Below are my favorite chess sites, as well as the top rank websites based on Alexa rank. The Week in Chess The Chess Mind Chess Daily News Chessdom Dan Heisman’s Blog on Chess.com The Chess Improver Chessvibes Dana Blog’s Chess TempoSchlucker Jim West on Chess Top Chess Sites based on Alexa rank as of…
Chess Tips on How to Get Better at Chess 1. Learn the basic checkmates Learning the basic mates and focusing on basic tactics is the most productive use of your chess study time. Most games between beginners and intermediates are decided by blunders or overlooked tactics. 2. Learn the basic endgames After tactics the next…
The Chess Directory project aims to consolidate all online chess related information into one place. Currently the Chess Directory has 11 different chess related categories with 50 chess related sites already listed, and is growing quickly. Popular categories in the chess directory include: Online Chess Chess Engines Chess Blogs Online Chess Training If you have a chess…
1. In the endgame the King is a fighting piece and it should be centralized and used actively. 2. Material advantage wins in the endgame. Hold on to your material! 3. Be wary of sacrificing pawns for development. Only in rook and pawn endgames is an active piece worth material. 4. Try to gain tempi…
When reviewing master games, the expert annotator usually does not cover the last few moves of the game and attributes the remaining moves to “The rest is a matter of technique.” Well, I came across the following explanation by Mednis in his excellent endgame book Rate Your Endgame Play, on just what exactly is a…
1. Before even beginning to think of making a passed pawn, put all your pieces into as good positions as possible. Queen – Center of board Rooks – seventh rank for White, second rank for Black. But if the enemy has two or more minor pieces the rook must be careful about leaving his own…
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, and to…
