How to become a better CHESS player.

It has been made known to me that you all are waiting for SUBSTANCE from me about the great game of chess. What’s comical is that you have been getting it ALL along, but I’m afraid you all didn’t recognize it. Kinda like when you slip a pill in your dog’s food and he doesn’t even know he got medicated, but he did. So it has been with YOU.

Anyway, in response to GREENPAWN’S request, I will assume that you all are 1400 players and will give you my THIRTY PLUS years of chess knowledge in one easy lesson.

First thing, buy the latest version of CHESSMASTER. I could end this topic right here, for there is nothing more to say. Don’t waste your time and money with books. Students quickly become bored with tutoring books and lose their focus. Practicing with your friends (if they are equal in skill to you) is just as worthless because you need to get BEAT on a constant basis and enlightened why you got beat. A student will learn FAR FAR more by losing 20 games than they will by winning 20 games. Chessmaster is a visual TREAT for the senses. You simply cannot get tired of using this tool. It is NOT, by far, the strongest chess program out there, but it IS, by far, the best tutoring program ever produced--even better than having ANAND sitting across from you teaching you one on one. You’ll never outplay the old CM and you'll never not understand what he's talking about.

Second, understand opening theory. Don’t get fancy. STICK to the book. These opening moves have been played out MILLIONS of times and stats kept of the best moves. Follow this link and MEMORIZE the TOP opening moves. Stick to them even if your opponent is playing random moves.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/adam.bozon/stats.htm

There’s a lot of info there, but just below the ½ way point is the SUMMARY. Commit this to memory at all costs.

Now, what follows is my PERSONAL advice. It is not just rehashed advice from the countless other chess books, etc. It is GUARANTEED to make you win more than it will cost you a loss. It got me to 1900 USCF, and that‘s nothing to scoff at.
1) ALWAYS attack the middle no matter what else is happening. IGNORE attacks on your flanks. NEVER defend….EVER!! The best chess masters were attackers. No one in the history of chess was remembered for their spectacular defensive play. ATTACK if you are being attacked. Attack the center and push forward even if your flanks are being decimated. Divide and conquer. Split the board, drive through your opponent’s heart, and force them to defend.
2) I forget the exact stat, but it’s something like 70% time, if you develop your bishops before your knights, you will LOSE. I NEVER touch a bishop until both knights are developed. EVER.
3) Resist the fianchetto. It is a defensive move and a weak one at that. The reason it is weak is because a good player KNOWS that once that bishop on the second rank is gone, your position becomes weaker than if your king hadn’t even castled. Oh, there are times that it must be done (because your slow deliberate play forces you to defend your king), but I have found, in watching millions of computer vs. computer matches, that the fianchetto is NOT played more often than it IS played. Hey, if FRITZ aint fianchettoing, neither should you.
4) Resist the king-side castle. Castling to the queen side is stronger. There is more breathing room on the queen side, more options, should you have to defend against an attacking player.
5) Devote the majority of time with your new CHESSMASTER program to ENDGAME THEORY. Understanding the endgame is the single most important step to becoming a better player. All parts of chess are important, but the endgame outweighs them all. A golf analogy is “Drive for show, putt for dough.” The endgame of chess is like putting in golf.
6) Train your memory. There are exercises to do to develop your memory. Find them and do them.
7) Practice with a BETTER opponent than you are (preferably one of the hundreds on chessmaster). It’s like lifting weights. You aint ever gonna get stronger by benching 30 pounds for the next year. STRIVE TO LOSE. Yes, you heard right. Nothing teaches you more than getting your butt whooped up and down the board time after time. You’ll never get better if you play your little sister all day long and checkmate her in 12 moves time and time again.

There you have it. My concise guide to becoming a better chess player. Happy?

No....not really your comment's seem to me pure sophistry.

Originally posted by cheater1
It has been made known to me that you all are waiting for SUBSTANCE from me about the great game of chess. What’s comical is that you have been getting it ALL along, but I’m afraid you all didn’t recognize it. Kinda like when you slip a pill in your dog’s food and he doesn’t even know he got medicated, but he did. So it has been with YOU.

Anyway, in resp ...[text shortened]... l are 1400 players and will give you my THIRTY PLUS years of chess knowledge in one easy lesson.

