Chess for Beginners

Category: Training

  • Chess Board Visualization Training

    Chess Board Visualization Training

    chess visualization training

    Chess board visualization training is necessary in order to not miss tactics, to be able to see more combinations and to improve your chess level. Chess board visualization does not come naturally to all chess players and is something that needs to be worked on. Chess visualization is something that must be trained, and should be part of a regular chess training regimen. This type of training is one of the most neglected areas in chess improvement training, and it is the one that can increase your chess rating the most.

    Chess board visualization training will improve your ability to calculate long variations and will make you a more confident and better chess player. Visualization training should take place 3-4 times per week in 5-10 minute sessions.

    Board Visualization Exercise #1

    Arrange the pieces on a board and look at the normal developing move for all the pieces. The White knights develop to c3 and f3, while the Black knights develop to c6 and f6. The light squared bishop develops to e2,d3,c4,b5, etc. Once you have studied the knights, bishops (regular and fianchetto positions) the castled King and rook and the four central squares (e4,d4,e5,d5) you remove all of the pieces and point and name out loud all of the normal developing squares for the pieces.

    After repeating exercise 1 for the first 2-3 sessions you can then move on to exercise 2.

    Board Visualization Exercise #2

    Same concept as in exercise #1 but this time you do not look at the board.

    – note where the four knights normally develop
    – note where the four bishops normally develop
    – note the four squares for the fianchettoed bishops
    – note the squares where the King and rook are placed after castling

    Board Visualization Exercise #3

    After mastering exercise 1 and exercise 2 you are ready to move on to the third chess board visualization exercise.

    Using the board look at all of the squares controlled by:

    – a knight on c3
    – a knight on f3
    – a knight on c6
    – a knight on f6

    Then, without the use of the board repeat the exercise again visualizing the squares controlled by the knight on f3, c6 and f6.

    Perform this exercise for two sessions or until you feel comfortable. You should also repeat exercise #2 until you are extremely comfortable performing it.

    Remember it is important to build upon fundamentals, and exercise # 2 is an important building block in developing chess visualization skills.

    Chess Board Visualization Exercise #4

    Previous Exercises:
    – Exercise 1
    – Exercise 2
    – Exercise 3

    For exercise 4, using the board look at all of the squares controlled by:

    – the f1-bishop developed to e2 (place only this bishop on the board)
    – the f1-bishop developed to d3, c4, b5
    – the f8-bishop developed on e7, d6, c5, b4
    – all remaining bishops as above

    Then, without the use of the board repeat the exercise again visualizing the squares controlled by the bishops above.

    Perform this exercise for 2 sessions or until you feel comfortable.

    Chess Board Visualization Exercise #5

    For exercises 1-4 visit the chess exercises page.

    It is very important that you have mastered exercises 1-4 before starting on this exercise.

    Without looking at the board, tell all the squares controlled by:
    – a bishop on g2
    – a bishop on g7
    – a bishop on e5
    – a bishop on b7
    – a bishop on d2
    – a bishop on c5

    Chess Board Visualization Exercise #6

    It is very important that you have mastered exercises 1-5 before starting on this exercise. For exercises 1-5 visit the chess exercises page.

    Without looking at the board, tell all the squares controlled by:

    – a bishop on b2
    – a bishop on b7
    – a bishop on a5
    – a bishop on h4
    – a bishop on d4
    – a bishop on c4

    Chess Board Visualization Exercise #7

    It is very important that you have mastered exercises 1-6 before starting on this exercise. For exercises 1-6 visit the chess exercises page.

    Without looking at the board, tell all the squares controlled by:

    – a knight on c3
    – a knight on e2
    – a knight on f6
    – a knight on d4

    Chess Board Visualization Exercise #8

    It is very important that you have mastered exercises 1-7 before starting on this exercise. For exercises 1-7 visit the chess exercises page.

    Without looking at the board, tell all the squares controlled by:

    – a knight on c6
    – a knight on f3
    – a knight on b2
    – a knight on c5
    – a knight on h7

    [feather_share]

  • Best Chess Study Books

    I have an extensive chess library, and one of the main problems that I have, is that I move from book to book never finishing any I ever start. So I have decided that I will stick to the following books which are in the 1500-1600 USCF range, and I will not read any that are not on this list.

    The following books are the ones I will use to get me past the Class C category.

    Strategy
    New Ideas in Chess
    Reassess your Chess Workbook

    Tactics
    Art of Attack

    Endgame
    Essential Chess Endings

    Games Collection
    Capablanca Move by Move
    Alekhine’s Best Games

    Online
    ChessTempo
    Chess.com

  • Training Insights

    Update: 8/7/2010:
    I have been following my own advice for the past two weeks, and I have to say that my training is more focused than ever, and I am beginning to see tangible improvements over the board. If you are interested, I am continuing to post my weekly training schedule at my Chess Notebook site.

