Tag Archives: chess tricks

How To Avoid Premature Attacks In Chess

Posted by on April 3, 2009 – 10:40 pm
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You are new to the game chess, and you have been taught that the game is about attacking your opponent any chance you get. You forget that it is a tricky game and you need to analyze every move. You go ahead and act hastily and in a few rounds your opponent corners your queen or you hear checkmate and wander what happened. The act of seeing a small opening and rushing for it before thinking the move through, is a premature attack.

A chess beginner believes that it is better to have many small wins that one big one. They do not look at the game from a bird’s eye view and as a result lose. He/ she will leap for any available chance to get rid of the opponents’ piece without thinking of the next move or if he/she will lose a valuable piece like queen. Jumping at every chance without careful thought will distract you from the overall aim of the game. You will find yourself playing something like draft instead of chess.

Other beginners think that it is possible to capture the queen in the early stages of the game. Therefore all his/ her moves will center on capturing the queen forgetting that the opponent is watching him/ her and will attack and kill right after that hasty move. Therefore if you are a beginner to avoid this premature attack from happening keep a few things in mind.

Since chess is a tricky game, you will need to see the overall picture of the game. This can mean that you leave some good opportunities for better ones in the future. When you see a chance to take out your opponents’ piece, ask yourself what your opponents’ next move will be. This way you can anticipate future attacks on your valuable pieces.

Play chess in your mind by laying out an overall picture of your opponents’ future moves. If you notice that your opponent will be ahead of you by you moving a certain way, then stay put or move another piece. Slow and sure moves can get you far in this game, compared to attacking without thought.

When playing, your main aim should be to advance all your pieces. Concentrate on getting your queen on the opposite side of the board. Only when you feel confident that an attack will be a great move, can you carry on with it. If you opponent knows that you are a beginner, do not give him the benefit of the doubt by expecting you to carry out hasty moves, surprise him by taking it slow and attacking when he / she least expects. An expert in any game has to be analytical in every move to be able to shout out checkmate.

Just because you haven’t played the game before does not mean you have to lose. Keep this beginner tips in mind and avoid premature attacks. Remember your opponent is busy thinking of how to corner you or capture your pieces.
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Tips On How To Play Better Chess

Posted by on April 3, 2009 – 10:22 pm
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Playing a good game of chess is gratifying, and winning while playing a worthy opponent makes it even better. There are several methods trainers and coaches have recommended for use to help players become better at their game. The best tip is to play more often and practice on a daily basis. This gives players more experience in the game. Practicing helps exercise your skill and puts your knowledge into a more practical situation, which means you are able to react better in a real game.

Plan to practice for longer periods by playing an hour’s long game. This maximizes your skills in thinking, solving problems, and planning how to use and execute your game within a given time.

Studying is equally important in improving your game. You can opt to have a collection of some of your favorite players. This guides in studying their maneuvers, how they planned their game, and their style of execution and ending the game. This helps you refine your skills by using similar moves in trial games and practice sessions. Games that can be useful to improve your skills include long and blitz games.

Always review your game as a follow up to how you last executed your game plan. This is important in evaluating your progress. Going through your games is helpful in improving on your weaknesses. You get to learn from mistakes made in your previous games which can be avoided in the future.

Quality and meaningful evaluation from a more experienced player is even better as they may get to make better analyses of your game than a personal analysis. Playing computer chess programs is helpful in improving your skills. Having chess coach trainer practice with you regularly helps to build your confidence and give you the support you need along your quest. It doesn’t have to be expensive; some one who plays much better than you and has experience in the game can be helpful. Other resources you can use to get good training and support are online lessons.

Lessons are useful in reviewing and evaluating your skills and should be done constantly for their effect to have a positive impact on your game. Trainers can help design games to work specific areas in your skills as they see fit.

To help you execute your game easily to guarantee you a win, you have to develop your own set of good tactics. This is only possible by practicing constantly and applying your tactics whenever you can during trial games to see how they work. This involves learning how to scheme your opponent’s game, polishing up your intuition and playing up your opponent’s mistakes.

Resources that can be used to improve your tactics include books that give tactical exercises and use of online chess program software; some are available for free. Make a point of constantly learning different and new tactics. Use acquired tactics as often as possible when practicing your game; it builds up your confidence to use them in a real game situation.

5 Top Beginner Chess Tips

Posted by on April 1, 2009 – 3:18 pm
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As a beginner in chess, you may be confused by all the rules and piece values that you forget which moves or tips to keep in mind. Chess is a game of strategy and you need some beginner tips to kick start your game with.

