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.
Important Thumb rules for the opening stage in chess
(also called – 90% rule for a reason)
Important Thumb rules for the opening stage
After almost two decades of teaching Chess, I observed some principles in chess need to be simplified. So…
Here are my Important Thumb rules for the opening stage in chess
Intro:
When a new student wants to join our academy for chess classes I ask him if he knows to play chess.
They confirm that they can beat their family members and due to that, they want to try chess as a professional sport.
Then I make them play with some younger students in the academy and they think that these tiny kids will be no match to them.
Then the fun starts.
Knowing the Important Thumb rules for the opening stage helps kids get a decent position in chess
These new students though much older than my junior students, get ripped apart slowly and they have a puzzled look on their face.
Having seen the puzzled look on most of the older kids when they lose to someone much younger than them,
I felt it was a gross injustice to the elder newbies who were lost due to a lack of knowledge of the opening principles.
I believe Chess must be first taught in chunks and only then can the full picture be slowly understood.
Memorize them and see your game improve or at least achieve some decent amount of coherence.
But before memorizing them, remember that they are also called 90% rules. That is because they are applicable only 90% of the time and depend on the position.
Caveat: Please take these rules with a pinch of salt and follow them with discretion.
Important Thumb rules for the opening stage
The simplest way to start the game is to occupy the center of the board with a pawn.
Start by advancing your central pawns (d-pawn and e-pawn) to control the center of the board. This helps in establishing a strong position and gives your pieces more mobility.
Develop your Knights and Bishops as quickly as possible (usually Knights before Bishops).
Bring out your Knights and Bishops to active squares as quickly as possible. Knights are often developed before Bishops, as they can jump over other pieces.
Castle early, usually on the Kingside, to make your King safe. This move protects the King behind a wall of pawns and activates the Rook.
Don’t move the same piece twice in the opening – except to make or evade capture. Each move should help in the development of your other pieces or control of the board.
Don’t bring the Queen out early, unless you can win something (or give a checkmate) by doing so. Instead, focus on developing minor pieces and securing a solid position before involving the Queen in attacking play.
The Rooks are the last pieces to be developed, They should be placed on open files or central squares not blocked by pawns, increasing their scope and control.
Don’t develop pieces by blocking your other pieces, instead, strive for a harmonious placement where each piece supports others and has room for maneuvering.
Don’t make too many pawn moves at the start of the game. Move your two central pawns, and sometimes also your c-pawn to fight for the center. Excessive pawn moves can lead to weaknesses and hinder piece development Also remember that pawns cannot move backwards!
Don’t move your f-, g- and h-pawns in the opening – you will need those to remain unmoved to defend your King when you castle on the Kingside. These pawns serve as a protective shield for the King after castling.
Be careful about grabbing pawns in the opening, when you are yet to develop pieces, fully. Such moves can lead toa loss of time or expose your pieces to attacks.
I cannot stress how important it is to adhere to these Important Thumb rules for the opening stage in chess – at least till you have a decent rating of say 1500. Till then these thumb-rules will serve as guideposts and will help you navigate through the black and white jungle.
If you are above 1500 elo rating then I suggest you look at this video
Let us look at a position that shows an excellent positional sacrifice. Such examples help us understand the concept of a positional sacrifice – which means giving away a higher value piece for the enemy’s lower value piece to attain a good advantage for a win or at times a draw (in case the game seems lost).
Excellent Positional Sacrifice
At first sight, White’s chances are preferable. He has two bishops, and although the one at b2 is passive, it is free to come into play via c1. Black’s pawn majority on the queen-side is ephemeral (the move b4 doesn’t give anything in particular), whereas White is ready for activity in the centre.
He can first strengthen his position by the advance of the h-pawn, but White’s main aim is the e5-e6 breakthrough. This threat is highly unpleasant and it is not altogether clear how to combat it.
