Andrew Soltis is one author whom I look forward to a lot. He was one of the instrumental authors in my growth as a chess player.
His greatest skill is his lucid writing style and simple methods to elucidate complex chess concepts even to laymen in chess
In the book When to Exchange in Chess by Soltis – the author says that knowing when and what to exchange in chess, is an art that can be learned with the proper training.
Why is the correct exchanging of pieces important?
Exchanging the chess pieces (chessmen) in a series of well-coordinated moves is an essential skill that every chess player must have
If a chess player wants to improve beyond the beginner levels in Chess, he is well advised to have ‘When to Exchange in Chess‘
in his book collection,
Players of all levels will find plenty of practical tips and advice, as well as illustrative examples taken from actual play.
This book is one that will help you improve your game by a few notches since there is a dearth of literature on this subject in chess.
Another old classic that comes to mind is: Exchanging to Win in the Endgame by Gennady Nesis – which deals with the transition from middlegame to endgame.
What is different in this book?
Andy Soltis is different in his approach – in that he explains
When and if you should exchange your bishop for a knight,
Which pair of bishops to exchange
When it’s important to keep rooks on the board, and
When to refuse any trade.
The biggest problem for upcoming players is taken as the subject of this upcoming book – When to trade pieces?
This is a challenging question, especially when playing against a very competitive or patient opponent, or a general beginner who does NOT understand this theory at all.
It is not an easy task to learn something that is not often discussed in chess books, neither directly nor exhaustively.Â
The author Andy Soltis will guide your chess learning with this important topic of when to exchange pieces in Chess.
I call this the ‘art of conversion‘.
One of the main opening principles I teach to my students in my chess classes is – don’t exchange pieces unnecessarily.
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I have to make sure that they follow this advice, after explaining to them the reason not to exchange.
When to Exchange in Chess by Soltis addresses 3 Problems Beginners Face:
The first problem –
Beginner level chess players face is that they do not understand when the opening phase has ended and when the Middlegame in chess starts.
This causes some problems in following the principles while exchanging pieces.
The second problem
is that the beginners do not understand the idea of compensation.
By compensation, I mean, what is the non-material advantage that we get when we trade pieces?Â
If I ask beginners whether a trade is good or bad, they will immediately look at the piece’s values and decide if it is worthy or not.
But if I ask the advanced players – they will look at the compensation in form of non-material advantages – such as pawn structure, Piece activity, and piece placement with regard to attack or defense.
The third problem
that beginner will be having problems in understanding – is the importance of the concept of tempo.
Ahh… This is one concept that takes some effort in teaching and making sure that it stays in mind. There is so much focus on tactics and checkmates that the poor little tempo guy just seems to be relegated to the backbenches!
But this is where the trainer has a lot of work to do. I think Soltis’s book will be a ready-reckoner and a guide for coaches who want to take up this Herculean task – explaining the Tempo!
Kramnik and Karpov were masters on this topic, as they were masters of exchange and building initiatives slowly.
No wonder their games are featured here extensively.
Question: Hi Coach @GoldenChess! I’m a newbie in the chess scene and am from Madipakkam (near Nanganallur) in Chennai. I have a problem and that is – Chess Openings – how to study – for beginners especially. The doubt is: should I study all the major openings and if so which ones do I have to study as priority?
To be more specific, my concern is – I am very familiar about the Sicilian but after 1. e4 if my opponents do not play any Sicilian line but takes me into an unknown territory that I can’t manage, what must I do ?
Do I have to study all the openings in this case ?
Last week somebody advised me that I have to study the openings that fit my playing style. What is your take on this?
Thanks for all you tips! – Aadhithya (age 15)
HiAadhithya – First of all, I guess that your question is basically about building your White repertoire. In the long run, if you are serious about improving your chess, the answer is – yes! Hard work does pay. For example – you may start with 1.d4 and play the Colle system – or the Sicilian Grand Prix with 1.e4 as white. But there is every possibility that you will soon feel bored with that opening.
Chess Openings – how to study – for beginners (or how not to study!)
