Three ways to improve in chess

Nowadays, there are lots of chess tutorials out there, including books, video lessons, courses, DVDs and the list goes on. But it is hard to remember them all; it’s merely an impossible task.

That’s why today we’re here to help you – a guest coach has prepared a lesson for you. Who is he? What’s this lesson about? Continue reading below and find out. 

About the author:

Hi! My name is Alexander Molchanov. I’m 28. I was born and I live in Togliatti, Russia. My FIDE rating is 2214 (peak 2231). In two tournaments I had a great (for me) performance rating (2506 and 2660).

3 not well-known ways to improve in chess

There are a lot of ways to improve in chess like solving puzzles, analyzing games, studying an opening or an endgame. All of them are very good. But today I want to tell you about less famous chess exercises.

1) Blindfold exercises:

Blindfold chess imitates the calculation. If you can’t play blindfold the whole game, the following exercises will help you a lot.

a) You should choose any square on the board. Then name

• the color;
• “brother” square – symmetric square over the center of the board;
• squares on the both diagonals.

b4-square

For example, you choose b4. It’s black. “Brother” square is g5. Squares on the 1st diagonal are a3, c5, d6, e7, f8. Squares on the 2nd diagonal are a5, c3, d2, e1.

b) You have Na1. You should be on each square of the board in a1-b1-c1-d1-e1-f1-g1-h1-a2-b2-…-h8 order.

A long journey to h8

Na1-c2-a3-b1 etc.

c) The toughest one. White Na1, Black Qd5. The task is analogous. But now it’s not allowed to be attacked by the queen.

A long and dangerous journey to h8

Na1-c2-a3-b1. Now we can’t go to d2 due to Qxd2. So we change the route. Nb1-c3-e2-c1. d1 is attacked, so we pass it and go to e1. Nc1-e2-c3-b1-a3-c2-e1.

If you can complete this exercise, you definitely can play blindfold chess.

2) Memorizing classical games:

After studying a game you should try to learn it by heart through replaying it several times on the board.

You can start with the classical game:

Morphy – Dukes, Paris-1858
White to move and mate in two

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Bg4 4.dxe5 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 dxe5 6.Bc4 Nf6 7.Qb3 Qe7 8.Nc3 c6 9.Bg5 b5 10.Nxb5 cxb5 11.Bxb5+ Nbd7 12.0–0–0 Rd8 13.Rxd7 Rxd7 14.Rd1 Qe6 15.Bxd7+ Nxd7 16.Qb8+ Nxb8 17.Rd8#

Note: You can find this complete game (along with a lesson) here.

This exercise will develop your chess intuition. You will have better feeling where the best squares for the pieces are.

3) Creating your own puzzles:

It helps you to feel the interaction between the pieces.

For example, you decided to create a puzzle on the topic of knight fork. You can start from the end.

Knight fork

And then move by move go to the beginning. White’s last move was Nf7, maybe Knight took the pawn. Before it King went to h8. But why? We decoyed him with Rook sacrifice. So let’s add white Rook on h-file.

For example, on h3. But King could go to g7 instead of taking the Rook. So let’s add black pawn on g7. In order to win the final position we append white g2-pawn. And we got the starting position.

White to move

The same algorithm can help us to create a checkmate puzzle.

Checkmate

The Knight deprives Black King’s retreat to f7 or g6. Also, we could use bishop for it. White’s last move was Qe5. But from where?

For example, from e8. Before it Black King from g7 went to f6. If he goes to h6 Qg6 would be mate. But Black King could go to h7. So we add a piece that can deprive him of h7-square. For example, Nd5 can go to f6. And we got the starting position.

White to move and mate in 2

This exercise will help you to keep good chess fit. Also, it will increase the reaction that has greatimportance in blitz games.

At the end, I’d like you to solve my puzzle.

White to move and mate in 3

You can find the solution here.

P.S. Did you like the lesson from our new guest coach?  Have you been following these methods before? Feel free to write in the comments below.

               <<Get a massive 30% discount on all RCA chess courses>> 

Recommended

Get the complete and UNIQUE 3-in-1 training system that will sharpen your tactics, calculation, and visualization skills like no other chess book, DVD, or training program could.

Get “Calculate Till Mate” by clicking HERE.

The greatest chess game everyone MUST know

Millions of chess games have been played over the history of chess. But there is only a small percentage of games that will be the most influential, most important and most instructive. And every aspiring chess player simply MUST know these few games.

Today we will talk about one of them. It was a game played by the greatest player from the U.S. (probably together with Bobby Fischer), Paul Morphy.
In this video lesson, I will not only show this game of Morphy’s but will also explain the main ideas he used in it, so that you can do the same in YOUR own games!

For instance, in this game, you will notice that Morphy did not allow his opponent to play the moves on his mind. Rather, his opponent was only able to react to Morphy’s moves. Sounds like a magic trick, doesn’t it? 

In this lesson, you will learn about the following:

• three main rules that Morphy followed to devastate his opponents
• when to make a sacrifice
• how to determine whether or not a sacrifice is worthwhile
• evaluating a position
• and lots more

Another interesting fact is that Morphy understood these concepts and ideas 150 years ago! It is mind-blowing how he was able to do so, while many chess players of today still struggle to understand chess completely.

You can watch the video lesson below:

You can check the PGN of the game mentioned at the end of the video here.

<<Get a massive 30% discount on all RCA chess courses>>

P.S. Did you enjoy this lesson? Please share this instructive lesson with your friends. Can you think of any other “greatest chess game(s)”? Feel free to comment below and discuss! :) 

Launch of RCA’s new shop and special offers

A few days ago, I announced that the RCA shop would be improved with regard to design and interface, and that it would be up and running soon. Today is the day: the new and improved RCA shop is live! 

