Three ways to improve in chess

Nowadays, there are lots of chess tutorials out there, including books, video lessons, courses, DVDs and the list goes on. But it is hard to remember them all; it’s merely an impossible task.

That’s why today we’re here to help you – a guest coach has prepared a lesson for you. Who is he? What’s this lesson about? Continue reading below and find out. :)

About the author:
Alexander Molchanov
Hi! My name is Alexander Molchanov. I’m 28. I was born and I live in Togliatti, Russia. My FIDE rating is 2214 (peak 2231). In two tournaments I had a great (for me) performance rating (2506 and 2660).

3 not well-known ways to improve in chess


There are a lot of ways to improve in chess like solving puzzles, analyzing games, studying an opening or an endgame. All of them are very good. But today I want to tell you about less famous chess exercises.

1) Blindfold exercises:


Blindfold chess imitates the calculation. If you can’t play blindfold the whole game, the following exercises will help you a lot.

a) You should choose any square on the board. Then name

  • the color;
  • “brother” square – symmetric square over the center of the board;
  • squares on the both diagonals.
chess boardvb4-square

For example, you choose b4. It’s black. “Brother” square is g5. Squares on the 1st diagonal are a3, c5, d6, e7, f8. Squares on the 2nd diagonal are a5, c3, d2, e1.

b) You have Na1. You should be on each square of the board in a1-b1-c1-d1-e1-f1-g1-h1-a2-b2-…-h8 order.
chess boardvA long journey to h8

Na1-c2-a3-b1 etc.

c) The toughest one. White Na1, Black Qd5. The task is analogous. But now it’s not allowed to be attacked by the queen.
chess boardvA long and dangerous journey to h8

Na1-c2-a3-b1. Now we can’t go to d2 due to Qxd2. So we change the route. Nb1-c3-e2-c1. d1 is attacked, so we pass it and go to e1. Nc1-e2-c3-b1-a3-c2-e1.

If you can complete this exercise, you definitely can play blindfold chess.

2) Memorizing classical games:

After studying a game you should try to learn it by heart through replaying it several times on the board.

You can start with the classical game:

Morphy – Dukes, Paris-1858
chess boardvWhite to move and mate in two

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Bg4 4.dxe5 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 dxe5 6.Bc4 Nf6 7.Qb3 Qe7 8.Nc3 c6 9.Bg5 b5 10.Nxb5 cxb5 11.Bxb5+ Nbd7 12.0–0–0 Rd8 13.Rxd7 Rxd7 14.Rd1 Qe6 15.Bxd7+ Nxd7 16.Qb8+ Nxb8 17.Rd8#

Note: You can find this complete game (along with a lesson) here.

This exercise will develop your chess intuition. You will have better feeling where the best squares for the pieces are.

3) Creating your own puzzles:

It helps you to feel the interaction between the pieces.

For example, you decided to create a puzzle on the topic of knight fork. You can start from the end.
chess boardvKnight fork

And then move by move go to the beginning. White’s last move was Nf7, maybe Knight took the pawn. Before it King went to h8. But why? We decoyed him with Rook sacrifice. So let’s add white Rook on h-file.

For example, on h3. But King could go to g7 instead of taking the Rook. So let’s add black pawn on g7. In order to win the final position we append white g2-pawn. And we got the starting position.
chess boardvWhite to move

The same algorithm can help us to create a checkmate puzzle.
chess boardvCheckmate

The Knight deprives Black King’s retreat to f7 or g6. Also, we could use bishop for it. White’s last move was Qe5. But from where?

For example, from e8. Before it Black King from g7 went to f6. If he goes to h6 Qg6 would be mate. But Black King could go to h7. So we add a piece that can deprive him of h7-square. For example, Nd5 can go to f6. And we got the starting position.
chess boardv
White to move and mate in 2

This exercise will help you to keep good chess fit. Also, it will increase the reaction that has great importance in blitz games.

At the end, I’d like you to solve my puzzle.
chess boardv
White to move and mate in 3

You can find the solution here.



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Basic Chess Rules for Beginners Part-2

A few months ago, we published an article called “Basic Chess Rules for Beginners”. If you missed it, you can find it here. If you are a newbie/beginner, I’d definitely recommend you to go through the first part of the article and then continue reading below.

Basic Chess Rules for Beginners Part-2


basic chess rules for beginners

Nature and objectives of the game


The game of chess is played between two opponents who move their pieces alternately on a square board called a chessboard. The player with the White pieces commences the game. A player is said to ‘have the move’ when his opponent’s move has been completed.
CheckmateThe object of the game is to trap the opponent’s king so that its escape is not possible (checkmate). If a player’s king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be done, the king is said to be in checkmate.

The objective of each player is to put the opponent’s king under attack in such a way that the opponent has no legal move. The player who achieves this goal is said to have checkmated the opponent’s king and to have won the game.

Leaving one’s king under attack, exposing one’s king to attack and also ’capturing’ the opponent’s king is not allowed – the opponent whose king has been checkmated has lost the game. If the position is such that neither player can possibly achieve a checkmate, the game is drawn.

Although the king is the most important piece, it is usually the weakest piece in the game until a later phase, the endgame.

Naming of squares


Keeping a record of chess moves will be very useful in improving your standard of chess. It is mandatory in all recognized tournaments, in order to settle disputes about illegal positions, overstepping time control and making claims for a draw by the fifty-move rule or repetition of position.

Each square of the chessboard is identified with a unique pair comprising a letter and a number. The vertical files are labelled in small letters “a” to “h”, from White’s left to White’s right. Similarly, the horizontal ranks are numbered from 1 to 8.

Each square of the board, then, is uniquely identified by its file and rank (letter and number). The White queen, for example, starts the game on the square d1 and the Black queen on d8. 
chess sqaures namingThe following are the letters used in capitals to represent various pieces.