What openings you choose is up to you, and depends on your goals in chess and your personal tastes. So if you are already rated 1800 or thereabouts, you can pick theoretical lines to build your repertoire and polish it everyday.
However if you are lower rated – you said you are a newbie so I assume you are a post-beginner – then you need to only understand and remember the major lines in a selective set of openings and more importantly, improve your middlegame understanding.
Try completing the combination books selected from this link from Amazon.
Note however that you will not have a ‘style‘ of play until you have a quite decent understanding of the game by which I mean 2200 elo rating.
Until then you don’t have a style – what you have is a collection of responses and weaknesses.
So in summary –
Study only the important openings that you will play and encounter and choose the 4 or 5 common variations of that opening, to begin with by reading books by the great Grandmaster of the past (I have listed some suggestions below).
Play them regularly with friends or at online chess playing sites such as Chesscube.com, Chess.com, ICC or Playchess (ChessBase).
Try playing with chess software like Lucas Chess (read a good review here)
Don’t hesitate to change openings if you feel you are not enjoying it.
Don’t waste your time on off-beat openings that are not important, you are not a master yet and
I suggest to really master tactics by doing them daily on a real chess board rather than openings for your age and level because you will lose mainly by tactics and not because of the minimal advantage that was gained by that uncommon variation.
Book Suggestions: I suggest you to get a few books that are a collection of GM games annotated by the Grandmaster himself and go through them with your coach or another player who is stronger than you.
I have avoided providing the latest Grandmaster’s book list as the above list of older books gives a good understanding of an opening’s evolution. These books will discuss about the opening plans and ideas and that will be a good foothold to begin with. I hope I have answered your question on Chess Openings – how to study – for beginners
Once a grasp of these ideas are absorbed in place, we can then continue our learning with the later day Grandmaster’s books such as those by Shirov, Anand, Gelfand, Karpov and Kasparov.
Additionally, I would request you to share some of your OTB (On the Board) games or online games to make this discussion more meaningful.
Do drop in at Golden Chess Centreat Nanganallur (Chennai) and we will see how to guide you in your self study.For others who have found my suggestions useful why not visit my Facebook page and follow it by liking it so that you can be notified for more such articles like this?
Note: The links in this page are affiliate links which means I earn a small commission from any purchases. Prices are exactly the same for you if your purchase is through an affiliate link or a non-affiliate link. ​You will not pay more by clicking through to the link.Â
Are you a chess player who has mastered the basics but seems lost in limbo land when it comes to winning Chess games? Here is an instructive post beginners course material that will help you attain a decent level of understanding and a rock-solid foundation before entering the club-level and advanced level field. The first question that needs to be understood by a post-beginner is – why is Center control important in chess?
Def: A post-beginner is one who has learned the basic concepts of chess.
In my career as a coach spanning 10 years, I have seen that there is a dearth of structured syllabi, for beginners in Chess. Either they are too complicated/too basic for the post beginner, or they are not coherent – meaning that they do not answer the questions from a novice’s point of view. However, the evergreen rules are still relevant for a generic approach in learning.
My advice for a post-beginner is just one simple sentence –
Play simple chess – control the center!Â
The simplest advice to beginners is – Center control important in chess, develop your pieces actively, create problems for your opponent, and you will soon be winning many games.
Make your opponent think and let him stress out. After all, Chess is a mind game.
Why is this control of the center so important? Controlling the center limits your opponent’s mobility and hinders the relationship between his pieces. Advantages like these lead to attacking chances.
Now last week I received an email asking me to comment about the relevance of Center control and why many of the games are based on this one singular aspect of chess theory.
Mastering Control of the Center –
The biggest headache for all post-beginners in chess is they do not know why is Center control important in chess.
The reason why they miss out on this point is that they tend to either get carried away by some impromptu tactic or forget its importance or lose sight of the opponent’s ambitions in the center.
I always advise my students to keep it simple. Control the Center – this simple advice will fetch you points or save the lost points to a minimum draw.Â
Broad benefits (if you want to know why is Center control important in chess):
Greater mobility of pieces. Often, if the central pawns are advanced to the central squares, then the mobility of the pieces is greatly increased. Thus, pawn moves such as e2-e4 free the bishop on f1 and d2-d4 do the same for the bishop on c1. Later on, these moves also free the queen on d1 and the rooks.
