Thanks Norris_Cherie.
That was a really long message to wade through.
A suggestion. Keep it a bit shorter next time. Not many members are willing to read all the way through such looong messages
Must-Read Article for Intermediates and Beginners! 📰
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Very important advice. Too bad I'm also the one playing a lot and not analyzing enough.
 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 center
Pawn 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