How to become a chess master
Chess is fun, winning chess games is even more fun. According to Kotov, to win over players at a master level, you need to acquire five skills. Without these qualities, winning most of your games will be just a nice dream.
Alexander Kotov is one of the greatest chess authors of all time. In his book “Train Like a Grandmaster”, he gave the following five qualities that form the basic components that make up a strong chess player:
1. You must be well versed in modern opening theory:
Opening preparation becomes more and more crucial in modern chess: “play in the center, don’t move a piece twice, don’t bring your queen into play too early, castle quickly…” All these tips are still valuable. , but they are “insufficient”. Every good chess player has a repertoire of openings that he has tried over and over again over the years.
2. You must know and commit to memory the principles that inspire the typical game environment:
In two words: pattern recognition. Many players think that this concept is used only for tactical reasons; that is wrong! It can be used to find a plan in the middle of the game, a winning technique in the end game, or just a mating attack.
3. A Grandmaster must be able to assess a position accurately and correctly:
It is here that a deep and clear understanding of the game shows the ability of the Grandmaster. With deep positional and strategic knowledge, he can make the right judgment and pick the best move.
4. The ability to hit the right plane:
A strong chess player can find his way in every situation, even those that are completely unknown to him. Personally, I’m a big fan of Karpov’s planning skills. He always manages to choose the correct order of actions to accomplish the main task for him. The question is: “How on earth does he successfully carry out his plan?” In his book “Find the right plan”, Anatoly Karpov suggests adhering to the following seven basic principles: a material relationship between forces, the presence of direct threats, the position of kings, the possession of open lines, pawn structures, weak and strong. squares, the center and the space and the position of the pieces.
The chess player can then assess the position, select a plan of action, and start looking for specific moves and calculating variations.
5. A Grandmaster must be able to calculate variations accurately and quickly:
Excelling at calculus is a must if you want to join the elite. The dominance of computers over man is due to their superiority in the field of calculation: computers do not miss a single move. We are not machines, but having an organized thought process and clear visualization skills while calculating variances is more than necessary. Calculation is not an easy thing, but it is a core skill of the game of chess. It is good to master the positional game, to know how to plan, to have an impeccable final technique, but all that becomes useless when you hang a piece because you did not calculate well.
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