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

The tactics and calculation training is the most important type of training a chess player can undertake if he or she is serious of his or her chess improvement. The reason for this is that all chess games are decided by tactics. You cannot win if the opponent does not make a mistake – hence you have to take advantage of that mistake. While the mistake can be of various types, from the one-move blunders to a “small” positional detail 4 moves into a line, the mistake is always tactical in its essence. Something was missed and the opponent can take advantage of that miss.

In this article, I would like to share my thoughts on the topic that is, for sure, extremely important for every chess player. That is how to calculate variations. Unfortunately, this highly interesting and crucial topic had never been covered in a great detail. The only decent source I know is the book of a Soviet Grandmaster Alexander Kotov “How to became a grandmaster”. However, it is quite evident that since it was written half a century ago, some ideas are not relevant anymore, the main reasons are that 1. time controls have been decreased 2. computers have changed chess world drastically.

Becoming a stronger player is every chess player’s dream. Since the day we step into the chess world we commit ourselves to an eternal quest for self-improvement. We all want the same. Of course, it doesn’t take long to realize that chess is an extremely complex game; it is not only the amount of knowledge you must acquire but you must also apply that knowledge move by move, taking one decision at a time. Another thing about chess is that you must shape your competitive character, have strong nerves and basically develop a strong personality in order to keep up the battle against your opponent for several hours. Many players lack this aspect and therefore never reach their goal, even though their chess ability was pure class.