Chess for Beginners

Tag: tips

How to Get Better at Chess
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 best use of your time is in studying basic endgames such as king and queen and king and pawn. Your rating will increase because you will be able to draw lost games and win drawn ones.

3. Practice using a physical board

The act of using your hand eye coordination to move the pieces on a physical board allow concepts to be learned more easily.

4. Pick a good book and read it cover to cover

Many beginners have an extensive chess library, but have never finished one book. This leads to inefficient learning and knowledge gaps.

5. Play in tournaments against stronger opposition

Play one section up in at least every other tournament you join.
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6. Review your games, especially your losses

It is important to learn from your mistakes so you don’t repeat them.

7. Go over your games with stronger players

Ask them where you went wrong, and what you could have done differently.

8. Focus on tactics and endgames instead of on openings

The benefit of being a strong tactician and endgame player cannot be overstated. Any time spent learning openings can be better used in practicing tactics, studying endgames and playing long games.

9. Chose your opening repertoire based on how much time you have to dedicate to chess

If you are a working adult, don’t try to learn the Sicilian. You need to be practical and realistic.

10. Learn Chess strategy by reviewing master games

The best way to improve your strategic and positional knowledge is to pick a chess “mentor” and review at least 10 of their games.
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March 1, 2017
A Matter of Technique
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 matter of technique.

A technique is a procedure used to accomplish a specific activity or task having good technique in chess means:
- Not allowing counterplay
- holding on to a material advantage
- establishing a clear plan and following it
- being careful
- not hurrying, with respect to time or moves
- avoiding unclear or unnecessary complications
- winning the game
December 24, 2012
When You See A Tactic…

You see a tactical combination on the board and you have the opportunity to play it…you become excited, after all this is your moment to play like Tal, but chances are that you do not play like Tal. While you have spotted a tactical opportunity, it may not be the best move, it might even be a bad move. Chances are that your opponent has a refutation for the tactic you have spotted that may either weaken your position or cause you to lose the game.

When you see a tactic, there is no better moment to stop, and thoroughly analyze your combination. If you have found a winning move, then spending the time to properly analyze the combination is a good investment since you will have a winning position, and time should not be a factor. If the move is not winning, then the time spent on analysis will at least maintain the status quo.

Most of the time when I rush to play a tactical move, one of the following negative things occur:

1. The opponent has a killer in-between move that causes me to lose material or the game.

2. The combination or sacrifice is flawed, and the opponent can easily refute it,usually at a material cost to me.

3. The move is easily parried, and all it has a achieved is a positional weakening of my position, which my opponent if they are stronger will exploit for a win.

So when you see a tactic, don’t rush to play it. Stop for a moment, and analyze the position as you would any critical moment .

September 10, 2011
Improving Analysis Skills
According to Dan Heisman in his great article Bootstrapping Analysis Skills

The following are what make you a good analyst:
- Will to analyze the position correctly, move after move.
- Patience to analyze the position thoroughly (but keep in mind the
  clock – see “g”).
- Analytical thought process to know what steps to take.
- Board vision to see what is happening (statically) across the entire
  board quickly and accurately.
- Tactical pattern recognition – the ability to quickly and accurately
  recognize and assess basic safety issues.
- Visualization to keep the imagined patterns correctly in the mind’s
  eye when looking ahead.
- Micro time management determines the length of thinking time to
  take before one settles for a “best so far” move, assuming the
  “best” move is not found by then.
- Deductive logic to see which moves are candidates, and what is
  forced and what is not.
- Quiescence recognition to know when to stop analyzing lines and
  evaluate.
- Awareness of danger/criticality assessment, plus the recognition of
  The Seeds of Tactical Destruction.
August 29, 2011
When Solving for Tactics

1. Look at the whole board.

2. Look for immediate opponent threats.

3. Narrate tactical themes (Hanging bishop, skewerable or forkable pieces, etc.).

4. Look at more than one candidate (when you find a good move look for a better one).

5. Calculate at least 6 ply (3 moves) deep.

6. Look for in-between moves.

7. Examine forcing moves first in the order of checks, captures and threats.

8. When all seems lost, look for stalemate possibilities.

9. If you feel you are on the right track, but your are not finding the winning move, then try to reverse the move order.

10. Blundercheck.

August 28, 2011
Developing Chess Skill
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 over when training (learning by doing).

The best training is the kind that pushes you up against the edges of your comfort zone, where you force yourself to take responsibility for difficult decisions.

– Johnathan Rowson in Chess for Zebras

So here’s what you can do to put his advice into practice:
- Playing and then analyzing your games afterwards
- Solving complex chess problems
- Trying to win won positions against strong analysis engines
- Blitz games (comparing your first impression of positions with the way they actually developed)
May 31, 2008