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“Let’s see what our friend Suba has to say about this subject: … ‘Memorize opening variations, endgame techniques, combinations, even whole games if you can, but not rules and dogma.’ This last sentence is a remarkably honest proposal! After all, it runs counter to the advice of just about every instructional book or magazine article out there! Haven’t you seen it time and again: ‘Don’t memorize openings; just learn the principles behind them’…’you shouldn’t be trying to learn by heart; understanding the ideas is what really counts’…’young players spend too much time learning openings, when they should be mastering the fundamental principles of the game’, and so forth?” – International Master John Watson in Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy

One of the most oft-repeated advice to beginners and intermediate players is to study the typical plans and ideas of their opening rather than to commit variations to memory. And yet, we have here a clear example of “do as I say not as I do”. Not only do the top players in the world have a lot of knowledge of concrete, specific variations – but so do many chess coaches, authors, club players, and certainly those young players who are advancing rapidly. Indeed just about every player, author, coach who says “don’t memorize variations” has memorized oddles of variations – and has lived to tell the story.

So what gives?

The truth lies somewhere in the middle

The truth lies somewhere in the middle. When studying the opening, our chief aim really is to absorb the essential tactics and strategies of our particular system. But on the other hand, we need to equip ourselves to avoid dangerous traps, to assimilate the theory and games which have been handed down to us throughout the ages, to be able to exploit the mistakes of our opponents quickly and proficiently, and to minimize our use of clock time so that we can spend it on the complicated problems offered by the middlegame and endgame.

Memorizing opening variations not only gives us concrete knowledge of a given opening – it is also an efficient method of absorbing the crucial ideas/strategies behind our openings.

Read that again!!

If you memorize opening lines properly (and I’ll discuss more on how to do this) you will not only gather some key lines which may be of use to you in the games, but you also absorb the spirit of the opening efficiently.

Memorization and understanding go hand in hand

If you have ever tried to memorize opening variations you'll quickly realize that in order to memorize a series of a moves you have to try to understand it. Even if only on a superficial level, you have to make some meaning out of the moves. This forces you to think carefully about the nature of the moves, why they're being played, and causes you to gradually absorb the key ideas in your opening.

I would challenge you right now to pick up a game in one of your favorite openings and commit it to memory. Do this by playing through the game once, then putting the game aside and trying to recreate as much of it as you can. Guess where you ran into trouble? The moves which didn't come naturally to you are precisely those moves which you understand the least. If you give special attention to those situations where you lacked clarity, and strive to understand the moves (you can use books, databases, coaches, engines, online chess forums/groups, your own reasoning to help you) you will be able to grasp the moves and memorize them more easily.

In a sense, memorizing opening variations has a "nuclear" effect because you are often memorizing important strategic and tactical devices and clearing up areas of mis-understanding. One of the best ways to see where your understanding is deficient is to try to commit and rehearse things from memory.

But what exactly should I memorize?

The good news is that you really don't have to commit billions of lines to memory. What you should focus on is identifying the most critical lines, most tactical lines, and most illustrative lines. (We'll review how to do all this in upcoming articles.)

Critical lines are those lines which are theoretically critical to the assessment of a variation. For example in most openings there is a well-established "main line" where much of the theoretical debate takes place. A lot of players enjoy such lines because both sides enjoy chances, and its helpful to know roughly how to get to these positions and how to play them.

Tactical lines refers to those lines which involve long forcing sequences and plenty of tricks and traps. These are the sorts of lines such players fear - some young kid sits down whips off 20 moves of theory and suddenly you're lost. This is an extremely rare occurence, but many openings have well-known traps and tactical lines which it can be helpful to know.

Illustrative lines are more subjective. Here I'm referring to lines which help to demonstrate the main ideas of the opening. They may involve thematic strategic and tactical devices. One great way to have such illustrations in mind is to memorize the opening and middlegame phase of well-annotated games played in your openings. The idea here is to have some rough plans committed to memory so that you can rely on them by analogy when you reach such positions during the game.

We've discussed a lot of important information about studying openings here. During the next article, we'll dive into more details. Until then, happy king hunting!

In part one of this article, we discussed three principle causes of blunders in chess.

• A heightened emotional state of some kind (getting close to victory, a feeling of self-satisfaction, excitement)
• Insufficient skill in tactics and combinations
• Failure to penetrate the position and account for all its features

In this article we discuss how to work on these three things.

