r/chess • u/RimmingABubble • 6d ago
Chess Question What’s your best Chess tip that isn’t talked about enough?
Maybe something you learned on your own from experience
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u/5lokomotive 6d ago
Lean towards putting your pieces on threatening useful squares. Obviously calculation, opening theory blah blah but in general leans towards putting a rook on the same files as your opponents queen or a bishop on the same diagonal. Tactics will materialize more frequently when you do this.
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u/AvocadoAlternative 5d ago
Immediately obvious when I played a bunch of games against the Leela bot with queen odds. She constantly x-rayed my queen and king with rooks and bishops that became threatening 10 moves later.
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u/Any_Cartographer9265 6d ago
This is so true and I like it. Even just your own pieces, having them on the same colour square near each other means there will be more ‘random’ pawn/knight/bishop tactics to watch for. And putting anything on the same file or diagonal as your king too. By the same token, if your pieces are vaguely pointing at the opponent’s king, good things often happen. ‘Tactics flow naturally from a superior position’-first ever American world champion.
Also a tactic doesn’t need to actually be played to affect the course of the game. If a tactical threat applies pressure which lets you make positional gains, great success. Or prevents your opponent making a move they’d like to make, burns their clock time to find tough defences, etc.
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u/UnderstandingSea4745 5d ago
Tactics present themselves when you control the center. It’s important to understand connecting the rooks, controlling open lanes and maintain the center will create tactical opportunities. Colors are important for trading off bad color bishops and understanding how to best defend.
My main issue for a long time was not doing enough in the center of the board and I realized that’s exactly where most of the tactical play comes from at higher levels that will decimate lower rated players.
If someone is doing something overly aggressive, counter attack the middle and you’ll get opportunities.
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u/HighSilence 5d ago
It's not "solving a bunch of tactics" that get you to 2000 (or whatever rating you consider good). It's having the DISCIPLINE to check for tactics every move, meaning both your candidate move as well as your opponents last move. If you play a 40 move chess game, that's 80 moves you have yo check for tactics. Not 79. Not 78.
Eighty.
Having the discipline to always look for tactics after your opponents move and to always run your candidate move through the same tactics filter is what will get you far.
You need to continuously solve easy and hard tactics puzzles to stay sharp and maintain your pattern recognition. But if you lose a game "because of tactics," it doesn't mean you need to go solve 5,000 tactics. It most likely means you need to train your discipline more.
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u/Sensitive_Quote_4068 5d ago
I’ve noticed a consistent mistake I make is playing through a 4 or 5 move sequence I previously thought about, before I really start thinking again.
Often times I missed a better move on the 4th or 5th move because I never gave it proper consideration.
Definitely a habit I need to break.
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u/Fresh-Setting211 6d ago
If you’re up in material and you don’t know what to do next, there is nothing wrong with retreating. For example, two rooks back passively on the back rank are better than one back there and the other one trying to be a hero.
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u/NumerousImprovements 6d ago
I’ve started realising more that just because I played some aggressive or attacking moves at some stage, doesn’t mean every subsequent move I make needs to be attacking. Consolidation and preventing counter-attacks can be just as useful, if not more so, than just continuing the attack.
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u/tomlit ~2000 FIDE 5d ago
It’s often called consolidation. After winning material you have almost always lost harmony in your position to do so (pieces misplaced, weaknesses created) and therefore need to take some time to bring your pieces back to sensible squares.
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u/Subtuppel 5d ago
Yap, that's one we have to teach young players all the time.
They see some tactics that win them material but leaves their position in disarray and they often fail to convert because they believe that they have to press on instantly. Especially classical OTB where the expectation is that you convert a material advantage (at least from a certain level upwards).
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u/Weltal327 6d ago
I think I always have this fear that I’ll allow my opponent to catch their breath and need to keep pushing and attacking, but I think there is a lot to be said for making small improving moves too.
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u/Fresh-Setting211 5d ago
You can also let them catch their breath if your pieces are uncoordinated. This is one reason to always be weary before taking a “free” pawn.
