Training Techniques
Ratings serve as significant indicators of personal and professional success for chess players. Ranging from 1000 to 2800+, the ultimate goal for many enthusiasts is to achieve an 1800 Elo rating. Surpassing this milestone places a player statistically better than 95% of all others. The pursuit of 1800 Elo is indeed an attainable ambition for […]
All chess players want to get better at chess. Whether you are a novice, beginner, club player, or even a titled player, improving at chess is probably one of your priorities. As with any skill, chess skill can also be trained and improved upon. In this article, we will take a look at 10 ways […]
Chess Tactics is a short operation, using forcing moves that aim for an immediate concrete gain (such as winning material or checkmate). Tactics are very important in chess because strategy is built upon tactics. Any successful strategy cannot succeed without the support of underlying tactics. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the majority […]
Tournament Preparation: How do you prepare for a tournament? Every chess player hopes to show their best in every game, but more often it happens they perform below their abilities. Why does that happen? There could be many reasons, but most likely they did not do their best before the game started. Confucius said: “Success […]
Thinking in Chess is something not very well covered in the chess literature. There are plenty of materials on the openings, tactics, and endgames. Yet, when it comes to something as fundamental as chess thinking there is a huge gap. In today’s article, I will cover the seven must-know tips when it comes to thinking […]
How to calculate in chess? First, let me ask you… How many chess positions can possibly arise on the board? Well, let’s count. White can choose between 20 first moves. Black can reply in 20 different ways too. This already creates 400 possible positions. White’s next turn can increase this number approximately up to 8 000. […]
Attacking Chess players have always been admired in the chess world. Their bravery, aggressive play, brilliant combinations, and stunning results have always attracted many fans. Some players have never achieved any significant results over the board but went down in chess history thanks to their outstanding courageous games. Chess is a versatile and beautiful game. […]
Chess Master title might be thought of as something unachievable by many people. It is understandable: they constantly see high-rated players making brilliant decisions, knowing all the possible openings, and seeing tactics in no time. This creates the wrong impression that these masters were too talented initially, making them get to such a level. Of […]
Many people think their results depend only on how much time they had invested in studying chess. They can learn openings, solve tactics, analyze masters’ games, and all of that is, of course, extremely useful and necessary for improvement. But many players still perform in real games worse than they should have. Quite often the […]
Pattern Recognition and Calculation Skills: Everyone knows how important it is to be good at tactical play. It helps to find beautiful combinations and avoid blunders. Apart from that, excelling at tactics often helps compensate for other chess weaknesses. When you have a bad position, you can exploit the opponent’s tactical inaccuracies to eventually come […]