Originally posted by cheater1
It has been made known to me that you all are waiting for SUBSTANCE from me about the great game of chess. What’s comical is that you have been getting it ALL along, but I’m afraid you all didn’t recognize it. Kinda like when you slip a pill in your dog’s food and he doesn’t even know he got medicated, but he did. So it has been with YOU.

Anyway, in resp d time again.

There you have it. My concise guide to becoming a better chess player. Happy?

I used Chessmaster extensively to get to 1400. To get beyond 1400, I needed Fritz and my growing library of books Turning Chessmaster off permanently and hiring a personal teacher got me over 1600.

Now, that piece of advice, wrong though it is, is far better than anything else you've put forth in this thread.

Originally posted by Korch
Lets quote the most "clever" from your "perls":

[b]First thing, buy the latest version of CHESSMASTER. I could end this topic right here, for there is nothing more to say.

I wonder how great players in past managed to improve when CHESSMASTER was not invented 😛

Don’t waste your time and money with books. Students quickly become bored with t advices how to survive until the endgame.

In few words - you are obvious charlatan.

Hi Cheater,

Your post of course is a wind up. Quite funny in parts.

I Like the bit;

"Hey, if FRITZ aint fianchettoing, neither should you. "

Losing 70% of your games if you move your Bishop before your
Knight is also another good one.

But just in case it's not a wind up.

You offered that piece of advice about never moving the Bishop
till after the Knights are out after telling us to stick to opening theory.

Opening theory is quite flexible. I can name at least 5 major openings
where a Bishop is developed before both Knights.

That link you posted for us to commit to memory has more.

Again sticking with opening theory, as you yourself suggested.

Current opening theory has White and Black castling Kingside in, let
us say 70% of the time. (a nice ball park figure 70% )

Yet later you tell us never to castle King-side and that Queen-side
is the safest place for the King.

So we follow opening theory till it tells us to move a Bishop (then
I suppsoe we move a Knight) and if theory tells us 0-0 is the move
we ignore it and strive to 0-0-0.

I am now a very confused 1400 player.

To conclude your lesson you should have included a game
demonstrating your methods in action.

Having played chess and several other board games from the age of eight years,and having done so against some of the strongest and most respected national and international chess players for a period in excess of twenty five years, I have rarely had the misfortune to read such simplistic inaccurate misleading and outright primitive statements as has been posted here by this thread originator.In addition to this tirade of mostly utter and obvious nonsense,the suggestion that the thread originators chess knowledge is in any way close or approaching that of my own, based upon a claimed experience of thirty years is quite the most ridiculous idea that I have this year so far encountered,however the purely comic value of most of the originators statements in the above thread do remain of a consistently good quality.😲

This forum is much of a FAILURE as my pregnancy test.

Originally posted by cheater1
It has been made known to me that you all are waiting for SUBSTANCE from me about the great game of chess. What’s comical is that you have been getting it ALL along, but I’m afraid you all didn’t recognize it. Kinda like when you slip a pill in your dog’s food and he doesn’t even know he got medicated, but he did. So it has been with YOU.

Anyway, in resp ...[text shortened]... d time again.

There you have it. My concise guide to becoming a better chess player. Happy?

Originally posted by wormwood
-have you ever even played chess?

Originally posted by Korch
Lets quote the most "clever" from your "perls":

[b]First thing, buy the latest version of CHESSMASTER. I could end this topic right here, for there is nothing more to say.

I wonder how great players in past managed to improve when CHESSMASTER was not invented 😛

Don’t waste your time and money with books. Students quickly become bored with t advices how to survive until the endgame.

In few words - you are obvious charlatan.

http://www.beginnersgame.com/

And suddenly the above doesn't seem so bad anymore.A relative perhaps?

Originally posted by cheater1

5) Devote the majority of time with your new CHESSMASTER program to ENDGAME THEORY. Understanding the endgame is the single most important step to becoming a better player. All parts of chess are important, but the endgame outweighs them all. A golf analogy is “Drive for show, putt for dough.” The endgame of chess is like putting in golf.

Originally posted by EmLasker
This forum is much of a FAILURE as my pregnancy test.