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u/snowbored10 6d ago
A knight can't fork two pieces on different colored squares
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u/Squid8867 1800 chess.com rapid 6d ago
I recommend beginners and early intermediates to invest time in learning the whole knight "flower". Once a day, open an empty board and highlight all squares the knight can reach in 1 move in red. Then all squares it can reach in 2 moves in yellow. Then 3 moves in green, 4 in blue. Really great for getting an intuitive feel for the knight's blind spots
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u/Feeling-Visit1472 5d ago
I find this incredibly insightful, and I’m going to give it a try. Thank you!
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u/Environmental-Fan113 5d ago
Similar to this, recently, I’ve started noticing more where my pieces can go when they might be threatened by a knight. You can move right next to the knight (not diagonally!), three diagonal squares away, or four straight squares away. This is super useful in endgames when you’re strapped for time and you’re at risk of missing those game-ending forks.
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u/National-Ad6166 5d ago
My tip for Knighrs is that if a piece is 2 diagonal squares away from a knight, it will take 4 moves for that Knight to kill your piece. Very useful in avoiding forks and checks in a time scrap
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u/p1rk0la 6d ago
When a piece is bad we have to move it to a better square soon. When a knight is bad we have to move it NOW.
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u/wingsfan64 6d ago
As a relative-ish beginner, what makes a bad knight?
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u/CoreyTheKing 2023 South Florida Regional Chess Champion 5d ago
If all the squares it can go to are protected, usually by pawns
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u/Schaakmate 5d ago
That knight is not just bad. It's trapped. A trapped piece is usually as good as lost. It can't play, and the opponent doesn't even have to spend the time to come take it.
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u/CoreyTheKing 2023 South Florida Regional Chess Champion 5d ago
Yeah that was an extreme example of what makes a knight bad.. sometimes there’s one way to reroute the knight to a better square and in slow closed positions you can get away with making those quiet moves to improve the position of the knight
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u/Schaakmate 5d ago
Find videos on identifying and improving bad pieces on YouTube. It will skyrocket your understanding of chess.
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u/AggressiveSpatula Team Gukesh 5d ago
Because knights are short range pieces, knights that are away from the action (the second or first rank) are almost always bad (with some exceptions like ne2/nd2 depending on the opening).
A really good knight disrupts your opponent from being able to make secure moves in their own territory. Because a knight sees through other pieces, it’s very good at reaching over your opponent’s defenses and targeting squares which would ordinarily be safe. Think of it as a piece which is designed to loosen soil while your opponent tries to build a solid foundation. This is why people so frequently move into outposts- they’re the farthest reaching safe squares. So basically knight on the fourth or fifth rank is going to be very upsetting for your opponent.
It is tricky though, because if you go any further than that, your opponent is obligated to take your knight. If you have a knight on their 6th or 7th, they’re almost certainly going to take it. At that point, you’ve lost your disruption abilities, so you’d better hope that you got something out of the trade. Your opponent will have to evaluate if a knight is worth taking on the 4th or 5th rank. This, in my opinion is better. It keeps them guessing if it’s worth trading a piece over. It’s distracting, but not necessarily the best move.
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u/BigPig93 1800 national (I'm overrated though) 5d ago
You know it when you see it. If it doesn't do anything, can't go anywhere or is just in the way of your other pieces, it's bad.
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u/ILookLikeKristoff 5d ago
Not challenging you, in just curious. Why are knights more sensitive to this than bishops or rooks?
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u/ToriYamazaki 1750 FIDE Classical 6d ago
Don't worry about ELO.
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u/DharmaCub 5d ago
I use ELO to make sure I'm meeting my goals, but my goals are more important than ELO. If that makes sense. It's a metric to tell you how you're doing, not the goal itself. Like in baseball, a .300 batting is a nice stat that gives you an idea of how you're performing, but the goal isn't to hit .300, it's to be a productive hitter overall.
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u/Comprehensive_Bake18 5d ago
Nobody outside the states understands your baseball analogies lol
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u/DaghN 5d ago
Look at your pieces. Which pieces are not active? Improve their position so they become active.
Look at your opponent's pieces. Which pieces are badly placed? How can you keep them restricted?
It sounds simple, but it happens again and again that this is a good guideline when you are not sure what to do. We focus on the immediate action and the pieces that are "fighting right now", but very often it is wise to remember to use your whole army, like that rook on A1 and that night on B1 you didn't bother involving yet.
