Originally posted by celticcountry we 1200+ ers want your top 5 chess tips.
to see us through 2006
1)Don't start stupid threads in forums,your time is better spent on your moves.
2)Check out some Heisman's columns at ChessCafe.com
3)Take your time for every move,playing fast is bad for your chess.
4)Check for checks,captures and tactics before every move.
5)Try to play often higher rated opponents so that they will punish you for your mistakes.
Originally posted by celticcountry we 1200+ ers want your top 5 chess tips.
to see us through 2006
assuming you want to play better chess ...
1 do not rush,
2 take your time,
3 before you move, look to see if there are stronger attacking moves
4 before you move, look to see if you missed some threats your opponent has
5 look twice as deep in one position instead of the same depth in 14 positions
With all the talk about the importance of tactics at this forum, I'm surprised no one mentioned working on one's tactical game. I took this advice, and have for the last couple of weeks been doing about 10 chess problems a day. Boy, has this helped my game! Tactical possibilities are now jumping off the board, visually speaking! So, ... don't know if I have 5 tips, but here's one surefire method of improvement: Do chess problems -- everyday.
A reasonable thread, Rav. Some things I'll put it in my own words:
1. Never make a move without a reason. These can be positional, tactical, to gain some small advantage such as space or a threat, or can simply be developmental. If you're going to make that move because you can think of nothing else, then it's probably bad. Find a reason. You can sometimes play passively, because any other move of yours weakens your position. That's fine because you're waiting for him to make a mistake.
2. Pressure your opponent. Every move must contain some threat or pressure. You want him to react and not give him time to play what he wants. You want to feel in control in that his moves are forced and reactive.
3. Play for space. I know some like passive, defensive openings, but far better is to cramp your opponent for space. Limit his options and available squares. This doesn't involve mad pawn rushes but steady development.
4. Develop properly. Your opening pawn moves are to control the centre and enable you to develop your pieces. Knights before bishops, Queen much later, rooks on the rim. Pieces should generally move once in the opening phase.
5. Castle often and don't weaken your pawn structure on your castling side. Don't deplete your castled position of protective pieces until late in the game. Link your rooks.
Originally posted by celticcountry Thats a great post B/B. I will take note and personally improve.
Thanks.
Under 4. I should add: Take ownership of open files with your rooks and fight for that space ie don't give it up easily. You want your rooks on his/her 7th or 2nd rank. (this relates directly to the space issue).
6. When sticking your head down the throat of the dragon, make sure you've got a flight square - but that's a given. Consider flight squares when your king's under pressure.
Perhaps the most important I left out, is don't purely be reactive. Sometimes an attack on your piece or pawn is an empty threat. Don't just be reactive, think about the position, block that threat out in your mind and look at halves or quarters of the board. If he's attacking my Queen side, is that more important than what I'm doing on his King side? As the one US general said, it's about who get's there firstest with the mostest. A material advantage on one side of the board can win you the game - even if you're materially down. Remember, material is not every thing.
Originally posted by ketchuplover "It is not the best move you must seek but a realisable plan" Zonsko-Borovsky
ignore ratings
eat ketchup
Any plan is better than no plan - says somebody
Agreed - but psychologically we play harder against higher rated players. Don't play loose - assume everyone is much better than you and give him the hardest game of his life.
Ketchup is for patzers. Vodka is for champions.
😉
Not mentioned hereto for is what to do when there are no obvious tactical requirement for the postition. These will often be key moves to what I call a game "segment". A "game segment" is a series of moves where one or two moves are your only (or significantly better choice). To advance in chess you need to be able to control what game segments happen and when. This begins to occur when you have a situation (sometimes at the end of a game segment) when the board situation has no tactical requirements and you have a choice of 5 or 6 moves that "do not seem" to have immediate tactical significance.
At this point you want to carefully examine the game imbalances, pawn structure, weak squares, open files or diagonals, space, etc. Jeremy Sillman discusses this very well in "The Amateur's Mind". Then you want to visualize where you want your pieces to be so that the next "game segment" starts to give you an advantage, even if it is "only postitional". Then make those moves now that will begin to put your pieces in the proper set-up. Of course you have to imagine what the opponent's ideal set-up would be to counteract what you want to do and that might control the move order for postioning your pieces.
Some one said "be the first with the most" and someone else said "make sure you have a reason for every move". These are absolutely true. Making sure that you have a reason for every move means that you have to have a plan when the situation has no tension in it, that is, you have a wide variety of choices. Often the player that uses these moments to his advantage will win.
Christmas tips
24 Dec '05 22:12
Back to Top