 Today's article will be dedicated to a very beginning type of chess players. Let's assume you already know how to play chess (move pieces, castle, checkmate). That means, you have already reviewed the chess rules or something similar. The next step would probably be playing against some sort of online opponents or maybe even over the board ones.
Chances are, no matter where you have decided to test you chess abilities, online or over the board, the result will not be a very satisfactory one. Since it's one of your very first chess games you will most likely lose. It's perfectly okay. Then, there are two options, either you give up this game right away or you will start looking things up that can help you learn to play better chess. If you still reading this article, the chances are that you belong to the second type of players, want to learn chess and willing to invest some time and effort into it.
Things to know before you start
Chess does not show your IQ. If you have lost a game of chess it tell nothing about your ability to play chess. It only tells that at this exact moment, under these exact circumstances you were outplayed. When that happens you should ask yourself a “why” question and work on fixing the cause. That way you will greatly improve your game. I will discuss it later in greater detail. For now, the most important point to keep in mind that chess is not something inherent or given to you at birth, but chess is a combination of skills that can be trained.
If you absorb the information from step one, you should also note that it is a true for anyone. Even the weakest chess player can and will improve dramatically if he or she does the right things, go through the right drills.
The weaker a chess player is, the more room for improvement there is, meaning that with the least amount of effort you can increase your ELO rating by more points. Once you become stronger and gain certain number of points it will harder to moved up in rating.
How to begin?
When people want to improve at chess they usually do one of two things. The first option is buying a bunch of complex opening books and dive right into the modern opening theory without understanding what's really going on. The second option is to buy no books at all and keep playing and playing, keep losing and losing and never understand why that happens. These approaches are of course a little exaggerated, and something in between these two exists as well, but they are in fact not the best ways to learn chess.
What are blunders and how to avoid them?
The key in making progress for chess beginners is to illuminate the main cause of loses. I bet you already know what I'm talking about – blunders. There are many definitions of the word 'chess blunder', but let's stick to one that is clear and intuitive. Blunder is a very bad move (??) caused by carelessness or tactical oversight. The problem with blunders is that they tend appear randomly throughout the games of beginners and mess things up quite a lot. This is why games of novice players are rarely decided by such subtle factors as a better pawn structure or an extra pawn. Even if your opponent is a few pawns up in the middle game, he might blunder a rook and lose the game.
To win the game on a novice level, you just need to make less blunders than your opponent does. Which simply means stop dropping pieces for no reason. It's a lot better to avid blunders at all, but how to do it? It is not as hard as it sounds. Of course, you cannot eliminate blunders at all, even the great ones do it, remember the V. Kramnik missing the mate in one in the game against Deep Fritz.
Rule: before making a move look at the chess board and check if you not getting mated next move and if all you pieces and pawns are safe and cannot be captured at least one move ahead. That also applies to the move you about to make, before you do, make sure the piece you moving will not be captured for free.
If you apply this simple rule after each and every move, you will notice that the amount of blunders you make will drastically reduce. The number of games you win will increase proportionally.
Training Routine
If you apply the 'move checking advice' your chess will improve and after some practice you will be able to visualize the whole chess board with all the pieces and do all these things (checking for blunders, mates, etc.) automatically.
Tactics
However, to progress further you need more things to take care of. The most important thing that a novice chess player should work on is tactics. Actually, most blunders are caused by some sort of tactical oversight (maybe primitive). At first you should start with very simple problems, such as setting up forks, pins and skewers in one move. If you not sure what these words mean check out our chess dictionary.
Next, you should work on checkmates. They are similar type of tactical problems to fork/pins but here you need to checkmate the opponent in specified amount of moves. There are many places online and offline where you can train your tactics skills. One of such places is the Tactics Gym and Daily Chess Tactics. When these become easy for you, try Chess Tactical Studies (and Solutions)
Solving tactics in chess is like building muscles in the gym. First, you start by using light weights and then by consistently training and varying the workout routing you move up in weight and also in muscle mass. In chess, you start by solving easy problems, when your brain gets accustomed to the chess work, you will move up from mate in 1 to mate in 2, then to mate in 3 and 4 and so on. Skipping steps is not recommended, just like in the weight room, you don't want to use 50 pound dumbbells if you cannot quite finish the exercise with 25 pound ones. It might lead to an injury.
Endgames
Endgames is something that is often overlooked and neglected. Novice players rarely work on this stage of the game thinking that the most fun happens in the middle game. That maybe true, but if your goal is not just to have fun from chess, but also win some games endgames is definitely the part of chess you should focus on. The bare minimum for endgame theory of a beginner is to be able to checkmate alone King with 2 Rook, Rook + King and Queen + King.
By following the suggestions above you will lay a solid foundation for the further improvements at chess and become an overall better chess player.
