5 Tips Taken From The Best Chess Course On The Internet

his article contains 5 important tips that will facilitate your chess learning and advancing. The material is prepared by a student of our Remote Chess Academy. He summarized the ideas that worked well for him. There’s a great chance that these tips will be helpful for you just as well.

Without further ado let me present an article of Louis Holtzhausen.

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The tips are from the chess courses of GM Igor Smirnov

Chess Course Tip 1: The main idea of a chess game is activity

Isn’t it strange that even after studying a chess course – many chess players still can’t tell you what the main idea of a chess game is?

This is bad because how are you supposed to make good moves if you are not even sure what the main goals are? Once you know that you need to maximize the activity of your pieces, everything else will start to make a lot more sense.

Chess Course Tip 2: Study the middle game plans that relate to your opening

It is a common training mistake that many chess players make – they memorize many opening moves. To play the opening moves from memory can hardly give you any advantage over your opponent. But if you know the typical plans that arise from the opening you play, you can be much better prepared for the game!

When you train your opening moves – focus to understand the middle game plans that are typical to your opening. Training your opening moves in this way makes more sense and is also a lot more enjoyable than simply trying to memorize a lot of moves.

Chess Course Tip 3: Focus to improve your thinking process

Your knowledge about chess is not the factor that will give you the edge in your games! Instead, knowing how to apply every bit of knowledge you have is the skill that will give you the edge.

In fact, too much knowledge will only confuse you if you don’t have a clear thinking system to help you apply all the things you have learnt.

Chess Course Tip 4: A master outplays his opponent with better positional understanding

Chess masters often avoid complications! Yes sure they are good even in complicated positions, but they also know that their main advantage is their deep understanding of chess positions.

A master will outplay their opponent. It will look as if the master wins easily without even doing anything special. This is simply because they have a deep understanding of the game and outplay their weaker opponent slowly but surely.

Chess Course Tip 5: Focus on the quality of your training instead of the quantity

I have been guilty of this training mistake myself too. Often chess players feel that they will improve by spending a lot of time training a whole lot of chess information. They will even spend hours solving tactical puzzle without seeing any real improvement in their results.

You will benefit more from studying one topic well (QUALITY) than to study many topics superficially (QUANTITY).

You can find more tips and information on his high quality chess courses by clicking this link: GM Smirnov’s chess courses (I only recommend chess courses that I have worked with myself and can highly recommend).

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5 Steps for Calculating Like a Grandmaster

All chess players know that grandmasters can calculate many moves ahead, evaluate the position, and deliver the final blow. How do they do that? Is there a way an ordinary chess player can learn to calculate many moves ahead like masters do? In this article, we will answer those questions and show you a simple schematic that will tremendously help at calculating moves.

 

Step 1. Knowing when and what to calculate

The most important step in move calculation is actually to know when you need to calculate the variation and when you don’t.Chess players, even very strong Grandmasters, are not machines. They cannot simply calculate all lines and come up with the best continuation.

That’s why it is very important to realize when you need to calculate the line. The primary difference between a strong and a weak player is not how much each player calculates. The main difference between the two is in the ability of each player to find the right moves to calculate in the first place.

There are no general guidelines as of when and what you need to calculate. But I will try to give you some basic suggestions that will help you at deciding when you should calculate the variation:

1. When your own king or your opponent’s king is under attack, you should calculate the possibilities to end or continue the attack.

2. When there are many pieces/pawns under attack you should calculate the possibilities to win/save the pieces/pawns.

3. When the position is unstable (possible exchanges, pawns structure changes, simplifications etc.) you should calculate how you can benefit the most from it.

Step 2. Finding the candidate moves

After figuring out what and when to calculate you should find the so-called candidate moves. These are the moves that will most likely lead to the most favorable outcome. They generally make sense based on the current positional evaluation. After identifying3-4 candidate moves you should start calculating the lines, starting with what you think is the strongest candidate move.

The ability to calculate these lines solely depends on your calculation and visualization skills that can be enhanced by special exercises.

Ready to start systematic training that actually works? 

Click here to start your training using the day-by-day program.