    Original Post 7/27/2010

    I have slightly modified my training in the last week to include a new way of training tactics and a method to focus my training time.

    A New Way of Training Tactics

    I came across a forum post by IM David Pruess where he gives excellent advice on truly learning patterns when training tactics. Below is his advice:
    The original post is titled Chess Advice Most Chess Player’s Don’t Like to Hear and it’s a must read.

    or when i give players in the 1000-1800 range advice on improving their tactics, viz: 10-15 min per day of solving simple tactical puzzles. the goal is to increase your store of basic patterns, not to work on your visualization, deep calculation. remember that is your goal. you are not trying to prove that you can solve every problem. if you don’t solve a problem within 1 minute, stop. it’s probably a new pattern or you would have gotten it by now. (with private students i’ll take the time to demonstrate this to them: show them through examples that they can find a 3-4 move problem in 10 seconds if they know the pattern, and that they can fail to find a mate in 2 for 10 minutes if they don’t know the pattern). look at the answer, and now go over the answer 3 more times in your head to help the pattern take hold. your brain can probably take on 2-3 new patterns between sleeping, so you should stop once you’ve been stumped by 2 or 3 problems (usually will take about 10-15 min). there is no point in doing more than that in one day. and any day you miss, you can’t make up for. a semi-random estimate on my part is that you need about 2000 of these patterns to become a master. so you need to do this for 2 years or more.

    i would guess that less than 1 in 100 of the people i have given this advice to have followed it to the letter. if they enjoy it, they’ll waste their time doing it for 1.5 hours in a day, choosing to ignore that it’s not helping them [after 15 min]. or some with ego issues will insist on trying to solve every single position (if only they linked their ego to their self-discipline Tongue out).

    – IM David Pruess

    A Specific CurriculumWhile I am disciplined in spending a minimum of 30 minutes per day doing chess studies, I am usually jumping from book to book and topic to topic which ends up losing valuable time. In the past I have tried to work from a training schedule, but the problem has been that the schedule has been too general. What I started doing is creating a specific training curriculum, where I create a schedule 2 weeks into the future, with the exact content I should cover everyday (an example can be seen here).  The schedule is created on a Sunday, and it takes no more than 15 minutes to create.

  • 200 ELO Points in 6 Months

    USChess.org has a great article on how Christian Galwe  increased 200 rating points in 6 months!

    Here are a few of the recommendations from the article:

    * Study your own games with an instructor

    * Don’t study openings…study structures and plans instead.

    * If you play blitz, play with a 5 second increment and always try to find the best move

    * Review your blitz games just like if it were a standard game.

    * Do tactical exercises everyday for at least 30-40 minutes.

    * Keep physically fit.

    Read the full article at the USChess.org site.

  • Training Position #1

    White wins this position by creating a passed pawn on the Kingside.

     

    Note that if the Black pawn would be on d3 instead of c3, the game would be a theoretical draw.

    Copy the FEN position 4k3/1pp2ppp/p1p5/8/4P3/8/PPP2PPP/4K3 w – – 0 0 and play this position against an engine.

    NOTE: There was an issue with the original post. There was a missing White pawn on d4. The diagram and the FEN diagram have been updated.

  • Analyzing Your Games

    According to Mark Dvoretsky the analysis of one’s own games is the main means of self-improvement.  In Secrets of Chess Training Dvoretsky offers the following guidelines:

    1. Find the turning points – Decide where mistakes were made, where the evaluation of the position changed or an opportunity was missed.
    2. Seek the reasons for your own mistakes – The objective realization of your own weaknesses is a necessary first step in the work of correcting them.
    3. Seek new possibilities, which you did not notice during the game.
    4. Ponder over the opening stage – Approach the problems you faced during the opening to increase your knowledge and outline new plans.

  • Chess Training Notebook Week of 12/28/09

    First entry of the new year, and it is time to review my Chess goals and resolutions. So far, I’m happy with my progress, and the new training program I am following is finally giving me guidance and improvement.

    This week was the 2nd and final week of the first cycle of Phase I of the Extreme Chess Training Program which I began on 12/21/09.  Next week I start on Phase II, which focuses on the endgame. I am going to use the end of 1 full cycle of ECT, which is 45 days to play a tournament and do a progress report. I will also post more information on the program upon my completion of my first 45 day cycle.

    Monday 12/28 – Chess Trainer at chesstempo.com. Increased standard rating from 1717 to 1725 1hr and 81% accuracy which is much higher than my 57% average.

    Tuesday 12/29  – Played rated game on FICS & reviewed game afterwards.

    Wednesday 12/30  – 2 Stoyko Tactics puzzles from Imagination in Chess using Tactics Checklist . Spent 39 minutes on 1 puzzle! Total training time was 1hr.

    Thursday 12/31  – New years eve, sneaked in 15 minutes of unrated tactics at chesstempo.com.