A heightened emotional state

Many chess players flat out refuse to accept that there is emotional arousal during a chess game. This is categorically bad thinking and will only result in a dampening of the results you could potentially achieve. The truth is that a chess game between players of a reasonably close strength is filled with tension. A chess game is complicated, full of surprises and in the case of a tournament game we have invested considerable time and effort into achieving our aim – the prospect of a result (winning OR losing) is very influential on our state of mind.

I’ll assume that you don’t need to be convinced of this and move on to suggesting how to help yourself diminish the blunders which go along with our inherently subjective nature when we examine chess positions.

The most important thing is to be aware of certain tendencies of thought and their corresponding dangers. I’ve already mentioned in the previous article that more than anything, one should be on guard against feelings of self-satisfaction or excitement at the prospect of winning (or equalizing against a stronger player). When you find yourself getting close to achieving a result or even a positional aim of some kind the most important thing is to slow down and insist on accounting for the whole board and for the opponent’s intentions. The surest way to make a blunder is to temporarily forget about your opponent’s right to exist and his inevitable cunning. And by “temporarily” I mean even just one move. For just one move you eagerly pursue your plan, and suddenly the opponent demonstrates that you’ve missed something obvious and devastating – such as hanging a piece. It happens every day.

Thus before every move you must constantly be sure that you’ve asked yourself, “What are his intentions? What are his plans? What will he play after I play that move? What does my move weaken?” You simply must get in the habit of asking these questions during the course of the entire game and always directly before you make your move. The sooner you can develop this as an absolute habit – one from which you never vary – the sooner you will see a drastic decrease in your blunders.

Insufficient skill in tactics and combinations

This is perhaps the simplest problem to correct. The best way to gain skill in tactics and combinations is through solving tactical puzzles on a regular basis. Visit www.kebuchess.com for a low-cost program (which offers a free version) with hundreds of tricky puzzles taken exclusively from recent games.

Failure to penetrate the position and account for all its features

The remedy for this is simple. During your opponent’s clock time (while he is pondering his move) simply ask yourself a lot of questions about the position. I often ask (and attempt to answer) such questions as “What is my opponent’s most principle plan here?” “What features of the position am I not noticing?” “Where are the potential pitfalls in my position?” “If I had to summarize what’s going on here in a single sentence, what would I say?” … you can be creative here, the main thing is that your churning the position around in different ways in bringing attention to your opponent’s intentions, and the salient features of the position.

This may not seem connected with blunders, but you will find that establishing control over your thoughts and feelings about the position in this way will lead you to make far less oversights of a tactical and even strategic nature. Now when the moments of tension arise (and they surely will) you will consciously and subconsciously be able to make a use of all the extra information you’ve gained during your opponent’s time. This has a magical way of reducing mistakes.

If you practice the suggestions listed here you will see a reduction in your “silly” oversights and be in a position to take advantage of your opponent’s!

More than anything, chess games are decided by tactical mistakes and blunders. We’ve all had the terrible experience of achieving a “crushing” position after a long drawn-out battle only to blow it in one single move due to a blunder – a colossal oversight.

In my experience with teaching students and improving my own game, eliminating or drastically reducing such colossal mistakes constitutes a huge part of chess mastery – an enormous step forward.

The causes of blunders

The favored explanation for blunders is a “lapse of concentration” – and while this may be true it is almost always only half of the story. Think about your mental state before making a blunder. If you’re honest, you won’t be able to demonstrate that you were clearly less concentrated at that moment than you were at other stages of the game. You weren’t falling asleep, checking out an attractive person, or balancing your checkbook. You were probably engaged in exactly the same behavior as you had been the whole time – thinking about the position. So what is this mysterious lapse of concentration?

In chess, a lapse of concentration is usually preceded by a heightened emotional state of some kind. Probably the most notorious emotional state is to be just around the corner from victory. How many times has it happened? You are close to realizing a plan, a kingside attack, eliminating the opponent’s forces, and it is at precisely this moment that you suddenly … drop a piece, drop a queen, mate in one, or you deliver stalemate! I have found from a thorough investigation of my own games and my experience with students that a huge percentage of blunders come just after a feeling a self-satisfaction or excitement.

If you have some games of your own stored in a database, review those ghastly blunders. And think about what I’ve just suggested. You may also find that the vast majority of your blunders don’t happen in balanced positions where there is still everything left to play for – on the contrary, they often come when you’re sure of victory, or have just equalized against stronger opposition, or are very close to realizing an intention. You probably make very few blunders during the initial phases of a game which are tense and require an obvious degree of concentration.