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A lot of people are asking the same question over and over again, how to improve in chess? So, I have decided to write this whole thing once and for all. First of all it is important to know at what level you are playing now. It would really depend what to study and how to improve from the player's current (estimated) rating. Here is a chart that gives an idea on what should players work on at different levels of their chess career:
- Below 299: Learn basic rules of chess, how pieces move, and special rules (en passant, castle etc).
- 300-1000: Learn basic chess ideas such as checkmate, simple attacks, etc.
- 1000-1199: Learn basic opening ideas. It's recommended to play 1.e4 as white and sharp variations as black. Learn basic checkmates (King + Queen vs. King, Queen + Queen vs. King, Rook + Rook vs. King, King + Rook vs. King). Practice them until you are completely confident and can checkmate anyone (even a GM) in these positions.
- 1200-1399: Study more openings, but do not stick with "rarely played variations". It is a huge mistake that a LOT of chess player make while studying openings, to study rarely played/unusual lines which most likely would never come up in real life tournaments. Studying standard opening lines would yield a lot more results!
Spend maximum of 20% of your study time to study openings. Until 1800 level openings aren't very important. Concentrate more on middle game and tactics.
- 1400-1599: Endgame is the key on this level. Only imagine the advantage you get against your opponent if you know how to play endgame well and your opponent does not. The odds are that your opponent will loose the endgame almost immediately. Study basic endgame schemes: King + Pawn vs. King, King + 2 Pawns vs. King, King + Pawn vs. King + 2 Pawns and so on. Besides the endgame do tactics problems (puzzles). Play as much chess as possible especially in real life over the board tournaments with a long time control (that's where you learn the most).
- 1600-1799: If you got on this level it means you are already strong, very solid chess player which knows a lot about all stages of the game of chess. Keep working on your middle game, strategy and tactics. Try to play blindfold chess. It is easy these days, since programs like Chessmaster 10th offer really nice options of blindfold chess. You are basically only see the chess board with no pieces on it, but you can move these empty squares and play chess (because you know that knights are on b1 and c1, bishops are on c1 and g1 and so on). During the game you have to keep all the pieces in your head, since they are invisible which is hard in the beginning. Play really weak players first.
Blindfold chess helps to develop player's visualization ability and eliminates most blunders. All GMs are able to play blindfold chess well.
- 1800-1999: Wow, you are ready to become an expert. Now it is a good time to systemize your opening repertoire. Ideally, you should know very well 2-3 openings for white and 2 for Black. The key to advancing to the expert level here is to analyze your own games. After the game, sit down with a chessboard, paper and pen and go over the game move by move writing down thoughts on your own and your opponent's moves. Only then you may check your game with an engine (Rybka, Fritz, etc). The number #1 mistake chess players make, they either do not analyze their games at all or analyze them by using chess program right away. This is a big mistake which slows down chess progress.The main idea of analysis is not to look at what computer thinks was a good move, but to look for that move yourself! Would it make sense to solve chess tactics puzzles by plugging them into a chess engine? Probably not.Also it is great idea to go over GM games and think them over. The best way to go over these high level games is to first go over all the moves without author's comments and only second time read the comments and annotations. This works great with the openings too. Remember that when you read your opening book tomorrow.
- 2000-2199: Congratulations, you are now an Expert. Keep working on chess and I'm sure you'll be able to make at least a Master sometime soon and when you do, please, send me a message saying "Hi! I am a Master now!"
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I have written a How to get better at chess: guide for all levels a while ago and have received quite a few responses. I want to say couple of words about that article. First of all, it is impossible to write a precise guide for each rating level, especially for player rated below 1000. The reason is that it’s difficult to distinguish between different studying guidelines for players rated say 500 and 800, that’s why I have combined all players below 1000 into one, single section in my new guide.
I would repeat myself, that to get the maximum results out of the chess improvement guide you need to have a pretty good idea where you stand rating-wise right now. The best way, of course, is to play a “real life” over the board tournament (or maybe a few) and obtain an official rating. If it sounds like something you don’t want to invest your time and effort in, you can try playing on one of the chess playing sites like FreeChess.org (FICS) or even here, without leaving TheChessWorld. Try to get an established rating by playing multiple games. This rating wouldn’t be exactly equivalent to ELO (it tends to be an overestimate, subtract ~200 points) but it will give you a decent idea where you at.
Beginner This is a category for players who are absolute beginners meaning that they never heard of chess before, or even if they did - never played it. The first thing to do is to learn the basic rules of the game (chess board setup, pieces moves, promotion, castle en passant, checkmate). To understand the chess slang, in other words if you don’t know the difference between Zeitnot and Skewer you may want to check out the Dictionary of a serious chess player.
Then, after the rules are learnt and understood a lot of practice is needed in order to make a leap to the next level. Joining a local chess club should provide enough practice for improvement.
