Questions tagged [learning]
Questions related to learning how to play chess and improving your chess skills. This can also be used for questions concerning "learning" chess engines.
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Do grandmasters think on every move?
While watching Hikaru's Streams/YouTube (GM Chess Twitch Streamer), he's no doubt extremely impressive when it comes to recognizing patterns that win him material and forced mates in like 7+ moves. ...
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How do you judge a sacrifice?
I have been looking at several of Mikhail Tal's games recently, as they are exciting to analyze. Often Tal makes sacrifices in surprising positions, and almost always the computer finds that the ...
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How can I make a chess exhibition exciting for 'laypeople'?
I've been asked recently to try to put on a few chess exhibitions for some local kids and their parents in a mostly urban setting, and one thing that I'm keenly aware of is the basic 'uncoolness' that ...
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Why do titled players always play online (blitz) speed chess?
If you have been to an online chess server, you will notice that almost all titled players always play quick games (3 0) at a max.
On the other hand, if you go to tournaments, it needs cool thinking ...
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What is the better way to stop blundering all my games?
I am on the road that starts from the "Beginner" stage, trying to leave this "town". I know and understand the rules, I also understand most of the "classic" tactics. I am able to reproduce some ...
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What thought process should one use to find candidate moves?
Do you have a thought process for finding candidate moves?
Once you find all possible candidate moves, how do you narrow it down to your final choice?
Regarding the process, do you have a ...
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Study endgame first before studying opening? Is it true?
While looking for and comparing suggestions that will help me to improve in chess, I have noticed that some people and some chess book authors suggest that you should study the endgame first.
Some ...
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Improving the observation skill & making less blunders
I've noticed that the most common reason for me to lose a game is not lack of knowledge but failure to observe whats happening on the board. This is specially true for rapid games but it happens in ...
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How do I stop blundering my queen?
I have a particular bad habit when I play chess. I play reasonably well (at least by the standards of people I play with), and am quite careful with my pieces. But in about 80% of games I play, once I ...
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Books that help improve your chess without a chessboard
I am looking for books that can help me improve without a physical/digital chessboard. I have a kindle, and I have many places in school where I can read, but not many where I can open a chessboard ...
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En passant for beginners
When I started playing chess, I learned many of the rules of chess on my own.
I was playing chess online, and then I realised that pawns can capture in such a fashion. At first, it was weird to me. ...
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Why do professional chess players point at the pieces with a middle finger?
I've recently heard and then actually started to notice more and more that professional chess players tend to use a middle finger when pointing at pieces on the board like in this Anand vs Caruana ...
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As a Beginner, is playing a lot of tactics chess (puzzles) a good way to improve?
I am pretty new to chess, and I play lot of chess puzzles: trying to find the best move for a given situation (which will not necessarily end-up with a checkmate).
Is this a good way to learn chess ...
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Software for opening repertoire practice
I am developing an opening repertoire for white based on d4 and c4. I think this is going all right, but what I am looking for is a chess program that can exercise my repertoire knowledge.
...
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Is there a trick to help kids know which direction pawns are going?
My 5-year-old old daughter very often forgets which direction a pawn is moving. This is confusing especially at endgame studies.
I use a marker pen to draw two eyes on the pawns so that her pawns are ...
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The moves leading to the winning combination
We've all worked tactics problems. I can do those pretty well. Yet I have never been able to pull off one of these amazing combinations in my games. Not once.
These tactical situations don't arise ...
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What are some good books for chess openings?
I am not new to chess, I have been playing for around 6 years. But I don't know much about chess openings technically. What are some of the very good books to learn important opening moves?
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How do I promote my pawn when the king blocks it?
I was playing ChessEndGames and ran into this position (white to move):
[fen "5k2/8/4PK2/8/8/8/8/8 w - - 0 1"]
I can't get my pawn to promote. As soon as I do e7, black follows with Ke8. If I do Ke5,...
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Is it possible to improve by playing mostly blitz?
Can you improve significantly in chess by playing mostly blitz (say, 3 0) games? Or will you eventually reach a wall where the only way to advance is by sitting down for lengthy periods analyzing ...
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How can I improve after 10+ years of chess?
I've played chess for almost 13 years now (I'm 23), and I don't know how to improve my game level. I'm rated ~1400 FIDE, and have never been higher. I'm also ~1300 on chess.com after 700 games, and ...
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Why do points matter in trading pieces?
I am a beginner in chess and I am following the tutorials on Chess.com and reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess. In the tutorials about capturing pieces, it is common to count the points in ...
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The difficulty of finding the winning idea in this knight versus bishop endgame
I recently finished a tournament game on chess.com as Black that ended in a draw. It was a knight (me) vs. bishop endgame with pawns strewn across the board. Here is the entire game.
[Title "...
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Where to start with a child learning chess?
From here:
What is the best age to learn chess?
it seems that consensus is that that kids can start learning chess at almost any age. From around 5 years old they are big enough to learn the names ...
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Pros and cons of playing correspondence chess
I play correspondence daily.
My reason to do it is I am weak in openings and I can survive to the middlegame because I have access to databases; and I want to learn how to survive the opening and to ...
user18196
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What is a pawn hook?
On my question (Why is 11. .. h6 such a bad move?) someone commented that I should read about the concepts of hooks. One definition that I found was:
A hook is an advanced pawn which can be exploited ...
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Is it possible to get a professional degree in chess?
I am a software engineer by profession, and a chess enthusiast (around 1600 rated).
I would like to know is there any professional university certified course like Masters etc. in chess?
Can someone ...
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What book should I refer to to begin learning chess?
I'm a highschool student and want to play chess seriously. A friend of mine taught me the basic rules of the game. What book should I refer to to begin learning chess?
I tried Capablanca's Chess ...
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Free, simple chess program for beginners
I can't play chess very well, and want a computer game to play against. I've tried two so far - Chessbase (Fritz 5.32) and Crafty Chess. Both had the same problem that even on the lowest difficulty ...
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Should I learn openings as a beginner?
I'm very new to regularly playing chess while actively trying to improve (only ever played here and there casually before).
I'm ~600 rated on chess.com and many times I feel like I'm making mistakes/...
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Is there any chess software that tutors beginners?
I am a beginning chess player, and I want to learn more about openings, the middle game, and the endgame.
Can anyone suggest any good chess software that 'tutors' beginners?
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How to reach an open position in the 4 Knights Game without exchanging too much material?
I believe that 4 knights opening is the most popular opening, especially among average players. I play it a lot, that's why I want to analyse it. I'm an average player, so I hope you can help me.
...
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Learning to visualize the board
I have read in several sources, it's a important to be able instantly say what colour a square has or for example, if two pieces are on the same diagonal/rank/file, if their squares are given. And ...
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Theoretical relationship between Caro-Kann exchange and Queen's Gambit exchange
Is there a book, or an article, which examines the relationship between these two openings? The Caro-Kann exchange (non-Panov) is 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5, and the Queen's Gambit exchange is 1.d4 ...
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What are the benefits of learning to play chess as an adult (30s) if any?
I played chess when I was a child, but never got into it seriously (I didn't know it was possible at that age). Nowadays I'm playing regularly as a hobby and I'm interested in how this can affect my ...
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How can I train myself to become more observant of all my pieces?
This is always what gets me. I want to find a way to train myself to become more observant, and able to look at every piece that's about to murder me.
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How to study a chess tactics book?
I've been playing chess for quite a while now, but I still consider myself a beginner. I play with friends most of the time. Now I want to get better so I bougth a tactics book (Yusupov: Build up your ...
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How to solve mate-in-N problems
Here is a mate-in-4 I have been trying to solve:
[FEN "2r4r/b5pp/q3pp2/8/4QBk1/8/3R1PPK/4R3 w - - 0 1"]
(white mates in 4). I have been looking at it for about half an hour but not solved it. My ...
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Opening book series with "complete" explanations
I am looking for opening books, preferably a series that explain different openings, where the opening is explained with a complete view:
strategic plans for main variants,
main tactical ideas,
usual ...
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What chess websites are worth subscribing to? [closed]
I am a member of ICC and I find it useful although it may be a bit pricey. In a recent question about "What types or kinds of chess players are there?", chubbycantorset pointed out a video on www....
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What types or kinds of chess players are there?
I am often asked the question what type of chess player am I, but I am unsure how to answer this question because I do not exactly know what would define each type of player. Interestingly, I am only ...
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I blunder too much in over-the-board chess
I have played 99% of my games online, I have seen and learn almost everything related to chess with the fonts Alpha or Mérida, either through diagrams or games, etc .
However, when I play with an ...
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Website or program that creates puzzles from blunders in your past games
I'm looking for a website or program that would look at your past games on Lichess or chess.com and find moves that you played that were blunders and create puzzles around those
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What are the differences between tactical and positional chess?
Does one style of play have an advantage/disadvantage over the other?
Are today's GMs mostly tactical players or positional players?
What GMs should I follow if I want to be more of a tactical ...
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How to study chess?
I am a beginner, I have been playing from time to time with friends since I was a child, but I never studied seriously. A couple of months ago I decided I want to become better, to play more seriously,...
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How to improve on the early endgame?
The late middlegame/early endgame is by far my weakest point.
I often get some kind of advantage in the opening, but then struggle to convert. I do study endgames, for example I am currently reading ...
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Horde Chess Guide? [closed]
I have recently discovered Horde Chess on lichess.org and was wondering if there is somewhere a online guide on some openings or on some general tactic?
I'm really a beginner in general chess itself ...
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Should a beginner move from fundamentals to opening theory?
After learning the fundamentals, should one start learning openings or should there be something else in between?
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As a novice, how can I improve at defending my pieces other than what I'm already doing?
I’m struggling with chess after about six weeks of proper learning, i.e. strategy other than how the pieces move. I get this is a short time.
I’m working hard to try and learn, and joined a chess club ...
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Bishop vs Knight
I read in a book written by Fischer about piece values, and he said that a knight is worth 3 pawns, and a bishop is worth 3,25 pawns. I know that in closed positions knights are better, and I have ...
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Is there any good app for learning openings?
My great fail is that I cannot learn opening or initial play.
Normally I only play when I can connect to my mobile app (Chess Free on iOS), and play at a very low level (adjusted as a single bar), ...
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