In order to improve at chess every player must work hard and invest some daily time and effort. There are many things you can work on, from openings to endgame, tactics and the middlegame. However, there are  few basic skills one must develop and constantly train. The consistency of training is perhaps one of the single most important things a chess player can do in order to be successful. Similarly to exercising in a gym, working on your game is a process. The improvement will be gradual, but definite if you keep applying yourself. Here are the 5 most useful chess skills you can learn in just 5 days!

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.

How to obtain your best form in order to perform well at your next tournament? We all know miracles and shortcut solutions do not really work in chess progress; as in any other activity, consistency is the key. However, for one reason or another, not everyone can keep up with regular training and very often, we are at a stage where our next tournament is approaching and the time we have to prepare for it is limited. What should we do then?