Step 3. Evaluating the position

After you have finished calculating the line based on selected candidate moves, you have arrived to a certain final position. In order to judge if the move was a good one or not, it is necessary to evaluate this position and to understand if you’ve achieved some improvement on the board.

This evaluation possesses additional challenges because you cannot see the position on the board, and need to evaluate it only based on your visualization ability.

Step  4. Using method of elimination

In order to make your life simpler, it is crucial to decrease the number of moves and variations that you need to calculate and analyze. If you start calculation of the line and notice that there are already many problems after move 3, there is no need to continue the calculation. Save some time and use it where it needed the most.

Chess is not a game for a perfectionist, by rather for a player who knows how to spend his resources wisely. You goal is to eliminate all bad possibilities and to calculate/play only the good moves.

Step  5. Making the final decision

The final step is probably the easiest of all five. You need to critically look at your analysis and select a single best move to play in the game. If you encounter two or more moves which are about the same quality, you can go ahead and play any of the two. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but it should be a good move.

After you have selected the move you will play, it makes sense to double check the line and to make sure that you are not making a mistake. When that is done, you can go ahead and play the move. If you did everything correctly, your position should slightly improve.

Top 5 Opening Mistakes Most Chess Players Are Still Making

Today we will talk about the most common opening mistakes that many chess players around the globe are making subconsciously, without realizing that they are doing something wrong. These mistakes are easy to spot and fix, but you need to know what to look for. Here they are: 

1. Neglecting development

Every chess player knows that the goal of the opening is to develop pieces. A player which does it more efficiently and correctly possesses an advantage in the early middle game. Due to development advantage he can start an attack sooner, without compromising his own king’s safety. These players often win the game in early middle-game with an impressive attack on the king stuck in the center (this is particularly important theme and we pay a lot of attention practicing attack on the king at the center in our chess training course) or struggling from undeveloped pieces.

Sounds great isn’t it? Why many players neglect development and lose games? There are 3 reasons for that:

I. These players get greedy in the opening, grabbing an extra pawn and sacrificing 2-3 important development tempos.

II. These players move one piece multiple times for no good reason. A ‘good reason’ is defined in this case as ability to win a significant amount of material due to some sort of tactics, or to deliver a checkmate.

You should be careful though, since you may waste many important tempos on winning material, which you may never get and end up being far behind in development (aka lost).

III. These players may not know where exactly to develop their pieces (we will talk about this case in one of the sections below).

Take a look at the game below that clearly demonstrates what happens to ones who neglect the development: 

2. Launching an unprepared attack

Most chess players know that in the opening they supposed to develop pieces, castle, connect the rooks, occupy the center and only then launch an attack. However, if they see a possibility to check an opponent or attack some of his pieces they will go for it even if that does not promise any material gain and requires early queen development.

You should always keep in mind that unprepared attack will delay your development, since you most likely, will have to retreat sooner or later making unnecessary moves and losing tempos.

The best strategy is to complete the development and only then launch an attack.  Otherwise, you can end up playing the opening when your opponent has already entered the middle game (trust me, you don’t want that).

3. Delaying castling

Castling is a very important part of development. Not only castling puts your king to safety but also connects the rooks. There are reasons when it is dangerous and even deadly to castle, but these are more exceptions than general cases, mostly caused by lag in development in the first place.

In most openings it is best to castle quickly and continue on with the game without too much worrying about possibility of the king getting exposed and vulnerable.

4. Not having a middle game plan

The simplest way to play the opening is to develop chess pieces to the positions where they appear stronger. Bishops should be developed on open diagonals, rooks on open files and knights at the center. However, the best approach for playing the opening is to know exactly where to position your pieces according to your middle-game plan.

For example, if you are planning an attack on short side castled opponent’s king you need to place the bishop on a long diagonal, bring up the knight and a queen. You may also want to position the rook in such a way that you can lift it quickly when needed.

When developing pieces always think about your future middle game plan. That way you can save yourself many importanttempos and obtain an advantage. In the final run that could be the difference between checkmating or being checkmated.

5. Playing intuitively

Playing intuitively means making decisions based upon feelings rather than calculations. Unless you are 2500 rated, you probably should not rely on your intuition too much. This is how games end with under 10 moves checkmates.

