Chess Tips, Articles and Guides to Help You Win Chess Games

BEWARE: this may change the entire trajectory of your chess career! When you think about studying chess tactics—also known as chess puzzles—you may imagine a set of moves that transform some initial losing/neutral position to a significantly more winning one. Though that is true, the reasons you should study them are not only to help you find those winning combinations of moves. In fact, thinking solely in that way will ruin your chess improvement and strategic thought by making you more prone to find “cheap tricks” to win.

Regardless the level of play or strength, there is one thing that every dedicated player can achieve and that is the ability to “think like a grandmaster”. Very often we struggle with problems such as poor calculation skills, lack of opening preparation, little endgame knowledge or even handling the time pressure that prevent us from reaching a higher level.

It’s hard to imagine that it's possible to become a master without a coach. But before I share a few tips and ideas how to work on chess by yourself, I should definitely say that if you have an option to hire a coach, you should do this. Working together with a good coach will benefit you the most. A good coach can help you to improve certain aspects of your play which you can hardly spot by yourself. However, in this article, I want to tell you how to train most effectively on your own.