How To Improve

Improvement is one of the most important goals to adopt as a novice chessplayer. The original reason to improve is usually to win more games and to play better against friends and family. However, there is a much deeper reason to improve that drives many to continue to study long after those we know are no longer able to defeat us. Improvement in chess leads to deeper understanding of the game and hence greater pleasure from playing it, due to understanding of new concepts such as tactical and positional theory.

There is no "quick fix" for all novice chessplayers to rapidly improve their abilities. There are a few problems that I have seen in beginners that are, however, easily fixable. Adopting the following principles will usually greatly improve play:

1) Open the game by moving a pawn in front of the king or queen out two squares and maintain a pawn on one of the four squares in the middle of the board, if at all possible

2) Move pieces out quickly; leave no piece sitting on its original square

3) Move pieces to squares where they can move to the center of the board at opportune times, creating opportunities for attack and shielding against enemy assaults

4) Castle early to protect the king

5) Before making a move, check all enemy responses that are captures and checks (threats to the king) to see if they produce a losing position for you

Adopting these simple principles, combined with analyzing games after they are played, will allow someone who has just begun playing to improve their play a great deal in an astonishingly short period of time. All strong players play according to principles from which these rules were developed, and thus they will form a strong base for future play.

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