The rule of thumb is to evaluate the position at least 2-3 moves ahead, also taking into account the basic chess opening principles.

                                                                              Click to know more

Chess Tactics – Pin

Today, I’ve prepared a nice lesson for you. Although it is mainly for beginner-levelplayers, any chess player at any level can study the lesson, recollect the basic ideas and refresh their mind. So let’s get started. 

Chess is intellectual warfare. Here, though strategy plays a primary role, tacticsalmost always finish the game.

For instance, I remember a famous quote that says:

“Chess is 99% tactics”. – Rudolph Teichmann

Generally, in a game, players always think about what to do and how to do it. “What to do?” is answered by strategy and “How to do it?” is answered bytactics. A good tactical move can even turn the tables. Tactics can be classified into many themes.

• Pin
• Skewer
• Fork
• Discovered attack
• Double attack

Today, we’ll study the theme “Pin”.

Example-1

Now the Black queen is pinned by the rook. Black cannot move the queenbecause the king would be in check. This is an example of how the rook pins the queen on a file.

Example-2

Now the rook on d4 is pinned diagonally by the White queen.

Example-3

Here the White knight is pinned by the Black rook on the 1^st rank.

Conclusion: any piece can be pinned, either diagonally or on a rank or file.

• queen has the power of both the rook and the bishop, so it can pindiagonally, rank and file.
• bishop pins diagonally and
• rook pins on the rank and file.

“The defensive power of a pinned piece is but imaginary”. – Nimzowitsch

Exercise-1: Level – Easy

Black to play

Exercise-2: Level – Medium

Black to play

Exercise-3: Level – Hard

White to play

After calculating all possible variations, you can check the answers and download them here: LINK

P.S. Share this article with your friends if you enjoyed it. As I said, this is not only for beginners but any player can study it. You can share it using the buttons on the left side.

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How to become a Blitz Master and offers on the new course

First, let me ask you a few questions – have you ever played blitz chesstournaments in your club or on the Internet? Have you won some good gamesand tournaments in blitz? Were you finding a steady increase in your progress?

 

If your answer is “No” or uncertain – then your results will be unstable.

That is because you need to have a sharp mind to calculate a lot of moves within a few seconds. And this can be done only by repetitive practice and experience.

 

Not even all grandmasters have stable results – there are only few GMs like Fischer, Morphy, Tal, Capablanca and Anand who can be recognised as a ‘Blitz Master’.

Only the person who has more knowledge on a certain topic, an expert on that topic, can teach it. Therefore, we’ve invited a ‘Blitz Master’ to teach you thoseskills; you can learn and, more importantly, incorporate them into your games and become a ‘Blitz Master’ too! 

I’m very glad to announce that the next webinar will be conducted by GM Maxim Dlugy (the main author of the new course) on Friday 30 Jan. at 3 p.m. GMT (check timings here: LINK).

Yes, GM Dlugy is an extraordinary blitz player – he has an incredible top rating of 2731 in blitz! Also, GM Dlugy was the world’s highest ranked in blitz, according to WBCA ratings, a ranking he held for four consecutive years!

<<Sign up for the webinar now>>

In Friday’s webinar, “How to become a Blitz Master?”, GM Dlugy will teach you the 26 secrets of playing blitz well, while analysing his victories against the best players in the world.

In the previous article, I shared with you a short introductory video on the new course, “Unlocking the Grandmaster’s Mind”, and revealed almost everything about the course (if you missed that, check it now: LINK).

Today, I’ve something exciting for you. As I promised that the new course would be ready this month, I’m very glad to announce that it will be released on 29^thJan! 

But wait, I still have something good for you – yes, I’m going to provide you with some great discounts and special offers to celebrate this special occasion! :)

DISCOUNT:

I’m going to provide you with two discount coupons this time!

The first 100 buyers will be offered a 30% DISCOUNT on the new course! Subsequent buyers will get a 20% DISCOUNT only. 

Also, a few hours in advance I’ll reveal the discount coupon to those students who have subscribed to our newsletter – Quick Success in Chess (LINK). So if you are asubscriber, you have more chances to be among the first 100 buyers and get a30% discount!

