Hurdles Between You and Chess Improvement

Recently I have wrote article on Chessimprover.com (GM Nigel Davies site) about Pressure & emotional instability which inspired me to write on other hurdles also which are between you and your chess improvement.

Fear

I was also victim of fear, while playing against higher rated player earlier I thought that if I could draw the game would be better for me but now I do not care. The reason of this change is change in my attitude. How you can change it? well first of all think positive, read good articles about positive attitude, read some inspirational books, worth to watch chess movie 'Knight of South Bronx' & so on. Remember that this all thing are not related to chess but those are having collateral effect in overall attitude. Remember that 'You will get what you think'

Emotional Instability

I have wrote detailed article on this at chessimprover which you can read. Some tips I would like to share with you in order to be emotionally stable. Yoga and Meditation are having great impacts on your emotional aspects. Try is as I did.

Expecting too much from you

It has been often seen among the amateurs (Including me) that we expect much from us. Like we study very hard for 6 month to 1 years and expecting very serious Elo jump. In reality we need years in order to be good players, In 'BHAGAVAD GITA' (Religious Book in Hinduism) It has been told that "Do your duty and Don't expect for results"

Unorganized preparation

Don't do unorganized preparation. Today you like one book or one coach and tomorrow different book or different coach... just don't do that. Search good mentor/chess coach and do what they say, walk on their plans as they are experienced and stronger than you in chess. I don't think that chess progress is possible without good coach; exceptions are always there.

Profound use of computers

I believe that too much use of computer in your preparation can be a reason in losing interest in chess. Analyse game your self and show then to stronger player than you, take their guidance  Prepare opening through studying games of chess legends not just few moves recommended by computers.

Ignoring Importance of end-game

Well known cause. We do not get king and pawn or rook endgame in our game so no need to study endgame (Amateurs and Beginners' words). Here you are mistaken as endgame is a tool on which you can play middle-game like ; exchanging pieces, launching attack, simplifying the position etc etc. If you learn endgame, you get to know importance of it.

Last but not the least 'Actions are much more Important than plans'. I hope you get my point.

Thanks for reading.

Keep Chess As It Is; Passion or Interest Not Addiction

Normally I have heard many people saying that chess is their hobby or interest but after observing closely I can say that in most of the cases it is an addiction. 

 

Vs. 

The common cause behind it is too much fast/ blitz/bullet play, I am afraid that if same thing will be continue for longer period of time, classic chess will lose its thread. The same thing already happened in Cricket where now days one day cricket has taken place of Test cricket matches. It is in the interest of chess itself that we all pay some attention towards this critical thing in order to maintain original beauty of chess. You may like to hear and implement what your favourite chess players believe about fast chess.

"Like dogs who sniff each other when meeting, chess players have a ritual at first acquaintance: they sit down to play speed chess." – Anatoly Karpov

"Blitz chess kills your ideas." – Bobby Fischer

"To be honest, I consider [bullet chess] a bit moronic, and therefore I never play it." – Vladimir Kramnik

So I request you to stop playing blitz chess or at least reduce playing fast chess, for you and for the sake of chess.

Another reason is too much use of computer and analysis with computers. I observe that most of the amateurs are victims of this, too much computer analysis but getting nothing out of this therefore they are not able to concentrate on even on one thing and losing interest from the game. I strongly prefer that do not use computer for analysis but just get better player than you in order to analyse your game. First of all we do not have that level to understand computer moves, second thing computer is not able to explain you why the move has been played and last but not the least; computers cannot play strategically/Positional chess. In order to be better player of chess, it is must must to get some mastery level in positional chess.

By writing this article, I am appealing you to let the chess become your interest or passion not your addiction so to maintain the chess-game as it is.

Tal's Victims

One day I throw some piece into the battle and lost the game, while analyzing game my mentor; my mentor told me that an attack should be decisive. I think best way to learn and build attack is from Magician's Games.

Mikhail Tal : 'The magician from riga' Born in 1936 died at 55 due to kidney failure, Tal often throw some material for initiative and went on win.

If Tal would learn to program himself properly, then it would become quite impossible to play against him. – Mikhail Botvinnik









Victims of Misha :

Mikhail Botvinnik, 1960, World chapionship Game -6
Sacrifice Knight on Move No. 21

Vasily Smyslov in 1964, USSR team championship


Boris Spassky, 1973

Even Grandmaster Can Make Blunder

Blunder can be made by anyone even from current world No. 1 Carlsen Magnus. How can we avoid of making blunders? Previously a technique was recommended which was used by even at grandmaster level that is 'write down a planned move and take last look before making it.' But the same practice has been banned by FIDE in 2005 and US chess federation in 2007.I have search on Google and read some articles on avoiding blunders and found following ways which I am sharing with you.

• Check the square twice (where you would like arrange your piece) before making move that are you giving something free directly? This is most common mistake in beginner level and sometimes amateur level.

