Chess is a fun game, till you enter your first tournament!
After which all hell breaks loose and two things may happen. Either you will be consumed by passion – or – stand as a bystander in frustration or awe. My intention is not to scare you out of the sport called chess but to help you prepare for it with a proper mindset without any fear or phobia. Separating the wood from the trees …
Chess is both science and art – and chess improvement will come when you consider this fact in your training.
Separating the wood from the trees – Key points to keep in mind.
If you practice only tactics, you will miss out on the connecting-big-picture while playing, and if you only play with strategic understanding with a weak tactical acumen you will be running a race with just one leg.
What is the best way to stand calm amidst the chaos regarding your Chess improvement?
Lets take some important points and talk about it in case you decide to take up the challenge of a real tournament Chess game!
Absolute passion or interest in Chess. Why? Its simple. Just as coal or water is needed to fuel a Steam Engine train – in the same way the fuel of excellence is interest or passion in whatever we do. Without this basic foundation, the building will collapse for sure. Ask yourself – are you passionate about your chess improvement and if so how much? Your chess improvement is directly proportional to your innate passion.
Time management. What do we mean by Time management? Its just a way of squeezing time whenever we are able to – for the sake of our training regimen. Plan for a day/week/month and keep looking for more. Do not allow lethargy or laziness come in the way. Diligent training will fetch rewards. Not just getting up one fine day and solving 50 positions and not looking at them for the next few days completely!Do you eat your food in the same way? I mean stuffing 3 meals at one time and then going without food the whole day?
Weeding out the negatives. What is meant by negatives? It can be anything. Eating too much or too little. Watching too much TV or having a late night sleeping time every day. It can also be anger or frustration or even lack of confidence. Just avoid these to the best you can.
Getting motivated in real life. I get motivated whenever I see the achievers and the dedication in almost all chess players who have been playing for more than a decade. (Not just in Chess but in other sports too). Our focus in chess gets a boost when we see the energy levels of the legends.Their achievements seem like a miracle but their efforts and sweat are hidden.Imagine and appreciate that hidden aspect and sit down for the training with a thought to achieving that height of dedication.
Let me know if you have any suggestions or doubts by way of comments. Share if you feel it will help others.
Golden Chess Centre conducts regular training sessions for upcoming chess players in Nanganallur, Madipakkam, Adambakkam, Moovarasampet, Kilkattalai, Kovilambakkam, Puzhuthivakkam, Ullagaram and Pazhavanthangal – Chennai, as well as online sessions for those players who live out of Chennai.
7 Tips – How to prepare for chess tournaments successfully
I would like to share some thoughts on this aspect of Chess. How to prepare for chess tournaments. I am sharing these techniques as I have seen the impact of these points personally.
The players I am directing today’s blog post are in the Beginner to intermediate strength and for higher rated players the mileage may vary depending on a myriad of other factors in play (mainly based on age).
Success does not come randomly in a day. It is merely a by-product of doing things correctly consistently.
Let us get on with the points in contention – how to prepare for chess tournaments:
Eating Right, Sleeping right, and Living Right: I would say in general keep a positive state of mind and nurture emotions and feelings of hopefulness, joy, and plenty of laughter (I recall watching loads of comedy films). This will ease the pressure that builds up for some players.
Creative Problem Solving: I would encourage you to keep your mind sharp and flexible by learning other games and puzzles outside of chess such as GO, Scrabble, Sudoku, Shogi, etc. Learning new skills and thinking about the connections to chess, is a creative way to give your mind a break from chess while still staying, “in the zone”.
The Power of Visualization and Positive Thinking: Let us face it. We all have hopes and fears of the upcoming event; why not build yourself up to being a confident player, who believes he is going to be fighting for the first prize in the final round and coming out on top. Try it while you are in the act of studying chess or playing casual games or training games; see yourself playing these same winning moves at the tournament. Try to imagine yourself putting all that work into action; playing strong chess and avoiding bad habits (playing too fast, getting up from the board, not getting tired, blunders). Confidence and “game” are huge parts of the chess battle. In many games, I have observed it comes down to who has more confidence, will, and energy than anything else.
