My current goals:
- Go through my checklist before EVERY move.
- Stop playing hope chess: if you can find a single weakness in an idea, abandon it and find a new idea.
Before I move, every single time, I should first check the entire board for:
- Checks
- Captures
- Attacks
These three need to be applied to my side and my opponents side.
DO
- control the center of the board
- try to bring out your nights and bishops first
- connect your rooks
- castle your king
Don't
- don't move the same piece twice before your four opening pieces are out
- bring your queen out early
- make too many pawn moves
- Don't play Hope Chess: make moves that support some idea
- Don't trade for fun
- Only make a trade that provides good numbers, or good positioning
- How to Get Good at Chess Fast - blog from small-time teacher who has improved his own game significantly.
- On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Years
Beginners focus too much on this.
- For White: the London System
- For Black: King's Fianchetto Opening??
King's Indian Defense
black plays 1. Nf6 2. g6 3. Bg7
Dutch Defense:
black plays 1. f4
Narjdorf:
Other resources:
- Advanced French
- Caro Kahn
- Danish Gambit
- Evan's Gambit
- King's Indian
- London System
- Scandi
- Sicilian Defense
- Vienna Gambit
- Alapin Sicilian
- Caro Kahn
- Closed Sicilian
- Evan's Gambit
- Grand Prix
- King's Indian
- Queen's Gambit
- Ruy Lopez
- Sicilian Defense
- Vienna Gambit
Chess.com has some training tutorials called "vision", but those only train the names of the board coordinates.
This paper recommends training your vision daily at the beginning:
- 14 days visualizing forks and skewers
- 14 days visualizing knights and how they move
- Good 4-part blog on chess.com
- Opening Principles - with NM Caleb Denby
- look for opening weaknesses
- target a piece to keep it from developing
- Eric Rosen vs DimonZh - 2021
Frequently focus on:
- forks
- going up the exchange
- forced checkmates
- pins
- piece sacrifices
Always look for these first:
- checks
- captures
I'm also not competitive and playing against real people gives me a bit of anxiety! But I'm trying to stick to one quick game a day.
Hah, I've taken the opposite approach and dove head first into the memorization. It isn't going well! I'm using https://chessmadra.com/openings/ but already I've attempted to memorize too many lines and they're not sticking.
Other things I'm doing to get back into chess:
Whenever I get into a topic I like dipping my toe into whatever research is being done in the field. Some things of interest
Hope you get time soon, I'll practice Chess 960 and let me know in a few months if you'd like a game.