Gambit Rules and New Year Special Offer

Now is the final reminder for you to get the Christmas and New Year Special Offer. The offer ends on Wed. 31^st (tomorrow). To find out about the offer, click here: LINK

Also:

• Now you can get all the webinars of 2014 with an additional 18% discount: LINK
• You can also get the webinars individually: LINK

Some time ago, I made a video lesson, “Gambit Rules“, for you. (If you missed that, check it now here: LINK). It turned out to be a popular lesson and many of you liked it.

Now, I’m glad to provide you with the text version of that lesson. Even if you’ve already seen the video lesson, I’d still recommend you to read the text version. It will help you go through the material slowly and digest it well.

For those whose mother-tongue is not English, this provides an extra opportunityto understand the whole lesson clearly. Let’s go! 

Gambit Rules

By GM Igor Smirnov

Remote Chess Academy

I recently received an email from a student of mine. In this message, he shared one of his games with me. Although it is an internet game, I found it to be quiteinstructive. It illustrates a few important practical rules that should be applied when playing gambits. That’s why I would like to discuss this game and analyze it with you today.

 

In this lesson, we will discuss not only how you should play gambits but also how you should counteract gambits. So without any further delay, let’s get started!

The game began with the following moves: 1.e4-c5 2.Nf3-Nc6 3.b4

Diagram-1

 

Black to move

With his last move, White plays a gambit; he sacrifices material, in this case a pawn, in order to try and gain an advantageous position.

White’s goal is rapid development and the expedient launch of an attack. This is what makes gambits so popular, especially in blitz games. It is also why it is important for you to know how to handle them correctly.

In the position above, Black took with the knight (3…Nxb4). Note quickly here that if Black had taken with the pawn (3…cxb4), White would have deflected this pawn away from the centre. This would then allow White to push 4.d4 and obtain a pair of pawns in the centre and threaten d5.

Although Black avoided this by capturing with the knight, White can nevertheless still build himself a strong centre. To this aim, White played 4.c3, and after Black retreated his knight to c6 (4…Nc6), White pushed in the centre with 5.d4. Here Black took the pawn with 5…cxd4 and after 6.cxd4, White again has a pair of pawns in the centre.

Note: You can find a detailed video analysis of this opening variation here:LINK

At this point in the game, Black played 6…d6. Note here that while 6…d5 may look more ambitious for Black, there is a drawback. In this situation, White can capture with the pawn (7.exd5) and after Black recaptures with 7…Qxd5, White can attack Black’s queen with 8.Nf3 and gain a tempo for development.

Diagram-2

 

White to move

In this position, White played 7.d5 and this is indeed the best move. White is attacking the opponent’s knight and forcing it to move somewhere. At the same time, White gets more space and opens the long diagonal (a1-h8) for his pieces. And so there are of lot of benefits here for White.

But now I have a quick question for you. Black has a problem that he needs to resolve. What square should he move his knight to? What do you think? Where should it go?

In the game, Black played 7…Ne5 and it makes sense. We’ve been taught to put our pieces in the centre, and from this point of view Ne5 is correct. But in this particular position, there is another important thing that we should take into consideration.

 RULE 1: When you are behind in development, avoid exchanges of your developed pieces.

Let’s apply this rule to the current position.

While it may appear that Black is at least equal in development, let’s not forget that White played a gambit and sacrificed the pawn to enable quick and natural development. After 8.Nxe5-dxe5, White can quickly bring his pieces into the game. For example, Bb5, Qa4, Bb2, Nc3 and he’s done.

Diagram-3

 

White to move

White can play all of these moves very quickly and without any problems. If we take a look at Black’s position, on the other hand, we can see that his situation ismuch more difficult:

- It’s not that simple to develop the dark-squared bishop on f8.

- The light-squared bishop on c8 has no good squares available.

- In general, you can see that Black’s development is complicated.

That’s why we may expect that White’s development will be much faster and that he will be ahead in development. From this point of view, Black’s decision totrade his knight by placing it on e5 was a mistake.

Once again, the rule is that when you are behind in development, you should avoidexchanging your active pieces.

If you make exchanges when you are behind in development, you may face a situation where the bad moves keep coming and you have no active warriors.

Of course, in such a situation it will be very difficult for you to counteract your opponent’s plans. That is why you should avoid such exchanges and aim to keep as many active pieces on the board as possible.

Okay, let’s move on. Referring back to the position in Diagram 3, what should White do now? What do you think?

Here White should play 9.Bb2 and this is exactly what he did. This is the best movefor sure. This move follows an important rule that is one of the core ideas for playing all gambits.

