How To Improve Your Chess Game!

The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the
Universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature
and the player on the other side is hidden from us”
- Thomas Huxley

Study. Play. Reflect.

Chess players, like every other professional, have their own set of tools. These are some of my favourites :

Software

This is the software I use to analyze the games that I play on Gameknot, an online chess game site. Learning from books is great, but books cannot highlight the wrong move you just made in your chess game. But a coach can, if you can afford one. But if you cant afford one, then a virtual coach can help you.

Chess software's these days have human-like analyzing and annotation capabilities. The latest Fritz chess software has an excellent game annotating capability - either numeric or with words, highlighting your weaker moves and pointing out stronger moves you can make in that particular situation.

Fritz also allows you to play against it in the Human Sparring mode. It will dumb down according to your ELO rating (ie. it will makes mistakes just like a human player of that rating will). Playing against someone who wins all the time isnt any fun. Playing against an opponent who has the tendency to make mistakes is good because it makes us look hard for the win. And this is how Fritz will help you improve your play.

Besides, the coach helps point out obvious mistakes, good moves and your opponent's plans.

This is a software, used my majority of chess players, that will help you imporove your game.

Tutorials

How to use Fritz's Training Mode

Position Tutor

How to Improve You Chess Game : 400 Points in 400 Days - Part 1

How to Improve You Chess Game : 400 Points in 400 Days - Part 2

Secreat Matches : The Unknown Training Games of Mikhail Botvinnik

Kramnik vs. Deep Fritz

Click here for more chess tutorials...

Magazine

Chess Life has been the staple of most chess players monthly reading, definitely mine. What I love are the annotated games. The annotations are deep and complete. There's a section from a contributing chess teacher, sharing new ideas for beginning and intermediate players. Advance players prefer the annotated games.

If you're keen on chess, this magazine should be part of your arsenal.

Videos

Some videos of the net :

Gary Kasparov on how to play the Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense
Endgame : Challenging the Masters
(This video describes the fifty-year quest to build a computer that can defeat the world chess champion )

Books

Lastly, we come to my favourite, books. I have so many books that I have yet to open the covers of some of them.

Here's a list of some of the classic books:

	My System "Born in Russia in 1886, Aron Nimzowitsch was the rebel of the chess world... While most players were learning the doctrines of Steinitz and Tarrasch, the acknowledged high priests of chess, Nimzowitsch was preaching a whole new set of ideas... Prophylaxis and over-protection were two of his most important concepts, and soon his chess philosophy was labeled as hypermodern... My System covers every angle of the hypermodern theory and even though players laughed at Nimzowitsch,s outlandish theories, no one could ignore him... I mean how could you ignore one of the world's top five chessplayers of that time?... Today, all the top players make use of Nimzowitsch's ideas and apply both theories (hypermodern and classic) to their chess libraries of knowledge... This book (most definately not for beginners) is a must addition to your chess book collection and highly recommended to advance your game level... Aron Nimzowitsch died in 1935, but his ideas live on in this classic book..."
	Logical Chess "Irving Chernev has many books on the game of chess... This book "Logical Chess" is simply a masterpiece... Not only following various master games move by move, but explaining what type of chess wisdom or blunderous error went through each and every move as well... Though the book does stick in the lines of the Queens Gambit decline, it does offer other major openings as well... Writing down in detail various chess principles and tid-bits of knowledge that can only come from a chess master... The late Chernev has clearly outdone himself with this book... A definate must for any chess library... I third Bilbo's 10 out of 10 on this book..."
	Ideas Behind Chess Openings "Your initial task in the opening is to get your army mobilized... You can't expect to launch an effective attack with just one piece, or a couple of pawns, or just scatter your pieces around the board and hope something turns up... International Grandmaster Reuben Fine delivers an excellent book on the principles on opening theory and developing strategies on many different opening variations... This books shows you how to coordinate your pieces into a powerful fighting force and where to put your pieces in their proper positions early in the game... It's not just memorizing openings and variations, but understanding the strengths and advantages in an opening that is important... Recommended for advanced players who are having trouble coming up with a plan in certain openings..."
	Art of Attack in Chess "Are you having trouble getting past the opening?... Is it hard to come up with appropriate plans to finish the game?... Are you trying to get small advantages and hopefully trade off pieces to have a superior endgame?... This book really helps to understand the tactics and methods associated with starting and carrying out an attack... The chapters on sacrifices and focal points can teach you to think about how to weaken a position, after all, giving all your pieces away is fine if the game is then going to be over... The simple concept of taking that risk is considered a lot less than it should be, at least in beginner-intermediate stages of chess, which is where most players are when studying this phase of the game... The chapters on attacking with pawns are especially useful as well... This is one of the better books I've studied on chess, and in my opinion, it's a must have for everyone..."
	Chess Praxis "A classic book that shows how Nimzovich used his positional hypermodern ideas... Such themes as over protection, centralization, restriction, etc, are discussed in detail... Hypermodern school of thought insisted that indirect control of the center is better than direct occupation... If you want to look into this type of play, this is the book for you... Reti and Nimzovich (Author) successfully propagrated the idea of central control from the flanks... Unfortunately, they took their ideas to extremes, just as the classicist did... Today it is recognized that both schools of thought are partially correct, and a blend of the two is the only truly balanced method..."
	A World Champions Guide to Chess
	The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played "Here are sixty-two games of the Masters demonstrations of the basic strategies of winning at chess... Each game offers a classic example of a fundamental problem and its best resolution... As Irving Chernev makes lively and illuminating notes on each game revealing precisely how Capablanca, Tarrasch and other Masters like Fischer, Alekhine, Lasker, Petrosian and so on, turn theory into practice as they attack and maneuver to control the board... Readers will find their technique improving with each lesson as Irving Chernev dissects winning strategies, comments on alternate tactics and marveling at the finesse of winning play... It is truely some of the most beautiful games ever played..."
	Chess Strategy in Action
	How to Win in Chess Openings
	The Art of Planning in Chess
	Lasker's Manual of Chess "The longest reigning World Chess Champion of all time (28 years) Dr. Emanuel Lasker presents numerous ideas and theories on how chess should be played, along with his advice on openings, giving 68 pages out of the 340 on that subject... The book is rather dated and is done in descriptive notation so it's a little hard to read... But Lasker expounds on the original ideas of William Steinitz and displays his own originality, versatility, and his abilty to take solid calculated risks... His tournament record from 1889-1936 was 192 wins, 34 losses and 99 draws (73.1 percent)... You can't argue with those numbers facing top competition... Not a book for beginners and novices so hold off on this book until you have gained more expereince..."
	Think Like a Grandmaster
	Grandmaster Secrets
	The Art of MiddleGame "With a never ending supply of books on chess openings and end games... There are far fewer books available on the middle game... This book (a must have) gives details on the tactics and strategies while playing smack-dab in the middle with all types of centers (open, closed, mobile, whatever)... The chapter dealing with "How to defend difficult positions" is exceptionally well written, though the coordiate notation is hard to get use to... This book goes into the middle game theme very deep (not recommended for beginners)... Paul Keres and Alex Kotov (speacial guest Mr. Golombek) put together one of the best middle game studies available..."
	Understanding Chess Move by Move "This is an instructive games collection written to explain the major chess themes from a modern perspective... Nunn writes that chess knowledge and understanding have progressed greatly since the 1950's (when Euwe's instructional books were the standard), but the chess textbooks haven't changed much and don't reflect the much more dynamic play of modern games... Nunn chose 30 key themes and found one modern grandmaster game to illustrate each theme... His annotations emphasize understanding and general principles, using verbal descriptions and evaluations whenever possible... But there is much deep analysis here, as many positions can only be understood in terms of concrete variations... While Nunn's book here may have some similarities with Reinfeld's Logical Chess, they are intended for different readers... Reinfeld's (Logical Chess) is appropriate for beginners and novices while Nunn's (Understanding Chess) is intended for at least intermediate level players up to strong masters... If you are an intermediate level player or stronger you should definitely add this book to your chess library..."