ChessNut Academy - High-Quality Chess Education -Develop Skills

Isn’t that the big problem you have with calculation – trying to calculate everything in case you missed something? Imagine you could accurately calculate as many variations as you want… Ok, stop imagining that because it is just not humanly possible to calculate thousands of variations, nevermind millions. You need an effective way to  cut down on the amount moves  you have to calculate. There are only  3 kind of moves  which you should always calculate carefully: Checks Captures Threats (a move that carries a threat – attacking your piece or threatening a tactic) Checks, captures and threats are the 3 kind of moves which is essential to  calculate in every position ! And that goes not only for your moves, but also the responses of your opponent. So what to do when there are no checks, captures or threats in the position? Or what if you calculated all the checks, captures and threats and find nothing special about it? Strategy time. Finding a plan for the positi

As beginners, we are invariably warned that pawn grabbing in the opening is a cardinal sin. Indeed, what could be more incautious than throwing your development to the wind and setting yourself up for tactical calamity? Pawn grabbing usually stems from a short-sighted mentality outlined by GM Serper in his excellent article The Deadly Opening Sin: "Yeah, I know, don't worry, I will finish my development for sure, but first let me take the tasty little pawn that my opponent left unguarded." Frequently, a player will neglect his development in favor of material because he sees no forced tactical refutation, and simply assumes that he will find a way to neutralize his opponent's initiative. The fallacy of this approach was seared into my memory ten years ago: My opponent's incredibly disciplined and accurate play leads to a crucial point: when punishing a pawn-grabber, it is important to moderate your expectations. If there is no direct refutation, you should pa

Would you like to improve your chess? Use a good chess strategy to win your game.  On this page you can find some chess strategies that are worth knowing. What is Chess Strategy? The term chess strategy is often used as opposed to chess tactics.  Tactics, as you probably know, are merely combinations. They may be easy or very difficult, but they're always aimed at winning material (or delivering mate) and are very concrete. I consider chess tactics to be the basic building blocks to a chess game. You don't need much knowledge of chess strategy to be able to play a game. You just need to know the goal of the game (delivering mate) and how the pieces move and you're good to go. Chess strategy on the other hand, has to do with the evaluation of the chess position and the setting of goals and long-term plans. It is the overall decision making process. To find a winning strategy you need knowledge of tactics as well as positional uderstanding. Think of a gen

  After long and sometimes hard experience, I've come to the conclusion that the most effective pre-tournament preparation consists of sharpening and focusing what you are (or should be) doing for your longer-term training efforts.  This contrasts with the more common pre-tournament routine in which over the space of a week or two (at best) or a couple days (more often) players mostly spend time on openings and doing tactical drills, then put everything aside until the next tournament. This type of staccato and rushed approach resulted in little success for me as an adult player.  During the scholastic phase of my career, I played in tournaments quite often, so without really trying I had constant exposure to new chess concepts and practical lessons, even though my (self-taught) training was not systematic.  There's a lot to be said for simply playing a lot of longer time control games, which looking back on it now was probably my best chess improvement practice. Now wit

Putting together a training schedule for yourself sounds like an easy task. No problem! I'll just study openings on Monday, do some middlgame strategy on Tuesday, then perhaps some endgames on Wednesday, and sprinkle some online games here and there. But in reality, if you are like me, it's difficult to do because we, as chessplayers, are averse to doing anything that is not really fun. Half way through your opening sessions you find yourself suddenly emmersed in a bullet tournament on ICC or Playchess. Endings? Bah! I know Lucena's - good enough. It is a lack of discipline in our non-playing activities that keep us right were we settle in the rating scale. ANY player can steadily improve if they apply a basic schedule to their studies and become persistent in executing those studies. In fact, I would venture that outside of any extraordinary talent, any player can see improvement up to the 2100-2200 rating level using this study plan as a guide. This 4-day study plan enco

There are three primary types of positions in chess and it is very important to know which type of position you are in throughout your games. One type of position may have completely different ideas from another type of position, and understanding the type of position better than your opponent can be a key factor to winning the game. Also, certain openings create specific types of positions, and recognizing these positions will give you a deeper comprehension of opening plans and propel you to a stronger level of play. What are these three types of positions that we are talking about? They are closed, open and semi-open positions. Each type of position comes with its own possible plans and speed with which you need to execute these plans. Failing to follow these guidelines can cause you to fall into difficult situations that your opponent will have a much easier time capitalizing on. Each type of position has key differences from the other types, and we’ll break these down right no

I knew this would not be short, but what can I say - this will be useful for the rest of your chess career … Or maybe you will decide to end it right now after reading this!   So before you start, go to the bathroom, then grab yourself a snack and a soda and start reading like you have all the time in the world ...   *** Why should we analyze our games? Because... A - We can compare our decisions against concrete evidence. B - We can look deep inside our thought processes. C - If done correctly, we will learn about the openings we play, the structures presented in those openings, and the endgames that we never had a chance to practice. If the analysis is completed new ideas will appear and you will know a little more about yourself when started. D - When you analyze your games properly, all your mistakes come to the surface (knowledge, mental processes, recurring errors, etc.), and you will be one step further towards correcting them. The sweat you spend a