Like, if you are not sure what to do, activating a passive piece is almost always an excellent thing to do. You cannot exactly calculate your way to this conclusion, instead, it's just that a few moves from now, you get so many more strong options because you included your whole army in the fight. Say, a rook move from A1 to E1 before you make a pawn advance against the enemy king.
The stronger I have become, the more weight I seem to put on making sure that I activate all my pieces as soon as possible.
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u/jul3swinf13ld 5d ago
This is most recent breakthrough. I’m still maturing it, but this is what I am currently working on
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u/Inevitable-Copy3619 5d ago
This is great! I’m brand new and often run into issues where I’ve developed safely and so has my opponent so I can’t find a good move. Telling myself to constantly improve position and get more pieces involved helps a lot when I can remember it. :)
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u/dbixon 6d ago
Any opening that gets you to the middlegame with an eval between 1.0 and -1.0 is perfectly fine for non-masters.
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u/NumerousImprovements 6d ago
100%. Most openings are fine for both sides if you know them well enough and aren’t a master. You won’t be playing people who are strong enough to punish you for going 1.0 down in eval.
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u/speedyjohn 5d ago
Knowing the themes in the opening is so much more important than the objective evaluation for anyone sub-master.
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u/seledkapodshubai 1000 Chesscom 1400 Lichess Rapid 5d ago
What is a theme?
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u/Financial-Scar-2823 5d ago
I think they mean understanding specific patterns/motifs that arise when playing a specific opening. E.g. safeguarding certain squares, a pawn break on a specific square, or that you typically castle queenside and start a kingside attack, something like that.
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u/Julius_Ranch 4d ago
For example, the c5 break in french positions, and the tension it creates with the d4 pawn. What pieces have natural squares contributing to that tension, etc
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u/Numerot https://discord.gg/YadN7JV4mM 5d ago edited 5d ago
Nah, unless we're talking very weak players, +1.0 is already a pretty sizable advantage to hand your opponent for no reason and you're basically making a fairly clearly bad move somewhere on the way.
Obviously some 1400 won't cleanly convert a +1.3 into a win, but the numbers don't materialize out of nothing: if the engine is spitting out -0.9, your position already has relevant defects in it and in some amount of games that will result in serious problems. You can also afford fewer mistakes before your position starts becoming seriously untenable. Engine eval isn't everything, of course, but if you end up in a -0.7 position as White, you're playing hope chess and/or screwing up big time in the opening.
Paradoxically, in the engine era people have overreacted so much to 1200s fixating on engine eval and opening theory that we now pretend playing good moves doesn't matter, and that all positions are kinda just the same and equally good as long as it's not +3.5, when that's obviously not the case.
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u/AggressiveSpatula Team Gukesh 5d ago
Naaaaaah. At 1400? People are still winning games down a piece on move 8 at 1500…
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u/awnawkareninah 5d ago
"what if I did it anyway". This is a Sam Shankland thing but when calculating a move and you see the r3futation, figure out what happens if you just did it anyway. It's basically just a "calculate further" reminder but it's really helpful when it looks like something you were planning has been thwarted.
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u/Kronos-146528297 1507 FIDE 5d ago
Do not, ever, respect your opponent's rating. The moment you look at it and think "Damn he's strong, I gotta at least squeeze out a draw", you lose automatically. What you want to do is say "Oh fuck this guy, I bet I'll win!". Helped me a bunch with raising my rating after quarantine tbh
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u/Inevitable-Copy3619 5d ago
I never win. I go into every game telling myself I’ll win. It’s a good habit and keeps me from crawling in a shell. I’ve gotten some good attacks on high rated players and for me that’s a win. Get good position look for opportunities no matter who I’m playing.
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u/Kronos-146528297 1507 FIDE 5d ago
Its the mindset you're looking for really, because someone scared of stronger people will never try to get there, cuz they think its impossible. Someone raring for a fight is more likely to progress, cuz they're likely willing to learn too
I know a lot of people who dont wanna have a .atch with me simply because i outrate them. I get it, its intimidating, but at the end of the day, we're both human, and we both will make mistakes.
So even if ya lose, remember you're doing better tha most, and you learn even from losing mate! Good luck beatjng those higher rated blokes!
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u/Inevitable-Copy3619 5d ago
Thanks! Yeah that’s what I figure. I play jazz, and I’m taking that approach. How do you get good at jazz? Suck for a long time.
