Best way to avoid blundering pieces
By becoming a scientist and not falling for wishful thinking/confirmation bias. By obviously learning important tactical patterns, and actively searching for the best response by the opponent against our moves. This is a timely question as I am now working on a blunder-check course!
What move do you recommend when a player can't see an advantage on player own pieces or disadvantage on player opponent pieces? Note : This is for 1500 rating on chess.com
You spot the weaknesses in the position and orient your pieces there!
what is your thought process when evaluating a position?
1) King Safety
2) Piece Activity
3) Material
4) Pawn Structure
hello, what are your thoughts about caro kann defense? is it good for a 1700 elo above?
Very good, solid and principled.
In chess, is theory more important than one's own intelligence of the game? Thank you.
Patterns are more important than intelligence. You need hundreds of thousands of chess patterns to become a master. That needs domain-specific extensive training.
Is there anything done differently in regards to training when an individual reaches the ~2000 FIDE level as compared to any rating range lower?
I would say there is no such cut-off point where training content and quality drastically change. Openings become more important after that level, that is for sure. But we still analyze the games identify the recurrent patterns and do work on those.
What is your best advice for intermediate players? What should we focus on to improve our chess skills?
Strategic work becomes more important for intermediate players. Also, you start discovering chess has two more dimensions above material: quality and time. Also knowing the typical plans in our pawn structures and connecting the opening to the middlegame. But it is always good to check whether there are fundamental skill gaps, e.g. perhaps you are still missing basic tactics or blunders are more common than usual. Raising our chess floor is crucial so we stop giving away games by simple blunders.
Does playing variant like giveaway, atomic, 4pc help cognitively with regular chess?
There is no evidence of that. The best way to improve at chess is to play regular chess.
Hello! As an intermediate player, should I focus on tactics or positional play? I’ve heard conflicting arguments in online research. Thanks!
Hello! I answered a similar question above. Strategic work becomes important as you reach the intermediate stage, on the condition that you have a high chess floor and you excelled those fundamental steps like basic tactical patterns and blunder-check. It is important to become aware of those potential leakages and fix those to cut down on needless blunders.
More priority at the intermediate stage, Opening or Endgame improvement?
Probably equal weight. Middlegame work is the most important, and by always making connections to the opening and endgame. What kind of endgames tend to arise from your openings and middlegames? What kind of pawn structures arise from your openings? What are the typical plans in those structures, etc.
Hi im 14 year old and around 1750 fide classical do you think i can become an fm
hi what is the most common mistakes in intermediate chess players calculation that we should avoid?
There are several. Handwaving, wishful thinking, looking at irrelevant lines, not giving ourselves choices on the very first move, Kotov Syndrome, not blunder-checking our moves. I made a video about it, hope it helps! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCUzNVh7CII
Should I become a engineer as my family wants or follow my dream as a grandmaster?
Why not make a compromise? Be an engineer and aim for a CM title in chess.
How can you overcome the fear of losing and keep focus when you have to convert an advantage into a win?
By focusing on the actual game position and enjoying the grind instead of letting those thoughts about losing occupy my working memory resources.
What are the basic principles to be followed to become a titled player
I answered similar questions above. It is the grind, passion, and love for this beautiful game. It is being brave and not fearing mistakes and losses, but seeing them as growth opportunities. It is the deliberate practice of pushing ourselves beyond our comfort zones and seeking quality feedback.
Sir, can you please advise how to improve my positional play in the middlegame in chess and how to select the best plan?
I created 5 middlegame courses on Chessable that may help improve in that area. Strategic play comes down to two core skills: 1) Feeling for the pieces and knowing when. they are feeling happy or sad 2) Weakness awareness: quickly seeing where weaknesses lie in any given position. Once you excel in these two skills, your positional play will elevate.
1)How do I break platues?
2)How do I learn openings?
3)How do I prepare for a tournament?
By carefully identifying what is keeping us at bay and what skill we need to work on. And then doing deliberate practice on that very skill. This means pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zones, and finding that sweet spot of desirable difficulty.
I answered the other questions above.
few questions
1. What is the age at which it is too late to learn chess?
2. How to keep vulnerable pawns on the board without compromising positions
3. How to turn a game into a puzzle-like position?
4. Most importantly, how do you decide on the best move?
I hope I can find answers to these questions from you.
@tathagatkaustubh
A passionate chess guy
1) It is never too late to get better at chess, but according to one scientific study, the age of 12 seems to be critical for determining whether people reach IM or GM titles later in life.
4) There are books written on this very question. Impossible to answer in a single paragraph! You need years of experience and chess patterns stored in your long-term memory, together with good reasoning capacity, working memory resources, and correct chess thought process.
Hey gentleman, can you be my source of inspiration by showing the right way to calculate like Grandmaster? We all are the same then why don't we play the moves same way! what is the difference gentleman?
The difference is a grandmaster stores hundreds of thousands of chess patterns and chunks in their brain. This makes the calculation process much more efficient. They don't necessarily calculate deeper than amateurs, but they very quickly spot the best moves, given their vast experience and pattern recognition. I created a Chessable course titled "Fundamental Chess Calculation Skills". I teach short calculation in that course, together with important positional patterns and chunks.