P.S: I am uploading this, and maybe a few more chess lessons of my course up for free, for anybody to view, like a demo, but after that I shall take the chess lessons to PMs in case people from Ukraine or China or Afghanistan are on chess.com.
WHAT makes a chessplayer a GOOD chesspayer? (PART 1 OF MY FREE CHESS COURSE)
Sort:
Chess is one of the silliest games in the world. And yet it is one of the most complex, deep games in the world. It is all about 64 squares and 32 peices and those peices just move up and down the board. The rules of chess are easier to master than any other sport's rules.
And yet it's the totality of those rules, what they mean to the game of chess, that is profound. And that profoundness is what makes chess one of the greatest games in the world.
For example, you can easily learn that a bishop moves diagonally or that a knight moves in a L shape. You can learn tactics and strategy, pins, forks, etc. You dont even need to be told that things like centre, space, open files etc are important. Of course they are.
Yet how to use those facts in a game of chess, to be the chessplayer who's game consists of MORE open files space, centre control, etc, than the other chessplayer?
How to be the chessplayer that acquires more pins and forks than the other chessplayer?
THAT is the profound factor of chess.
Its not just rules.
Its your rules versus the opponents rules. Its about being able to put your knowledge versus the opponents. And yet, strangely, both you and the opponent have the same knowledge of chess. You know how to put a pawn in the centre, or how to open a diagonal or fianchetto a bishop. Then what makes one chessplayer greater than another?
It is INSTINCT.
The ability to weight a million factors, centre, space, diagonals, forks, pins, and decide WHICH ONE is most important, not just for the immediate chess position but for the chess position that will manifest ten moves from now.
Can you imagine how much mental power that decision process takes?
It means you must weigh the pros and cons of each chess factor like a tactic or a strategy, for one position. THEN, you assume you play that move, and ENVISION how the next chess position will look like. THEN, you decide (purely through imagination) how THAT position must be played in terms of chess strategy and tactics.
The chessplayer who can run that thought process for the most number of chess positions, consecutively arising, is the current world champion, Carlsen. People say he can see a hundred moves ahead. Wow.
So to recap, lets look at the exact psychology that goes into making a chess player a good chessplayer.
1.Knowledge.
The ability to know every rule of chess, tactics, strategy, pins, pawns centre, files, etc.
2.Instinct.
The ability to know which chess move is most important in the immediate chess position. This is also known as PATTERN RECOGNITION.
3.Imagination.
The ability to imagine the next chess position, and the next, and the next, and for EACH position, to decide which move, tactic or strategy, is best. (This is also known as CALCULATING VARIATIONS.)
So basically, once you know the chess rules,
You first need to know what chess positions most commonly occur on the chessboard. This part is called instinct, or pattern recognition. Solving chess puzzles and playing chess is a great way to improve pattern recognition.
Then you need to assume you play that move, and IMAGINE what the chess position looks like once you play that move. In the next chess position, what, according to your pre-learned pattern recognition is the best move? And the best one after that? This is called calculating variations.
Studying chess opening theory helps build good variation calculation skills.