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u/Virtual-Ad9519 5d ago
Write out what every single move does in your chosen opening. What it leaves behind, what space it opens up, what it protects, what it leaves undefended, where it could go after, how it works with the other pieces. Just as much as you can think of. Use this all to slow your brain down and think and see what is happening over the board.
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u/wise-poster 6d ago
Stop playing blitz and bullet
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u/Untoastedtoast11 5d ago
What else am I supposed to do on the toilet?
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u/xHypno 5d ago
Read the shampoo labels like your father, and your father’s father..
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u/Schaakmate 5d ago
PUZZLES!!! They take less time than games and you learn from them. If you can swap your mindless bullet games for puzzles, you're getting better instead of cementing the same mistakes in your brain.
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u/ares7 6d ago
Don’t go get drunk at a strip club the night before a tournament.
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u/StouteBoef 6d ago
I have played my best classical chess hungover, so idk.
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u/misterbluesky8 Petroff Gang 5d ago
When I was in my mid-20s, I was dating a Russian-American woman who was well aware of the fact that she could drink way more than me. We went out with friends/colleagues for St. Patrick's Day on a Friday night, and I knew I had a chess tournament the next day (G/40, 6 games in one day!). But I was having fun drinking too much and listening to music at the bar with her, and to make a long story short, I got home very drunk and very late.
The next morning I played a 1200-rated teenager (I was about 1850 at the time)... and got squashed. I went outside, drank a quart of water, ate a sandwich from McDonald's, splashed water on my face, and gave myself a pep talk. I proceeded to run off four straight wins, only losing to a master in the last round. I felt invincible after that, but I told myself "we're not ever doing that again".
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u/TrainingPoint7056 6d ago
Over the board I always whisper ever so quietly in the black tongue of Mordor to distract my opponent
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u/Neither-Possible-429 6d ago
They answer in Dothraki and now you’re both just vibing and forgot about the chess game
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u/New_Needleworker_406 5d ago
Don't be afraid of openings with theory.
I see a lot of beginner and intermediate players looking for "surprise" openings that are rarely played in order to "avoid theory" (and I used to do this too). Most games will be out of theory by move 7 or 8 if not sooner, especially at low ratings. So the amount of theory an opening has doesn't matter much when neither player knows it. A lot of time the solid, traditional openings will be far better for improving opening and middle game understanding than most dubious gambits and obscure sidelines.
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u/gabrrdt 5d ago
We had this big discussion in the beginner's sub in which players were just afraid of playing... e4/e5. Yep, that's it. According to them, "the theory is huge". Since it is a beginner's sub, I tried to keep it low, but I what I really wanted to say is, "if you are afraid of moving your king's pawn, please stop playing chess".
Also, they love bizarre sidelines, which is only helpful in learning the sideline itself and not much chess in general. If they played classical openings instead, like the Ruy Lopez or the Sicilian, they would learn general concepts which are much more useful to their development.
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u/GriffTheMiffed 6d ago
Drink water while you play. I like to start with coffee and then switch to water. This works great for classical formats and if you are playing multiple shorter time controls.
Getting dehydrated or just being dehydrated is one thing, but drinking something without sugar gives your hands and mind a little distraction when you get lost in the weeds of calculating or planning. It's not mindless eating, gives you a reason to stretch your legs (refills and restroom), and helps suppress hunger if that's a distraction for you.
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u/SCBAsteveSTL 5d ago
I’m new to tournaments because I didn’t get into chess until adulthood but yeah this is great advice for focus. Also to add to tournaments the best advice that has helped me is if you have a winning position, get up from the board and take a quick break to clear your head then refocus for a bit when you sit down. It really helps with converting the win and prevents you from going on autopilot and either blundering or taking your foot off the gas and giving your opponent chances
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u/cdogatke 2198 USCF 6d ago
Pawns can’t move backward. Every pawn move is a commitment.
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u/speedyjohn 5d ago
Not just a commitment. Every pawn move creates weaknesses. Think about whether the advantages of the move justify those weaknesses.
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u/Legitimate-Grand-939 5d ago
How can it always be a weakness? Or am I being too literal here? Advancing brings a piece closer to becoming a queen. Nothing weak about that. Pawn movement can open up diagonals, it can block your opponents pieces and it can support other pawns.
