See Tactic WAY BEFORE MANY MOVES.
(Seeing a Tactic which arises after few normal moves.)

“CHESS IS 99% TACTICS”

Solve atleast 1000 checkmate tactics first. Know the all Checkmate patterns with names (like Kiss of Death, Anastasia, Smothered, etc)

Then 5000 other Middle-Game tactics… (Like Fork, Pin, Double Attack, Discover Attach/Check, Decoy, Deflection, Desperado, Blocking etc…)

For this, you need to get Some course like CT-ART, Perfect Chess Trainer or Chess.com and solve some 5000 to 10000 Chess Tactics.

But remember focus on accuracy, Take More Time But No Compromise with Perfection. (at end, try to understand theme or motive of the Tactic, and if some tactics or resemblance with Pawn Structure arise from you Opening Repertoire, then focus on it more.)

You can make a Plan about it…. Like solving 1000 checkmate puzzles as fast as you can. And if you can solve it within a month. Then Go Again, but this time set your target to solve same puzzles in 15 days… and Go 3^rD Time and set target to solve same 1000 puzzles in 7 days…

(This Idea is taken from the book “Rapid Chess Improvement” by Michael de la Maza, and maybe similar idea was discussed by Jeremy Silman in his book "How to Reassess Your Chess”)

(I think, solving atleast 10,000 puzzles, at least once in your life is very important to get decent rating/or become a good player)

Daily, 10 to 30+ Tactics

Furthermore, I advise Mix your Tactics, Hard and Easy, and Very Easy.

And Checkmate Patterns tactics should be given priority.

Until you don’t know all “Checkmate Patterns with their Names” (Check Annex-1) , let other tactics to wait.

Solve at least 1000 Checkmates Tactics twice ASAP.

 

OPENINGS

Playing every time random opening or random moves without preparation will not much improve your chess.
(Even GM’s do not do it in Serious Tournaments, they never delve into jungle without preparation.)

In 1^st phase, you have to make your Opening Repertoire.

 

For that, first you have to…

Know Your Style.

Go through all Openings in nutshell,

then choose One Opening from White (e4/d4/c4/or…)

And choose Two Openings from Black (against e4, against d4)

Of course we have to work out all side lines, also.
Get some lectures from renowned Chess Tutors, study your Opening deeply

Check Opening Explorers and Power Books, and check whether line has good reputation or not.

Also run engines and check what engines think for certain position in Opening..

In this regards.
Make your all Opening Studies at some place, like software or some site like LiChess Study.

Keep checking PowerBooks and Opening Explorers (only played by GMs, not lower players)

This is, to some extent “Once in a lifetime work”.

You have to do this ONCE, until you get some descent rating.
Once you are GM, then you can do more research work on Openings…

So you have to play chess systematically, instead of going random every time.

And sole purpose of opening is either getting advantage, or at least getting playable middlegame or better endgame.

Know Your Opening idea-wise, What is Idea? What is Purpose? Instead of memorizing moves without understanding it.

And also if you Know Yourself better, then you might workout better way, which Opening might suit you, or which position in middle game arising from certain variations suits you or not. (In this regards, no one can help you except yourself.)

[it might happen, you “don’t like certain opening for unrealistic reason, like for example you don’t like French, because your boyfriend was French and he deceived you… So you have to be realistic and adopt and not adopt certain opening only for good reason.]

Every Opening is, in itself, as a Different World… and knowing and understanding one world is itself and bigger challenge. If you don’t have much time, then its already better idea to stick with one Opening and everytime try to play Best Move and every time, try to figure out what could be better, or where you went wrong.

So , in nutshell.

1. Know Your Style
2. Select Your Openings
3. Get Some Lectures
4. Check Opening Explorers and Use Engines
5. And Make Your Opening Repertoire.

And yes keep watching Masters games on your Opening.

MIDDLEGAME

In middlegame, many things can be put in Consideration.

Starting from Bottom to TOP.

1^st thing is JUST TACTICS! “Chess is 99% Tactics, Don’t Forget”

 

Your eyes always be looking Just TACTICS all the time

If there is any (then calculate properly) or try to create by yourself.

 

2^nd Important Thing is CALCULATION!

Intuition is one thing which works where calculation does not work.

But Chess is Math! If you calculate properly much ahead, you have already upper hand.
(sometimes positionally it looks awkward, but if calculations works, no matter how awkward it looks, It Winning, in near future… and those moves got “!!” by annotators later.)

(But calculations do not mean doing random things. It comes with Idea, what is the purpose of every move, and what best options your opponent must play in reply, and what you have to play in response and why… and so on…)

 

In this “calculation process” CHESS VISION is another important thing.
Strong players have very vivid chess vision, like they look ahead and don’t do mistakes. While beginner might do mistakes often and forgot if certain PIECE/CHESSMAN is at certain place/position during calculations. But they did not see it and forgot about it, and thus calculation fails. Therefore, re-assessing position again and again is important.