 RULE 2: DEVELOP + ATTACK

When playing a gambit, try to combine your development with attack. This is one of the main advantages that a gambit can give you.

Therefore, instead of just developing your forces, try to make these moves with a tempo by simultaneously developing and attacking.

When you do this, you’ll realize your own plan and prevent an opponent’s plansimultaneously. And, of course, you will be on top in such situations.

White followed this rule with the earlier 7.d5 and now again with 9.Bb2. By using this idea of combining development with attack, White is able to continue his development while Black cannot. Instead, Black must respond to the threat and protect his pawn somehow.

Actually, it’s nearly impossible to protect the e5-pawn in any normal way. If Black plays something like 9…Qd6 or 9…Qc7, White can play 10.Bb5+ and after 10…Bd7, 11.Bxd7+, Black must then either centralize his king (certainly dangerous or very bad) or capture with the queen (Qxd7), in which case White can capture the pawn.

This means that Black can’t really protect his e5-pawn and he needs to find something else.

At first sight, Nf6 looks good, as it counter attacks White’s pawn on e4. But it turns out to be no real threat, for White can just take the pawn with Bxe5. Note that …Nxe4 is impossible, as White can win a piece by playing Qa4+ with a double attackon Black’s king and the knight on e4.

That’s why Black decided to abandon the pawn and just play 9…e6. White then took the pawn with 10.Bxe5 and regained the material balance.

Diagram 4

Black to move

In some variations, White is threatening to follow this with d6 and lock Black’s bishop on its original square. It may seem attractive for Black to play 10…Bb4+; but after 11.Nc3, Black is suddenly in trouble.

This is because Black’s g7-pawn is hanging and White will take this pawn and capture the rook caught in the corner as well.

Furthermore, White is threatening Qa4+ with a double attack on Black’s king and bishop. So Bb4+ may look active for Black but, in reality, it creates problems for Black and not for White.

But now here is another question for you. How would you proceed here as Black (Diagram 4)?

In the game, Black decided to neutralize White’s d5-pawn and played 10…exd5. It may seem very logical (Black is trying to stop an eventual d6 push, as well as open the c8-h3 diagonal for his bishop, enabling its future development).

But, at the same time, this is a major mistake because Black violated a very important rule.

 RULE 3: When you are behind in development, keep the position closed.

From this point of view, Black’s previous move 9…e6, and especially his next move of 10…exd5, were steps in the wrong direction. Now that you can see the difference, let’s look again at the position from two moves earlier.

Diagram 5

Black to move

As you can see, White is more active and could have some chances for developing an attack in the future. But right now it is quite difficult for White to start any real direct attack on Black’s position.

Here Black doesn’t have any real weaknesses and so there is no way for White to break through and start an invasion. But after 9…e6 10.Bxe5-exd5, Black has opened a lot of lines.

Now White can attack Black’s king along the e-file. White has an open d-file, open diagonals for his bishops and can bring his queen or bishop to the a4-e8 diagonal. In total, as you can see, White is able to start a direct attack on Black’s position.

That is why Black should not have opened the position. The rule states that when you are defending and are behind in development, try to keep the position closed.

 

I don’t wish to make you feel overloaded.  Therefore, we’ll see the remaining game in the next part.

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10 Most Common Flaws that Chess Players Have

Previously we have talked about the most common problems that adult chess players are facing when they are trying to improve their game. Today we will explore this topic a little deeper. We will talk about the most common flaws that chess players of different strength levels have.

1. Calculation

Calculation ability seems to be a very big problem for many chess players. This includes both deep calculation of the main lines as well as exploring side lines for a certain variation and identifying the candidate moves.

That skill is especially tricky to work on because there are no guides exist that will show you how to go from being able to calculate 3 moves ahead to 5 or 7 moves ahead. There are methods that can help you to achieve that.

For example, one method involves solving tactics puzzles in your head, without moving the pieces. The other method has to do with evaluating practice positions and drawing conclusions about the final position. We explore both of these methods in greater detail in our training course.

2. Correctly evaluating the opponent’s counter-play

This is another common flaw that many chess players of different elo levels have. They get too involved with their own plans and ideas that they completely overlook the opponent’s response which often completely ruins the plan.

It is very important to be able to put yourself in your opponent’s shoes and to figure out how exactly would you go ahead and proceed in that position. Your goal is to find the most unpleasant move for yourself and try to prevent it from being played. You should never think that your opponent will not find the best move, etc. That is a too risky approach and will cost you many games once you start playing against stronger opponents.

