SHARE A CHESS TIP!
I HATE when people post twice in a row. Especially if they are long.
Great job OP btw, this is an excellent thread idea. And expanding on your knight movement tip, here is a picture to get familiar with the geometry of the knight's movement. (this is especially helpful in blitz and bullet and tactics in general)
Moves in 1: 8 possible squares opposite the color square the knight is on. 4 pairs of 2 that are diagonally connected.
Moves in 2: A centralized knight can move to a whopping 22 new squares in 2 moves (or attack them in 1). They are the same color as the square the knight is currently on.
Moves in 3: A centralized knight can make it to an astounding 24 new squares in 3 moves! In fact, the knight in the center, if unobstructed, can hit every single square that is the opposite color to its own square in either 1 or 3 moves!
Moves in 4: The blind spot, 2 spaces away diagonally (and 4 spaces away diagonally) This blind spot is especially good to know when you are in a bullet game and you are looking for a square for your queen that you won't have to worry about the knight attacking/forking it for at least a couple of moves.
EXPLANATION OF HOW AND WHY TO USE THE TACTICS TRAINER https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/hey-noobs-forget-openings-study-tactics-the-right-way
Take an empty chess board and go in order, saying the name of every sqaure....
"a1 b1 c1 d1 e1 f1 g1 h1 a2 b2 c2 d2 e2 f2 g2 h2...." do this for every square, looking at the squares as you say the name of that square. Repeat again and again and again.
Then do it on the black side. " h8 g8 f8 e8 d8 c8 b8 a8 h7 g7 f7 e7 d7 c7 b7 a7". Do this all the time until the knowledge of the square is second nature.
It's extremely helpful for anyone who has trouble recognizing which square a piece is on without looking at the coordinates. You want to get to where you intimately know each and every square from either the white or black perspective. It will improve your chess by leaps and bounds as it aids visualization and calculating as well - because it gives you something else to hold onto, to reference in long variations, rather than just "this piece on this square".
Chess often times isn´t about playing the objectively best move but rather about playing moves that put pressure onto your opponent and posing problems for him. Imagine chess as a game between 2 players that with each move constantly try to create difficulties for the opponent to solve.
i agree that sometimes it is smart to play the player rather than strictly the position.
Don't give any single piece too many jobs to do.
In the following position, Black's Queen has to prevent mates at d8, e7 and (potentially) f7. That's too many jobs for one piece to handle.
Learn to play with the board backwards. That way you arent so dependent on how the squares are labeled. So when someone says: "Your c3 square is weak" You know they are talking about f6.
yeah that is a good tip! A mistake I have made many times, when it looks like your opponent has just blundered, look and look again! (especially if they are a stronger player than you or they took their time making the move haha) But really strong blitz players will often play a bait move fast to raise the probability that you assume they carelessly blundered.
yeah that is a good tip! A mistake I have made many times, when it looks like your opponent has just blundered, look and look again! (especially if they are a stronger player than you or they took their time making the move haha) But really strong blitz players will often play a bait move fast to raise the probability that you assume they carelessly blundered.
I will also add, and this is just my opinion, don’t decide not to exploit a blunder just because you’re afraid it’s a trap. LOOK for the trap. If you don’t see one, make your move. If you turn out to be wrong at least you learned a new pattern. But don’t get beat by psychology.
I’ve blundered against much weaker opponents, and after the game they admitted they saw it but they thought I was laying a trap.
Yeah, in the end I think you have to trust your analysis.
If it's wrong, ok, you learn a lesson, but it's the only thing you can (and should) trust.
So e.g. if it looks like you're winning a pawn, and you're not worried about any compensation / counter play, then you're basically required to go for it.
Sure, double check, tipple check, look carefully at the end position... but then go for it
Yes! Always make them prove it! (and if they DO prove it, you learned something ) What a good thread <3
comment something in my thread...
Is Anand one of the Best Player of all time ??
Dont spam.
Here's a position that has two patterns that are telling black he needs to move his knight on f6. Either one is enough on its own, but I thought it'd be fun to show a position that has both.
Nd7 is very logical.
When on f6, there are two miserable pieces in black's position. The first one is the knight itself. White's main pawn chain (in particular the f3 pawn) is taking away all the knight's advanced squares. The knight definitely wants to relocate given a chance.
The other miserable piece is the g7 bishop. Sure it's potentially good, but not as long as there's a knight blocking it. In many fianchetto positions a knight on the 3rd rank (or for black the 6th rank) has a high priority to relocate.
(A small note, a knight on the 4th/5th blocking a finachettoed bishop is not so bad as it's a knight in the center, and if the bishop is helping cement it there, it's often content enough and isn't shouting at the pony to move).
Yeah, sure that Nd7 is pretty logical. Might as well be maneuvering around to Nb6. But what about the Bxg7 after Nd7? It’ll be a check later on.
Here's a tip that helped me save a tournament game when I was in really terrible time trouble.
This isn't the exact position, it was something close though.
Things had not gone well for me. I used a lot of time in a favorable but complicated middlegame to reach a queen endgame with almost no time. It should be a draw, but it could also last another 50 moves making my practical situation pretty bad.
The question is, how should black place his pawns with no time to think about it?
Just an example below. Should the pawn chains point towards or away from the center?
The idea is you want to keep the weak pawns (the ones on the 7th) close to you king. That way they'll be defended. Another benefit is a pawn on an f or c file can sheild the king from side checks. A rook pawn cannot. So of course I made my pawn chains point to the sides.
After many checks and tense moment where I was under a minue on the clock, I'd apparently made a fortress-like position that allowed me to move fast enough for the delay to prevent me from losing on time.
My opponent whispered "I can't believe it" but it was just basic logic