Below 1000 On this level most of the games are being won or lost due to a serious blunder or even a series of blunders. Therefore, to dominate tournaments on this level you just need to blunder less often. Here are the two suggestions that will aid you in eliminating blunders. First of all, write your moves down before you play it. Secondly, double check your move after you write it for 10 seconds or so, to make sure that it’s not a blunder and you will not lose the game immediately. A simple thing like that will help you to avoid up to 90% of blunders and will save many games. This advice is good for players of all strengths. I recommended reviewing 7 deadly mistakes every novice player makes.
1000-1199 If you got to this point I assume you have eliminated most of the one-move-and-resign type of blunders. It is a good time to start doing elemental tactical exercises (simple one-two move checkmates, forks, discoveries, pins). If you really want to improve you need work on tactics continuously on everyday bases. Remember, it is better to spend 20 minutes a day/5 days a week on solving tactics rather than 100 minutes in a single day once a week. Think of it as a bodybuilding for your brain.
You can actually find multiple tactics problems on this website which are getting updated on everyday bases. You can start up by solving them daily. Regularity is the key!Simple checkmates are also recommended for studying (Queen +King vs. King, Rook + King vs. King, 2 Rooks vs. King)
1200-1399 Study some openings, but don’t dedicate too much time on it. As I have wrote previously 20% is an optimal amount of the total study time that should be spend on the initial phase of the game at this point. You don’t need to memorize any lines, you just need a basic idea of what’s going on and where to develop the pieces (ex. Sicilian Dragon: white plays for either break in the center or king’s side pawn attack, Black is active on the queen side). Keep working on tactics, it can be either a book with hundreds of problems or a program like CT-ART. I recommend reading 13 Checkmates You Must Know to enhance your attacking skills and also to know the things to look for, when defending.
1400-1599 You already have some basic idea of the openings you playing and you’re hopefully an okay tactician (you should continuously practice on this one picking up more complex problems) and you familiar with elemental endgame mates and promotion pattern but you’re still lacking an endgame technique to convert that extra pawn into a full point win. It is important to be able to win basic endgame positions such as King + Pawn vs. King, King + 2 Pawns vs. King +Pawn and similar. Rook endgames are also very important since they arise often. Therefore, it is a must to have at least some basic understanding of this type of endgames (Rook + Pawn vs. Rook). I suggest reading improve you endgame play to further understand what types of endgames are crucial to understanding.
1600-1799 At this stage you should be a well balanced chess player which has a pretty good idea what opening he’s playing and what kind of position will it lead to. Your tactics is getting better and better every time you do the tactics training. Your endgame play is okay, meaning you can easily win standard theoretically won endgames.
The following exercise is very useful for one wishing to improve the endgame play: challenge a strong computer program (Rybka, Fritz, Chessmaster, etc.) by setting up a Pawn and King endgames, when you’re being 1 pawn up. You can start with 2 pawns vs. 1 and when you’re regularly beating the program add number of pawns (2 vs. 3, 4 vs. 3 and so on). After you have finished with King and Pawn endgames you can throw a couple of minor pieces on the board to make the position more complex. Doing that will give you a good feel for the endgames and you will play them out with greater confidence, leading to more won games. You may also solve unclear endgames using 6 pieces Nalimov endgame tables.
1800-1999 Congratulations, you’re a about to become an expert or a candidate master which is a pretty good achievement since a 2000 rated player is stronger than about 90% of all rated chess players on our planet. It means that if you pick 10 random, officially rated chess players you’re likely to beat 9 of them.
In order to make further progress you need to systemize all the chess knowledge you have and work on your personal weaknesses. The first thing you need to do is to systemize your opening preparation. The best thing to do is to have all the lines you play stored on a computer and add new ones when they appear in practical play. You can also add annotations to the lines to clarify which moves are the best and why. Ideally you should have 2-3 lines as white/black that you know well. I have previously written an article on building an opening repertoire, you can use it as a guideline.
It is very important to analyze your own games in order to make further progress. When analyzing games you should find and record mistakes for both sides, not just your own and provide a better line instead of the one played in a game. In order to analyze the game precisely you need to repeatedly evaluate chess positions which arise on the board. You need to take into account factors such as king’s safety, material on the board, pieces activity, and pawn structure. When analyzing your own games look for patterns of mistakes that take place. You need to find at what type of positions you play better or worse and work on your weaknesses. For instance, if you know that in queen endgames you lose about 60% of games it is a good pointer to work on that type of endgames. You should do the same kind of statistics with your openings and middle games.
Being a serious chess player requires taking every opportunity you have before, after and during the game. Nutrition, time management and psychology are important aspect of the game and not to be underestimated.
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 Have you ever played an opponent who is 400 points higher rated than you are? If you're playing chess regularly I bet you did. According to the statistics if player is 400 points higher rated he will win at about 95% of games. But do not get disappointed and read on. There is a pretty good chance that after reading this little article and following this basic guidelines YOU will be in that 5% who manage to draw or even win a game against much stronger party. So, why do these high rated players beat weaker ones? Well, they are well trained: high rated players know openings well, they have good chess vision, their tactics level is high and they know really well how to play and win theoretical endings.
