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Questions from a player stuck at 800-900 for over 4 years

#31

@nizzledizzleshizzle said in #28:

Will need to read this a couple of times. Very cool and grateful.

Seems like I could pick a board, place an opening and see what squares they control?

When you study the opening, you will read or hear what the opening aims to do, which involves which squares are the important ones to control for that strategy to work, thus the moves.

So, yes.

So, for instance. Italian.

Aims to attack f7. How do you attack it? e4 to give access to the bishop to c4, which attacks f7. Then the queen can reach that square with Qf3 or Qh5. The knight can jump to f3 and g5, but needs to control g5 before, so d3/d4 has to be played at some point to give the protection to the knight with the bishop. Etc.

Obviously the opponent will try to avoid it, you will have to figure out how to keep adding pressure to f7, or how to prevent your opponent to defend it, or how to prevent your opponent to dislodge your position. So you check which squares have to be controlled to interrupt his attempts of defense, or his attempts to dislodge your position. But at the same time, he can counter instead, so you have to keep an eye where he wants to counter and how, thus, knowing which squares he needs to do so, so you can prevent it.

But its a square control game. You just need to know which ones are important in any given moment. And they change over time according to the position and material available.

Its not an easy skill to acquire, to read the board, but its worth the time invested. Learning the opening itself is a waste of time. At most, knowing what the aims of the openings are, but not memorizing a 15-25 moveset.

If you know the aim, you can figure out how to carry it out if you have good chess principles that save you from wasting moves. Thats why you see lightning attacks in the openings, not wasting moves. They control the squares they have to do to execute the strategy without delay, which will often times are accelerated by allowing it to happen.

@nizzledizzleshizzle said in #28: > Will need to read this a couple of times. Very cool and grateful. > > Seems like I could pick a board, place an opening and see what squares they control? When you study the opening, you will read or hear what the opening aims to do, which involves which squares are the important ones to control for that strategy to work, thus the moves. So, yes. So, for instance. Italian. Aims to attack f7. How do you attack it? e4 to give access to the bishop to c4, which attacks f7. Then the queen can reach that square with Qf3 or Qh5. The knight can jump to f3 and g5, but needs to control g5 before, so d3/d4 has to be played at some point to give the protection to the knight with the bishop. Etc. Obviously the opponent will try to avoid it, you will have to figure out how to keep adding pressure to f7, or how to prevent your opponent to defend it, or how to prevent your opponent to dislodge your position. So you check which squares have to be controlled to interrupt his attempts of defense, or his attempts to dislodge your position. But at the same time, he can counter instead, so you have to keep an eye where he wants to counter and how, thus, knowing which squares he needs to do so, so you can prevent it. But its a square control game. You just need to know which ones are important in any given moment. And they change over time according to the position and material available. Its not an easy skill to acquire, to read the board, but its worth the time invested. Learning the opening itself is a waste of time. At most, knowing what the aims of the openings are, but not memorizing a 15-25 moveset. If you know the aim, you can figure out how to carry it out if you have good chess principles that save you from wasting moves. Thats why you see lightning attacks in the openings, not wasting moves. They control the squares they have to do to execute the strategy without delay, which will often times are accelerated by allowing it to happen.
#32

@nadjarostowa said in #29:

Opening principles are very important, but not the whole story. Whatever material you look at, it will give pretty similar advice: develop your pieces, control the center, bring your king into safety.

Looking at the game posted in #25, you would never play 9...d5 if you followed the principles. Opening the e-file against your uncastled king, and blundering pawns away. You would simply castle instead. The computer doesn't care and says your advantage is big enough and doesn't even mark it as a mistake...

But tactics still trump opening principles every time. If you think of the other game posted (with 10 blunders per side)... it doesn't matter how you come out of the opening, if the game swings around and around and around. Serious questions arise:

  • On move 10, you could just grab a pawn in front of the opponent's king absolutely for free, but you retreated with the bishop. Why?
  • On move 20, you moved your rook away (Rfd8). Before, it was defending a massively attacked f7 pawn, now it just stares into its own pawn on d6. Why?
  • On move 34 you attack their queen with your bishop, and the queen moves one square along that diagonal. You do not capture it. Why?

Those were not even tactics where you would need to see 1 move ahead. You just pick up the pieces!

On move 38 you gave a check (h6+), which gives your opponent two legal moves, one of them is just capturing the pawn with the queen and checking you, in fact it would have been check mate. You absolutely need to consider moves by the opponent!

Instead, on move 38 you could have used the alignment of king and queen and played Bd8+, winning their queen.

One of the big rules is "CCT", checks, captures, threats. Looking for any of those would have prevented every mistakes.

You can only find what you are looking for. If you attack their queen but then don't capture it, no amount of chess theory ever will solve this. While reading on opening principles is fine, it won't yield significant results unless you address those most basic blunders.

TLDR:

  1. After each move by your opponent, consider ALL your possible moves, and look at ALL their current threats.
  2. Before you make your move, consider ALL their possible responses.

If you are doing this just one move deep, you are way ahead of the game at your level.

One answer I can give you, because they are 2 where completely without plan. And that's the rook move you mentioned. What's different on Lichess compared to Chess.com, is that you move a piece rather quickly haha so what you are seeing was one of the first things I was considering...

Doesn't take away you are right. I am often clueless in midgame and no way too little principles both for opening and midgame.

@nadjarostowa said in #29: > Opening principles are very important, but not the whole story. Whatever material you look at, it will give pretty similar advice: develop your pieces, control the center, bring your king into safety. > > Looking at the game posted in #25, you would never play 9...d5 if you followed the principles. Opening the e-file against your uncastled king, and blundering pawns away. You would simply castle instead. The computer doesn't care and says your advantage is big enough and doesn't even mark it as a mistake... > > But tactics still trump opening principles every time. If you think of the other game posted (with 10 blunders per side)... it doesn't matter how you come out of the opening, if the game swings around and around and around. Serious questions arise: > > - On move 10, you could just grab a pawn in front of the opponent's king absolutely for free, but you retreated with the bishop. Why? > - On move 20, you moved your rook away (Rfd8). Before, it was defending a massively attacked f7 pawn, now it just stares into its own pawn on d6. Why? > - On move 34 you attack their queen with your bishop, and the queen moves one square along that diagonal. You do not capture it. Why? > > Those were not even tactics where you would need to see 1 move ahead. You just pick up the pieces! > > On move 38 you gave a check (h6+), which gives your opponent two legal moves, one of them is just capturing the pawn with the queen and checking you, in fact it would have been check mate. You absolutely need to consider moves by the opponent! > > Instead, on move 38 you could have used the alignment of king and queen and played Bd8+, winning their queen. > > One of the big rules is "CCT", checks, captures, threats. Looking for any of those would have prevented every mistakes. > > You can only find what you are looking for. If you attack their queen but then don't capture it, no amount of chess theory ever will solve this. While reading on opening principles is fine, it won't yield significant results unless you address those most basic blunders. > > TLDR: > 1) After each move by your opponent, consider ALL your possible moves, and look at ALL their current threats. > 2) Before you make your move, consider ALL their possible responses. > > If you are doing this just one move deep, you are way ahead of the game at your level. One answer I can give you, because they are 2 where completely without plan. And that's the rook move you mentioned. What's different on Lichess compared to Chess.com, is that you move a piece rather quickly haha so what you are seeing was one of the first things I was considering... Doesn't take away you are right. I am often clueless in midgame and no way too little principles both for opening and midgame.
#33

That's the merit of playing at beginner level. You can learn in every single aspect quite easily. Enjoy while it lasts. :-)

That's the merit of playing at beginner level. You can learn in every single aspect quite easily. Enjoy while it lasts. :-)
#34

@Alientcp said in #31:

When you study the opening, you will read or hear what the opening aims to do, which involves which squares are the important ones to control for that strategy to work, thus the moves.

So, yes.

So, for instance. Italian.

Aims to attack f7. How do you attack it? e4 to give access to the bishop to c4, which attacks f7. Then the queen can reach that square with Qf3 or Qh5. The knight can jump to f3 and g5, but needs to control g5 before, so d3/d4 has to be played at some point to give the protection to the knight with the bishop. Etc.

Obviously the opponent will try to avoid it, you will have to figure out how to keep adding pressure to f7, or how to prevent your opponent to defend it, or how to prevent your opponent to dislodge your position. So you check which squares have to be controlled to interrupt his attempts of defense, or his attempts to dislodge your position. But at the same time, he can counter instead, so you have to keep an eye where he wants to counter and how, thus, knowing which squares he needs to do so, so you can prevent it.

But its a square control game. You just need to know which ones are important in any given moment. And they change over time according to the position and material available.

Its not an easy skill to acquire, to read the board, but its worth the time invested. Learning the opening itself is a waste of time. At most, knowing what the aims of the openings are, but not memorizing a 15-25 moveset.

If you know the aim, you can figure out how to carry it out if you have good chess principles that save you from wasting moves. Thats why you see lightning attacks in the openings, not wasting moves. They control the squares they have to do to execute the strategy without delay, which will often times are accelerated by allowing it to happen.

Thanks again. But what I am missing is how I learn that? Youtube is a bit of my go-to learning thing. But maybe there are more optimal ways to learn what I need to do

@Alientcp said in #31: > When you study the opening, you will read or hear what the opening aims to do, which involves which squares are the important ones to control for that strategy to work, thus the moves. > > So, yes. > > So, for instance. Italian. > > Aims to attack f7. How do you attack it? e4 to give access to the bishop to c4, which attacks f7. Then the queen can reach that square with Qf3 or Qh5. The knight can jump to f3 and g5, but needs to control g5 before, so d3/d4 has to be played at some point to give the protection to the knight with the bishop. Etc. > > Obviously the opponent will try to avoid it, you will have to figure out how to keep adding pressure to f7, or how to prevent your opponent to defend it, or how to prevent your opponent to dislodge your position. So you check which squares have to be controlled to interrupt his attempts of defense, or his attempts to dislodge your position. But at the same time, he can counter instead, so you have to keep an eye where he wants to counter and how, thus, knowing which squares he needs to do so, so you can prevent it. > > But its a square control game. You just need to know which ones are important in any given moment. And they change over time according to the position and material available. > > Its not an easy skill to acquire, to read the board, but its worth the time invested. Learning the opening itself is a waste of time. At most, knowing what the aims of the openings are, but not memorizing a 15-25 moveset. > > If you know the aim, you can figure out how to carry it out if you have good chess principles that save you from wasting moves. Thats why you see lightning attacks in the openings, not wasting moves. They control the squares they have to do to execute the strategy without delay, which will often times are accelerated by allowing it to happen. Thanks again. But what I am missing is how I learn that? Youtube is a bit of my go-to learning thing. But maybe there are more optimal ways to learn what I need to do
#35

@nadjarostowa said in #33:

That's the merit of playing at beginner level. You can learn in every single aspect quite easily. Enjoy while it lasts. :-)

Well, this year I really want to go add 100-200 to my rating. Is that realistic?

@nadjarostowa said in #33: > That's the merit of playing at beginner level. You can learn in every single aspect quite easily. Enjoy while it lasts. :-) Well, this year I really want to go add 100-200 to my rating. Is that realistic?
#36

@nizzledizzleshizzle said in #21:

Are there some Youtube videos about chess opening principles that are worth watching?
I will just say that, if you really want to LEARN openings, and not ENTERTAIN yourselves, channels worth watching are Hanging Pawns and ChessBase India.
Don't watch GothamChess and GMHikaru if you want to LEARN.
See this blog by @nikhildixit for more information:
https://lichess.org/@/nikhildixit/blog/16-best-chess-youtube-channels/rRQeubRw
https://lichess.org/@/nikhildixit/blog/11-best-chess-youtube-channels-part-2/PCJCyO2e
For openings, for your level I think Giuco Piano and Italian Game would be the best from white, and simple berlin's defense from black against ruy lopez, and simple king's pawn from black if white plays e4. Not to wander off on other complicated openings like KID, KIA, Grunfeld, Najdorf Sicilian, or any of those like that. At your level, traps also work very good, and many people just learn traps and gambits to get some quick wins. If you wanna practice that, then only learn traps/gambits which allow a equal position if your opponent knows the correct defense, and if they don't, then they lose. So in this case Scotch Gambit and Fried Liver could be a good choice.
I am currently playing 800 ELO on chess.com, and 1300 at lichess.com.
Also its lichess.org :)

@nizzledizzleshizzle said in #21: > Are there some Youtube videos about chess opening principles that are worth watching? I will just say that, if you really want to LEARN openings, and not ENTERTAIN yourselves, channels worth watching are Hanging Pawns and ChessBase India. Don't watch GothamChess and GMHikaru if you want to LEARN. See this blog by @nikhildixit for more information: https://lichess.org/@/nikhildixit/blog/16-best-chess-youtube-channels/rRQeubRw https://lichess.org/@/nikhildixit/blog/11-best-chess-youtube-channels-part-2/PCJCyO2e For openings, for your level I think Giuco Piano and Italian Game would be the best from white, and simple berlin's defense from black against ruy lopez, and simple king's pawn from black if white plays e4. Not to wander off on other complicated openings like KID, KIA, Grunfeld, Najdorf Sicilian, or any of those like that. At your level, traps also work very good, and many people just learn traps and gambits to get some quick wins. If you wanna practice that, then only learn traps/gambits which allow a equal position if your opponent knows the correct defense, and if they don't, then they lose. So in this case Scotch Gambit and Fried Liver could be a good choice. > I am currently playing 800 ELO on chess.com, and 1300 at lichess.com. Also its lichess.org :)
#37

@AyaanshGaur12 said in #36:

I will just say that, if you really want to LEARN openings, and not ENTERTAIN yourselves, channels worth watching are Hanging Pawns and ChessBase India.
Don't watch GothamChess and GMHikaru if you want to LEARN.
See this blog by @nikhildixit for more information:
lichess.org/@/nikhildixit/blog/16-best-chess-youtube-channels/rRQeubRw
lichess.org/@/nikhildixit/blog/11-best-chess-youtube-channels-part-2/PCJCyO2e
For openings, for your level I think Giuco Piano and Italian Game would be the best from white, and simple berlin's defense from black against ruy lopez, and simple king's pawn from black if white plays e4. Not to wander off on other complicated openings like KID, KIA, Grunfeld, Najdorf Sicilian, or any of those like that. At your level, traps also work very good, and many people just learn traps and gambits to get some quick wins. If you wanna practice that, then only learn traps/gambits which allow a equal position if your opponent knows the correct defense, and if they don't, then they lose. So in this case Scotch Gambit and Fried Liver could be a good choice.

Also its lichess.org :)

I read that blog and now folluw 27 channels on youtube :) But only check it if it has "beginner" or something in the title.

@AyaanshGaur12 said in #36: > I will just say that, if you really want to LEARN openings, and not ENTERTAIN yourselves, channels worth watching are Hanging Pawns and ChessBase India. > Don't watch GothamChess and GMHikaru if you want to LEARN. > See this blog by @nikhildixit for more information: > lichess.org/@/nikhildixit/blog/16-best-chess-youtube-channels/rRQeubRw > lichess.org/@/nikhildixit/blog/11-best-chess-youtube-channels-part-2/PCJCyO2e > For openings, for your level I think Giuco Piano and Italian Game would be the best from white, and simple berlin's defense from black against ruy lopez, and simple king's pawn from black if white plays e4. Not to wander off on other complicated openings like KID, KIA, Grunfeld, Najdorf Sicilian, or any of those like that. At your level, traps also work very good, and many people just learn traps and gambits to get some quick wins. If you wanna practice that, then only learn traps/gambits which allow a equal position if your opponent knows the correct defense, and if they don't, then they lose. So in this case Scotch Gambit and Fried Liver could be a good choice. > > Also its lichess.org :) I read that blog and now folluw 27 channels on youtube :) But only check it if it has "beginner" or something in the title.
#38

