Other things have taken my attention away from chess, and I have neglected posting for several months now. One interesting observation, is that while I have not been training other than playing 1 G30 game a few times per week, my chess has not sufferred as much as I would have thought, and I think…
Here’s a fun exercise to determine your estimated chess rating taking into account your existing chess skill and knowledge. While this is just for fun, it can prove helpful in determining how you should focus your chess training. If your knowledge rating is much higher than your skills rating, then you you need to focus…
Frustration Over the last few months while my knowledge of the game has increased my chess skill has not improved. If anything I have suffered a decrease in performance over the last few months. The frustrating part is that I have invested time into my chess improvement plan, and while I feel that both my…
According to Johnathan Rowson in his book Chess for Zebras we can develop chess skill through a combination of playing combined with chess training, where ‘training’ means working things out by ourselves. The main skill a chess player needs is skill in making decisions so making decisions is what you need to do over and…
Silman calls the Lucena Position “The Holy Grail of Rook Endings”. In this position Regardless of who’s turn it is to move, White wins. 1.Rf2+ Forcing Black’s King to leave the scene of the battle. 1…Kg7 [1…Kg6 2.Rf4 Kg5 3.Rd4 Kf6 4.Ke8 Re1+ 5.Kf8 Rf1 6.d8Q+ Ke5+ 7.Ke7 ] 2.Rf4 Building a bridge. 2…Kg6 3.Ke7…
Black to move (Stefanova – Shirov 2005) r3rq1k/8/p2p3p/P1pPnp1P/1p3Q2/5PNR/1PP2K2/R7 b – – 0 29 Download game Evaluation The first thing I did was to evaluate this position, and I gave it the following evaluation: Material =, King Safety +/=, Activity =/+, Pawn Structure =. So the game in my opinon is even. (When I gave it…
Study Schedule Day Topic 1 (30m) Topic 2 (1hr) Monday Solve Tactics Study Endings Tuesday Play Annotate game * Wednesday Solve Endings Study Strategy ** Thursday Solve Tactics Solve Strategy *** Friday Solve Tactics Study Openings Saturday Solve Tactics Solve Strategy Sunday Play Annotate game * Legend: * If you run out of time during…
About the Virtual Chess Coach Program This program is geared for my improvement (a 35 year old 1278 USCF rated player), but I hope that others in a similar situation will be able to derive benefit from it as well. I will be modeling this program on the teaching’s of Dan Heisman. Dan Heisman is…
Why is it that beginners fail to choose simple plans that are right before their eyes? One answer may be that beginners do not evaluate the position before choosing a candidate move. Beginners briefly scan the board, choose a move they like and quickly analyze and play this move. The problem with this thought process…
A frequent issue confronted by amateurs is wishful thinking when calculating combinations. This propensity to fabricate beneficial scenarios in our analysis is very typical throughout an amateur’s game, but it is most dangerous when calculating combinations. You see a pretty combination worthy of Tal, and you analyze it over and over, after you have finished…