Sharpening Up: Calculation (and evaluation) and Tactical Strength are the base level ingredients of being on form and achieving desired results. We all know what happens if we are not able to spot double attacks, combinations, or simply dropping pawns and pieces. The study of King and Pawn endgames along with solving tactical studies works wonders. The trick here is to choose a book (or software) that has just the right mix of problems that you can feel challenged yet still be able to solve many positions in a sitting. As a Chess Coach, I like to give tactical positions that are challenging, but not so hard to give my students a headache.
Going All Out: This idea ties into my thoughts on creative visualization, but I want to stress the importance of being psyched up to play great, uncompromising chess during the event. Be creative and cultivate your inner fire; become inspired at the actual tournament and believe that you have what it takes to take it all.
Relaxation with Family and Friends: Do not forget about making the most of the time you spend with your family, friends, and loved ones. This is your support team and you need to feel emotionally strong and loved in order to achieve maximal results.
Regular Exercise:Benefits of Exercise are well known and documented. However, from a chess point of view, I would suggest it primarily for one reason – the oxygen intake helps de-clutter your mind. If you would like more info I suggest this book as a must-read: Exercise Every Day: 32 Tactics for Building the Exercise Habit by S.J Scott. It contains some of the best tips.
My advice on how to prepare for chess tournaments – do not be afraid to dream and believe you are going to have a great result. Of course, this has to be backed by hard work before the event and during the games.
I do hope to see you playing the best chess of your life and more importantly – enjoy the process!
Knights can often be better than Bishops when there are weak pawns even on an open board. This factor is important to remove misconceptions about the ‘slowness’ of the knight. This is large because they can attack squares of either color, unlike a bishop. Thus, the pawns cannot ‘hide’ from a knight, whereas they can sometimes do so from a bishop.
Silman’s Complete Endgame Course – Read this first
This book is a treasure house of interesting and important facts – like the rant in this article that Knights can often be better than Bishops.
I use this book to train young students aged below 18.
The book is good for kids whose rating ranges from 800 to 1800.
I also suggest the book to seniors rated below 1800.
From consistent use in my experience, I can say that this is an excellent resource for learning the endgame whatever your rating is
The max rating that can benefit from this is 2300 as mentioned in the book.
If you are already an upcoming and passionate learner/player, start with the initial chapters intended for the lower-rated players.
This will guarantee that you have all the basics pretty much covered (it’s a very good book for revision and reference).
Then complete the chapters aimed at your rating category and move slowly from there. Make sure you write done all the tips given in the fancy boxes.
The explanations and ideas conveyed are gems – clear and easy – my students have been able to understand them without too much trouble. The exercises have also been chosen well, and we will provide more in our training routine.
I can really recommend this book as it makes teaching and learning endgames fun.
Knights can often be better than Bishops – but when?
Let us now discuss the strong points of Knights vs Bishops by reading what are the requirements of these pieces.
Using these tips you may be able to consider converting to a winning ending.
That is the secret of strong players; application of chess knowledge is more important than rote learning!
In this article we discuss another aspect of this topic:
1. While knights are generally considered slow and sluggish beasts, they are unique in their ability to jump over and/or dominate either color, unlike Bishops that are doomed on any one color. This means that Knight can’t be restricted the way bishop can
2. Generally, Knights are considered better in closed positions, while Bishops are better in open positions
3. This factor makes it hugely successful in defending and/or attacking in an open board in endgames as the pawns are vulnerable to attacks.
