Ask your GM Chesscoach

Hello GeckoSoloYT, make a training schedule for yourself and keep with it for a long period of time. That's how you can consistently improve.

Hello MIra_tomo_aizawa, interesting question. First of I'm not familiar with the current research literature on this. But in my experience, in my internship as a psychologist I actually had to diagnose patients and sometimes an IQ-test was used. These are quite big tests and in it many parts of IQ were measured. For example: Performance intelligence, social intelligence and more. Puzzle-solving was a part of it as well and many top athletes are using chess to keep their mind sharp. 
As to the question if chess improves IQ, I'm not sure. But I am sure that a certain part of IQ has a correlation with chess.

Hello AliceYun, as a 1900 OTB I doubt you will face much preperation as you will face mostly players that play chess as a hobby. The Jobava London is fine to study. If you are interested, think it would be fun to try and such. Any experience in different openings is good, to a degree of course. I wouldn't recommend focussing on too many openings at once.

Although, personally, I would focus on mainlines mostly. They give you more experience in the openings that you will play most of your life and you can still make surprise moves in those openings.

Hi sir

First of all a big thanks for making this ama post where we can interact with you & gain some knowledge

About me

I took chess seriously since 6 months

Rapid peak rating 900, current rating 800

My questions

I struggle with chess studying a lot I mean I still dont understand what dose actually studying chess means, How do top Gms study can you please tell how do you study chess & how do high rated players do prepration before matches, can you give some praticle insights? Whenever I study openings those varitions names & just makes me go mad there are a lot of varations in single openings how do high rated players remember these all varations & counterattack them

After reaching 850+ I understood the importance of emdgames before reaching 850 most of my games would end before endgames so can you please how can I sharp my endgame skills from where should i start & what should be my approach to learn them

What is a diffrencs in thinking system of a 1000 rated, 1600 rated , 2000 rated & a gm and what should I do to develop my thinking skilks in chess

How dose a gm solves complex positions

What is your advice for me to improve

Please its a request to everyone dont spam here it creates unwanted notifification

Hello, I would really appreciate an answer for a question I've been struggling a lot to understand. As white, I usually go d4-Nf3-Bf4 (your typical london system + c3 at some point). The problem is I struggle to understand what I should do with the bishop on f4:

Here, I usually play e3. But is it really fine to let my opponent play Nh5 and grab my bishop? Should I retreat it to g3 first and sacrifice the bishop pair to utilize the rook file with hxg3? Or should I create an escape square before playing e3 with h3? The problem is that if I created an escape square, my opponent will go e6-Bd6 offering bishop trade, and I'm not even sure what to do. If I traded it, he will activate his queen and might castle queenside which is pretty annoying for me. If, after Bd6 (noting that I already played h3), I went Bg3 then after he takes my bishop and I retake (fxg3), kingside is already weakened and e3 pawn is vulnerable + the fact that I like playing c3 at some point so it's difficult to castle queenside anyways to get my king to safety. There's Ne5 too after Bd6 but not sure how to respond after black plays Nd7. I actually sometimes leave the bishop alone at f4 and if he trade the bishops, then after exf4 I create a nice square for the knight on e5 (which obviously can be kicked easily with f6 at some point by my opponent so I gotta be careful). Is there a rule of thumb on how to respond to this situation? Sorry for my long question, and I appreciate your help. Thanks so much

Edit: If Bg5, I don't like the idea of him going h6-g5 kicking my bishop and taking control of a huge area in kingside with the idea for black to eventually castle queenside. Would really appreciate if you can point for me if I'm incorrect in any of my reasonings and the correct response

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/ask-coach-any-question?page=1#comment-127884964

Thanks a lot for answering !

cool

Indeed

Hello The_Blunder_Alien, Lot's of big questions there, which is too much for me to answer in too much detail. But here are some of the short answers:
- what's my advice for you to improve: tactics, especcially at your level, is the most important thing to practice right now. They decide 99% of your games. Apart from that, play lot's of games and analyze them, preferablly with a coach. 
- Gm's have the basis down, they see every tactic, have great positional understanding and know just about the basis of every opening. So what they practice is the details and hard positions. They study openings like no other and work on their endgames and calculation. 
- Preperation before matches means being fit and having a plan against your opponent. You decide which openings to play and check to see if you can predict what openings and positions your opponent favors. 
- There are a number of great endgame books to study. My recommendation for you would be Silman's complete Endgame manual, which is very much aimed towards beginners. 
- The difference between 1000 - 1600 - 2000, in general: 1000- 1600, less blunders and more tactical shots. 1600-2000 Less blunders and tactical shots + better positional understanding. 2000 - GM, just better at everything. Less blunders and more tactical shots + better positional understanding, + better caluclation and decision making. 
You are welcome, I'm happy to help.

Hello Volt, in this exact position I would just play e3 after which ...Nh5 is not in the top 5 of most played moves for Black. If Black still plays it, than that's OK, you can let the bishop get traded off with Bg3 and develop quickly afterwards. For example: 5.Bg3 Nxg3 6.hxg3 Bg4 7.Bb5 a6 8.Bxc6 bxc6 9.c4! And with your development and target on c6 you have the upperhand. My general advice: as long as you develop efficiëntly, it's OK to let one of your bishops get traded. 
A fancy extra suggestion is to bait Black into taking your bishop on e5 with 5.Be5 as 5...Nxe5 6.dxe5 leaves the knight on h5 stranded for good squares.

Thanks for your answer🙌

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