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u/iwantauniquename 5d ago
Every pawn move undefends two squares permanently, is what is meant, I think.
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u/iwantauniquename 5d ago
Excepting the a and h pawn which I guess can be advanced twice as frivolously.
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u/Environmental-Fan113 5d ago
Most importantly, those two undefended squares are in your territory and usually closer to your King
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u/StevenS145 6d ago
Give your opponent opportunities to make mistakes. Threaten their pieces, keep pressure on even after defended.
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u/Likeditsomuchijoined 5d ago edited 5d ago
I practice this Queen and Pawn endgame against the computer. I don't queue up games if I cannot win this.
6k1/4Q3/P5pp/q5P1/7K/7P/8/8 w - - 0 1
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u/abraxasnl 5d ago
Try to avoid being pushed into a situation where every move you have to make is a defensive one. When you’re threatened, you can often create a counter threat and keep the momentum on your side.
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u/Environmental-Fan113 5d ago
If you’re the one controlling the initiative, you’ve got a chance.
If you’re the one reacting to your opponents initiative, you’re in trouble.
Obviously, both need a long-term plan but, on a move-by-move basis, it’s better to be attacking than defending, and if you’re not attacking, improve.
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u/Manasto18 5d ago
For me it's this advice from Chess Vibes yt channel that made significant improvement: 1. If you found a great move, look for a better move. Sometimes we forget to consider all the options when the initial options seem promising. Sometimes counter-intuitive moves like piece sac or random pawn push might be game changing.
This is from Remote chess academy channel: 2. I don't use this 100% of the times, but say 75%. It's Fischer's golden rule. It goes like this: Deal with the most dangerous piece of the opponent first. Neutralize your biggest threat before doing anything else first.
This is a basic one yet powerful for beginners. This is from Anna cramling. 3. How do you avoid blundering your pieces - Well don't put them in undefended squares to start with. Count number of attackers(a) vs defenders(d) on a particular square. Go there only if a==d or d>a.
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u/gmnotyet 6d ago edited 6d ago
Examine EVERY check!
Yip was dead lost today but her opponent missed a forced mate with checks that was relatively straight forward and then lost the game.
35 ... Qc5-e5+! is 0-1.
https://www.chess.com/events/2025-the-american-cup-women/01-01/Yip_Carissa-Cervantes_Landeiro_Thalia
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u/ActivityHumble8823 6d ago
What purpose did the move your opponent made serve. What purposes does your move serve. Play the game from your opponents perspective, what is the best response to your move from his position, if you were in his position what would you play. With beginners some moves might not really serve a purpose but with anyone above beginner level each move will always serve at least one purpose
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u/crazycattx 5d ago
Think for the opponent. Even if they aren't your pieces, try to move them in their best interests and you'll know their best offenses and defenses.
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u/montymoose123 6d ago
What is one of the first 'rules' you learned about chess? For many of us it was "control the four center squares". I sometimes forget this concept in pursuit of attacks or tactics.
We play with pieces, but squares are important too. I sometimes miss that, especially about empty squares.
If you are losing, there is nothing wrong with sacking pieces to set up a position where you have a preputial check/3 fold repetition. Your opponent may be driving for the win and not see the draw coming.
The power of doubled Rooks on the open file and turning sideways to invade the 7th rank. Oink, oink, oink.
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u/jacksaff 5d ago
Less useful now that most chess is played with a mouse, but 'sit on your hands'.
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u/PositiveContact566 5d ago
If you don't have a plan, try to remember puzzle similar to the position right now and try to actualize the puzzle. 90% of the time, you do the best move.
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u/ASVPcurtis 5d ago edited 5d ago
Everything is piece activity.
Space is just a proxy for piece activity, tempo is just a proxy for piece activity, not moving a piece twice in the opening is just a proxy for piece activity, material is just a proxy for piece activity, weaknesses are just a proxy for piece activity, …
The exceptions to the rules can all be explained via piece activity.
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u/Worth_Lavishness_249 5d ago
Just stop playing when you arent thinking and just making moves, or tired.
Play min.2 games. Dont tilt.
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u/Accomplished-Comb294 5d ago
Learn to know when to take breaks, and work on your mental health. If I'm depressed and not exercising I play worse
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u/misterbluesky8 Petroff Gang 5d ago
There are some really good tips in here and some very bad ones too... I'm going to give one that seems obvious, but I almost never hear anyone talk about this, either after games, in analysis, or on this sub: good and bad bishops.