4. On top of that, Knights can suddenly pose a knight-fork. This tactic sends shivers down any player’s spine as Knight moves are less predictable and require a more extensive calculation
5. The Bishop may be wrong colored especially with Rook-pawn (A-Pawn or H-Pawn) Vs Bishop
I know some of my strong chess player friends prefer to keep Knights and exchange Bishops more often than not for the above reasons 🙂
So if you go along the beaten track of Bishops are better than Knights, I suggest you take a second glance at the board.
All the more if the ending stage is near.
Careless conversions (transitions) to an endgame will seal the fate in the wrong direction if you do not pay heed to the power of the knights.
You must be able to recall these points when you are formulating a strategy
When you have no strategy at hand, you may think along these lines.
These will serve you as guideposts.
Now you know why the Knights can often be better than Bishops in some situations!
However, a word of caution. I think if you play the chess game with the idea that Knights can often be better than Bishops, you may have some problems in certain positions.
It’s not easy to give a general statement, it really depends on the position.
For example – the Knight collaborates well with the Queen, so with Queens on the board, you might favor the knight as well.
If there are pawns on both sides of the chessboard, you usually prefer the long-ranged Bishop.
Think about it 🙂
Wishing you all the best in your Chess!
If you have any queries please feel free to comment or mail me. I will be pleased to answer any query.
It was a thrilling finale to a historic event. In the final round, Judit Polgar drew with Levon Aronian, while Vladimir Kramnik also drew, with Michael Adams. Hikaru Nakamura fought against Luke McShane, who blundered, while Magnus Carlsen, despite a guaranteed first, pressed hard against Vishy Anand, came close to winning, but eventually drew.
The 2012 London Chess Classic took place in the Olympia Conference Centre from Saturday, December 1st until Monday, December 10th. A win was counted as three points, a draw as one, and a loss zero.
The common misconception is that blunders are just tactical errors. Tactics are definitely involved, and better tactical vision will certainly help reduce the number of these blunders, but merely studying tactics is like treating the symptoms (blunders) and not removing the disease (blank spots). Reprogram your brain and see better results.
Consider the errors you make in a game. How many of the critical errors (those that change the expected result of the game–win, lose or draw) were immediately obvious to you, and how many required some serious thought or computer assistance?
Reprogram your brain to think differently about chess training to achieve maximum results.
If you had to think about why your move was bad, or why your opponent’s move worked, then the problem is related to some other facet of your game like strategic misunderstanding or mix-up of tactical ideas in the wrong sequence.
However, if your error provokes an immediate “Oh No!”, then it wasn’t your tactics that were faulty, but your thinking.
If:
shortly after you make your move you suddenly realize it was a blunder, or
your opponent makes an unexpected move whose strength is immediately obvious, or
your opponent makes a move that you didn’t consider, but it’s immediately obvious that you should have,
then your thinking process failed you, not your tactical ignorance.
How do you train this error-free thinking in chess?
Solution:
Ask yourself before moving – what your opponent can do and whether you can handle his threat.
Is your threat bigger than his?
Many of us make a superficial attempt and select a move without analyzing the full line.
A really good tip is to create a set of positions for solving – not too challenging but not too easy either.
These task positions must resemble those that players regularly face over the board, and are especially useful from a trainer’s viewpoint.
That is due to the fact that there must be no hints or themes given for these positions.
You just need to find the best move and that in itself will reward you if you are sincere.
If you are from India click on the image of the book.
As a further example, consider bowling or basketball. One thing you train is to be able to consistently pull off a certain stroke or a push, such as hitting all 9 balls or putting the ball inside the basket 7-10 feet away from the basket.
After practicing again, and again, and again, the “right” way to do it becomes programmed in your “subconscious memory” and you can just execute it with the least thought.
The solution would appear to be to play more games at slow time controls and whenever you play online, force yourself to play chess seriously, like in a tournament.
Repetition is the key to embedding information into your subconscious brain. Keep training regularly. I always tell my students to treat all training positions as tournament gameplay and all tournament games as a training scenario.
This way there will be pure attention whilst solving and pure relaxation without fear while playing in a stress-filled tournament.