When Your Opponent Play His Move.

When one chessman is played, it always leaves something behind.

Always ask question to yourself, What It Left Behind?

After every move, look at the board/position, like a new position, what is changed? (What piece or squares it was defending, and now they are not defended anymore), or maybe he is threating something, or what is his motive …

If nothing happens, then you may improve your position, check if some of your piece might get better place, exchange your bad piece with opponent’s good piece.

And Even if that is not happening then evaluate the endgame position. /Look for better endgame.

And even this is not happening, then play a “Prophylactic Move”.

 

Always Know this philosophy…

Longer the Game… more chances for lower rated player to do Mistake or Go Wrong.
“Lengthy games always favor for better players.”

And this logic works in every sport, for example in Cricket T20 is like a Gamble, where there is higher chances that low rated team might win against high rated team. And if it becomes 10 over game, then the winning ratio between high and low rated team might be decrease. But when it comes to Test Match then it is more like High Rated team will win.

So, in chess, if you are better player than your opponent,

and in middle game, if you don’t see any chances to win, then simply elongate the game… weak players will sure stumble somewhere…
(and that’s what Capablanca did all the time… and won the games which were considered Drawish)

And if the situation is reverse, then do the reverse. (it means if your opponent is much stronger, then hypothetically your more chances lie in Tactical Short Game.)

When it is Your Move.

One Beginner answer is :

First Thing you should check it is safe to play. (you are not making any mistake)… and you can do it practically, asking question to yourself what reply your opponent can play.

But Another Important Thing to be notice is just check

 

3. How Many Ways You Can Play It? (Variation/Variety of Move)

For example, Your White Queen is at f3 and in next move you want to attack Black’s h7 pawn with checkmate threat. So the most obvious move feels to play Qh5, but you have also Qh3 and Qe4 variations too with same idea. So check all possibilities (varieties) then figure out which variety could be most beneficial.

So in nutshell.. in Middle Game.

Focus on Tactics, and Calculations and Chess Vision, and finally check Move Varieties.

For Middlegame, getting more and more knowledge is always plus point. Like Watching Video Lectures and any sort of Training Material, Watching GM’s Games etcetera…

NEVER PLAY AUTOMATIC CHESS

Instead

Calculate and check the move which should be better in a position, instead of playing automatic chess.

(When you’ll solve Puzzles, you’ll see Most Obvious Moves are Often Wrong”… and sometimes they double bluff… and most obvious move IS Actually Right… …. So Real Thing lies only in CALCULATE MATHEMATICALLY.. because two plus two is always four whether is

2 + 2 or if it is

 

 

 

Until you become very strong player, I think not much energy and time should be surfed on Middlegame (except solving Tactics, Tactics is Chess, Chess is Tactics. Pawn might be soul of chess or not, but Tactics are not doubt soul and body of chess.), but after making Opening Repertoire, much energy and time should be surfed on Endgame.

ENDGAME

This is the phase where you should really work.

Take an example of Maze Game.

Entry points could be many, and those can lead to many more different paths… But Exit Correct point is only one. Now if you did cheat in this game in your childhood and try to solve it starting form End to Start … then not only you could solve correctly but also save time and energy.

Means many puzzles could be easily solved if “Reverse Engineering” is done.

Somehow, same logic also works in chess.
If you are told, if you have one extra pawn in Endgame, and you have favourable King and Pawn vs King Endgame, then you can promote that pawn in Queen and Win the Game easily.

(I assume, somehow Capablanca knew this logic when he was 4 years old. Like he said. Give me one extra pawn, I’ll exchange all pieces and pawns, then win endgame. Simple! His losing percentage in Endgame is ≈0.88% )

“[Capablanca lost fewer than 5 games in the endgame phase (out of 19 losses of his career), as most of his losses came in earlier phases (opening or middlegame), often due to rare blunders or against opponents who managed to outplay him before reaching an endgame.]”

After Tactics, Endgame is 2^nd  most important thing to be taken seriously.

You NEVER be a GM, if you don’t the Endgame.

For Endgame Practice, I’d suggest.

1. com Lessons/Lectures and
2. ChessTempo Endgames Lessons and Drills
3. Chess King (CT-Art team) has also many Chess Ending apps.
4. Chess Endings (android app)

• Now, HINT is: if your Endgame becomes good, and your middlegame is weak, then you can simply exchange big guns quickly and go to Endgame, where many low-rated players falter.

• One who wants to be GM or Strong Player, he needs to be Master in all three phases of game.
• (it is that easy to say)

 

 

Chess Knowledge (Bonus)

If you study chess all the time, then hopefully chess knowledge increases your chess understanding and recognition of patterns.