In the next article, we’ll develop the idea of how to reduce this kind of error.

Another more obvious reason that blunders occur is having insufficient skill at tactics and combinations. Many texts admonish us that nothing, absolutely nothing, can compensate for a lack of tactical ability – and this is true. Dvoretsky mentions this important point in his book Training for the Tournament Player as does Alexander Kotov in his book Play like a Grandmaster. Fortunately, this is an easy problem to correct over time since it mainly comes down to solving tactical puzzles on a regular basis. Visit www.kebuchess.com for a low-cost program (which offers a free version) with hundreds of tricky puzzles taken exclusively from recent games.

A final cause of blunders which is actually quite related to the first is a failure to fully take in the position and its strategic components. While playing a game of chess your task is very simple (though not easy). You must constantly try to penetrate the position at hand through strategic thinking, calculating, guessing the opponent’s intentions, and keeping your mind clear and sharp. You should devote yourself to these tasks during the course of the entire game and try to keep the minimum amount of tension in doing so. The more you penetrate the position (ask questions about it, calculate some interesting variations, etc.) – even while your opponent is pondering his next move – the less you will blunder. Blunders are often related to overlooking some basic strategic component of the position – failure to fully appreciate for example, that the opponent has a bishop on an awkward square – and then moving your queen right in the line of fire (for example)!

Stay tuned for the second segment of this article, where will discuss what actions you can take to reduce or eliminate blunders.

Above and beyond anything else, the aspiring chess player has to gain a firm mastery of tactics. But how to go about it? Here are three recommendations:

Don’t strain too hard to play for “tactical positions” from the opening

A big mistake that many aspiring players make is to assume that if they are tactically deficient they must try to reach such positions at all costs. This is usually achieved by playing gambits and off-beat lines. I don’t recommend this approach. Tactics naturally arise in the course of a game as a result of superior strategy and plain old mistakes on either side. Even if you play an absolutely “dry” game of chess, you’re bound to run into many tactical moments and motifs, so there is no reason to strain for such positions – which has obvious downsides.

Review your games with a chess engine to find missed tactical opportunities

As much as you possibly can, never play a game (even an online blitz game) without taking a self-critical approach to it afterwards. Take a few minutes to boot up an engine, and a games database if you have one and find the key tactical mistakes. You’ll be astonished how many there are. You can even keep track of how many you average per a given a number of games (for instance, you may have 15 missed tactical opportunities in 10 games) and try to reduce it in the next 10 games you play. You’ll be surprised how measuring this and focusing on the results will help you to focus in a new way and quickly drop the number.

Solve tactics puzzles – smartly!

Of course the most direct solution is to solve plenty of tactical puzzles. No other method is as direct. But there are some guidelines to observe.

Make sure that you have foreseen everything and checked for alternatives before verifying your solution

This is absolute critical. It is easy to be lulled into the feeling that you’ve worked everything out merely because you see a sacrificial move and one or two moves ahead. But you need to evaluate every defensive (and counter-aggressive!) idea your opponent might have. You must also make sure your calculations are very accurate. Be very self-critical when checking solutions. Even if you had the right idea, did you overlook a key variation? Don’t give yourself any breathing room here. In a real contest with a real opponent, you have to be 100% certain before you take the plunge and sacrifice material.

Study the position for several seconds before looking at any sacrifices

It’s difficult to overestimate the importance of this point. During a chess game you have to rely on cues in the position to suggest combinations, or strategic operations for that matter. You must build the crucial habit of asking yourself “what are the key positions of this position?” every time you are confronted with such a position. Ask yourself what factors in the opponent’s position can be exploited. And what about your own position? Are there threats to it? What strengths do you have? Keep asking questions about the position for several seconds in order to really begin to grasp it. Then start looking for ideas. You’ll be surprised that almost immediately you can find many tactical ideas as well as strategic ideas.

Use the training principles of “overtraining” and “progression”

One surefire way to really get a handle on tactical patterns is to solve sets of puzzles more than once. One eccentric version of this is to try to solve a set of around 1,000 puzzles seven times. This is probably a bit more than necessary, but solving puzzles multiple times will etch the themes into your mind very strongly. You’ll find that on your second time around you’ll remember many solutions vaguely. This is good, because when those same themes happen in your serious games, you’ll also notice them and sense them.