3. Defensive play

It is no secret that playing defense in chess is much harder than to attack. You need to calculate deeper than you opponent, anticipate all of his threats and to be able to outsmart him if you want to win the game. If you take into account the pressure that comes with passive positions and a higher mistake cost, it becomes clear why no many players are able to save inferior positions.

How do you actually practice your defensive skills? The only way to do that is to analyze the defensive play of stronger chess players, think about why certain moves were played, put yourself in their shoes and trying to find the correct solution to their problem (aka active learning). Then, you can take it a step further by playing inferior positions against your training partner or handicapped engines.

5. Positional understanding

This is probably one of the most underrated and difficult chess skills to master. Positional understanding involves much more than a simple calculation ability. It is the whole mindset that allows a chess player to understand in great detail what’s going on in a certain position that is lacking a clear tactical theme.

Positional understanding is closely related to planning of the game as dictated by the positional factors itself. Most under 2000 rated chess players do not have a sufficient positional understanding, and need to spend a lot of time to improve in this area.

That is a hard and exhausting job, but don’t worry. We can make it easier for you by providing you with 21 highly instructive, deeply analyzed and well annotated games that will teach you positional chess step-by-step for 3 weeks.

6. Tactics

I wrote many times already and will write once more that tactics is the most important skill to work on for all under 2200 rated chess players. It seems like it is one of the most straightforward elements of chess to work on. Just find tactical problems and solve it. It is not exactly true.

First of all, it is important to know what kind of tactics to solve. For best results you need to mix real game tactics, compositions and endgame studies to be able to progress in all phases of the game. What’s even more important, is to work on these things consistently. Not many players are able to do that on their own. They need a guidance of a chess coach or a good training course to stick to.

7. Chess intuition

Chess intuition is something that allows finding the right move in a complex position by avoiding conventional means of evaluation and calculation. Wouldn’t it be nice if you was able to do that all the time without spending your time on learning how to evaluate chess positions? Unfortunately, it does not work that way.

Only after mastering the fundamentals of positional evaluation and calculation skills, you can rely on your intuition to take a shortcut. The problem that many chess players have, is relying on their under-developed intuition too much without double checking the lines with analysis and raw calculation. That’s an easy way to lose games.

8. Planning of the game

Planning the game is something closely related to the positional understanding. Many novice chess players have problems in finding the correct middle game plan for one and one reason only. They do not fully understand what’s going on in the position well enough to come up with a good plan.

Therefore, in order to come up with a plan, a player needs to understand the position deep enough. The answer lies in training the positional understanding.

9. Time trouble

Time trouble is something that can immediately lose the game even if you’re the whole queen up. In order to avoid time trouble, a chess player needs to learn how to wisely spend your time.

10. Opening preparation

Opening preparation is no doubt an important element of chess. It starts playing a major role on the higher level of the game, where each tempo and a small weakness counts. For amateur players, a good opening preparation means that they are able to achieve a more or less equal position.

In order to be proficient at finding tactics such as forks, smothered mates, checkmates, pins, and skewers you need to solve problems on daily bases. If you are aiming for a serious progress, consistency is the key. Sure you may skip a day or two here and there, but the point is to work on tactics at least for 20 minutes a day everyday.

Once you're doing that, you should throw positional training, endgames training, and attacking training into the equation and the success is almost guaranteed for you! Things can be a little confusing though, but don't worry we tried to make learning chess as easy as possible, by creating a step-by-step, day-by-day training program that will help to take your chess to the next level.

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10 Reasons Why Adult Players Fail to Improve at Chess

1. Lack of Motivation

Surprisingly, lack of motivation, is the biggest progress stopper at chess and life alike. Many adult players are simply not motivated enough to get better at chess. They want to improve their game, but they don’t want it bad enough that they are willing to give up something valuable for it.

How many adults are willing to give up their TV time, newspaper reading time, socializing time or in favor of chess? They have spent years to develop a habit to watch that TV-show every day at 7 pm. Trust me not many people can break that habit easily or even at all.

The only way to break an old habit is to replace it with a new one, for example to study chess at 7 pm (or any other time) for 1 hour, 3 weeks in a row. Commitment is a key to success.

2. Bad Memory

Memory is not as crucial at amateur level chess, but if you want to achieve something more, then it may be a problem. Many adults have flaws in their memory which will make it difficult to remember certain things that are important for succeeding at chess.

Opening preparation, typical endgame positions and even pattern recognition are all heavily relying on good memorization skills.

