10 steps to choose a move
There’s a lot to do so don’t rush!
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Boardsight
Have you ever seen someone play lots of other players at once, and moving very quickly? Good chessplayers can do this because they can spot most of the important things quickly. Train yourself to do the same! 1. 8 queens puzzle Put 8 pawns on the board so that no pawn is on the same…
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Blunders and backwards moves
All pieces, except pawns, can move backwards. But because the opponent’s pieces are trying to attack us, we get used to them moving down the board towards us, and our pieces moving up the board in the other direction. So that means, backwards moves are sometimes hard to spot. Here are some junior players missing…
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How many moves can you think ahead?
Can you find and set up knight forks? 1 move deep [Event “analysis: visualisation”] [Site “analysis: visualisation”] [Date “1997.??.??”] [Round “1”] [White “knight fork combination”] [Black “one move deep”] [Result “1-0”] [SetUp “1”] [FEN “r3k3/3n4/1p6/3N4/2R2P2/4K3/8/8 w q – 0 1”] [PlyCount “0”] {Easy enough I hope: if you know the pattern, it should jump out…
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How to get better at calculation
First, have a go at doing some calculation. Pick the best move in a couple of these positions that appeal. They are taken from Aagaard’s Inside the Chess Mind, so you can later compare your answers with some ‘official’ answers from a computer (Fritz 8) but also with the recorded thoughts of some other human…
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Thought for the day
“Some part of a mistake is always correct” Xsawery (Saveilly) Tartakower
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Good and bad traps
There are good traps and bad traps. A good trap is a trap you set with a good move A bad trap is a trap you set with a bad move If your opponent plays a good move against your bad move, you will have a worse position! So don’t play a bad trap, but…
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Games to learn by heart?
[p]I was intrigued to see this on Twitter: #chesspunks #chess Hey everyone I'm trying to find 10 classic games to remember by heart. Ideally below 30 moves. The first one that comes to mind is the Opera Game played by Morphy. Which would you recommend? — The Chess Parlor (@ChessParlor) November 3, 2022 [p]Now, I…
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How good is your thinking?
A bit of a plug for Ray Cheng’s Practical Chess Exercises Puzzles in books, particularly tactics puzzle books, have a flaw: you know the answer is there somewhere. There are some ways to help you find the answer: i. look at every check, every capture, every threat ii. make a list of all the moves…
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How to analyse your games
The point of analysing your game is to see where you need to improve for next time, not to see if the computer disagrees with you, or to produce a set of notes suitable for a magazine. N.B. You are allowed to disagree with the computer. Computers will tell you what the best move and…