Okay and how do I manage to win such a chess monster, you ask. Here are some guide lines you need to follow to be successful against stronger opponents:
- First thing you need to learn is to calm down and not to be nervous. Do not be afraid of your opponent; even if he is 2200 rated and you are only 1300 you still have a chance ending up winning a game. If you watch very strong players play they are always calm and concentrated during the game. While nervous, chess player cannot make best moves possible. Only full concentration and "turning off" from outside world to the world of chess allows you to play best possible moves.
- Do not automatically exchange pieces. A lot of weaker players think that if they exchange a lot of pieces they will be able to make a draw in the endgame. This is a big misunderstanding! Of course if you trade all pieces and pawns you the game will be drawn. But stronger side would never allow it to happen. In that case, if weaker side would try to exchange pieces it would most likely to trade his active pieces for less active pieces of the stronger side. Advantage of strong side will increase and he would be almost guaranteed winning that game. Even if you exchange most of the pieces stronger players usually play very solid endgame, which will most likely guarantee them a game point.
- Play the game against any opponent actively! Do not just sit there and wait playing passive defensive moves. If you do, stronger player will just activate all his pieces and launch deadly unstoppable attack. Remember, the best defense is offense or a counter attack. If the opponent launches the attack on your queen side, strike his king side (assuming he castled king side) with you pawn chain supported by pieces. Make it as difficult as possible for him to gain any advantage.Fight! Do not ever step back and let him control the game. If you like playing open positions make sure you open up more files and place heavy pieces (rooks, queen) on the open/semi open files. If you in fact feel more comfortable in positional play or in closed positions, you should try to avoid pawn exchanges. Make him play your game! DO NOT play his.
- Remember, playing for a draw is a very bad strategy. If you do, you most likely will loose that game. To get a draw you need to play as actively as possible (see the recommendation above), it does not mean however that you should attack from the first move, sacrifice couple pawns and a piece and then figure out that your attack just isn't going to work because he has a bishop you didn't notice for some reason that protects mating square… This happens a lot in chess, even on master's level. So, if you see the possibility of strong attack even if you have to give up some material for that, do it! But, before you sacrifice it makes sense to think about the position and see if it actually going to work. Calculate 3 times before you sac a piece (C)! There was one game I played on a tournament, where I sacrificed two (!!) pieces and resign 3 moves after. Miscalculation in that kind of thing cost me a game and a whole tournament also. Deep calculations are very important when playing tactically. Lasker once said, "It's much better to loose a game your way than your opponent's…"
- The last suggestion is to play and to win!!!
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 I have previously talked about evaluating of chess position. Today’s topic is a little different even though it may seem to be similar: analyzing chess game. The main difference is that we’ll concentrate on a whole game analyzes which occurs immediately after the game, in contrast, to the evaluation of a chess position which happens over the board, during the game.
Before telling you how to analyze a chess game, I’d like to tell you how not to. Do not plug a game into a computer engine to see where it went wrong. In fact, you will learn hardly anything that way. It is like solving the tactics problems by using a Fritz engine.
We all want to improve our chess, become better players and obviously to win more games. A game analysis is a powerful tool, or better say a powerful technique, which can aid you in curing your weaknesses and developing strengths, if used right.
Analysis Outline:
Game is over. Maybe you have won; maybe it was a draw or maybe a painful defeat. Regardless of the result and feelings it is necessary to act like a professional chess player when approaching analysis in order to get maximal gain from the game. You need to write down quick notes about the game as soon as possible after the game’s done, when it’s still fresh in your memory. Especially, concentrate on moves when you had to make a hard choice and moves when the game dramatically changes its state (positional ->tactical, etc).
It is a good idea to separate a game into 3 parts: opening, middle game and endgame. These 3 stages of the game require individual analysis and must be treated separately.
Opening
When analyzing an opening you need to say, was that line you played a home preparation, or maybe you were tricked out of your opening book by an opponent who played unusual variation or maybe something in between.
Write down your thoughts on the line you played. Was that line sound? Only after you write down your thoughts you should refer to the opening database to check the existence of this line in theory. You may be disappointed to find out that line you opponent played wasn’t any good, but you still couldn’t get a win. It is a very important thing to take notice of. It means you have gained something from the game. You need to study a couple of annotated games on this opening variation played by a high rated players and make appropriate adjustments in your opening repertoire. Next time you face this line you will be better prepared! You may want to check out how to build an opening repertoire from one of my previous articles.
Middle Game
That’s a stage of the game that comes right after you run out of “theoretical” opening moves.
Write down why you have decided to play one or another move, you may also indicate the alternative moves you have considered and you reasoning behind it (for example, I was thinking about playing Bd7 but was afraid of e5 with a strong initiative). Indicate tactical ideas that you saw, including possible sacrifices you were considering. It is important to formulate the plan of the game. For example it may be a minority attack, a queen’s side pawn attack on the opponent’s king, pressure on isolated pawn or something else. Remember the Botvinik’s saying “bad plan is better than no plan at all”.