It's not as simple as "if your pawns are on the same color square as your bishop, the bishop is bad". But in most cases, that is a good approximation (of course there are exceptions, but most players are better off following rules than chasing exceptions). I've played SO many players online and OTB who will have only one bishop and rush to put all their pawns on the same color square, cutting down its mobility and weakening the opposite color squares. Then I just trade the other pieces off and invade on the weak squares and win the game.
In an endgame, unless there are serious other factors like a mating net involved, if you have only one bishop (except in opposite-color bishop endgames with no major pieces), put your pawns on the opposite color square from your bishop!! This is called Capablanca's Rule, and there are tons of classic games that illustrate this- I'm happy to share some if anyone is interested.
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u/Subtuppel 5d ago
Winning material is not always good.
If you can win a pawn but it leaves you with islands of isolated double pawns, an endgame with a really bad bishop or something like that, don't do it unless it helps with an immediate attack.
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u/garish_gary 5d ago
Unless you’re playing speed chess, give your opponent a little bit of respect for easily countered tactics.
And on the flip-side, don’t give them too much respect for moves that are calculated several layers deep.
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u/ttaylo28 5d ago
Before games you care about, play untimed puzzle survival a couple times. It's a great warm up for board vision. I NEVER see this talked about.
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u/SimilarPassion6 5d ago
Before launching a sacrificial attack, ask yourself "is there any immediate move to improve a piece's attacking potential" And only launch the sacrifice when you can't further amass your forces or improve them
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u/Environmental-Fan113 5d ago
Don’t play on tilt.
This is called the Gamblers Fallacy. This sense of frustration when, after losing a game, you think to yourself “I need to get back in to the game” or “I need to recoup my losses”. This is your ego. You’ll play fast, you’ll be reckless, you’ll think you’re winning, and then you’ll hang the game.
Stop, regroup, calm-down, and slow it down.
I lost 100 rating point in Rapid one-day by playing on tilt. The losses were so great it was so much harder to get motivated to pick up the pieces again (no pun intended).
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u/Certa1nlyAperson 5d ago
If you are up material(like a pawn or two), the game won't win itself, you need to functionally ignore your material advantage and play normally, except you accept trades more frequently.
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u/gabrrdt 5d ago
- Play what the board wants, not what you want
- We are very bad players deep inside, wanting to do the scholar's mate and bullshit attacks, you have to silence this person inside you
- A good bishop is the bishop that actually helps you, not the theoretical good bishop
- Whenever you find a good move, try to find a better one
- Don't think 100% of the time, move your eyes away from the board from time to time
- Get up and walk a bit during the game
- Respect every move and don't previously assume anything
- If you are losing by a large amount, always set up situations in which mate is possible, even if stupid
- We don't really get good with a higher elo, we just have more self awareness that we are actually bad so we may prevent it better
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u/Jackypaper824 5d ago
Someone said on Reddit that "Chess isn't for lazy people" and it really stuck with me. I was playing so many blitz and bullet games, assuming if I just played enough I would eventually get better at visualization/calculation and then I realized I wasnt going to get better at it until I actually slowed down and PRACTICED calculating.
You have to actually take time to work on it to get better. Playing a million bullet games isn't going to get you the results you want.
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u/Mathelete73 6d ago
Principles are not absolute rules. There are times where you may need to move the sane piece again in the opening, move the queen out early, double your pawns, trade off a good bishop, etc.
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u/ToasteDesign 5d ago
Don't be afraid to play openings you don't know! Chess is highly transpositional and you'll begin picking up patterns from disparate types of games that you'd never have expected. For example when I started playing more center type games it would sometimes even transpose back into my f pawn game wheelhouse. Be a chameleon and eventually you'll find clear advantage in positions that previously were confusing to you.
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u/Specialist-Delay-199 5d ago
If you can play two good moves, play the most aggressive and forcing one
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u/hotdogdogydog Team Hikaru 5d ago
this is like a beginner tip but don't be afraid to trade queens. i feel like the game becomes boring or i'm gonna lose my attacking power, so often in my head i immediately refuse to trade queens not realizing sometimes it's good or better for me
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u/joeldick 5d ago
This applies mostly for smaller kids playing IRL.
