Originally posted by zebano
I disagree with both of the other two.

Opening Principles - See my post in Thread 50887. That is really all you need to know for now.

Endings - be sure that you can execute any of the mates with just pieces and king vrs. king. It's not really necessary to be able to perform B + N + K vrs K, just look that up if you ever need it (it is a g ...[text shortened]... ates, then study tactics tactics and more tactics (this is one of my many great deficiencys).

Today, I played the first round of a 8-round tournament. At one point I used about 25 minutes to formulate a plan, and moved my rook to e2... and he played Bg4, pinning the rook to my queen.

I didn't resign until the end because I had a Knight on a strong support point and still managed to attack his backward pawn by doubling my Queen and Rook, but he eventually managed to trade all of the pieces.

See the problem? I always ask myself what piece is hanging, by never wonder about the tactical possibilities of my game.

My endgame knowledge is not enough -in my opinion-

I can only play the Barzca opening as White and KID with Pirc as Black.

I only read the first 50 pages of the How to Reasses Your Chess.

Currently working on Winning Chess Tactics and intending to finish it.

Any suggestions?

Originally posted by anthias
Today, I played the first round of a 8-round tournament. At one point I used about 25 minutes to formulate a plan, and moved my rook to e2... and he played Bg4, pinning the rook to my queen.

I didn't resign until the end because I had a Knight on a strong support point and still managed to attack his backward pawn by doubling my Queen and Rook, but he eve ...[text shortened]... .

Currently working on Winning Chess Tactics and intending to finish it.

Ant suggestions?

Originally posted by Ice Cold
I have heard before that Capablanca said to study endgames first. But to get to an ending, you must first survive the opening, and the middle game.