Endgame
In endgame you should take notice of the initial position and try to come up with a winning plan or a drawing plan if your position is worse.
If you get into time trouble often you may want to analyze what type of decisions took you longer, and where exactly have you burned most of your time. You need to have time recorded on your score sheet in order to do time analyzes. Avoiding time troubleis a crucial part of the game of chess.
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 If you play chess regularly, there is a high possibility that you would have to play a game in the lost position. Does not matter how strong or weak chess player you are, you will have to defend the “weak” end of the board one day. There are plenty of information available (in various chess bibles and online recourses) on how to play chess, but they rarely talk about playing chess in the lost positions. They assume that if position is lost the game is over. It’s not quite true. The point of my little writing is to prove that there are exceptions to this rule. If you apply some basic principles you may be able to join that “exception” group, replacing you “ 0” with “ 1/2” or even “ 1” on the score sheet.
The first step of our simple process is to realize that you’re really losing. Most chess players are usually afraid to face this fact during the game ( you may want to review Chess psychology: is it really there). These players still think something like “my position is okay”, “I can draw it” or “my opponent isn’t much better here” when technically the game is lost. In order not to join this “losing pool” of players you must be certain that you are really losing and yes, it really the case. When you realize that you’re position is hopeless. You will feel less nervous and feel less pressure, but your opponent on opposite will get the pressure since he can be the one who didn’t win that completely won position. You will calm down because it’s nothing for you to lose anyway (since the game is already lost) and come up with a new plan of how to make your opponent’s life more difficult.
Changing the plan drastically or coming up with the completely new plan is a key point for your success. I think most players would agree with me, that following an old plan of exchanging pieces and playing the King and Pawn endgame, isn’t a good idea, if you’re now a piece down. Therefore, the plan must be change depending on new circumstances. For example, if you’re a minor piece down, try to exchange pawns, not the pieces, since the King + Minor piece vs. King is a dead draw. It’s more complicated than that usually. You opponent will try to make your life more difficult by exchanging pieces and not pawns if he wants to win. Tactics is the key weapon during any stage of the game and especially when down some material. Some endgames with uneven material (such as Rook vs. Queen) can be playable, but require strong nerves and fresh mind.
Another tip is to play actively. If you are a material down you should not play quietly and wait when you opponent will come and checkmate you. You should make his life as difficult as possible by complicating the position. It is so nice to play won position when position is simple. Therefore, you should take away that opportunity from your opponent. If you see the unclear variation when it’s not obvious for you if you are losing or not you should play it. Avoid playing lines in which you see a clear way to win for him (if it’s possible). Never give something for nothing, its chess. Review how to play against a stronger opponent.
What if you are more than a minor piece down, what if you are down the whole rook? Say, that brilliant sacrifice you came up with didn’t lead to the mate in 3 because you missed something. Even if you exchange all the pawns, King + Rook vs. King does not look like a good endgame for you. So, the only chance here is to come up with an attacking plan and setup traps hoping that you opponent will get too confident in his advantage and make a mistake. It doesn’t happen in 100% of the games of course but even if it happens in 30% you can get some extra wins and draws. Why not try? You have nothing to lose anyway.
I believe psychology plays a huge role in chess and especially in playing the lost positions for both sides. Most good chess players, either they admit it or not, are pretty good emotion readers, which means they can predict by some special body language if the opponent is nervous, aggressive frustrated or about to give up.
The idea, first proposed by a Grandmaster Simon Webb is pretty simple and yet a powerful one. If you are playing on the losing side of the board you should look as boring and uninterested as possible. Maybe it’s a good idea to even stop writing the moves down (if the rules permit) to completely inform your opponent that you gave up and will most likely resign in the next 5 moves. He can become overconfident and blunder something. Even if he doesn’t blunder, the resignation is not a part our plan. A little you opponent knows that as soon as you have a chance to strike back, you “bored face” will be change with “attacking face”. At that point your opponent will lose confidence, feel scared of defeat, become nervous and probably make a mistake.
Try it at your own risk!
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I have written previously about 7 deadly mistakes every novice player makes. Today I have decided to extend this list even further and to add 5 other typical “problematic choices” that amateur chess players make to have their chess life more difficult and stressful.
If you find yourself in some of these how-not-to-play examples you should feel good since by fixing it you can improve your play and win more games. I should feel accomplished, since the time I spend writing it is worthwhile and I helped other players to get better at chess.
