Many chess players are struggling to improve. They spend countless hours researching different “effective” ways to study, finding coaches, reading books, courses, etc. etc. Chess improvement is a straightforward process, especially for those rated under 2200 FIDE. Nevertheless, majority of players struggle to achieve any improvement and if it happens it is a very slow and unpredictable process. What’s going on here? Why is it the case? In this article, I will share a simple 3-step approach that you can use to improve your game.

In this article, we will discuss some of the very common training habits that a lot of chess players have without even realizing it. It seems like they do everything correctly study GM games, solve tactics, etc. But somehow that is not effective and their chess does not improve. Today we will look at the “why” part.

Chess is tactics. More than one strong player has said some variation of this truth. What does that mean? In simple words, it means that if you are not careful you will lose a pawn or a piece. How do you become careful then? It all starts with board awareness. At all times you should know what is happening on the board. Where the pieces are, how they interact with each other. This awareness should be “on” at all times – don’t “forget” a piece or a pawn just because you’re calculating a sequence of moves on the other side of the board.