| |
|
***This is an example of what I suggest my students do. These are the CHESS PRINCIPLES which I have gathered from my very own games. You should do what I do, WHICH IS: Write & READ your OWN notes! Not only read, but also thoroughly re-read, digest & practice to really understand & implement. Start putting a * little star next to the repeat violators. This way it is clear what the most recurring slip-ups are.. These are MY-MY-MY notes, they apply to me & my games , not to you & your games. I post them here for me to easily review or print from any computer. You should do what I do which is: "Take your own notes of the lessons learned & review & review & review*** Some of these reminders are very old from quite a few years ago. Start out your own notes and build on them . You should pick out the 8-12 pointers which you feel relate best to your dilemas, then continue the list by adding your own personal lessons & weaknesses.
HERES WHAT I HAVE TO REMEMBER EACH MOVE and it's not easy, but that's the allure of chess OK~ THESE ARE MY NOTES. They make sense to me & my games. I just slap the latest notes on top of this list. The earlier notes are on the bottom. I have a good reason for organising MY notes MY way. It's all about meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! ; ) -Number ONE is to REVIEW MY OWN notes! Thereby pushing out the weaknesses, and making room for more strengths. IT CAN BE rather frustrating, Andrew, when I don't follow my own principles and make a mistake I knew about. The better players don't. Prevent the pins before they happen Don't have your mind made up about a move for too long. Remember that the ground is always changing underfoot. A so called great move, may not be such a great move only one move later! Good moves can turn into so-so moves very quickly. Great moves can even become bad moves, depends on what opponent just did. Attack with enough material. OR be able to get chessmen to assist in time.Resist temptations. Like poison pawns. Like attacking for mate when own defense are not up. Leave a guard up around the king. Leave defenders in place when possible. Castle early & often. CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO CEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lost 5 games this week because not castling. Fool. Resist temptations. Like poison pawns. Like attacking for mate when own defense are not up. Leave a guard up around the king. Leave defenders in place when possible. Spot the checks more clearly. Look around for enemy snipers who can take a crack at you & change the whole momentum. THink equally about defense & attack. Been on the attack lately= not good. DO inventory more thoroughly. Look at king safety, Queen for sure. Don't forget about the rooks. FREAK when those bishops get on the rail. Bishops are like archers who need very little opening towreck the game by takeout of big piece. PLAN THRU the critical positions better. Practice evaluating of the mating attacks deep & thorough. THink equally about defense & attack. Been on the attack lately= not good. Don't just trade a Bishop for a Rook so automatically. A very active, well placed Bishop which is beautifully controlling a major important diagonal, MAY not be a great trade for an inactive poorly placed Rook which is stuck off in a corner. Especially in the endgame, where I got burned last week, keep the pieces protected. I moved a well placed Knight off c3 where it was guarding D1 & E2 to D1 where it was promptly forked by opponents queen landing on E1#. Losing the Knight and causing material advantage to Phil, winning him the game. LOST a good fighting chance against a super player. Do not lapse attention. One misteak against these guys at this level, can mean loss of game. Been thinking more of 'well what can the response to my move ne' more and it is helping. CONCENTRATE MORE ANDREW you blind stupid fool! Don't stop to talk about my brilliant t actical plan and then lose focus and forget what the heck is going on. Like I did against Phil last nite. Forgetting to capture the hanging bishop on e1, 9 inches from my face........ LOST a good opportunity to capture significant material and really missed the key move to even up & obtain a fighting chance. Guys at this level do not forgive gross clumsiness! Castle early & often, it protects & connects the rooks. Rooks are enormously powerfull when connected. Castling allows them into the game. Think of them as artillary cannons on a battlefield, they must be placed where they are best, because they are stroooooooong. Only the mighty queen has more power. Don't move too mechanically..... Stop during the opening and think, don't rush. Concepts are general, but every situation is slightly different. The ground is always changing underfoot. STOP DECIDING ON MY NEXT MOVE BEFORE THEY MOVE A PIECE! Remember watching how the masters play, they basically never move quickly because tHe ground is always changing underfoot. Watch both kings at each move. Count the possible escape squares & evaluate the protection constantly. It's all about the kings, is it not? I make the mistake of looking at enemy king too much and it causes mate to me. Don't dismiss the attack on my own King, study it as much as your own attacks, because either mate causes end of game. You will not survive only attacking either, you must also defend well. Learn not to lose, don't just learn how to win. Watch the light! Redlight for STOP & look. Yellow lite for understand & evaluate consequences carefully. Green light is third, THEN GO! Watch for that Bishop trapping I've been lately getting caught with. AND LOOK FOR ways to trap my opponents bishops. Have been touching the pieces and then suddenly deciding it was not best move. Must agree with myself that it is best move, before I touch the piece. Look around and think about all the piece moves. Alot of these notes have a double meaning too. Like not only is it important to castle, but it is also good to create weakness in other players ranks, by preventing their castle. Try to break the posture of the other castle, by checking, exerting a bishops influence, forcing King to move. Be aware as soon as a pin 'breaks' or unpins. Act immediately, when my opponent unpins a piece & know when it's no longer pinned. NOT LIKE LEPO1320, who unpinned his Queen by moving to e8, then captured with eX the f4 knight, because the d1 rook was no longer pinned ALSO, Watch for secondary mates!!!!!!!!!!!!! DON'T discount the singular mate, 'Oh I see that & can prevent it".......LOOK for 2nd & 3rd mates, else will get done in by something which was really quite ez to see. Focus in, better on the losses, LIKE, the last 4 times we lost because, own King was out of pocket, & harried by invaders, BECAUSE THERE WERE NO DEFENSES UP........CEO~CEO~CEO~CEO. If we want to get great at 2:12, then train 2:12....... If we want to be the champ of blitz, then practice for Blitz.. Will get good at what we train for. Jim is comfortably beaten in my 10 minute game, but we lose 2X in row, when play his way, 15 minute game..BEWARE THE 5 MINUTE GAME! BEWARE THE 15 MINUTE GAME!> Always be sure of the material count, don't suddenly realise, 'HEY?!?!? how am I down a piece? During timed games, watch & know where the clock is at. Don't lose on time, make the the OTHER player lose on time Destroy & breakup the enemy pawns, dont let them be in a perfect line.. ..... LIKEWISE: Disallow opponent to do this to me! I don't USUALLY attack early with single piece attacks. Instead, I know I should develop,develop, develop my pieces. I must not move the same piece twice in the beginning, either, you will lose time. Get my pieces out. Many games are already decided by the 12th move. LIKEWISE: MAKE the other player move the same piece twice, chase his Queen around, to force her to waste moves, while you develop. Castle early & often, it protects & connects the rooks. Rooks are enormously powerfull when connected. Castling allows them into the game. Think of them as artillary cannons on a battlefield, they must be placed where they are best, because they are stroooooooong. Only the mighty queen has more power. Rely also on the power of connected knights, especially after the pawns are gone.Last game, my own connected knights were a key to winning, even though I was way down a whole rook. AND this makes me remember, how in other games my opponents used this to create a powerful lock in a large area of the board... Castle early & often, it's a extremely important move for many reasons. It activates the rook, from out of his corner & safely 'nests' the sacred king. Very very very important EVERY GAME Get your rooks to crash across and occupy the enemy 7th rank first. Before your opponent does it to you. The game is virtually over at this point. This move traps the enemy king on his back rank, and renders his rooks inneffective by forcing them to stay put & protect pawns.. Also, it enables (usually) ez pawn grabbing, they are like sitting