But on a close examination of the placing of the black pieces and the features of the position, it will be noticed that its evaluation could change if the black knight were able to occupy the d5 – square.
Here the knight not only blocks the d4 – pawn, but also takes away some good squares from the white pieces (for example, f4 from the queen).
However, it is not so easy for the knight to reach d5: for this the rook has to move from e7.
For example, 25…Ra7!? – after 26. e6 f6 27. Bf3 Ne7 everything is still far from clear; in any event, there is no apparent way of forcibly exploiting the powerful passed pawn.
Black retains control of the light squares, and even if the pawn should advance to e7, the g6 – bishop can come to the rescue. But this would have been falling in with White’s plans!
And Black makes a move which many players, unfamiliar with this games, would consider a blunder and at which the computer would ‘laugh its heart out’ if it had one!.
In this position, Black played 25… Re6!!.
The move is indeed incredible: the rook simply place itself en-prise. For the sake of what? In order to block the advance of the pawn and also to open the way for the knight to d5.
Let us ponder over the position and ask us ourselves:
Why should a rook be stronger than a minor piece here?
After all, a rook requires open lines, it needs to have something to attack, whereas minor pieces require strong points and pawn support.
In the given instance there is a shortage of open lines, and it is no longer possible to prevent the knight from reaching d5, where it will be impregnable. In addition, from d5 the knight will be attacking the c3 – pawn, and if the white bishop does not manage to switch to d2, it will remain ‘vegetating’ at b2.
It is practically impossible to break Black’s light square defenses; white simply does not have sufficient resources to do so.
Thus, when this staggering move is made on the board, we can understand perfectly well the reasons that induced Black to give up the exchange, and we can grasp the deep strategic meaning of what has occurred.
After 25… Re6, White played 26. a4. An attempt, by creating tension on the queen-side, to open lines and exploit the exchange advantage. The game was agreed to a draw after 41 moves.
This game featuring an excellent Positional Sacrifice was played between S. Reshevsky and T. Petrosian, Candidates Tournament, Zurich 1953.
What is the best advice for chess players? As an independent Chess Coach, I have realized that there are some points to keep in mind, to improve your chess game – especially when you see a Tactic.
On this page, you will find a brief discussion of the useful thinking aids for BEGINNERS – chess tactics.
Read more…
Most of you may have experienced this phenomenon whilst playing chess.
You may have spotted a beautiful combination like say a smothered mate, and you did a quick cross-check.
You realized that this was your moment of glory and that you could after all play like Tal.
Chances are – it may not be the best playable move!
Who knows it may even be an outright blunder!
When you see a Tactic… and rush headlong in it only to realize that it was a mirage, what do you do??
And worse is when your opponent has seen the same tactic that you have just noticed, also knows the refutation, that may either destroy your position and the game.
Here is one tip that I believe all Chess players must remember to improve their tactical strokes.
Pause. When you spot a tactic, pause and visualize your combination.
I know it sounds clichéd and obvious.
The time spent calculating is worth the wait as you will be playing a winning position if your move was actually a winning one – and if the move is not good then at least your position will not deteriorate further.
When we see a tactic and quickly rush to play it, we may have overseen something really basic in the calculations such as:
The opponent has a subtle intermezzo or in-between move that causes us to fail in our tactical expectations.
The combination can easily be refuted either by a counter sacrifice or a non-acceptance of the sacrificed piece causing a big change in the expected outcome.
The move is easily and simply refuted and results in an inferior position, one that is very easy for the opponent to convert to a win.
Round-up:
So when you see a tactic, remember this adage – “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread”.
My suggestion is to not rush to play it.
Pause for a moment, and calculate the ramifications of the combination- it is after all a critical moment.
Now comes the other side of the story.
Even though we know what tactics are, you may think…
How do I spot a possible tactic in my Chess Games?
In other words, what are the signals that I should look for?
And why am I not able to find the tactic faster rather than seeing them in the post-game analysis?