The principle of progression states that you should try to increase the difficulty every step of the way. After becoming proficient at beginner puzzles, move onto intermediate and/or advanced puzzles. For a free version of KEBU Chess Tactics Software which allows you to do that click here. Best of luck!

Coaches and books alike admonish us to study tactics more than anything else. It is often said that the vast majority of games are decided by them. But why?

Here’s a short list of reasons, followed by an explanation of the major points.

Studying tactics:

• significantly reduces the amount of blunders you make,
• improves your feeling for the pieces,
• is an integral part of fully exploiting any strategic plan,
• increases results, and is a lot of fun!

Most games are decided by tactics

As we discussed in the article what is a chess tactic, a chess tactic is the exploitation of a short-term opportunity in the position. This is in contrast to strategy which focuses on the exploitation of long-term opportunities (such as weaknesses in the opponent’s pawn structure, space advantage, etc.).

At the level of elite grandmasters, strategy plays an enormous role – often right from the opening. The struggle for some kind of long-term advantage starts straightaway and has a key influence over the development of the struggle. That being said, even at this level tactics play a key role in helping the strategy along or taking advantage of short-term defects that the opponent creates in his position.

But the further we remove ourselves from grandmaster level – ordinary masters, experts, club players – the more obvious it is that the most important skill is to take advantage of short-term situations created by the opponent’s mistakes. On the other hand, we have to be careful not to make mistakes which offer the opponent similar resources.

Reduce your blunders significantly

Blunders are an insidious problem. After a blunder or serious mistake we often feel that the reason is arbitrary. “I wasn’t concentrating enough”, “I was so close to winning and got overly excited”. All this may be actually have a grain of truth but grandmasters also have lapses of concentration, and they get excited too. So why do they blunder so much less? Because their feeling for chess is so developed that they naturally don’t even consider moves which would have negative tactical consequences.

I really want you to think about that. As your feeling for tactics grow, you naturally don’t even look at certain moves because you can sense instinctively that there’s a drawback. It is this “sixth sense” that you can develop by studying tactics (particularly by solving tactical puzzles). In this way your blunders naturally and drastically fall and you can free yourself from the grip of seemingly random blunders.

Improve your feeling for the pieces

As you get more skilled at tactics you’ll naturally develop a better feel for the pieces and their capabilities. You’ll learn intuitively why certain piece arrangements work better than others as you begin to understand tactics.

Lavrik (2387) – Vorobiov(2550)

Zvenigorod Open, 2008

White to move, Beginner puzzle from KEBU Chess Tactics Software 2009

Many players with a bit of experience will sense immediately the defects of Black’s position and will instantly see that White plays 25.Qxf6+!! because of the follow-up Rxh7 mate. This instant perception is facilitated by the knowledge of the mating theme involving the bishop’s control over the g8 square and the powerful arrangement of rooks on the h-file. Having seen such arrangements before and having a feeling for the pieces, a master will play this move in seconds – even in a blitz game. And many club players will do so just as quickly.

But it doesn’t end there. The stronger a player is, the more such patterns he organically commands, until he can effortlessly bring such positions about – especially against weaker opposition. Watch a master play a class C player and you’ll see that somehow the master always gets to deliver a “sneaky” blow because of his feeling for how to create and deliver them.

Tactics are an integral part of realizing a strategy

In chess, a long-term strategy cannot function without the help of tactics. It very often happens that one builds up a position or a strategy, and finally must use tactics to convert it.

Alonso(2466) – Lopez (2394)

Santiago de Chile, 2008

White to move

In the following position (which arose from a Ruy Lopez) White implemented the classic strategy of a kingside attack. Black’s light-squared bishop is precariously placed on c6 which allows White to use the f5 and g4 squares to help bring his pieces closer to the king. White’s greater command of space allows him to rapidly situate his pieces as well. The d6-pawn (which is “backwards”) is also a drawback in Black’s position. But in order for all of this to work, White has to make use of some tactics!

20.Ng4 Nxg4?! A bit cooperative. 21.Qxg4 Qd7 22.Nf5

The first tactical threat is created. White now threatens to capture on h6 since the pawn on g7 is pinned.

22…Kh7 23.Rd1!