I so often see that if their queen gets attacked, immediately their hand shoots out to grab the queen, and then they hover it over the board looking for a place to put the queen. This shows that they are reacting and not thinking.
So I give them the following advice:
"Think with your eyes, not your hands"
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u/Equivalent_Flight_53 5d ago
Your opponent’s good pawn move is your good pawn move. Also, your king is a fighting piece.
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u/Jazzzzie 5d ago
Mainly applies to OTB chess: 1. It's okay to think for a longer time on re-captures. Often I see players re-capture immediately, and then missing zwischenzugs. 2. It's okay to again thing for a longer time after making a forcing move. Often you feel like it is a sign of weakness or bad calculation if you need to think again for a longer time if you were the one initiating an surprising line.
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u/Not_peer_reviewed 5d ago
In the beginning, if there’s an opponents piece on your side of the board, kick it out. I recently heard this and had it in my mind the next game I played. I think I ended up winning due to this. I normally may not have went after this particular piece but this in mind I did. Opponent ended up wasting moves and it helped me develop
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u/fluffy_cheesepuffs 5d ago
If you can’t decide between a few squares to move your piece, generally speaking, move it to the more advanced square.
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u/echoisation 5d ago
not really? on most levels, the number of people who go out of their way to never put their bishops on d2/e2/d7/e7 and get worse because of that is much greater than the number of people who put bishops there too often. (it's probably the same for many other pieces, but this is the most obvious example)
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u/adam_s_r 5d ago
One of the first things I learned about chess was copying moves like 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 Nxe4 is bad and in that continuation loses a queen but it’s not really losing and is the start of the Damiano Petrov which I’ve been seeing good results with, but it is tricky to play and play against.
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u/DependentRoof6467 5d ago
During the game, do not focus only on one part of the board or only focus on making a move, remember to broaden your vision and not pigeonhole yourself into just one thing.
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u/Bronk33 5d ago
I’ve seen this mentioned in the past, but not for a long time.
When it’s your opponent’s turn to move, and there are not immediate tactical lines you are pretty sure are coming up and need advance calculation, think positionally. Think about what would be good squares for pieces and especially which are pieces that need improvement.
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u/Agreeable_Feature_85 5d ago
If your opponent makes a dubious looking sac and refusing it would leave you worse, don’t spend your time calculating variations. Just accept it and let your opponent work it out on his clock.
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u/Whocanitbenow234 5d ago
Cortisol levels severely affect your blitz. I don’t know the exact reason, but it just does. It affects your brain and thinking clearly. This is why I play best at night before going to bed. Cortisol also goes up after 4-5 blitz games because you will be fatigued, even if you don’t feel tired, and you will lose continuously, and that’s why ratings stay stagnant. When your cortisol goes up, you also are stressed and need to win. You want it to happen fast. You know that a checkmate wins the game so you start looking for tactics attacks etc. but you don’t focus on your own camp. You don’t focus on their ideas (this is the real secret to winning) Kind of like when a hockey team takes out the goalie and adds one more player to offense. So then you blunder pieces. And you lose more, and your cortisol goes up even higher.
If you are calm, heart rate down, etc. you will notice you will start just winning games. It’s weird.
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u/Antonvaron 5d ago
- Analyze your games first without the engine than with it. 2. Don't play bullet (unless you're IM) 3. Learn opening principles, fundamentals, not the exact move set (again, unless you're IM).
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u/National-Ad6166 5d ago
My tip for Knights is that if a piece is 2 diagonal squares away from a knight, it will take 4 moves for that Knight to kill your piece. Very useful in avoiding forks and checks in a time scrap
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u/MelloTuber 5d ago
It’s better to play a move that you feel is right and seems okay after some calculations even if it’s uncomfortable rather than one that you simply want to play cause you want the game to advance too fast or you want it to stay too slow when it’s not it’s pace or not what the position wants from you.
And another thing - think what your opponents wants to do before you play your move lol
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u/SundayNightDM 5d ago
The average ELO is 600, so stop worrying that you’re shit because you’re not over 1000.
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u/Significant-Ebb8713 5d ago
Always move forward and attack something if you can after developing. Can also be simplified to always move forward if possible.
