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 toevaluatea position (tell who is better off, if anyone); more importantly, it is the foundation ofplanningin 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.
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.
You don't always need to have along termplan; 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:
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.
Techniqueis 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 byGMBryan Smith:Part 1,Part 2,Part 3
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Target Skill Range: Beginner (Rated 1000-1399)
Learn to develop long-term, strategic plans and outplay your opponents!
Tasks:
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.
Watch these video lectures on the subject:
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.
Watch these video lectures on the subject:
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:
Watch these video lectures on the subject:
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.
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: