How to Win at Chess
64
Mike Serovey on Chess
Let me state up front that I am not a chess master or even an expert. My highest USCF over the board rating was 1793. My highest USCF correspondence chess rating was 1940. I did make it into the top quarter of tournament chess players in the US. I have been playing in chess tournaments offf and on since November of 1974. I have read many books on chess and magaizine articles on chess. They have helped me some, but obviously not enough considering my current rating.
One of the books that I have yet to read is Think Like A Grandmaster by Alexander Kotov. The ISBN is 978-0713478853. I have read excerpts from the book, though.
At my level of chess most games are won or lost because someone messed up. I rarely win because of a brilliant move that I found. Likewise, when I lose it is because I messed up somewhere. I am still trying to figure out how to error proof my chess games. In the remainder of this article I am going to make some suggestions on how to improve your play and avoid errors. Let me state up front that I cannot make any guarantees of your individual results.
I took chess lessons from a USCF Life Master named Tom Stiers. One of the first things that he taught me was to look at each move that I was planning to make and then to consider each possible reply that my opponent can make to those moves. I have lost many games because I overlooked one of my opponent's replies! The problem is that this advice is difficult to apply if you are playing a game with a fast time limit. If you take the time to look at all of your opponent's possible moves you will lose on time forfeit! A balance needs to be made between analysing a positon and moving quickly enough to stay ahead of the clock. I have always done very poorly at blitz chess because if I take the time needed to avoid blunders I lose on time and if I move quickly I blunder. However, even in correspondence chess games, where I have plenty of time and can use books and magazines to help me, I still blunder at times! One of the things that can help in correspondence chess games is using databases of master games. I have taken the time to create databases of old master level games ordered by opening. What is time consuming is going through these games and marking the moves that win for White, the ones that win for Black, and the ones that draw. However, the payoff for doing this analysis is knowing which moves to avoid when playing either Black or White.
Getting lessons from someone who is better at chess than you are is also helpful, if you can afford to do so. Taking chess lessons from Tom Stiers actually hurt my chess rating! Instead of building on what I already knew he created confusion by changing my openings for both Black and White. When I was playing these new openings in tournaments I would forget what he showed me to play or I would end up in positions that I had never seen before. Because I didn't understand the ideas and theory behind each opening I would often be lost! If you are going to pay for chess lessons, make sure that your teacher is not only beter than you are but also someone who knows how to teach you. What works for John may not work for you!
There are chess books that you can buy (see the links below). Some are on general theory and have names like My System,Pawn Power in Chess, and Think Like A Grandmaster . Others are more specific to openings or endgames. If you study any well written chess book it can only help improve your chess game. You can also buy chess software like Fritz and you can buy lessons on DVD. Grandmaster Roman Dzindzichashvili DVDs can be a big help to you in improving your chess game, if you can afford to buy them.
You can check out my chess games, and my beginner's page, at my chess site. I also have a book store that you can check out. All of these wonderful things that may help you to improve your chess game are located at http://www.mikeseroveyonchess.com.
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Blitz Theory: How to Win at Blitz Chess
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How to Win at Chess: A Complete Course I.A Horowitz First edition 4 books in One
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How to Win At Chess by Daniel King
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How to Win at Chess: A Complete Course
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- Name Your Opening Simultaneous Exhibition
I got this from my friend, Mike Hoffer: London Master Andy Hammond is offering a Name Your Opening Simultaneous Exhibition for our club at 5035 E. Busch Blvd. this coming Thursday night, April 26, 6:30-8:30 PM (Only $10 for a chance to defeat a polished English Master). Mr. Hammond will be White, yet will play whatever reasonable opening you request for him to play against you. Start booking up!Yes2Chess welcomes its newest member, London Master Andrew Hammond. We are honored that Andy has become a splendid, entertaining, and valued fixture for our club, courtesy of the Royal Air Force stationing him at MacDill AFB for the few months he will be Stateside. Andy is a superb blitz player complete with smack talk and the repertoire to back it up! NEW Yes2Chess CLUB FORMAT! Weekly Yes2Chess events: 1st Thursday USCF Rated Quads (or Swiss depending on entries) - $10 entry fee2nd Thursday Blitz tournament - $5 entry fee NEW!3rd Thursday Demonstration board training session (closed to the public) - $10 entry fee4th Thursday Special events such as simultaneous exhibitions While many of you realize chess is an excellent vehicle to snap-up college scholarships, for some chess is a whim. With the dip in our economy, whims tend to go by the wayside, so we have made our fees far more affordable. We have also been missing variety and urgency. While our tournaments have developed a faithful following, by doing the same thing every week at club, there was no urgency to attend on any particular week, so we now alternate activities. We value your input! BEGINNERS’ CLASSES MAY SCHEDULE: $45 for THREE WEEKS 2nd, 3rd, & 4th Thursdays, 6:30-8:30 PM May 10 Basic FundamentalsMay 17 Tactics & Positional Play with British Master Andy HammondMay 24 Novice TournamentMonthly Yes2Chess events:All Star Prep Scholastic Chess Tournament – Over/Under 800: Saturday, May 12, 12-5pm Memorial Weekend Open Chess Tournament – Saturday, May 26 @ 12:15-6:30 pmTampa Chess Centre Club & Classes by Hoffer’s Chess AcademyOfficial Affiliate of the United States Chess FederationPush Pawns Not Drugs! Say Yes 2 Chess!Thursday Nights 6:30-8:30 PM @ Tampa Chess CentreBusch Commercial Plaza, 5035 E. Busch Blvd., Suite 10, Tampa, 33617www.Yes2Chess.com CoachMike@Yes2Chess.com(813) 526-2257
- Latest Chess Ratings at Stan's Net Chess
Eventually I am going to get around to posting my goals for this year. For now, here is what I have accomplished so far at Stan's Net Chess: Statistics for OnGoldenPawn rating [need] win loss draw total best Blitz 1242 [2] 57 63 14 134 1441 (13-Mar-2005) Standard 1957 302 262 88 652 1958 (14-Feb-2012) 5-minute 851 [8] 1 2 0 3 Correspondence 1750 [1] 31 15 10 56 1750 (09-Nov-2011) Because I am still having trouble getting paired into correspondence chess events, and it seems that other people cannot challenge me to CC games, I will probably never get my CC rating over 1800. I was told by someone who wanted to play some correspondence chess games with me that my settings would not allow him to challenge me and I still do not know how to correct that. Mike Serovey, MA, MISM USCF Certified Local Tournament Director
- Regional Scholastic Championship
I got this from Coach Willard Taylor: Entries are coming in from all over the state. So far we have 5 counties represented. It would be a shame if some of the top players and teams wouldn't receive this information on the West Florida Regionals and miss out on a chance to go to All-Stars just because some of the area coaches don't release the information to their teams. So if your team doesn't compete in this great local event (which last year had over 100 players) ask your coach(s) "Why Not?") Come join the fun! Thanks for all your support, Coach Taylor 727-8852 FSCL West Regional Championships Feb 18th, Reg 9:30-10:30, Round 1 at 11 1st Church, 2202 E Busch Blvd, Tpa 33612 What: 4-rds, Swiss-Sys (no elimination), Game-30 5-sec delay. Fully USCF Rated ( The top winners of this tournament are invited to ALL-STARS in April) Who: Any school age child, public, private or homeschool. Individual or team. Sections: K-1, K-3, K-5, K-8 & K-12. Awards: Top 15 each (K-12 top 5), Top 5 teams (K-12 top 2) Times: Reg 9:30-10:30. Round 1 at 11am. Rd 2 at 12:30, Rds 3-4 asap. Cost: Reg by 2/15 $20, after $30. Email entries(by 2/15) pay that day- no penalty USCF required, may join that day. Cost is $12 under 13yrs, over $18. Entry (all by 2/15) 1) email to: function scramble(){ var p1,p2,p3,p4,p5,p6 p1='' p1+='lto:' p2+='@' p5='' p6='Coach Willard Taylor' p2+='aol.com' p4=p6 document.write(p1+p2+p3+p4+p5) } scramble() //--> 2)call Coach T 813-727-8852 or 3) mail to: TBCC, 103 Druid Hills, Tampa, 33617. Checks to: TBCC
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Actually, chess is considered to be 65% strategy and 35% tactics. Tactics are short term attacks that can lead to victory, but in order to win consistently you must combine this with a solid strategical and positional understanding to both improve your position and hinder your opponents position.
JJ Mason, I agree with your comments on strategy and tactics but have to say this; I rarely make strategic blunders. Most of my losses are due to bad tactics like unsound sacrifices and dropping a piece.
FunFacter 3 years ago
Best way to win at chess is to learn and practice tactics, it is the primary art in chess. If you cannot see a bank rank mate or if you cannot see a queen sack will get you checkmate then it is no point playing.
Best way is to really practice and practice and practice the tactics so that you eyes get sharp at finding those..