So you just finished watching the Queen’s Gambit on Netflix, and you are super excited to start playing chess, but where do you start?

This chess for beginners roadmap hopes to get you started in the right direction.

1. Learn how the pieces move.

2. Start playing on line by joining a chess website
   • Chess.com
   • Lichess.com

3. Play online with players at your own level

4. Start practicing tactics on chesstempo.com.

5. Consider your thought process . Frequently ignored, but very important part of chess. It helps your play by asking questions that will assist you in finding the right move and not blundering.

6. Read a chess book for beginners.

7. Start looking into chess openings. Find one that matches your chess playing personality.

8. Keep playing. Analyze your games, find out where you made a mistake.

9. Enter your first chess tournament.

10. Always keep striving to improve your chess. It takes time to improve at chess, the important thing is to have fun while playing.

    
    By now you should have been playing chess for approximately six months to a year. You have experienced the joys and pain of chess and you have a better idea if you want to take chess seriously or not. Taking your chess to the next level requires a chess coach to work on your weaknesses. 

• Focus on tactics, the middlegame, and the endgame
• No direct opening study, any opening study comes from analyzing my games.
• Study time is broken down between theory (studying) and practice (solving).
• Feedback loop consists of going over played games, and creating a database of missed positions. Plan on returning to these problematic positions using  spaced repetition.

Will reassess in 30 days and adjust the plan accordingly based on OTB results.

1. The Week in Chess
   

2. The Chess Mind
   

3. Chess Daily News
   

4. Chessdom
   

5. Dan Heisman’s Blog on Chess.com
   

6. The Chess Improver
   

7. Chessvibes
   

8. Dana Blog’s Chess
   

9. TempoSchlucker
   

10. Jim West on Chess

Top Chess Sites based on Alexa rank

as of 3/1/2017

1. chess.com #1,181

2. lichess.org #2,622

3. Chess24.com  #7,223

4. Chessbase.com #13,286

5. chessgames.com #21,437

6. fide.org #21,932

7. Chess24.com #28.261

8. Chesskid.com #44,208

9. chessbomb.com #46,539

10. chess365.com 69,395

11. chessbomb.com #70,198

12. ICC #93,567

13. chessdom.com #118,009

For more chess links visit the Chess Directory. Please leave your suggestions in the comments.

Chess Tips on How to Get Better at Chess

1. Learn the basic checkmates

Learning the basic mates and focusing on basic tactics is the most productive use of your chess study time. Most games between beginners and intermediates are decided by
blunders or overlooked tactics.

2. Learn the basic endgames

After tactics the next best use of your time is in studying basic endgames such as king and queen and king and pawn. Your rating will increase because you will be able to draw lost games and win drawn ones.

3. Practice using a physical board

The act of using your hand eye coordination to move the pieces on a physical board allow concepts to be learned more easily.

4. Pick a good book and read it cover to cover

Many beginners have an extensive chess library, but have never finished one book. This leads to inefficient learning and knowledge gaps.

5. Play in tournaments against stronger opposition

Play one section up in at least every other tournament you join.
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6. Review your games, especially your losses

It is important to learn from your mistakes so you don’t repeat them.

7. Go over your games with stronger players

Ask them where you went wrong, and what you could have done differently.

8. Focus on tactics and endgames instead of on openings

The benefit of being a strong tactician and endgame player cannot be overstated. Any time spent learning openings can be better used in practicing tactics, studying endgames and playing long games.

9. Chose your opening repertoire based on how much time you have to dedicate to chess

If you are a working adult, don’t try to learn the Sicilian. You need to be practical and realistic.

10. Learn Chess strategy by reviewing master games

The best way to improve your strategic and positional knowledge is to pick a chess “mentor” and review at least 10 of their games.

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Positional Decision Making in Chess 

Released in February 2016 Boris Gelfand’s Positional Decision Making in Chess shows examples from his games and those of his hero   Akiba Rubinstein presents his positional thought process during games.

The Power of Pawns

If you want to improve at chess, you must know the characteristics of typical pawn formations. Understanding the pawn structure is a key tool when you are evaluating a position on the board. One simple pawn move can ruin your position or win the game.Experienced chess teacher Grandmaster Jörg Hickl helps you to recognize the important characteristics of pawn structures in his book The Power of Pawns. Learn how you can and should develop your pieces, identify how you can improve your position and develop a plan of action.

Mastering Chess Middlegames

Translation of Grandmaster Alexander Panchenko (1953-2009) unique training methods.Mastering Chess Middlegames contains a collection of inspiring lessons on the most important middlegame topics: attack, defence, counterplay, realising the advantage, obstructing the plans of your opponent, the battle of the heavy pieces, and much more. In each chapter, Panchenko clearly identifies the various aspects of the topic, formulates easy-to-grasp rules, presents a large number of well-chosen examples and ends with a wealth of practical tests.

