OPENING TIPS: tip111
(Fine) 7. Castle as soon as possible, preferably on the king’s side.
U9s | U14s U9s Play slowly and carefully Know the basic tactics Practise spotting tactics by doing puzzles Always think about what your opponent can do to you! U14s Try to avoid mistakes Most of the games we see have unforced mistakes in them, and they usually decide who wins the game. But you can…
Chess has got better over the years and the top players today play a very subtle game, which is not easy to explain. So what can we learn from the best player, Magnus Carlsen? The eternal advice to ‘look at every check and every capture, every move’ applies to super-Grandmasters as much as the rest…
The best way to get a draw is to play as well and actively as possible, just the same as if you were trying to win!
* Neither be over-impressed by your own threats. An attack by one piece on another is meaningless in itself – it may distract an important defender. Equally, don’t assume that a stock combination or sacrifice works for you in the position you have today – small differences can make it fail. Don’t hope vainly – analyse and find out.
Boris Spassky beat Petrosian on his second try, failing in 1966 and winning in 1969. Spassky could do many things well, but had a flair for attacking. He also had a collection of opening systems that he knew very well and would use even if other people didn’t think they were very good — like…
Kasparov wasn’t just the best chessplayer of his time, he may have been the best of any time. Botvinnik used to say that he was [i]primus inter pares[/i], first among equals, but Kasparov wasn’t like that at all. His rating was a long way ahead of his rivals. And he didn’t like to win a…