1. Starting the game with flank pawns. Even though starting the game with A or H pawns may seem normal for players of certain strength (usually beginners) it is not the best opening choice. Since the main “classical” opening idea to occupy the center and to attack the king is still valid, it is also the strongest way to start the game. Of course there are exceptions to this rule, for example when a player intentionally gives up a center in order to attack the central pawns later (such as Kings Indian Defense),but it is probably better for the novice players to occupy the center right away. Why do people still play opening moves like 1.a4 or 1.h4? Let me ask you, do you know what is A00 Ware opening or A00 Doprez opening? Does it ring any bells in your memory? I would think most people who read this would say “no”. That’s exactly why a not-very-novice player would play a move like that. He wants to surprise an opponent and take him out of his normal opening lines. The drawback of this choice is that it is not the strongest way to start the game and it gives up some advantage of playing white.
2. Developing the queen too early. It’s an old “bad choice” and everyone knows that they shouldn’t do it but… they still do it. Developing the queen too early can cost you one or multiple tempos, which your opponent will gain chasing your queen all over the board and developing their own pieces. Novice players do it a lot. They think that activating the strongest piece as early in the game as possible must be good. It is logical. It is making perfect sense. But it is wrong, for the reason of lost tempos. Experienced players sometimes activate the queen early too, but for a different reason: they are forced to do so. For example they must recapture with the queen and leave it in the center of the board, helping the opponent to develop. In conclusion, don’t activate the queen too early in the game unless you have a very good reason to do so (fork, material gain, mate, etc.)
3. Castling at the wrong time and to the wrong place. Novice players think that castled means safe. It is not always true in chess. How many times when you watched a game you have thought that this guy must be crazy to castle where the opponent’s pieces are active and ready for action. If the file across the castled king is opened and the opponent’s rooks are ready to occupy it, castling is a chess harakiri. Castling is not a must. It is a privilege to put your king to safety and connect the rooks in one move. But remember, putting the king to safety comes first. If you castle to connect the rooks, save a tempo and get mated two moves later, what’s a point of saving a move? When deciding whether to castle or not you need to take into account how safe your king will be after you castle, how fast your opponent can create threats and how dangerous they are. Sometimes it is better to castle long or not to castle at all.
4. Exchanging wrong pieces. What’s a difference between a strong and a weak chess player? The first one knows what pieces to exchange, when to exchange and why to exchange. Novice players usually think that since knights and bishops are worth 3 points each they can be traded for each other anytime. It is not quite correct logic. In some positions, with closed pawn structure, bishops are completely useless but the knights are worth as much as rooks. Exchanging a knight for a bishop wouldn’t be the best choice here. In opposite, on an open board, bishops tend to be a lot more powerful than knights and exchange would not benefit the player with the bishops.
5. Activating the king too late. In the opening and in the middle game the king is a piece that needs to be kept in safety. When rooks and queens are on the board, the king will not feel comfortable in the center of the board. But when pieces are getting exchanged and there are less and less pieces on the board, the king becomes a very valuable power piece that is worth somewhere around 3.5 points. Majority of king and pawn endgames are usually won by the side with a better king position. Centralizing the king in the endgame is a key to success. Unfortunately, novice players do not realize it and keep their king safe and inactive. A few moves later they’re wondering why their safely positioned king got successfully mated with a newly promoted queen.
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 Have you ever noticed that it is easy to play against some chess players and it’s is almost impossible to beat the other ones. You may say, of course some players are weaker and thus easier to play against, some players are stronger and thus harder to play against. But did you ask yourself a question why is this player considered strong while the other one is weak. Is that because he has openings encyclopedia build into his head, Nalimov’s endgames tables let him play perfect endgame or he can calculate zillions moves ahead? Not necessarily. All chess players want to become this sort of hard-to-deal with chess machines. But how can you do that? Is it necessary to memorize thousands opening lines and theoretical endgames?
Definitely memorizing theory wouldn’t hurt you chess. I don’t personally think that becoming and opening expert is what defines a ‘hard chess opponent’.
The general idea is that it is a lot harder to play against an opponent that creates problems on the chess board. Just think about it for a second. Imagine you’re playing a game of chess against an opponent A, who just plays some sort of semi-useless prophylactic moves all the time: no forks, no threats, and no mating attacks. With this kind of opponent you can do whatever you want on the chess board. You can build a very strong position, put your king to safety, put knights at the center, bishops on open diagonals, rooks on open files and pretty much automatically win the game.
Imagine another scenario: the opponent B always creates some sort of difficulties on the board. Because of his smart moves now you end up with a bad bishop and knights that have nowhere to go. You would like to get active and to attack, but instead you need to respond to his immediate threats, if you want to keep the material equal and not get mated. We call this type of opponent ‘hard’, because he creates problems for you to solve. The rule of thumb is this: the more problems a player is capable of creating, the stronger chess player he is. Now, once you know the true difference between ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ chess players it is time to give you some tips and pointers on how to become a hard-to-deal-with-player.
General rule #1
Do not play the moves just because you can, it’s not the point of chess to make moves. Making some moves is easy, making good moves is difficult and making the best moves is almost impossible. Before making a move, think what problems would this move impose on your opponent? The best move is the one that does multiple things at once, such as develops your own pieces, threatens to win some material and prevents your opponent from any dangerous actions. Good move is the one that forces your opponent to play something he does not want to play. If the move you play does not create any threats and does not make your opponent’s life harder, it’s most likely not a good move. Look for a better one.