But if you don’t (study chess) then You Might Lose Many Games just because of “not knowing it” or at least it may become harder to work out.

 

(For example, if you knew that “two connected passed pawns on 6^th rank is more powerful than a rook” that knowledge led you to win a game or you might lose a chance to win just not knowing it.)

Summary

Æ Playing systematic and perfect chess is the Main Mindset of all great players. And it starts with move 1^st.

Æ Therefore, working out on Opening Repertoire once in a lifetime is crucial.

If Chess is Rocket, then Opening is its Sarting Point. And little diversion in Opening/Starting means you’ll end up in totally different location, different endgame….

And this is only phase in game where you can memorise the moves.

But Opening is just starting point. Spending too much time in this phase is also waste of time. (sometimes slow and steady also wins the race)

(Opening Repertoire is just a Boost up thing. Its better to have it. But having Basic Opening Knowledge and not falling in any opening traps, will survive you this desert…

Æ In Middlegame, Tactics and Calculations is a Real Chess.

Æ While Endgame simply defines Who Will Win the Game.

“"All's well that ends well.”

 

Psychology

Psychology/Peace of Mind also plays a vital role, especially during serious tournaments. You have all the knowledge (most of it) Only implementing confidently OTB is required.

As it is said, “Practice Makes Perfect”, therefore in this regard you have to play more and more tournaments, to get used to it.

If you feel pressure, I can share few words to make it ease.

• Chess is a Game, all games are invented for “fun”. Win or lose, have fun to play it.

• Chess is Battle of Minds. But its not battle of two minds, but it is battle of your only mind. Your Mind Against Your Studies, all the lessons/lectures/puzzles or so, how much you can implement perfectly in your own game?

It’s like your opponent only challenges you to check your ability. Like he says.

Ok, Are You Trained Enough? Let Me Create some toughest position for you, Win from it? Can You Do It?

(If Win becomes Impossible, then Don’t be silly to play risky move, Draw is also winning if you’re losing!)

• Low rated players tend to win or lose (they don’t go for draw/ drawish position). As long as you don’t give them “Attacking Chances”, most probably they are going to blunder at some place.

Attacks do strange things!

(as Tal says people cracks under attacks)

• When you play, just play the one move at the time. You have to play just current position, that’s all. What is the best move in this position? That is only the question.

Last Thing:

One should remember, Chess is a game to be “played”. (Like Swimming) You can study about it, but you’ll learn only when you wet your feet/get in the water…. so Practice and Play!

(but remember whenever you do, Do it Perfectly.)

[Azhar Hussain Abro]

Sukkur

https://ratings.fide.com/profile/7806116

[1^st-Dec-204]/modifed after writing draft in 2021

Anne-1 – CHECKMATE PATTERS NAMES

1. Back Rank
2. Kiss of Death
3. Scholars Mate
4. Legals Mate (f7/f2)
5. Anastasia (vertical/horizantal)
6. Bishop and Knight (bishop covering long diagonal)
7. Bishop and Knight (when bishop is not on long diagonal the Knight must cover the corner square like Ng3, covering h1)
8. Sneaky Mate (Rd8#)
9. Smothered Mate
10. Bodens Mate (Two Bishops Mate)
11. Fools Mate
12. Finger Fahler Mate
13. Tail Mate (Gueridon's Mate)
14. Greco's Mate (Epaulette var.)
15. Arabian Mate (Rook and Knight)
16. Blackburne Mate (Two Bishops)
17. Lolli's Mate (Qg2# with help of pawn at f3)
18. Mayet's Mate (Bb2 Rh8#)
19. Shepherds Mate (Bb2 Qxh6+)
20. Anderssens Mate (ver. of Mayet but pawn at g7)
21. Pillsbury's Mate (Bc3 discovered check from R of b file)
22. Damiano's Pawn at g3 Qh2#
23. Morphy's Mate (Rook and Bishop)
24. Epaulette Mate
25. Two Rooks on 7th Rank
26. Two Rooks on a file
27. Two Knights Mate
28. One Knight Mate (while other pieces pinned) (as in Carro Kann trap)
29. One Queen Mate (Englund Gambit)
30. Knight Bishop Mate (bishop on long diagonal)
31. Bishop Knigtht Mate (bishop on small diagonal)
32. Queen & Bishop (like Boden/Bad Cold)
33. Queen & Knight
34. Rook & Bishop
35. Rook & Knight (Arabian Mate)
36. Knight & Rook/Queen (Anastasia Mate)
37. Knight & Pawn
38. Two Bishops from same side (as checkmate)
39. One Rook Mate (supported by any piece)
40. Rook and Bishop (Rd8#)
41. Knight and Rook (Mate with Knight)
42. Two Knights and Two Bishops (mating minors)
43. Dicovered (Double Check) Mate (Cross Fire)
44. Pawn Mate (Smothered with Pawn)