Lesson #1 section 1

I am chasing the title NM and have decided to do a few lessons. My chess has improved greatly and I am constantly beating CM and NM titled players. These lessons will be done for different rating ranges. Below you will see the sections and there rating ranges.

Section one: 0 to 600. Beginner to more advanced player.
Section two: 600 to 800. More advanced to Amateur.
Section three: 800 to 1000. Amateur to good player.
section four: 1000 to 1300 Good player to stronger player


Now on to lesson one section one!

How do you teach chess to someone? Advanced tips get players no where. Positional understanding is good but it is really only for 1400+ players. So now what? What makes a 400 player weaker then a 600 player? When watching players under 600 play you see 4 common things.

1. Making a move on guesses and feeling
2. Not even thinking about a move
3. No understanding of basic tactics.
4. Playing poor opening choices.


The lessons for 600 to 0 rated players will aim to fix these simple mistakes. But how do you teach these basic themes? First you have to realize that they are some of the most IMPORTANT and ADVANCED themes in chess. What!? No Grandmaster makes a move by guessing. All Grandmaster think about there moves. All 1000+ players at least understand SOME tactics. Grandmaster see advanced tactics that have simple tactics in them. No strong player plays a poor opening. So you can see that these 4 things affect ALL levels of chess. They are advanced but really quite simple. So lets dive in!!

Lets start by addressing number 1. I will start really basic and get more advanced as the lessons go on. Okay. You are playing a fairly good player lets say 1000 rated in the below position.

Black's turn

White has just played d4. You feel like moving your king. You guess it is fine(without looking for tactics) and play it in 5 seconds. Then white plays d5!! and wins back his piece. Now white is slightly better. That mistake most likely cost you the game! This is from a game I played against a 1764 player(I was black). I saw this and played Bd5. My plan is to activate my queen, block his pawn, and go at the kingside. This is to advanced for 600 and below players so all you need to learn from this is the following: If you guess on moves you will make silly mistakes and lose. If you look at the moves and see what the last move does you are on the path to 600+!!