Answer:
Because we do not know what are the exact thinking algorithms that we need to pursue every move.
Shortcut to find the tactics in a chess game
I will describe the complex thinking method (yes there is a step-by-step method) in a future post, but one of the initial steps in the thinking algorithms is to “look for forcing moves“.
This search is the most important mantra every chess player should remember.
What are Forcing moves in Chess?
Forcing moves are those moves that force your opponent to reply (predictably).
The different types of Forcing moves
Attacks
Captures
Threats
Sacrifices to win material or checkmate
Pawn breaks
Forcing moves play a major role in chess thinking.
Now, wait.
Don’t rush to follow me blindly before you read my next tip:-
A shortcut to finding the forcing moves is to first look for the active pieces in a position and remove the sleeping pieces from your mind – for the sake of focus.
After reading this article about chess tactics and forcing moves, I truly hope that your tactical acumen will improve.
Remember:
First look at the active pieces in a position and then shortlist the forcing moves.
When you see a Tactic – pause.
If there are no useful forcing moves possible – then we need to improve our piece coordination.
Chess is a very interesting game in that it is fully concrete. Therefore, chess has given a number of interesting experiences to the world. Here are Some really interesting facts about Chess
Some really interesting facts about Chess (that even I did not know!)
1. Did you know the number of possible ways of playing the first four moves for both sides in a game of chess is 319,999,664,000?
2. The longest game of chess that is theoretically possible is 5,989 moves.
3. The first chessboard with alternating light and dark squares (as it appears today) was made in Europe in 1090 AD.
4. According to the America’s Foundation for Chess, there are 169,518,829,100,545,000,000,000,000,000 (approximately 1.71×1029) ways to play the first 10 moves of a game of chess. Even a computer would find that difficult to digest.
5. The word “checkmate” in chess originally comes from the Persian word “Shah Mat,” which is often translated to “the king is dead”, although more accurate may be “the king is trapped” or ” the king is without escape” (Treadwell).
6. The longest chess game ever played was I.Nikolic – Arsovic, Belgrade 1989, which ended in – hold your breath – 269 moves. The game ended in a draw!
7. There are 400 different possible positions after one move each. There are 72,084 different possible positions after two moves each. There are over 9 million different possible positions after three moves each. There are over 318 billion different possible positions after four moves each. The number of distinct 40-move games in chess is far greater than the number of electrons in the observable universe. The number of electrons is approximately 1079, while the number of unique chess games is 10120.
8. The second book ever printed in the English language was about chess! Now that is really strange.
9. The new pawn move, where pawns were allowed to advance two squares on its first move instead of one, was first introduced in Spain in 1280.
10. The first chess game played between space and earth was on June 9, 1970 by the Soyez-9 crew. The game ended in a draw.
11. An old puzzle: If you put one grain of wheat on the first square of the chessboard, two on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourth, and so on, how many grains of wheat do you need to put on the 64th square? The answer is 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (approximately 9.22×1018) grains of wheat. That’s a lot of nutrition.
12. The folding chessboard was invented by a priest who was forbidden to play chess. The priest found a way around it by making a folding chessboard. When folded together and put on a bookshelf, it simply looks like two books.
13. Kirk and Spock have played chess three times on the show Star Trek. Kirk won all three games.
14. A computer called Deep Thought became the first computer to beat an international grandmaster in November 1988, Long Beach, California.
15. Garry Kasparov, at 22, became the youngest ever world champion. Ruslan Ponomariov was younger but he was not the undisputed world champion; Maia Chiburdanidze was even younger when she won the women’s title.
16. Some people are so good at chess, they can play against more than one opponent at a given time. In 1922, World Champion José Raúl Capablanca played 103 opponents simultaneously and won 102 of the games (with 1 draw). This type of chess prowess display is called as a ‘SIMUL’.
A really good tip is to create a set of positions for solving – not too challenging but not too easy either.