When playing chess, to be on the top of the game you need to know the motive behind your opponents every move. Ask yourself why is he moving to that side? What piece is he trying to attack or eliminate? After eliminating my pawn what does he benefit? These are some of the few questions that you need to ask yourself and find answers. When you find the answer you can then think of your own move to make. When he threatens your knight he might be trying to get to your king, therefore put up a strong defense force. As a beginner thinking ahead of your opponent will get you far because as you play the game, two people are involved and thinking only about yourself will land in a disaster.

When playing, you are not supposed to overthink about your opponents move. I say this because there are times when you will play against a good opponent. Since your mind knows that he is well acquainted with the game and knows many strategies you focus a lot of his moves. Due to fear, you start thinking that every move he makes is to attack you. When he moves a pawn you spend so much time analyzing why he only moved a pawn and as a result time is lost. Find your balance between thinking ahead of your opponent and playing without fear of your opponent.

When your opponent eliminates your key piece do not spend time worrying or thinking that you will eventually lose. Remember when you mentally give up on a game, your thoughts and clouded and you are not in a position to spot an opening out of the dilemma. Since your opponent at this time expects you to have lost hope, prove him wrong. Pick yourself up, fight on and since your opponent does not expect his he will most likely make a mistake too.

As a beginner you find yourself spending so much time deciding where to move to. For every one move you will take almost 5minutes waiting to spot the perfect place. You have to realize that in chess sometimes there is just no perfect spot. To keep moving as a good pace try to move to a less preferred spot or safe spot. While you opponent decides on where to move, you can use this time to think of another better space to move to.

As you play chess, use something called X-ray vision. This basically means that you look at the chess board be able to easily spot traps or potential moves. Have the ability to see the whole game as you look at the board to avoid getting surprise check or checkmate moves.

10 steps to raise your game – part 1

Posted by on March 30, 2009 – 1:07 pm
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Once you start playing, you will find chess a lot of fun but it is serious fun, if such a thing exists. The fun that comes from any battle of wits is there in chess also. Where is the serious part? It is in your will to win. In different fields of sports, there are people who grandiosely claim that result is not important, playing the game is. Well, let them have their say but don’t believe if this comes from a chess player. Any player worth his/her name will always want to win at whatever level in which he/she may be competing. If you accept this truth, your only way to win is to take your game a notch higher than your opponent’s. Sometimes you may get away without raising your game but that is because your opponent played one notch lower than you. This happens because of mistakes, not due to any lack of will to win on the opponent’s part!

Given above, how can you keep improving upon yourself? Everybody is entitled to his opinion, here is mine.

1. Know thyself

People come in all shapes and sizes, not just physically but mentally as well. Find out which styles of play suit your temperament. If you like a slap bang type of game (the dominant style in earlier eras of chess) which certainly creates more spectator interest, you will possibly be looking for more tactical opportunities and select opening/defense techniques adapted to such games. But if you are a patient type who builds up advantages move by move through a lot of maneuvering and likes complex situations, your choice of opening/defense will be quite different. In a very broad way, King’s pawn openings will suit the former types and Queen’s pawn openings will help the latter ones.

2. Know thy opponent (if possible)

You are not playing in a vacuum, there is always one sitting on the other side of table. A preconceived set rule will not work against all opponents, so you must be able to adapt your game. If you are playing against someone you know, you should already have some idea about his style. Of course, if you are against a stranger you do not know much but keeping the first tip in mind, you can see what openings and styles he is following. In a tournament, go through your opponent’s earlier games to get this insight.

3. Keep records

Self-analysis is an essential part of improving yourself. No matter if you are playing with your friend or your club member, keep a record of all the moves played in the game. It may feel a little tedious to start with, but soon it will become a habit. When you lose, go through your moves to find out where you went wrong and why. If you win, do the same regarding your opponent’s moves. You learn both ways.

4. Select your strategy for opening/defense

This follows from the first two tips. But the problem is: which ones to choose from more than thousand openings (including variants) that have been identified, as your memory may not be up to the task of remembering most of them? Even if you want to concentrate only on those suitable to your style, that will also be quite a large number. But remember that your opponent will also have the same problem. So choose a limited number you are comfortable with and explore their more common variations. If you keep playing those regularly, they will soon become a part of your repertoire and you will be able to handle the opening phase satisfactorily. You can follow the same procedure to prepare for defense when playing as Black. What if your opponent goes into a territory uncharted for you? If you know your main themes, then such unknown moves will mostly be inferior and you can look for taking advantage of the situation. The other alternative is to mostly keep to your track and bring everything to familiar ground through ‘transpositions’ which often just involves changing the sequence of your moves.

Important point to remember during opening phase:

White is considered to have a slight advantage because of having the first move. When playing as White, you try to carry that advantage to the middle game. When playing as Black, your aim is to neutralize that advantage and once Black is able to achieve that, Black is said to have equalized.

continue to 10 steps to raise your game – part 2