Seven months ago, I played a game of chess with my wife. I lost that game and the subsequent ones against her. She had some experience with chess before. And I was a beginner who just knew the basic rules of the game. So I felt the losses to be justified.
Then I played with my Mom, and lost again. That loss raised my curiosity about chess. I wanted to get better at it, and I wanted it badly.
So around the end of June, I registered on an online chess portal and started playing regularly. My chess rating was in the 500’s back then.
This week, I’ve reached a rapid rating of 1500 on Chess.com. On a few other online platforms, like Lichess and Chess24, I’ve even hit 1600.
For the uninitiated, here‘s a brief on how their rating system works. To put it simply, I’m currently placed in the 95th percentile among Chess.com’s active users (i.e around 3.5 million players). I was in the 15th percentile six months ago.
Now, keep in mind that a 1500 rating isn’t such a noteworthy achievement in the chess community. I’d still be considered a below average player at best.
But for me personally, climbing up almost 1000 points in seven months has been a satisfying accomplishment, considering where I’ve started from. It’s also been a tough journey filled with trial and error. There were some hits and a lot of misses.
I’m sure there are many others, struggling to climb up the rating ladder as well. This post is my attempt to save them the time and energy by listing out the resources, openings, gambits and general chess advice that helped me the most.
Openings
A professional chess player can and will do well with any opening. But for me, that wasn’t the case. I’ve tried a lot of different openings over the past months and had to struggle with most of them. Only a few worked.
I’ve found that the only differentiating factor between a good opening and a bad one was how smoothly I could transition into an attacking middle game.
Here’s a list of all the openings that helped me win most of the games.
The Italian Game (White)
The Vienna (White)
French – Rozman Variation (Black)
E6B6 New York Style (Black)
Gambits & Traps
Gambits and opening traps are what made chess the most fun for me. Some might argue that playing these won’t actually improve your chess. But they do help in rating climbs. Its also very satisfying, when your opponents fall into one.
The opening traps and gambits my opponents frequently fell for are
Scholar’s Mate (works only against complete beginners)
The Englund Gambit
Stafford Gambit
Fried Liver Attack
Lucchini Gambit
Eric Rosen’s Queen Trap
Resources
Depending on which type of a learner you are, there are various resources out there, both offline and online, to help improve your game. I was more of a visual learner. Therefore, almost all the resources I’ve used were online ones.
I did try to read a few famous chess books every now and then, but I never could get my head around the chess notations.
Here’s a list of the online resources that helped me improve my game quickly, in no particular order.
- Chess Lessons
- Online Puzzles
- Online Coaching – I did two sessions with Ms. Sahajasri, an International Master from Telangana
- Post Game Analysis
- Opening Courses by Gotham Chess
- Youtube Channels – Gotham Chess, Eric Rosen and Hanging Pawns
Common Principles
No matter which resource you refer to, there are a few chess principles and general advice which are commonly taught to all beginners. I kept them in mind and would refer back to them whenever I felt stuck in a game. They’ve always helped.
Here’s a list of the common chess principles and advice, that helped me whenever I was stuck.
- Control the four central squares.
- Develop all your pieces into good squares and castle your king, before starting an attack.
- Bishops like open diagonals, Rooks like open files and Knights are most useful in a closed game.
- Try to trade off your opponents most active piece.
- Look for checks, captures and threats, in that order, both for yourself and your opponent, before every move.
- When under attack, look for which higher valued piece or enemy weaknesses, you can counter attack.
- If you’ve lost your light squared bishop, place all your pawns on light squares and vice versa.
- Always have an attacking plan, don’t play passively.
- When there’s nothing to do, improve your position and look for critical pawn trades.
- If the opponent castles on the opposite side, push your pawns toward the enemy king.
- If you have the majority of pawns on either side, try to make a passed pawn.
- When you’re up material, trade pieces and simplify into an endgame.
- Know the common endgames which were already solved.
- Lookout for opponent’s perpetual checks in a winning position for you.
- Don’t stalemate, take your time and look at the king’s exit routes before making your move.
- If you’re attacking on the king side, keep your queen side closed to the opponent, and vice versa.
- In the end game, the side with the most active king has an advantage.
- Keep practicing tactics, it’s all about pattern recognition. The more you practice, the better you’ll be.
- If the opponents pieces are on the same colored squares and close to one another, look for forking opportunities with a knight or a pawn.
This last piece of advice was from my online coach. For some reason, it stuck with me ever since I first heard it.
The goal is to avoid making mistakes and to punish your opponent’s mistakes
How true is that!!!
Summary
Chess is just like any other skill. You may need a higher IQ to play it professionally. But at the beginner to intermediate levels, you can get better at it just by deliberate practice. After all, If I can improve at chess, anyone can.
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