Many adults cannot even remember an important phone number or a license plate of their own car. How are they expected to remember the game that was played in 2007 between Anand and Kramnik or a way to draw a certain rook and pawn endgame? You don’t need to have a Carlsen-like photographic memory to achieve the master’s title, but it always helps to improve it a bit.

3. Inability to Calculate Variations

This is another huge problem that many adult chess players are facing. It seems like they cannot visualize the position well enough that they can see what will happen further than 3 moves ahead.

How should you train the ability to calculate chess variations? Solving chess tactics without moving pieces on the board, practicing in finding candidate moves, calculating a certain line as far as possible and evaluating the final position are some the most common techniques in calculation training.

Another method you can try is to play a blindfold chess against a very weak opponent. The goal of this exercise is to train visualization and position memorization rather than look for tactics, etc.

4. Absence of a Study Plan

Most adult chess players have plenty of training materials. Often these materials are not what they need to study to take their chess to the next level. These training materials are like pieces of puzzle. In order to improve at chess you need to combine these pieces into the full picture, or rather a complete training routine. Quite often, when you have too many choices it is hard to make a decision.

Let me give you one example. Just imagine you’ve just signed up for a gym membership, but you don’t know exactly what to do in the gym. You don’t know what exercises work what muscle groups, you not exactly sure how to use the gym equipment, you have no idea how often to exercise, what to eat, and how much to sleep. Sure you can come to the gym from time to time, lift some weights and you will train something.

The question is: will you have an overall well developed muscles and a good physique after such training? Of course not. It will take you good few years of time and couple of injuries to learn these things by yourself, assuming you know what to read and whom to ask.

Would you rather try figuring out everything yourself or would you rather  follow a day-by-day training course that tell you exactly what muscle group to train, how to train it, what weights to use, what to eat and how much to sleep?

I’m pretty sure you would agree that the outcome in this case will be totally different.

The same goes for chess. You can try improving by yourself, reading something, studying some games, figuring out some openings, solving some tactics. But it is a very long road and most adult players are simply not ready to take it.

Most players need to have a clear guidance in order to improve. They need to be shown what to train, how much time to spend on it and what to expect. Studying goes much easier if you follow guidelines of a training program on a day-by-day basis rather than if you do everything on your own.

Why reinvent the wheel when you can just use one?

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5. Psychological Instability

Psychological instability is something that many adult players have and it is something that can ruin their winning chances. How many times have you seen a player that after looking at the pairings table says something like “I’m playing against somebody 400 points higher, there is no way I will win this round”.

Well of course, you won’t win. Even before the game started you already pre-program yourself that the opponent is superior and you will lose simply based on the rating difference.

For players like that I always recommend not paying too much attention to the ratings. It may not be easy at first, but you need to be confident enough to play against anyone, without that fear of losing.

6. Low Chess Stamina

Many adult chess players suffer from a low chess stamina. That means they can pay full attention to what’s going on in the game for first couple of hours, but later on towards the end of the game their attention gets distorted and they start losing focus. This is a very dangerous situation for a chess player. Just imagine you have been playing your best for 2 or 3 hours and then make an inaccuracy and lose the game.

Even in case of 44 year old Vishy Anand who first tried to defend and then to win the World Championship Title back from Magnus Carlsen we can easily notice that most of his game-losing mistakes were made in the later stage of the game.

What can you do to increase your chess stamina? Physical fitness as very essential for playing at the high level. By staying fit and playing sports consistently on top of chess training, you will be able to keep both your mind and body at top condition.

7. “Fear of Ghosts”

Some chess players especially adults, suffer from a phenomena called “fear of ghosts”. These players are afraid to make a mistake so much that they worry more about how not to make one rather than fully focusing on the game. That behavior puts them under a severe pressure, increases stress level and reduces stamina.

To fight this problem, you need to increase your self-confidence level. The only way to do that I to work on your chess and to win more games.

8. Lack of Competiveness

Oddly enough, lack of competitiveness is also one of the reasons why adult chess players have problems improving their game. Unlike younger players, they think that chess is “just a game” and that “winning is not that important”.

With this kind of attitude it is very hard to perform at your best and have motivation and drive to work hard and to win games.

9. Inability to Handle Pressure

Surprisingly enough, many adult chess players cannot handle pressure as well as their younger counterparts. When they arebeing attacked they lose focus and collapse quickly. In order to succeed at chess, adult players need to pay specific attention to this problem.

This problem can be addressed by playing high pressure positions in practice games, when you’re a piece down or under serious attack. By surviving in practice games you will be able to survive when it matters as well.