• Check Opponent last move carefully. All know but all forget even GM.

• Set some trigger for example my trigger is ' Are my feet on the floor? Before making any move so when I do so I control myself from making fast moves. Very weird but effective for me (Given by my Mentor)

Now presenting our heroes' blunders

1. Mikhail Chigorin vs. Wilhelm Steinitz, World Championship 1892

2. Tigran Petrosian vs. David Bronstein, Candidates Tournament 1956

3. Miguel Najdorf vs. Bobby Fischer, Piatigorsky Cup 1966

4. Viktor Korchnoi vs. Anatoly Karpov, World Championship 1978

5. Magnus Carlsen vs. Levon Aronian, Grand Slam master's final 2012

Back-rank combination by Chess Legend Capablanca

We all know about back rank, when rook or queen delivered checkmate from last rank because king can not move to next rank because of his own pieces or pawns. Normally it has been seen that back rank mate occurs to low level players but the same motif is a base of some high level combination in grand master's games.

Everybody knows Capablanca, The chess genius is known for his intuition and endgame skill but here are some examples I am going to show you that he had also expertise in combination too. Even anyone who have used fritz 11 or 12 may be know that it say sometimes like 'Capablanca - King of little combination'.

(1) Capablanca,Jose-Raul - Fonaroff,Mark

New York casual, 18.06.1918

Position after Black's 16.... Rad8

Just try to guess what Capablanca played? 

He begun a beautiful combination with 17. Rxd6 - Rd6, 18. Bxe5 - Rd1?? (Computer shows that better was 18....Qa5, 19.Bc3 - Bxc3 19. bxc3 - Rg6 20. Ne7+ and winning rook back) but this is blunder which truly punished by Capa 19. Rd1 - Bxe5 20.Now back-rank combination with Nh6+!! - Kh8 21. Qxe5!!

Position after white's 21st move

21.... Qe5 (Can not capture knight as attack on Queen and g7 pawn is also pinned) 22. Nxf7+ and black resigned because if 22....Rxf7 then Rd8# and if Kg8 then Ne5 with clear piece up.

(2) Capablanca - Rossolimo

Paris 1938

This is the most famous example from Capablanca for Back-rank combination which we always show to our student. Both player reached to following position 

Position after Black's 26th Move

Here his opponent made a mistake which gave Capablanca knight free. He played 26.Nc3?? - Nc3 but his opponent didn't understand the little combination of Capa and played 27. Rc3 - Rc3 28. Rc3 - Qb2 

Queen attacks both rook and queen and Queen can not be captured because of Rd1# so his opponent resigned.

Now Question : Can't Capablanca directly played Qb1 on move no. 28 instead of Qb2 ? Solve it then check it with your computer program.

Intermediate Moves

In Simple terminology 'Avoiding an obvious move or capture and  instead of that; interposing another move called intermediate move or in between move'. It is often seen that this move turns the table or change the outcome of the combination. It becomes very deadly when there is an intermediate check.

Now, we will study some examples from GM's game that will show us importance of intermediate moves.

Kasparov vs Shirov – White to Move

In this game between Kasparov and Shirov played in 2002, both players reached captioned position after 17th move. Here Shirov sacrificed the piece on 17.... Nxc5 with accepting 18. dxc5 ... Qxe5 19. Bd2 .... Qh2 but Kasparov ‘the genius’ came with a nice intermediate move 18 Bf6! (Some of expert says that 'Excellent solution of the problem of the black pieces springing to life. Kasparov will much prefer to enjoy great positional, rather than uncertain material, advantage.') 18.....Bf6 19. ef6...Ng8 and now 20.dxc5. If you are interested in whole game. It is given below.

Kasparov vs Alexy Dreev - 2004

See the above diagram. Black started counter play by playing 44.....c3 with a hope 45. bc3....Bb3 and draw but kasparov played an Important intermediate check 45. Nd3+ which turns the table. and kasparov went on win with following moves. 

44. Nd3+ Kb6 45. bxc3 Bb3 46. c4 Bxa4 47.Kd4 Bc2 48. c5+ Kc7 49. Bf3 Bb3 50. Be4 Ba4 51. Kc4 Bc2 52. Bf3 Ba4 53. Ne5 Kb754. Be4 Kc7 55. Nf3 Bd1 56. Nd4 Ba4 57. Bc2 Bxc2 58. Nxc2 Kd8 59. Nd4 1-0

Try to solve following positions with keep in mind the 'intermediate move' theme.

Anand vs Adams (White to Move)

Karmnik vs Aronian (White to Move)

In this game Black last move was ...bxc4 but after white's Intermediate move, Black resigned on the spot. Find the white's in between move

Evgney vs Peter Leko (White to Move)

What will you play as white?  Last move was Bxc6. as direct capturing on c6 would result into draw endgame. Instead of capturing on c6 Evgeny played another move and went on win.