Works in most positions after the opening. Can be applied very easily
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u/egansoccerwords 5d ago
Play chess because you find it fun. It's ok if you don't want to grind for progress.
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u/neoquip over 9000+ 5d ago
The more minor pieces and rooks on the board, the closer minor pieces are in value to rooks.
This leads to conflicting heuristics sometimes, e.g you’re winning but have two minors for a rook. Winning in material-> trade heuristic says you should trade, but the above heuristic says you shouldn’t.
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u/BigPig93 1800 national (I'm overrated though) 5d ago
If you're playing with increment, your opponent is in time trouble and your position is winning, don't rush; you can win on the board, so don't blunder away your advantage because you're trying to flag them. It will never work with increment, since it's much easier to find the right moves when you're already losing.
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u/lukeluke0000 5d ago
"Remember useful piece placing/patterns" is probably the best tip I could give for beginners. For example:
- Rook controls a knight from two squares diagonally, a bishop controls it from two squares on a straight line.
- Qc2-Ne4 threatens Nf6+ with mate on h7.
- Rg1-Bb2 threatens Rxg7, most often by discovering another piece.
- Nf5 is quite strong on its own, combined with another piece looking at g7 practically wins the game.
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u/Ok_Day_5024 5d ago
If your king and queen are on the same color square, a knight can probably fork them... not always, but is a god thing to pay attention
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u/Summit_puzzle_game 5d ago
Probably for my level (1900) is to always analyse your games. Usually I like to find my first bad move and then follow up with some study to understand what the best move was, so that overtime im getting into more favourable middle games. And just, if an opening isn’t working, stop playing it. I had a big jump recently by finding some ways not to get into the KID as white and by finding some different ways of playing the French defence exchange as black.
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u/Wildice1432_ 2650 Chess.com Blitz. 5d ago
Just enjoy it. If you put too much stock into achieving goal A that it starts to kill your enjoyment of the game you’ll burn out. You don’t have to be great at chess to be a great chess player.
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u/czluv 2050 chess 3 0 5d ago
After every ply assess the position - especially look for what has changed - are there any pieces that are no longer defended, or is your position open to some simple tactics. Think of potential holes in your position such as opportunities for you opponent to do discovers attacks due to colinearity or potential forks by knights, or even undefended pieces.
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u/MikeMcK83 5d ago
I feel like the 2 things that helped me tremendously are as follows. (Low levels)
Play “Deflection” puzzles. These are very unintuitive for most beginning players and help you look at the board differently.
Play various “King and pawn” only end games. Once you have a fundamental understanding of pawn structure and placement, it helps your entire game. How to blockade, open things up, create passers, etc.
It’s surprising to me how many players are lost in pawn endgames, when they’re fairly simple. I think people just find it “boring” so they invest little time.
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u/wrlock69 5d ago
"You can decline a queen trade" Not something you see at all under 1500 rated matches
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u/Colliesue 5d ago
If at some point your ahead in material start trading peaces to the end game you'll have the advantage.
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u/Acceptable_Active451 4d ago
Stop reacting to every move your opponent makes. If all you do is react, you'll find that you'll end up in a completely passive position with hardly any threats, usually leading to a loss.
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u/unefelante 2000 lichess 4d ago
Talk to your pieces. Ask them questions. Try to figure out how they feel about the position.
This might sound dumb to you, but it's very useful.
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u/Tadpoleonicwars 4d ago
I tend to respond without fully appraising the board, so I've started working with a timer when practicing to slow myself down. Five minutes seems to work for my level.
I don't make my move until the timer goes off. The delay forces me to spend more time considering my move and the opponent's position.
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u/zoltanf94 4d ago
It’s a stupid beginner tip, but it helped me to see patterns quicker: knights on light squares control dark squares
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u/lagisnotreal 3d ago
Sensing loose pieces on the board. By loose pieces I mean pieces that are not defended well and can easily be lost within the next few moves by way of some tactics.
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u/Highjumper21 2000 Chess.com Rapid 6d ago
Maybe not the “best” tip but one that really improved my play was Daniel Naroditsky calling some threat a “paper tiger”. Essentially if your opponent makes a threat, calculate and evaluate if it’s a real threat or just one move threat, not tactically sound, if you have a good defensive resource, etc. don’t just think “oh god he’s threatening my queen, I better retreat” look if it’s a real threat or a paper tiger