Greater influence over the whole board. For e.g., a centralized Knight on e5 generally controls more important squares inside the enemy camp than a knight passively placed, say, on a4.
Limit and push back the strong pieces of your opponent or restrict the mobility of enemy pieces.
Break his defense of the central squares to give you a free pawn as a bonus.
You can use this central control to establish to make your own pieces placed on better squares called outposts.
 Model games listed below showcase the concept of why center control important in chess.
1. Alekhine vs Casielles
2. Shabalov vs Smyslov
3. Tal vs Benko
4. Landa vs Purtov
5. Schlechter vs Wolf
.
Additional Model games for you to know why is Center control important in chess
Karpov vs Kasparov World Championship Match (1985), Game 16 – Kasparov places a black knight on d3 which was famously described as the ‘octopus‘, controlling several key squares in White’s position and throwing White off-balance. White’s knights on the other hand are passively placed and do not control the Center.
Paul Morphy vs James McConnell, 1849 – Morphy follows simple chess opening principles; develops pieces towards the center, control the Center, advances pawns to e4 and d4, empowers his bishops, and tortures his opponent!
Fischer vs Myagmarsuren, 1967 – Bobby Fischer pushes a pawn to e5 to drive the Black knight from f6 and then launches a King-side attack. This shows that when you control the Center, you control important squares. Now you have the ability to push your opponent’s pieces when the time arises.
Chess in the Digital Age is an enchanting 356 pages guide that explains almost all aspects of using ChessBase.
Let us start with the basics first.
What is ChessBase?
ChessBase is an amazing chess database software mainly used by top professionals and by amateurs. It has evolved constantly from a very basic chess data reference tool to a full-blown chess database software.
Much like the Swiss knife of Chess
What is the book about?
For those who have been using the ChessBase Software (and I am pretty sure at least 75% of chess players around the world have used it at one point in time or the other) for straight forward game collections and annotations or for mundane tasks like viewing a game or playing a game online, this book will show what ChessBase software is actually capable of doing.
Here a small caveat – though the author has done a very good job explaining the key features with real-time case studies, it can by no means be labeled as ‘complete’. However, that does not take any credit away from the utility value of the book which is a path-breaking one.
Why this book?
I am sure most of you would have by now figured out a few basic functions in Chessbase, but a lot of the nerdy stuff features are not obvious unless you see them in the true perspective of results.
You may argue that there is a user-manual in the program as is the case with all software, and pretty much is explained in there, but it’s written more with an eye for technicality, than the utility point. The how is explained, but not the why and when and what if.
When one opens Chessbase it appears as a mysterious piece of software that appears easy to operate but you get a gut feeling that it has some secrets that are hidden deep inside waiting to be unraveled.
After going through this book you will realize that you have been actually right all along. There were many functions that you did not even have an inkling of.
In other words this book is like the hitch-hiker’s guide to the Chessbase galaxy!
How does the book deliver?
Showing hundreds of helpful screenshots from the program, Jon Edwards explains the following tasks with ChessBase:
Effective Opening preparation is de-mystified with suitable examples.
How to get a collection of important games in any opening, middlegame position type, or even endgame positions
How you can install and see what engines think about any given position.
How you can perform an analysis and see where you and your opponents erred.
How you can publish your games in a book or the web/Facebook
What about practical examples?
What the author Jon Edwards has done is to take pains explaining 14 general features (aptly called ‘scenarios’), such as training and teaching, position searches, opening preparation, playing on the Playchess server using ChessBase, etc, and explains clearly how to go about accomplishing these activities.
The fact is that this book is a ready-reckoner because Chessbase is one life-saving utility for 99% of today’s chess professionals.
Do we need to have the Chessbase software?
The book is full of screenshots, which are helpful so that the program need not be open in front of you (though that would be highly recommended) and he does not miss anything major.
So is Chess in the Digital Age a complete reference manual?