King – K
Queen – Q
Rook – R
Bishop – B
Knight – N

A pawn does not have any specific symbol but is represented by the name of the square it occupies, i.e. it is not indicated by its first letter but recognized by the absence of such a letter. Example: the moves are written e5, d4, a5 – not pe5, pd4, pa5

Colour classification


There are 64 squares on a chessboard – 32 White squares and 32 Black squares.

  • In the horizontal ranks, odd numbers are Black squares (1, 3, 5, 7)
  • In the horizontal ranks, even numbers are White squares (2, 4, 6, 8)
  • In the vertical files, odd letters are Black squares (a, c, e, g)
  • In the vertical files, even letters are White squares (b, d, f, h)

Hence, the rule for colour classification is:

i) Odd letter x odd number is a Black square – e.g. a1, c3
ii) Even letter x even number is a Black square – e.g. b2, d4
iii) Odd letter x even number is a White square – e.g. a2, c4
iv) Even letter x odd number is a White square – e.g. b1, d3

Movement of the pieces


  • The king moves exactly one square horizontally, vertically or diagonally
king
  • The rook moves horizontally or vertically, through any number of unoccupied squares
rook
  • A bishop moves any number of vacant squares in any diagonal direction.
bishop
  • The queen moves any number of vacant squares in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction.
queen
When making these moves, the bishop, rook or queen may not move over any intervening pieces.

  • A knight moves to the nearest square not on the same rank, file or diagonal. (This can be thought of as moving two squares horizontally then one square vertically, or moving one square horizontally then two squares vertically—i.e. in an “L” pattern.) The knight is not blocked by other pieces: it jumps to the new location.
knight
  • Pawns have the most complex rules of movement:

A pawn moves straight forward one square, if that square is vacant. If it has not yet made its first move, a pawn also has the option of moving two squares straight forward, provided both squares are vacant. Pawns cannot move backwards.
pawn
When a player moves a pawn to the rank furthest from its starting position, he must exchange that pawn (as part of the same move) for a new queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour on the intended square of arrival.

This is called the square of ‘promotion’. The player’s choice is not restricted to pieces that have been captured previously. This exchange of a pawn for another piece is called promotion, and the effect of the new piece is immediate.

Special moves


  • en passant capture

A pawn attacking a square crossed by an opponent’s pawn which has advanced two squares in one move from its original square may capture this opponent’s pawn as though the latter had been moved only one square. This capture is only legal in the following move:
enpassant
This advance is called an ‘en passant ‘capture.

  • Castling

There are two different ways of moving the king: by moving to any adjoining square not attacked by one or more of the opponent’s pieces or by castling. The latter is a move made by the king and either rook of the same colour along the player’s first rank, counting as a single move of the king and executed as follows: the king is transferred from its original square two squares towards the rook on its original square, then that rook is transferred to the square the king has just crossed.
castling
Note: For castling to be legal, the king or rook must not have been moved previously.
 
TO BE CONTINUED..

P.S. Even if you are not a beginner, please share this article with any friend who is a beginner – this would be very helpful for them. :)

Recommended
 
Now that you know the very basics of chess, you may study our FREE training course “Quick Success in Chess”, which contains powerful practical tips. These will help you to find the best moves and to do so quickly! You’ll optimise your chess training and speed up your progress.

Get it now HERE


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Weak Squares in Chess Part-2

In recent times, we have published several lessons for you on the topic of “Weak Squares”. In case you missed them, let me list them below:


It seems like we are on a rollercoaster with this subject. :) Nevertheless, we have one more lesson prepared by IM Boroljub Zlatanovic. He has prepared the second part of the lesson “Weak Squares” for you.
IM Boroljub ZlatanovicThis time, he will teach you by showing you a great example – a game played by one of the greatest chess players ever, Aron Nimzowitsch.

You can watch the video lesson below:

Get a 30% discount on our opening products

A few days ago, we launched a FREE e-book for you called “Chess Opening Fundamentals”. This e-book is a collection of RCA opening articles and video lessons.
Chess Opening Fundamentals E-bookThis e-book contains simple, yet very practical tips to make your opening play powerful and error-free. You can find more info. about this e-book and download it here.

Now that I have already provided you with some unique advice on how to improve your opening play in the e-book, you might want to improve even further in this field; therefore, I recommend that you study our opening courses.

Since I know that, for some of you, it might be difficult to pay the full price for some of my courses, once again I’d like to help you improve your opening skills by providing you with a huge 30% DISCOUNT on all our opening chess courses! :)
30% discountWhy should you study our opening courses?

  • To get a clearer and deeper understanding of openings
  • To enjoy the powerful and instructive practical tasks
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Note: the courses shown in the above link are already at their discounted prices. Therefore, you need not use any coupon.

I’d also like to make another important note. “The GM’s Opening Lab-2” is an independent, stand-alone course. Therefore, it is NOT mandatory to take “GM’s Opening Lab-1” prior to taking this course.

I’d like to elaborate further on this. “The GM’s Openings Lab-2″ actually costs USD $98. Hence, you may be wondering why this course is more expensive. There are a few reasons:

  • Reason-1: Together with the course, “The GM’s Opening Lab-1”, it gives you a COMPLETE opening repertoire – ALL the openings you need. Hence, you will get All-In-One, which will ultimately save you an awful lot of money.
  • Reason-2: No matter what I write here, sceptical people may think that it’s just a self-advertisement. That’s why I will not write anything else. :) Instead, let me provide a small conversation between two people. I took the following screenshot from this page (scroll down it to the comments area).
Student Feedback
In addition to that, now you get a MASSIVE 30% discount on this course (along with all other opening courses).

Note: this offer will be valid from today (20 April) until Monday, 25 April only.
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