The benefits YOU will get from this new shop are:

• Fewer categories and products to make life easier for you. Only the best courses chosen by our students (YOU) will be left there
• Shorter and friendlier product descriptions that will make it simpler for you to preview the courses
• The most popular courses of RCA, and the courses ‘on sale’ will be selected for the home page of the shop, making it easier for you to pick the right course for you.
• You will be able to rate the courses and post your reviews yourselves.

Second, I promised that I would have some surprises for you. We understand that it might be difficult for some of you to ‘digest’ this transition. That’s why, to help you go through this change and to celebrate the launch of the new shop, I’m going to provide you with a nice offer.

I’m offering everyone a huge 30% discount – which applies to all RCA products!  This discount will bevalid until Monday 6 June (included).

Note: the prices of products in the shop will automatically be reduced to the discounted price. Therefore, you need not apply any coupon – we’ve already made it easy for you with the new shop. 

Enjoy your shopping now by clicking the below link.

<<Shop now and grab the offer>>

Yes, he will

The Carlsen consent

After a period of suspense, World champion Magnus Carlsen has agreed to defend his crown against Viswanathan Anand in Sochi from November 5.

By P. K. Ajith Kumar.

Will he, won’t he?

That was the question the chess world had been asking for a while, ever since World champion Magnus Carlsen expressed doubts about defending his crown. He had reservations about the venue, Sochi, where, FIDE had announced, the World championship match between the Norwegian and India’s Viswanathan Anand would be held from November 5 to 25.

Carlsen wasn’t happy with the venue and the prize-money of $ 3 million, which was one million less than what the last World championship in Chennai offered. Carlsen’s manager Epsen Agdestein sought a postponement of the event, citing unrest in Ukraine. FIDE, perhaps bolstered further by its president Kirsan Ilymuzhinov’s election victory against Garry Kasparov, refused. “This match has been part of the official tournament calendar since last year, and a postponement could lead to problems with the current calendar,” Ilyumzhinov said.

Carlsen’s deadline to sign the contract was August 31, which clashed with his participation at the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis (US). FIDE though allowed an extension of the deadline till September 7, the final day of the Sinquefield Cup, which was also the strongest tournament in chess history.

Carlsen wasn’t exactly having a great time in Saint Louis and had to be the second best to Italian Fabiano Caruana, who played incredibly brilliant chess to win the tournament by a whopping three points (see box). On September 7, Carslen signed the contract. He also posted a photo of him signing the agreement on his Twitter account, captioning, “It has been a pleasure signing autographs for the fans in St. Louis. After the tournament I found the time for 1 more.”

That ended all the speculation. Chess followers were wondering if Carlsen would forfeit the title like Bobby Fischer — the biggest global superstar in chess before him — did or if he would arrange parallel World championships, like Garry Kasparov used to do, with someone like Levon Aronian, the World No. 2.

The world can now look forward to another battle of wits between Carlsen and Anand. Part 1 in Chennai was a big letdown, with the younger man comprehensively defeating the defending champion, who was playing in his hometown. The Indian genius could not win even a game. But, if you looked closer, you could find that the chess Anand played wasn’t as anywhere near as bad as the score-line would suggest.

More than Carlsen’s brilliance, it was Anand’s mistakes that decided the match. The genial genius got it strategically wrong too, as he did not, until it was too late, play to his strength of sharp, tactical chess; he had chosen, fatally, to take on Carslen in his own waiting game. Chess pundits, not surprisingly, were quick to write Anand off and gave little chance for him to earn the right to challenge Carlsen again.

He proved all of them wrong by winning the qualifying event, the Candidates tournament at Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia) last March in some style. He was seeded fourth, behind Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov, and was the oldest in the field of eight.

In November, Carlsen could very well find Sochi, which had hosted the Winter Olympics earlier in the year, much hotter than Chennai.

Caruana cruisess past Carlsen

Apart from the Sochi World championship in November, the Sinquefield Cup was going to be the biggest event of the year in chess. The line-up was the strongest ever for a tournament. It was double-round robin featuring six of the finest players in the world: Carlsen (Elo rating 2877), Aronian (2807), Caruana (2801), Hikaru Nakamura (2787), Topalov (2772) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2768).

Carlsen, statistically the strongest player of all time, was the favourite, but he could only finish runner-up, with 5.5 points, as Caruana ran away with the title and $ 100,000.

It was a remarkable show by the Italian, who won his first seven games — that is extraordinary at this level. It would remain one of the greatest performances of all time in chess. He finished with 8.5 points, after conceding draws to Carlsen, Nakamura and Aronian in the second leg.

Source: http://www.sportstaronnet.com

Anand wins Bilbao

Viswanathan Anand took an unbeatable four-point lead over top seed Levon Aronian to ensure the title with a round to spare in the Bilbao Chess Masters Finals at the Spanish town of Bilbao on Friday.

Draws on both boards meant Anand maintained his overnight four-point lead.

On Friday, Anand comfortably drew with former World champion Ukraine’s Ruslan Ponomariov following perpetual checks in their 41-move battle in Queen’s Gambit Declined. This equal battle reached an ending involving two minor pieces each, following a series of exchanges. Anand forced the perpetual checks when in danger in losing his bishop.

On the other board, Francisco Vallejo gave nothing away to Aronian and came out with honours even against the World’s second-ranked player.

Employing Semi-Tarrasch Defence, Vallejo kept the position in balance. In the rook-and-pawn endgame that followed, Aronian tried until 59 moves to rattle an off-form Vallejo but in vain.

The results: Fifth round: Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 5) drew with Viswanathan Anand (11); Levon Aronian (Arm, 7) drew with Francisco Vallejo (Esp, 2).

Sixth round pairings: Aronian-Anand; Vallejo-Ponomariov.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com