Any tips on how to play well in Daily Chess?

Hello Chess friends.

I've decided to concentrate on daily/correspondence chess for a while in the hope it will help me improve.

Does anyone have any good tips on how to improve my performance?

many thanks for your advice in advance.

Rich.

Keep working on tactics and when it comes to daily games: keep a notebook to write down your thoughts, ideas and plans for each game/move. It may seem like a hassle, but it helps. Especially with planning, as well as making you double check each move for tactics as you're writing the moves down.

Keep working on tactics and when it comes to daily games: keep a notebook to write down your thoughts, ideas and plans for each game/move. It may seem like a hassle, but it helps. Especially with planning, as well as making you double check each move for tactics as you're writing the moves down.

Thanks

Look for moves Rich in tactics and Rich in combinations.

Get use to look for the best move of your opponent before you make your move.

This is very basic, but I have made countless mistakes for not doing that.

Thanks everyone....How long on average do people spend on a game?

Daily is my standard for online play, and I'll have anywhere between 10 and 30 games going at once.

I should try the notepad tactic as there have been a few times recently where I've pointedly thought "I need to be careful after my opponents next move and remember X" and then come back to the game a day later and fell into the trap I'd seen earlier. I do try to reverse a couple of moves and then re-play them through to jog my memory about what was happening, but again I only do this most of the time.

In terms of tips, I don't have very many. I take anywhere from 10 seconds to a few minutes on a move. I know my focus and concentration won't be as good first thing in the morning or if I'm multi-tasking or just looking between other activities so I will often skip over a game and wait until I can give a more complex position the attention it is needs. I would say a good best practice would be to treat it actually like a daily game and really calculate on each move and take as long as you need; your opponents might be so you might as well balance the odds. I play daily to practice for OTB though, so taking more than a few minutes and calculating everything to death doesn't simulate that or help me. I try to take as long as I would take on a board, but usually take much less.

use the analysis board, try to make forcing moves so you don't have to calculate as much.

ulf andersson once said "i cannot understand how anyone can lose a correspondence game"

I use correspondance chess to work on my OTB toiurnament game:

1. I use chessbase 13 Mega Database to keep on on current games.

2. I use Chess Opening Wizard, and the "Move by Move" e-books to work on my openings.  

3. I use chessDB to look at middlegame positions, pawn structures.  

4. Use the Notes section on te games to track my analysis, thoughts, candidate moves.  

5.  My "study plan" is the following:

Set up games on a real board, and pieces.

Day 1 decide on candidate moves. 

Day 2 go back over candidate moves with "fresh eyes" and update each candidate line either improving on, or removing as needed.

Day 3 One last check, and decide on a move.  

Daily chess and votechess both have increased learning benefits (in my opinion) from:

- Limiting the number of games played in parallel to a handful

- Setting up a physical board to track each game and leaving the positions up constantly so you can absorb them anytime

- Playing around with the positions in spare time...even looking at a position fresh during a commercial break, not looking at it for hours, then looking again can yield completely new insight into the overall factors that define the position

- Dig into openings using databases (I use a few, but 365chess.com is the probably best/easiest overall I would say), and by dig I mean check all the popular variations off of each move using the full database (not just master/GMgames) until you run down into the weeds (only a couple database games), then follow the best game you can find from there (and by "follow" I mean play it out and understand the plan, and if you find a novelty of your own, analyze the heck out of it because if nobody has played it then there's probably a good reason)

- If your opponent has  body of games available online, research their games to determine what openings they like to play.  If they have posted analysis, read how they make their choices...do they strongly value the bishop pair?  Do they tend to go for mate, or go for material advantage and trade down to pawn-up endgame?  Do they tend to force closed positions?  Etc.

- If you are white, do an extensive engine analysis BEFORE THE GAME STARTS of your chosen opening to go along with your database learning...this might not help you go that far into the game because dry point evaluations are not easy to memorize, but it will very much help you pick the database lines that are the most solid vs. those that are just popular with rank and file chess players...

- Make sure that no matter how much total time you have put into analysis of a move that you review and blundercheck the move before making it...this should take no less than 10-15 minutes...so that means even the most obvious or forced move should have 10-15 minutes of scrutiny minimum.  There is never a reason to just play a move off the cuff in daily chess.  Never.  Maybe you analyzed you opponent's probable responses and they walked right into your prepared line...doesn't matter, force yourself to analyze anyway

- If you do have a completely forced move, spend more time on what your next non-forced continuation should be and keep that game "fresh" in mind by continuing to look at it even though the next handful of moves (and a week or two of time) pass until you get to really play your own choice again

- Continue to fiddle with variation/continuations while it's your opponent's move...list out their best replies.  How often are you surprised by their next move?  Find out why, each and every time you get surprised.  I cannot overstate how important this will be.

In Daily Chess there is actually a place where you can write down private notes in each game. It is the icon on the right in the info pane.

Alot of time I will flip the board and look at it from my opponents view and ask myself "If this were me, what move would I want to make?" 

10-20 days is not unusual for me. If you have several games going (usually 2-3 days per move) you always have a move or two to contemplate so it doesn't get boring just waiting around for some one else to move.

Blunder check is important. Believe it or not, I've actually blundered a queen in a 3 day per move game! Using the analysis feature is very helpful also. 

 Wow and Lol.  I totally violated all the good suggestions posted above.  I'm such a noob.

I only joined this club, Aaron Nimsowitsch Historical Appreciation Society, because one of their admins sent me a request to join.  I'm like, whoa, that's kinda cool.  I don't own any of his books, but what the hey, sounds cool.  What do you guys do?  We play matches.  Okay, I'll join and play in a Daily Chess match against the Historical Society as board #4.

Thematic Match on the French Defense.  We have to play both B&W against the same opponent.  I don't know anything about the French.  Let's just play!  My opponent says he doesn't either.  We just play.  Daily game started yesterday evening, and concluded this afternoon today.

NEVER consulted any resource.  Just made moves.  (If blunder, then blunder.  So be it.)  Lost both games to a 1900+ player.  Afterwards, he showed me what the numbers mean in the chess.com computer analysis... cuz I didn't know!

Lot of fun, and good way to learn!  10/0 Blitz is fun, but Daily Chess is a great way to improve.

Thanks for all the tips, Chess.com friends!

Sometimes I'll walk back about 70 feet and look at the board from a different perspective - like a golfer looks at a putt.

Yips?