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chasm1995

Thanks, varelse.

To everybody who advised me: The advice is working right away.  Here is proof:

By following your advice, from looking for what my opponent will do and to prevent him/her from doing that, to sitting on my hands, I think that this is immediate proof that I have been given sound advice that will improve my game.  With that, I say thank you, and maybe I will eventually be good enough to be able to play against you guys thanks to you and others like you who help players for the good of it.

creepingdeath1974
varelse1 wrote:

Each time you blunder a piece, go back, and ask yourself what you were thinking about, besides piece safety. You were probably looking for some subtle strategy, or some dazzling combination. Whatever it was, you need to learn to put that stuff on the back burner. Not blundering pieces should be your first priority! Everything else should come second. That will win you more games than anything else in the world.

The way you explained it is my way of believing that it is good to be patient and disciplined in your thought process when it comes to moving your pieces to the best squares that effectively help in carrying out a certain strategy or plan of attack. Especially, if you happen to play a lot of different players for the first time. I definitely will remember your advice about not blundering being the first priority.

pdve

chasm, 8. Bxf7 is better followed by QXd4

pdve

i would recommend that whenever there are unprotected pieces try to figure out if that can be exploited.

also, it is important to count exchanges and the standard i take this he takes that.

at your level and experience i would just play with these two things in mind for a while. and then other things will start coming into your own head. relatively advanced stuff which will be the next step.

waffllemaster

There are always errors, but it's great to see improvement.

chasm1995

It's great to have others willing to aid in one's improvement.  I am aware I am not good at chess, but I enjoy being able to keep my mind focused on one thing instead of "chasming" as my calculus teacher calls it; my mind thinking about many different things at once, such as thinking about and essay I have to write for AP English while doing Physics homework.  Chess is the only thing that helps, and it is relieving to have a focus mind, if only for a short time.

varelse1
chasm1995 wrote:

It's great to have others willing to aid in one's improvement.  I am aware I am not good at chess, but I enjoy being able to keep my mind focused on one thing instead of "chasming" as my calculus teacher calls it; my mind thinking about many different things at once, such as thinking about and essay I have to write for AP English while doing Physics homework.  Chess is the only thing that helps, and it is relieving to have a focus mind, if only for a short time.

Ah, so!

When you can snatch the pebble from my hand, only then will you become Grandmaster of the Universe!

gpobernardo

This improvement is very good, and it would be nice to keep it up! However, let me share with you something I picked up several months ago:

What you demonstrated was to prepare against the opponent's moves at a Tactical Level - pieces moves there, I move here, he takes there, I recapture there, I end up with an advantage in material, something like that. This is a great exercise for tactics. However, don't forget about Strategy. Here, you would be looking at a "positional" level of the game - are my bishops on good diagonals? how can I use my rooks? what are the weaknesses in my opponent's camp? and so on...

Have you ever looked at the master's games and see them make "mysterious moves"? Why did he choose to take with the bishop instead of the knight? why did he move that pawn? Why not the other pawn? or something? This is where positional understanding comes into the picture.

To put it simpler: Our objecvtive is to win; how we win is determined by our Strategy (which is based on the position); how we acheive our strategy is based on our Tactics (which is based of course on our strategy).

Just two years ago, I was rated below 800. Now, (while I rarely play rated games in chess.com) my estimated Elo rating is ~1900. I hope these information would help you as they helped me.

Keep it up!

chasm1995

Thanks, and I'll keep that in mind.