• Tactics puzzles
• Positional Puzzles
• Endgame Studies
• Endgame Practical Puzzles

Join our mailing list to be notified when the next issue comes out & please leave feedback in the comments section.

Free download: Chess Improvement Newsletter #1

The following chess training plan is geared for adult intermediate players with a current rating between 1500-1800. The goal is to gain 100-200 rating points in one year following this plan.

This training plan is made to be:

• Practical for those with limited study time
• Focused on deliberate practice (active learning)
• Relies on spaced repetition training (more on this in future posts)
• Builds on a foundation of pattern recognition
• Focused on sports psychology
• Uses endgame studies as a way to improve calculation skills
• Is meant to be self directed
• Uses the Pomodoro Technique

Training Resources

• Endgame Challenge
• Chess Endgame Training
• Chess Training for Post Beginners: A Basic Course in Positional Understanding
• Test Your Chess IQ
• Can You Be a Positional Chess Genius?

Training Schedule

Time requirements: 1 hour per day in one session or two daily 30 minute sessions.

I have been reading the book Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon, and I have found that many of his suggestions apply to chess.

Chess is as much a creative endeavor as it is a mathematical one. So a book about making you more creative, has implications for chess improvement.

Nothing is Original

All good artists understand that nothing is original. All creative work builds on what has come before.

Modern chess began when Steinitz built upon Morphy, Lasker built upon Steinitz. In chess, there are further examples of Alekhine learning from Capablanca, Kasparov from Botvinnik.

Every new idea is a combination of one or more previous ideas.

Choose a Mentor

To become a better chess player, you need to surround yourself with mentors (past chess greats) whose ideas are worth “stealing”. Learn from the best, and some of it will rub off on your gameplay. Chose a master as a mentor, their lesson plans are the games they left behind and the ideas they made their own.

School Yourself
You have to be curious, look things up that are unclear, chase down every reference. Look up all the games where Rubinstein played a rook and pawn endgame. Create an opening repertoire based on the openings that Botvinnik played. When you find a move you don’t understand, try to figure out why they played that move. If you can’t figure it out on your own then ask a stronger player. If you go through this process, you will either find an answer or your will come up with a better question.

Use Your Board

In his book, Kleon mentions that the computer prevents the artist from being creative. He recommends starting the creative process using analog tools. Only turn to digital tools at the end of the process.

In chess, most of your work should be over the board. Go over a master game by playing the moves on your board. Learn a new opening by reviewing master games that used that opening, but play them over the board. Using your hands will only make you more creative, but the act of moving the pieces will help record the ideas and moves into your subconscious.

Unlock Your Creativity

Learn from the past masters, deep dive into their games and ideas and stick to analog tools when doing so, and your chess will improve.

It is the creation of long term plans that will dictate your next several moves. In order to achieve these plans, you can argue that the chess player will resort to either positional, tactical or endgame devices.

Aspect of chess playing concerned with evaluation of chess positions and setting of goals and long-term plans for future play.

Strategic play is the most difficult component of chess to train and learn. By studying tactics, you can improve your pattern database and your visualization skills. Tactical study will lead to tangible improvement in your game.

Strategic versus Positional Chess

Positional chess has to do with the positioning of the pieces and their mobility whereas strategic chess has to do with long term planning. A strategic plan in chess can revolve around making a piece more active, and as a result can have a positional component. A strategic plan can also lead to a tactical culmination. And finally, a strategic plan can lead to an endgame.

For Nimzowitsch in My System the basic elements of strategy were:

1. The center
2. Open files
3. Play on the 7th and 8th ranks
4. The passed pawn
5. The pin
6. Discovered check
7. The pawn chain
8. Exchanging

If you review Nimzowitsch’s list, you can argue that items 1-3 and 7 are positional in nature. Items 5 & 6 are tactical, and 4 & 8 are endgame related.

The following Venn diagram illustrates the different components of chess strategy.

Strategic Thought Process

How frequently do you need to rethink your plan? when in my thought process do I think about strategic components and create a long term plan for the position?

While long term plan is the definition of strategy, you need to reconsider any long term plan based on the situation on the board. The following critical moments are signs that a re-validation and possible modification of your strategic plan maybe in order:

1. In positions where there are possible exchanges
2. Transition from opening to middlegame, or from middlegame to endgame.
3. After a change in pawn structure.
4. At the end of a series of forced moves.
5. When there is tension in the position.

A common chess thought process heuristic is to think strategically during your opponent’s move and to calculate variations during your move.

I would love to hear your feedback on how you define strategy in chess and what your thought process looks like.

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