If you have been playing chess for a while, you are probably familiar with the terms “evaluation” or “assessment” of the position. All variations in chess books and magazines end with an evaluation and you have surely heard players ending their lines with words like “white is slightly better” or “black is clearly better” or “this side has a decisive advantage”. Things may seem fairly simple when the evaluation is given to you by someone else, but it isn’t that easy in practice when you will have to do the same in your games, for example. Evaluating a position correctly is an important skill for a chess player, for a number of reasons.
The popular French writer/reformer Voltaire once said, “The danger which is least expected soonest comes to us.”
When it comes to chess, this quote is especially relevant. In order to limit the danger potentially thrown at us by our opponent, how can we ensure the best safety for our king? [hint: castling]
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You look at great attacking games in the history of chess and everything looks so easy and logical. Then you go to the game, inspired and ready to create a deadly attack, but somehow that’s not as easy to achieve as you thought in the first place. So, how do they do it? How come some players always seem to get positions where they can attack?
Studying the games of the classical players is a well-known way of training for the players who want to improve their strength and their overall chess understanding.
What better way to learn is there than from the very best?
Understanding their train of thought, their personality and their training routine can be a great source of inspiration for creating our own path to the top.
Studying the games of the classical players is a great tool of learning for those who want to improve at chess. From typical plans in a certain structure to positional and tactical ideas, there is a great deal to learn from the games of the strongest players of our game. You will discover that each player has their particularities, their own style of play and you can learn different things from different players of the same level.
The journey of a chess player is no easy thing. When looking from the outside, it may seem so easy the way Grandmasters play. Their moves just flow and everything makes sense. They find amazing ideas that sometimes seem so simple and logical anyone could do it. In fact, all that great play is the result of endless hours of sitting in front of the chessboard, analyzing interesting positions and studying thousands of games.
The development advantage is one of the most important pluses in chess and can become a powerful weapon in the hands of those who know how to use it. Unlike other types of advantages in chess, if you are ahead in development you have to act fast. This is an advantage that can dissipate in a very short time if you don’t make the most out of it. If allowed, your opponent will simply develop his remaining pieces to catch up with you and maybe even equalize. This is why in such positions time is of the essence. It is important that your moves restrict your opponent as much as possible and force him to delay his development even more.
I have never considered myself an attacking player even though most of my games when I was young were decided by attacks on the king. I attribute it to youth and not feeling too comfortable in other areas of positional play.
Still, I was good at seeing tactics and calculation, but I had a rather limited vision of how the game should be played and what is possible in chess and what is not.
Chess is a complex game that takes a lot of time and dedication. We all know that improvement does not come overnight and, to make things even better, it is not so easy to measure it either in chess. You need to play many tournaments and, even after a long period of training, things may go wrong due to other factors that are not chess-related.
