Purdy’s Chess Opening Rules

Below are a few guidelines from C.J.S Purdy on playing the opening. Purdy had an incredible gift of explaning difficult chess concepts, and these rules are no exception. I also haven’t seen these rules in many other chess books, so it is important to learn and apply them in your games.   1. When you...

The Three Things That Have Improved My Chess

1. Practising tactics – I cannot stress enough the importance of tactics at the sub 1800 level. If your time is limited, tactics training would be the one thing that would give you the greatest return on investment. 2. Playing and reviewing my games – This allows you to learn from your mistakes,...

Steinitz's Elements

Permanent advantages 1. Material advantage 2. Bad king position 3. Passed pawns in the middlegame 4. Weak pawns for the opponent 5. Strong and weak squares 6. Pawn islands 7. Strong pawn center 8. Control of a diagonal 9. Control of a file 10. Bishop pair 11. Control of a rank Temporary advantages 12. Bad...