    Friday 1/1  – Did Speed Tactics from Bain’s Tactics for Students.  Exercises 93 through 197 with 95% accurracy.  Also, to makeup for Thursday I played a standard game against Fritz 5.32 1 ply (Playing against engine due to Internet issues).

    Saturday 1/2  – Core Tactics from Chess Training Pocket Book. 76% accurracy.

    Sunday 1/3  – Open day – Solved Step 3 tests of Step Method scoring 80%, 70% and 72%. Also did 20 minutes of  Tactics Trainer using chesstempo improved rating slightly from 1725 to 1727. Total training time 1 hr.

  • Chess Training Notebook 12.21.09

    This is the first week where I trained using the Extreme Chess Training (ECT) program. I am still beta testing it and I should have more information available the first week of January.

    Monday – Performed 45 minutes of standard tactics at chesstempo.com

    Tuesday – Played an ICC standard game and reviewed it afterwards.

    Wednesday – Did 1hr of speed tactics, using Bain’s Chess Tactics for Students.

    Thursday – Played standard game on FICS.

    Friday – Performed core tactics for 1 hour. Focused on key positions from Chess Training Pocketbook

    Saturday – Performed Stoyko Tactics from positions in Imagination in Chess.

    Sunday – 20 minutes of chess trainer practice at chesstempo.com. Played over Alekhine – Duras 1913 on chessgames.com.

     The program calls for more of the same on the week of 12/28/09.

  • Extreme Chess Training – Updated

    Update 12.25.09

    Here’s an update post on a quick overview of what I’m thinking and doing so far:

    The program is going to consist of 3 phases, each phase lasting 60 days. The first phase will focus on tactics and the following phases will be on endgame and strategy. At the end of each phase, I will participate in a tournament to help gauge my progress. I am compiling positions and content to go along with the program, but I have just recently started doing this and it will take a while.

    Right now I am on week 1 of the tactics phase, and things are going well. A draft of the schedule looks something like this:

    Monday

    Tactics Trainer – consists of doing 1 hour at chesstempo.com

    Tuesday

    Play a standard game and analyze it afterwards

    Wednesday

    Stoyko Tactics – consists of doing 1 hour of positions from Imagination in Chess. These are tough, so taking up to 15 minutes per position is not unusual. I am also using a tactics checklist based on Heisman’s ‘Seeds of Tactical Destruction’ Novice Nook.

    Thursday

    Play and analyze

    Friday

    Speed Tactics – Consists of doing 1 hour of easy tactics. I am using positions from Bain’s Chess Tactics for Students. The idea is to do as many as you can in 1 hour. I am averaging about 120 positions per hour from the Bain problem set.

    Saturday

    Core Tactics – consists of doing positions from the Alburt’s Chess Training Pocketbook.

    Sunday

    Open day – idea is to have fun, take a break or work on any one of the exercises above as extra credit.

    I plan on elaborating much more on this new program with much more to follow, and remember in the meantime to visit the chess.com ECT group.

    Original Post 12.21.09

    I’m currently brainstorming a new chess training program for adult beginners rated 1200-1600 USCF. I have created a group on chess.com for this purpose which you can visit here: http://www.chess.com/groups/home/extreme-chess-training.

    I’m still in the early stages of setting this up, but I will be posting more about it in the next few days.

    Stay Tuned…

  • Training Notebook Week of 12.07.09

    Monday 12.07.09

    Played G/15 game and drew against opponent rated 1826 in a winning position (I was up a minor piece), but opponent had counterplay and I was down to 4 1/2 minutes on the clock.

    Tuesday 12.08.09

    Reviewed game. Confirmed that position was won. Opponent made a tactical mistake where he lost the exchange. Focused study will revolve against playing this position against Rybka 3.

    Wednesday 12.09.09

    Played won position against Rybka and lost twice!!! I should have simplified the position, since I was up 3 pawns.

    Thursday 12.10.09

    Played standard game on ICC against opponent rated 1710 (I am currently rated 1780 with one more provisional game to go). Lost game due to tactical oversights.

    Friday 12.11.09

    Reviewed standard game. I played poorly, going from a better position to even and ultimately to a losing position. My first mistake was an exchange that gave my opponent lots of activity and counterplay even though I had a material advantage. It is interesting to note, how high Rybka evaluates activity giving it an evaluation of over 1/2 a pawn. I then fell victim to a removal of the guard / pin / deflection combination which netted my opponent my bishop. I kept on playing, and ultimately fell victim to a checkmate, which I totally missed. Focused study will revolve around doing extra tactics.

    Saturday 12.12.09

     Focused on doing tactics at chess.com instead of chesstempo. Noticed that the timer is not helping my solving…dropped approximately 100 rating points!  I prefer solving the standard chesstempo tactics which allow me to take my time to find the right answer.

     Sunday

    Doing extra tactics solving at chess.com.