@nizzledizzleshizzle said in #35:

Well, this year I really want to go add 100-200 to my rating. Is that realistic?
Oh, that sure is. I mean people add 600 rating points, and if you look at it more closely, 366 days is a LOT of time, unless you are busy doing your job or studying at a school/university. Still, if you play an average 3 games in classical, 5 games in rapid or 10 games in blitz (choose one). You could easily earn rating points, which don't matter that much when you start wandering into OTB tournaments, especially rated ones. I would recommend you to get a coach if you have free time to learn chess, and want to sort of pursue it as a passion and not just a hobby.

@nizzledizzleshizzle said in #35: > Well, this year I really want to go add 100-200 to my rating. Is that realistic? Oh, that sure is. I mean people add 600 rating points, and if you look at it more closely, 366 days is a LOT of time, unless you are busy doing your job or studying at a school/university. Still, if you play an average 3 games in classical, 5 games in rapid or 10 games in blitz (choose one). You could easily earn rating points, which don't matter that much when you start wandering into OTB tournaments, especially rated ones. I would recommend you to get a coach if you have free time to learn chess, and want to sort of pursue it as a passion and not just a hobby.
#39

@AyaanshGaur12 said in #38:

Oh, that sure is. I mean people add 600 rating points, and if you look at it more closely, 366 days is a LOT of time, unless you are busy doing your job or studying at a school/university. Still, if you play an average 3 games in classical, 5 games in rapid or 10 games in blitz (choose one). You could easily earn rating points, which don't matter that much when you start wandering into OTB tournaments, especially rated ones. I would recommend you to get a coach if you have free time to learn chess, and want to sort of pursue it as a passion and not just a hobby.

For me, it would be a hobby. I already have a career. I think maybe 1 hour a day is what I can spend. Max.

@AyaanshGaur12 said in #38: > Oh, that sure is. I mean people add 600 rating points, and if you look at it more closely, 366 days is a LOT of time, unless you are busy doing your job or studying at a school/university. Still, if you play an average 3 games in classical, 5 games in rapid or 10 games in blitz (choose one). You could easily earn rating points, which don't matter that much when you start wandering into OTB tournaments, especially rated ones. I would recommend you to get a coach if you have free time to learn chess, and want to sort of pursue it as a passion and not just a hobby. For me, it would be a hobby. I already have a career. I think maybe 1 hour a day is what I can spend. Max.
#40

@nizzledizzleshizzle said in #35:

Well, this year I really want to go add 100-200 to my rating. Is that realistic?

Yes. in a few months. Try to learn concepts that you dont know. Its useless to study what you already know. Focus on endgames first, so you dont drop won games.

Then the opening, to set up at least even positions.

Lastly, middlegames.

Here are some resources.

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chess_Strategy/Weak_and_strong_squares

https://www.quora.com/What-are-weak-squares-in-chess-and-how-to-identify-them

Just google something among the lines of weak squares on chess.

There are a few articles in a competing site which I will not post, but you can find them yourself.

@nizzledizzleshizzle said in #35: > Well, this year I really want to go add 100-200 to my rating. Is that realistic? Yes. in a few months. Try to learn concepts that you dont know. Its useless to study what you already know. Focus on endgames first, so you dont drop won games. Then the opening, to set up at least even positions. Lastly, middlegames. Here are some resources. https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chess_Strategy/Weak_and_strong_squares https://www.quora.com/What-are-weak-squares-in-chess-and-how-to-identify-them Just google something among the lines of weak squares on chess. There are a few articles in a competing site which I will not post, but you can find them yourself.

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