The road to improvement and becoming a strong player is usually long and requires a lot of time and patience. If you are a club player who doesn’t fully dedicate to chess or you are just starting the long journey of improving yourself, we suggest that you focus on improving your chess understanding. As we have said before, we believe that investing a lot of time in learning long and complicated theoretical lines is not particularly useful at this point.

“I am planning to play in the Open section of the Las Vegas International next month, what should I do?” Replace Vegas International and there is a question that as a professional trainer I get asked a lot. How to prepare for a tournament? Generally, those who ask me this are not dedicating plenty of time to chess. They practice and study in their spare time but when the tournament is approaching they look for a magical potion that will turn them into competitive mode quickly. Of course, there is no magic formula and only hard work pays off in the end. Sadly, I must add. Ideally, the best for an active chess player is to make training a part of your everyday life; it’s easier to memorize and practice one opening at a time than having to prepare 2 or 3 in 15 days before being tested over the board.

Many chess players are totally unclear about how to improve at chess. They think that there is some sort of secret formula that allows others to excel at chess picking up 100s of elo points in no time. I don’t want to disappoint you, there is no such secret formula out there… But, there are ways to improve. I can tell you more, there are effective ways to improve that will work for you. If you want to improve, you should read on and learn about these 5 simple steps that will allow you to succeed at the game you love.