Chess Tips, Articles and Guides to Help You Win Chess Games

Gain ELO Points: Believe it or not, the title of this article is a frequent question among club players and aficionados. I’ve been asked this on several occasions while hanging out at the chess club. I couldn’t help but notice certain hopes for a “quick fix answer” as if there was a magic trick. Well, obviously, there isn’t any shortcut to a higher ELO rating. It takes general improvement, specific training, and most importantly: constant learning. This means that you need to be always learning, not just train for a week with a master to get a result. In one word, consistency.

An important notion that one comes across when starts studying chess is planning. As in everyday life, you need to know what you are going to do on the chessboard. Not only this, but you should try to find the best idea in accordance to your position.

Pattern Recognition and Calculation Skills: Everyone knows how important it is to be good at tactical play. It helps to find beautiful combinations and avoid blunders. Apart from that, excelling at tactics often helps compensate for other chess weaknesses. When you have a bad position, you can exploit the opponent’s tactical inaccuracies to eventually come up on top. Contrariwise, if you have a winning position you need to be careful not to miss any tactical ideas (for both sides!) to finish the game positively. But how do you get better at it?