Though every little function is explained to the point, I should add that this book is not a complete reference manual. The author merely elucidates how he uses the various features of Chessbase for his specific purposes (scenarios).
That said however if you are a serious chess player, this book should be in your collection of essentials. And although the book was written with Chessbase 12 in mind, it still works with the latest release of Chessbase 16.
The only sore point in Chessbase Complete Chess in the Digital Age is that the images used in the book could have been good quality color images to better illustrate and engage the reader’s eye. Hence my half-star less in the rating. It has nothing to do with the content – which is 5 star!
Domination in 2,545 Endgame Studies by Genrikh Kasparyan is a power-packed tome of chess positions in the endgame that show us what real chess ability is all about. A statutory word of caution to readers – this book is for serious chess players only – not for beginners or those who have a cursory interest in chess. That aside, welcome to the land of mysticism in the chess planet.
Domination in 2,545 Endgame Studies by Ghenrikh Kasparyan
is a true treasure trove of many of the greatest chess compositions by various authors, including Kasparyan himself. – well organized and presented.
No other book even comes close to its level of organization by topics such as ‘two minor pieces trap a Rook’ or ‘two Rooks trapping a Queen’ so that you can look up specific scenarios according to which gameplay is involved.
I remember as a kid I was forced by my coach to go through some fancy endgame positions (later I came to know that they were called ‘studies‘).
He would ask me to look at the positions for 3-5 minutes and eventually (impatient as he was to ignite my interest) he showed the answers to me.
It did a lot to boost my imagination, and I was hooked thereafter to Chess studies.
Each one of the 2545 positions is packed with chess wisdom and offers valuable tips on how to force your opponent to lose material.
Many positions that would be considered a draw in tournament play by average players are shown as winning, with stunning calculated moves leading to a win (or a draw in hopeless positions) with the dramatic sequence of moves to capture one or more of the opponent’s pieces.
Some hopelessly lost positions will be shown as drawn or winning!
Armed with this knowledge you will gain many new insights.
You will realize that chess is not all about rules or mathematics. It is also an art of the highest order.
This book will throw your self-limiting beliefs out of your mind.
The geometry of the chessboard
If one analyses deeply the best works of outstanding ‘studies’ composers such as Troitsky, Reti, Averbakh, Platov, Kubbel, Rinck and others, one will deepen the knowledge of the geometry of the chessboard.
This is what is also known as ‘board vision.
The greater the familiarity of each square’s correlation with other squares (and the effect of a piece on that square) the better will your strategy be.
If you have never seen a chess study you will be dazzled by one. Get ready to see Chess positions in a new light! So let’s start with one of my favorites:
Interference, in anything but chess, is considered impolite.
White to play.
I know that the above position may appear to be simple for most of you, but that was for the starters!
I remember being entranced as a kid by a few Reti studies in this book, especially a few of those where a Knight dominated a Bishop on a somewhat empty board – funnily the bishop could not find a good square to move!
Take a good look at the Reti studies if you choose to buy the book.
You might wonder – why are endgame studies important for calculation training?
Can we not learn the art of calculation by solving Mate in 2 or 3 movers?
The answer lies here: In my personal experience – I myself have never got to like many problems as mate in two or mate in three – what difference does it make whether you mate your opponent in two moves or three?
But endgame studies are another matter.
Not only do they create a sense of curiosity, but they are also useful in training you to think along different lines that might come up in your games and honing your calculating abilities by making you think about your opponent’s resources and more importantly making you think out of the box.
An IM who is a good friend of mine told me that he rose in the Elo ladder after finishing the Domination book not once but twice! And most of his opponents fell into his traps that he learned from this very same book!
My mileage was different.
Domination will not make you a better player overnight.
I was able to implement a few lessons only after a few months of looking up the Domination book.
It takes some time as this is not your run-of-the-mill stuff.
This one will embed in your chess psyche slowly but surely.
No wonder many books refer to Kasparian as the greatest Russian composer!
The next article in this regard will be my review of Dvoretsky’s Studies for Practical Players – a hidden gem that needs to be brought to the limelight and which will be a worthy companion to the Domination book.