Remember, the point of making moves at chess is to create problems for your opponent! The more problems you create for your opponent the safer your own King will be.
General Rule #2
Do not exchange pieces just because you can. Before making any exchanges or trading material think how would you benefit from it. You probably know that exchanging a Knight for a Queen is usually a good deal (of course if you not getting mated next move, aka sacrifice). What if you need to decide which piece is better in current position knight or bishop or even your knight or opponent’s knight? Here things are a little bit more ambiguous than 9 vs. 3 points like in Queen vs. Knight example. As a general rule you should compare the Bishop vs. Knight by the amount of open space available on the board, meaning the more open the position is the stronger the Bishop and weaker the Knight is. It works backwards as well, meaning less open space makes a Knight stronger and a Bishop weaker.
What if you need to compare two Bishops? The more active piece is usually better than a less active piece. If your Bishop is active you should not exchange it for passive bishop or knight of your opponent. For more precise position analysis information, you may want to review this article.
Strong players do not exchange pieces without any compensation; if they do exchanges they try to get superior pieces over the opponent’s, which suit better for the position on the board.
General Rule #3
You should be especially careful about exchanging pieces when the game is approaching endgame stage. When exchanging last set of pieces and going into Kings and Pawns endgame make sure that your pawns are not worse than you opponent’s. If the following conditions apply it’s definitely not a favorable time to play the Kings and Pawns endgame:
- You opponent has more pawns than you do
- Your opponent has passed pawns and can promote it’s pawns before you do
- Your opponent’s King is more active
- Your opponent’s pawns are more advanced and cannot be approached by your King
Again, these are just general rules and not dogmas. Each rule has exceptions, for example if your opponent’s pawn promotes first but your pawn promotes second but with a check to the opponent’s King, then you are doing okay.
As a general rule, you should remember that if you have a bad position for Kings and Pawns endgame you should avoid any piece exchanges and exchange pawns. By doing so you will have more chances creating problems for your opponent and increasing your chances for a favorable outcome of the game.
Comments and suggestions are always appreciated : )
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 If you are reading this, you are probably one of those players who wish to become a better chess player and to win games (or at least not to lose). I’m sure that there is no need to tell you that becoming a better chess player is a huge job, which requires many things such as:
Desire (you really must want to become a better chess player, no matter what it takes )
Time (you must have a free time for your chess education)
Appropriate Training Program (it’s a lot better to have some training program than none, if you’re serious about chess)
Money (it is useful to have some sort of recourses you can invest to hire a coach, buy books and other chess supplies)
Okay, what if you already understand that chess isn’t an easy sport and maybe you already invested some of your time looking through my previous guides: How to Get Better at Chess and Chess Self Improvement Guide. It seems like you doing everything correctly but the progress is not there or it is extremely slow or ambiguous. If you feel like that’s you, read on. In this article my main objective is to systematize these very common and extremely negative chess habits which slow down player’s chess development. Here they are:
- Not studying any chess whatsoever (Believe it or not but this is a very common and a very bad chess habit which is common to millions of chess players who play chess on regular basis. They “just play” and don’t get any better. Don’t get me wrong, they get better, but their rate of development is very slow and it’s almost impossible to take track of it. If you are serious about chess and want to become a better player just playing isn’t enough, you need to learn some chess fundamentals. Trying to get everything in chess through experience is like trying to build an airplane from the Stone Age technologies. It’s a lot better to open a book and to see the current progress.)
- Playing a lot of blitz games (Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against blitz, but it’s not exactly chess. By playing dozens of Blitz games against opponents you’re not going to improve much. Maybe you will train you intuition somewhat, but your calculation technique, strategy and endgame will not improve at all. You cannot get better without long time control chess. Have you ever observed a “very good blitz player” playing a long time control game? If you have you know why they don’t play it: calculating two moves ahead and playing 2 moves per second isn’t very necessary in long chess.)
- Not analyzing your own games (For some weird reason many chess players believe that analyzing your chess games is a waste of time. They would rather play another blitz game than sit down and look at the game they just played. It is very important to analyze your own games, especially the games you have lost. By doing so you will see your weaknesses and will improve your chess.)
- Dedicating too much time to openings (Of course an opening is a very important stage of the game which literally dictates the way at which the game will progress. But most people spend too much time studying openings, memorizing variations they will probably never face in their games. These players of course know what to play on 14th move in Queen’s Gambit Accepted/Classical Variation, but since their opponents do not know what to play on move 7 and change the route their knowledge is useless. They would be so much stronger players if they just focused on tactics and endgames. )
- Not solving any tactics problems (Tactics is the key element of chess. Majority of games are being won or lost because of tactics. Forks, skewers, double attacks, sacrifices are basic elements of tactics. In order to spot them, regular training is required. A chess player needs to spend a lot of time solving tactics problems/studies in order to improve and keep the tactical vision sharp.)