Improving Chess Visualisation Skill

In Chess; I personally believe that positional thinking has upper hand over tactical blow however every chess player has came cross into situations where he or she has to calculate a lot over the chess board. In order to better calculation, board visualisation is a key skill where you must be capable of seeing the resulting position in your mind. Therefore, today I am going to share some advices on how to improve your visualisation skill, I gathered those by experience, reading books - articles and advice from GM.

• My Mentor Nigel Davies had advised me to solve puzzle blind is a great tool to enhance your visualisation skill as well as tactical skill.
• 'Guess the Move' software available free to download in which you can use any chess game in pgn format. This is recommended by Gm Nigel Davies on his website. Read article of GM Nigel on 'Guess the move' 
• You can use fritz in order to enhance your visualisation skill by using its calculation and training features
• There are some courses available in the market that claiming to improve your visualisation skills are...  chess Visualisation course by Gelvert Publishing LLC, Chess Master School’s main course in which you can find the method of improvising the same skill and chess maze 2 by NIC.
• Chess tempo is a free website which provides visualisation training and tactics training.

To sum up all this stuff, I can say that to solve puzzle in mind is perhaps the best way to improve visualisation skill. You can start with simple check mates and stretch up to complex endgame.

General Rules to improve your chess game

Today I am going to discuss some general rules briefly which ultimately useful in improvising your chess games. I have defined those rules by my experience, reading some expert’s books and discussing with my chess friends.

I am giving those rules to my students in three different categories.

I) Rules for Tactics:

• Always look for undefended piece of your opponent but don’t leave yours
• Consider all immediate checks and Intermediate checks (Source of most latent defence or attack)
• Try to count all relevant captures.

If you follow above rules, your tactical awareness will improve dramatically.

II) Rules to reduce blunders:

• Most important but missed by almost chess amateurs at different levels that is observing opponent’s last move
• Before move ask your self that are you giving some material free to your opponent? This type of mistake often seen at kid’s level or below 1500 players.

I am not claiming that by following above rules you will stop to make blunders but definitely you can drastically reduce those mistakes.

III) Rules in Endgame:

• Look for plans not for move for example first visualise position you would like to get then make a plan. I am sure you will definitely find good moves.
• Elimination: This method works very fine in endgame where you eliminate bad candidate moves one by one and remaining move can be played.
• Centralisation of your king.
• Be careful before exchange your pieces, for example you are exchanging a rook when you are a pawn down in the opposite you missed chance to exchange the rooks and game went to draw.

Here I have not given rules for opening which are easily available. Here you can add something which you got from your experience which may be useful to our amateurs’ community.

Working on chess Improvement for chess amateur not for the expert

There are so many articles written on how to improve your chess, how to plan your study for improvement, you talk with your friend with about improvement then suddenly you know oh he is doing preparation from this and that book … you bought the same book but not improving as your friend. Did you notice ever where the problem lies is? Where you missed?

Question can be answered by a simple counter question. Did you stick to your plan for longer period of plan? Particularly the people to whom I know the answer is no. so execution are much more important than the planning. You must have faith in you. Chess is not the thing that you can learn in a year or two. Chess improvement is a continuous process.

In my opinion to improve at particular thing included chess following things are must.

• You must be committed to work hard in organised way … I have so many chess books but how may have you finished yet?  Aha…
• You must have Mentor or Master. In India we say ‘GURU VINA GYAN NAHI’ means there is no knowledge without Master/Mentor… I am not able to understand what should I do? 
• You must have faith in you!!!
• The most important is ‘Implement what you plan’ … I am too innovative and creative but…. Hope you understand.

Studying chess in organised way my blog will be helpful tool for you where I am giving daily basis study material which will be ultimately helpful to you in improvising your chess game.

Prophylaxis Thinking in Chess

There are too many articles written on prophylaxis thinking in chess but how it can be explained in simplest terminology? The simple answer which a lay man can understand is ‘Prevention is better than cure’. I hope you understand the concept. 

You are not allowing your opponent to create threat against you or you are not allowing your opponent to place their piece in decisive square or position or even you are stopping your opponent to improve his/her position called prophylaxis. 

For example you are playing h3 to avoid back rank mate or to avoid pin, these moves are prophylaxis which we are playing subconsciously without having knowledge of prophylaxis thinking. Prophylaxis doesn't mean only pawn move. According to Mark Dvoretsky ‘’Prophylactic thinking is the habit of constantly asking yourself what your opponent wants to do, where he would go on his move, the ability to find a reply to the question that has been posed and to take it into account in your decision-making process’’ 

Now when you understand what prophylaxis thinking is, the major thing you need to do is, implementing the same in our game. As we all know planning is not a hard task to improve your chess but execution/implementation is the problem.