If you haven’t yet subscribed to us, you can surely do so now: LINK

NOTE: the discount coupon is valid from 29^th Jan. to 1^st Feb. (inclusive) only. To learn how to use a discount code, see here: LINK

SPECIAL OFFER:

Do you want to attend the above-mentioned GM Dlugy’s webinar on Friday 30 Jan for FREE? Yes, you can get FREE attendance for the webinar! 

 

If you buy the course, “Unlocking the Grandmaster’s Mind”, on 29 Jan., you can attend GM Dlugy’s webinar, “How to become a ‘Blitz Master?”, on the 30^th forFREE!

I’ve also prepared a video explaining the offers in detail. You can watch it below: 

Hanging Pawn Structures

We stopped after 16.exd4 16…Na5. So it is White’s turn now. How would you playhere as White?

White to play

17.d5! A thematic move! White opens the centre and activates both his bishops.

17…exd5 – if Black chooses to take with 17…Nc4 18.Qe4 g6 20.Bxc4 Qxc4 21.Qe5 f6 22.Qxe6+ Rf7 22.Rc1 Qa6 22.Nd4 and White has the upper hand.

18.cxd5 Bxd5 – White has eliminated the HPS and has opened his bishops for akingside attack.

White to play

How can White start an immediate attack in the above position?

White goes for a tactical blow 19.Bxh7+ Kxh7 20.Rxd5; White is threatening to play Qe4+ followed by Rh5.

20…Kg8 A natural strategic retreat by Portisch, but anyway who can stop theForce! 21.Bxg7!! A bolt out of the blue!

21…Kxg7 22.Ne5 centralizing the knight in an open position; pieces are best placed in central squares, opening up the diagonal for the queen. Preparing to move rook to d7 and also to play Nd7, preventing the queen from supporting the bishop with lot of threats.

22…Rfd8 

White to play

[22…f5 23.Rd3 Qc5 24.Nd7; 22…Rh8 23.Qg4+ Kf8 24.Qf5 f6 25.Re1 Nc6 (25…Qc1 26.Rdd1+–) 26.Nd7+ Kf7 27.Rxe7++–; 22…Qc2 23.Qg4+ Kh7 24.Rd3 Rc3 25.Qf5+ Kg8 26.Rg3++–]

23.Qg4+ Kf8 24.Qf5 threatening a simple mate on f7.

24…f6 forced. [24...Bxa3 not possible after Nd7 check – either Ke8 or Kg8 will result in forced mate in several moves. 25.Nd7+ Kg8 26.Qg4+]

White to play

How should White continue his attack now?

Kasparov played 25.Nd7+ [25.Ng6+ Ke8? (25…Kg7 26.Nf4 Rxd5 27.Nxd5 (27.Qg6+ Kh8 28.Ne6 Rg5) 27…Qc5 28.Nxe7) 26.Qh5 Rxd5 27.Ne5++–]

25…Rxd7 26.Rxd7 Qc5 27.Qh7 Rc7 28.Qh8+! And not 28.Rd3? Qxf2+!! 29.Kxf2(29.Rxf2 Rc1+) 29…Bc5+ 30.Kg3 Rxh7=

28…Kf7 29.Rd3 A brilliant waiting move; only A FORCE can play like this. Now White threatens to play Qh7+ – forcing Black to play Ke6!

29…Nc4 30.Rfd1! Bringing the least active piece into the game. 30…Ne5? 

White to play and win

Now it’s time to solve the riddle on your own and finish like the FORCE did

Summary:

Kasparov first created a HPS and prepared a d5 thrust followed by opening the position and converting it into one of the favourable centres discussed in my course “Your Winning Plan“. Having greater piece position advantage destroyedthe opponent’s king position

1–0 

Also, you can see the whole game here and download the PGN: LINK

Moreover, if you want to learn such skills and use them in your games, then you definitely will have to study the course “Your Winning Plan”.

Additionally, I’ve discussed the point about the ‘least active’ piece (mentioned above at move 30) in my other course “GM’s Positional Understanding”.

Get these courses now:

• GM’s Positional Understanding: LINK
• Your Winning Plan: LINK

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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