- Ignoring endgames (This is another common misconception that endgames are boring and useless and that all the games are being won beforehand. Maybe some endgames are boring, but every little mistake counts in the endgame, every wrong move and a lost tempo is what separates winner from loser. In order to be able the endgames when you are up a pawn from the middle game regular practice is required. Spend some time on endgames and you will be amused how your what used-to-be loses will change to draws and draws will become wins. )
- Playing too much online chess (I have already talked about the differences between real and online chess, so here I would just say that over the board experience is what teaches you to become a better player, while online chess is just fun time spending. In order to get better at chess you need to play over the board, the sooner you realize it the faster you will become your improvement.)
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Here is a list of 7 mistakes most commonly seen on amateur level. Many chess players just do not realize why they keep losing these games. The answer is simple. These players keep making the same mistakes over and over again, in every single game they play. How many games could have been won by avoiding these simple mistakes most people make? Take a look at the list and you will avoid these blunders!
- Mistake #7 Neglecting the development and sudden queen strike is what tend to be very often classified as an opening mistake. It is hardly ever seen on Masters level. But it seems like every player at the initial stage of his chess career does it. Why is it bad to give a quick queen check in a first few moves of the game? Well, first of all it usually allows an opponent to interpose with a pawn, knight or a bishop, gaining a golden tempo by making the queen to retreat. Secondly, since queen is such a strong piece players usually are uncertain about where it should be placed, so they tend to delay any queen moves to a better time (called a middle game). Of course there are plenty of exceptions for what I just said. For example in positions where it is possible to win some material it is surely the best to make a queen move.Always remember that the opening is for developing chess pieces and not for hunting down opponent’s unprotected rook and knight pawns, sacrificing the development whatsoever. Getting too greedy in the opening can cost you a game. Take a look at my another useful article on Opening Tips.
- Mistake # 6 Neglecting pins is another very common characteristics for novice chess players. It is always a good practice to get rid of all pin or to “un-pin” your pieces even if you don’t see the immediate danger. How many times novices lose pinned pieces when just a few moves ago they just ignored the pin? Millions of Knights, Bishops and even Rooks were killed like that.
- Mistake #5 Creating weak pawns is probably second most favorite hobby of novice players after the unnecessary queen moves. They either push pawns so deeply into the enemy’s territory so there is no way to protect it (overextended pawns), or in opposite create weak “backward” pawns and struggle in the endgame. Always think twice before the pawn move, pawns do not go back.
- Mistake #4 Even more deadly chess habit is to ignore pawns completely. I saw many novice players myself who just completely ignore pawns. For some unknown reason they think that since a pawn is the least valuable solder in chess army it is not important to save it. I saw many endgames when one party had 6 pawns and other one had 2. It is not very hard to figure out who won. The lesson is to save the pawns; otherwise you will lose your endgame right in the middle game (C).
- Mistake #3 Unnecessary piece moves is also very common mistake chess premature players make. Remember that all the moves in chess are to be made on purpose and for a reason. If you do not know what your move is for, don’t make it. It’s that simple, just look for another one.
- Mistake #2 Ignoring king safety can be very dangerous strategy, just like in #7 many ganes were lost beacause of unprotected king was quickly checkmated. The thing that many chess players very often forget: checkmate wins the game, not the extra pawn you got right before your king was checkmated while you made 3 moves with a queen to get that pawn. Remember that and you’ll be the “checkmater” one.
- Mistake #1 Believe it or not, but not being focused loses a lot more games that all the previous mistakes combined. Novice player are just do not have enough chess experience and confidence in order to be focused the whole game. At some point novices drop a pawn. Later on – a piece. Afterwards, they lose rather quickly. The lesson is a simple – keep an eye on all your pieces and pawns and you’ll be fine in your game. By simply not losing material you will be able to hold against a much stronger player. Check out my guide How to Beat a Stronger Player which explores this topic in greater deapth.
- One of the most common mistakes that some of my students make is making too many fast, impulsive moves. There is a story about Susan Polgar concerning impulsive moves. Apparently, she had a terrible problem making fast, impulsive moves. The problem was so bad that her father and coach, Laszlo Polgar made her sit on her hands between moves. She was not allowed to remove her hands until she had considered all the candidate moves and made a final decision.
I have had success employing this technique with my own students. They may look silly sitting on their hands, but it works.
 Hello, my chess friend. Welcome to our new Chess Tactics Gym. As you might know chess is 99% tactics, so exercising it is a crucial step toward success at chess. Currently there are a bit more than 1000 tactics problems available for solving, but the database will be constantly growing, so trust me, you won’t get bored. Drag and drop pieces on the board once you find the best move available. If you get stuck, just click “Tell me the move” button on top. It is a beta version and if you spot any errors please let me know. Good luck with solving tactics!
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