10. Time Management Choices

Many adult chess players, in fact, can improve their chess as fast as younger players do. In order to do that an adult player needs to dedicate himself to chess by working consistently, participating in tournaments, playing practice games and so on.

In order to make  serious progress, such as becoming at least an international master, an adult player needs to spend 4-5 hours on chess daily, which is very problematic for many who have day job, family, friends and other responsibilities. That only applies if you are looking to becoming a professional chess player.

If you are just striving for a class A (candidate-master) or master’s level, there is no need to give up a lot of things you enjoy in life. Most adult players can achieve that goal from 1200 elo in 2-3 maximum 4 years working on chess consistently, following the right advice and playing tournament chess.

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Top 5 Types of Forks that Every Chess Player Must Know

Today we will talk in detail about one of the most important elements of chess tactics, a fork. A fork is a type of tactics when one piece attacks two or more of the opponent's pieces at the same time. As a result, usually, one of these pieces is won.  It is one of the most common tactical elements in chess, and many games are lost by those who have missed one little fork. After studying this article you won't be one of them 

1. Knight Fork

Knight is a truly unique piece due to its ability to jump over other pieces. It is impossible to stop the knight's check, without capturing the knight or moving the king itself. That feature makes the knight a perfect forking piece. Take a look on the example below, where the black knight forks white's king and bishop. This type of fork is especially forcing due to the check by a knight. The king has to move and the knight is lost.

You may feel that knight forks are easy to find, but it's not always the case. Take a look at the example below. There is no immediate fork, but it can be constructed. Let me show you how to think in cases like that.

Notice how white knight attacks the f6-pawn which can be captured with a check. Also notice that it is being defended by the black's knight, which in turn is protected by the bishop and threatened by the white's rook. Now imaging that instead of the knight there is a bishop on e7.

Then you can capture the f6-pawn with a knight, forking the king and bishop and winning it. Do you see a way to achieve that? Exactly, you need to play 1.Rxd7 and after Bxd7 2. Nxf6+ and 3. Nxd7 winning the bishop.

White to move and win

2. Rook Fork

Rook is not only can be used to control the ranks and files but also to fork opponent's pieces. In the example below black's rook is forking white's king and knight resulting in capturing of the minor piece and winning the game. 

3. Queen Fork

Queen is the most powerful piece, since it combines powers of both the rook and the bishop. That makes it a very good attacker. In the example below black's queen forks three of the white's pieces at the same time ultimately winning the game. 

In order to be proficient at finding tactics such as forks, smothered mates, checkmates, pins, and skewers you need to solve problems on daily bases. If you are aiming for a serious progress, consistency is the key. Sure you may skip a day or two here and there, but the point is to work on tactics at least for 20 minutes a day everyday.

Once you're doing that, you should throw positional training, endgames training, and attacking training into the equation and the success is almost guaranteed for you! Things can be a little confusing though, but don't worry we tried to make learning chess as easy as possible, by creating a step-by-step, day-by-day training program that will help to take your chess to the next level.

4. Pawn Fork

Even though the pawn is the least valuable unit, it can surely deliver a fork. In the example below, the pawn is forking white's bishop and knight, drawing the game. 

5. Bishop Fork

Bishop is a great long range piece, and it can fork pieces located on the same diagonal. In the example below the bishop forks white's king and rook. 

Let's take a look at the example from real game. We notice that the black's bishop is interposing the attack on the rook and king via d5 square. It is protected by both the queen and the knight. Is there way to get rid of both defender in one move? Here it is: 1. Qxe7! Qex7 2. Bxd5+ Kf8 3. Bxa8 and white is winning after he exchanges his queen for 2 minor pieces and a rook. 

White to move and win

Extra: King Fork

Yes, the king is also an attacking piece and can deliver a fork winning a piece, if someone does not know how to checkmate with a knight and bishop correctly. 

Get your favorite Chess Pieces and Sets today

Today, I have some great news for you. Recently, my wife had to buy chess sets for our local chess club. She teaches chess to kids, so we are a chess family.

 

We started searching for a chess shop in the Internet, and I was surprised at how MANY of them there are. It took a long time to select the best items and compare the prices.Then I thought that YOU might have experienced similar difficulties while purchasing chess products. Additionally, my students often ask me which chess software I recommend.

With that being said, I’ve decided to simplify your task. I’ll select the best chess goods and will present them on our website. I’m glad to say that we’ll start with chess pieces!

There are tons of chess sets available. We are offering you the world’s bestchoice! These chess sets are used for the top chess tournaments, including World Championship matches. So the quality of these chess sets is undoubtedly theBEST.

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