ducks on the 7th rank. Extra extra EXTRA guard on the c2,c7,f2,f7 weakspots in the opening.AND later in the game. These are sensitive squares during the openings AND in the endgame when the King is hiding in his castle. Castle early & often, castle early & often... castle early & often..... Repeat this 100 times before you fall asleep. Know your squares!! C3 G3 C6 & G6 are fantastic outposts for the knights. At each & every move of the devious devious knight, count NOT just 8 offensive landings, but also 8 possible landings (next new move) of opponent knight. Knights can shock with their funky movements, they move backwards & sideways & are too EZ to discount. BEWARE THE KNIGHTS! AT all times, don't get sloppy at the end & miss a devastatingt Knigh fork to self. Chess games can completely change momentum & winning positions can turn around 180 degrees, with one great move. Watch for X-rays on both sides. Constantly be on the scan for not only my own X-rays, but also what my opponent is X-raying. Xray-ing is an unofficial slang term which we use to easily plan 4-5-6 moves ahead. Castle early & often & each & every game~THIS SHOULD BE A PRIMARY OBJECTIVE~ Forget the pawn storming for now, it's not working. Look into it later & just work the defense harder~ Visualise what the opponent would be looking at, after I make the move that I am planning/thinking about. Watch for opponents double (future) attacks. Start thinking in terms of what my opponent has in 2 moves, available to him.. When a pawn is about to queen, thats the FOCUS!!!!!!! Make it happen offensively or stop it defensively. When protecting against mate, be sure to not only plan against the one mate you think you see, look carefully for a second and third. You may avoid one mate only to fall right into another~So, LOOK CAREFULLY FOR MORE THAN ONE mate. Do not think, 'oh I see it, I can just move "this" to avoid it'. LOOK more thouroughly and avoid secondary and/or tertiary mates! And right on this note: Don't only be thinking 'mate,mate,mate,mate,mate' or you can easily lose a Queen, a good position or another piece. Chess will certainly develop your power of circumspection. It constantly requires you to take in the 'BIG PICTURE' and look over many different possibilities. Double attacks are critical. Fork or attack 2 & 3 pieces at once, very hard to defend against. Also, too, often the opponent only sees one of the attacks and fails to defend against the other. Don't expect alot of success to your attack, if you use only one piece. It's too easy to spot & prevent. Attack with multiple pieces. Combinations are the heart of chess. So combinate! Single piece attacks are to ez to spot and protect against, ok? Castle early & often, castle early & often. Protect the king.... Keep pawns snuggled up close up against the king in the castle. They afford good cover. CASTLE EARLY AND OFTEN!! CASTLE EARLY AND OFTEN!! Later in the ganme be weary if your pieces get low in number. Then the pawns in front of the king cannot be protected by them. ALways watchout for attacks on the pawn cover. Don't ask for a takeback. It is considered rude, (depending on your level of play) and it alerts your opponent to a possible mistake. Use discovered attacks. Move a pawn to open the junkyard gate, to let the bishop attack dog at another piece across the yard. Many players will only see the pawn move and not the bishop being uncovered. It's a cool way to attack. Castle early & often, castle early & often............. Panic passed pawns!!! When a pawn 'passes' it has almost made it to its promotion. A passed pawn is one which has succeeded in getting past the opposing pawn line and threatens to 'Queen' or change into another piece. If I have a passed pawn, I have to rejoice & focus on it and get it all the rest of the way thru. If my opponent gets a passed pawn, I have to KILL KILL it quickly or I will be in trouble. Note to self: Consider passed pawns as having 'double worth'!! Castle early at a good moment. Don't let there be a breeze on the king for long. You don't want to end up saying 'Oh, I should have castled'. CASTLE EARLY & OFTEN. It protects the king, gets the rooks to control open files & connects the rooks (which is very strong). Dont let them push you around or mess up your opening gameplan.. GET SAFE early and plan. Develop, control the center and castle early. Dont get behind a stupid piece early, DON'T let your opponent mess up your opening. Stick to the primary opening strategy, at all times. |