With the help of tactical motifs, White has already created an unstoppable threat. There is no good way to protect against the threat of Rxd6! This move works because Black’s bishop can’t abandon the defense of g7 where White would otherwise give checkmate with his queen. The move 23…g6 gives White a couple of tactical options. The strongest is 24.Nxh6! when after 24…Bxh6 25.Qh4 regains the bishop with a free pawn, bishop pair, and initiative. Another is 24.Nxd6!? Bxd6 25.Qxd7 followed by 26.Rxd6 with a free pawn. You see? Tactics are definitely necessary to implement strategy.

It’s true that 23…d5 is possible, but then White can switch back to his overall strategy (attack on the king) with the move 24.Bc2! Suddenly the bishop is able to contribute to the attack and White’s advantage is decisive.

23…Nc4!? 24.Bxc4 bxc4 25.Rxd6!

25…Qb7 26.f3?

Strategically speaking, White would like to continue his development, pile rooks on the d-file, and then finish off his attack or otherwise overwhelm his helpless opponent. But it seems that the e4-pawn is hanging. So at the cost of time (he spends a move) which he could use towards his own ends he defends it. But by combining concrete tactics with his approach, he could have done remarkably better. 26.Be3! is a very strong move which prepares Rad1. And now if 26…Bxe4? White has 27.Rb6 Qd5

26…Bd7 27.Be3 g6? This breaks the strategic rule “avoid pawn moves on the side of the board where you are weaker” (and also “avoid pawn moves in front of your king”). 

In this particular case, Black weakens the f6 and h6 points. White speedily uses tactics to take advantage of this. 28.Rf6! White occupies the newly weakened station and gives a threat to f7. Now if 28…gxf5? 29.Rxf7+ Kh8 30.Qg6! there is no defense to mate. 28…Kg8 Defending f7. 29.Qh4! White now attacks h6 – the newly weakened point. Again, Black play   29…gxf5 for concrete reasons. 30.exf5! And now there is surprisingly no way to stop the same plan of Qg3+, Rxf7, Qg6. 29…Bxf5 30.exf5 Be7 31.Bxh6!  Black sure does regret having played …g6 doesn’t he? 31…Qc7 32.Bg5 Kg7 And now the final tactical operation…

White to move, Beginner puzzle from KEBU Chess Tactics Software 2009

33.Rxf7+! Black resigned because of 33…Kxf7 34.Qh7+ Kf8 35.Bh6+. A fantastic example of the blending of strategy and tactic! Such operations are the norm, not the exception. One very frequently uses short tactical operations to help achieve strategic aims. In a very real sense, learning tactics helps you to improve your strategy.

Have more fun, win more games with chess tactics!

Not only does the study of chess tactics improve your game in all the aforementioned ways – it also makes them more fun! The sacrifice of material is one of the most gratifying moments of a chess game because it often symbolizes superior strategy, powers of calculation, and a keen eye. Sacrificing is fun, pleasing, and it wins games!

The puzzles in this article came from KEBU Chess Tactics Software 2009. To download the free version with more puzzles like these, click here. Happy sacrificing! 

As chess players we are often told that “Chess is 99% tactics.” Coaches and authors use this phrase to help spur the aspiring chess player to study tactics as much as possible. But what exactly is a tactic?

This article will explain what tactics are, and also address what chess combinations are. The topic is a bit tricky to grasp at first, but if you view the other articles and try your own hand at solving puzzle you’ll quickly grasp the concept.

My favorite definition comes from Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan who writes, “Tactics are maneuvers that take advantage of short-term opportunities.” This is in contrast to strategy, which aims to take advantage of long-term opportunities. Since this might seem abstract, let’s take a look at an example:

 Yifan(2557) – Sedina(2344)

Women’s World Championship, Nalchik, 2008

White to move, Beginner puzzle from KEBU Chess Tactics Software 2009

If we study the position we find many factors which suggest that short-term opportunities exist. The bishop on d6 is defended precisely as many times as it is attacked, which means that if we could, for example, make one of Black’s rooks moves move – the bishop would fall. Indeed, this is possible and White can play 28.Bxb7!? after which White wins a pawn since if 28…Rxb7 29.Rxd6. This would also leave Black’s a6-pawn undefended, and increase White’s control over the d-file. All this would lead to a winning advantage.

But there is an even stronger idea. Can you find it?

Yifan played 28.Rxd6! which wins a piece after 28…Rxd6 29.Bxe5+! (29.Rxd6!? Rxd6 30.Bxe5+ Rf6! is less accurate). This method takes advantage not only of the shaky defense Black has over d6, but also the fact that Black’s king is positioned in precisely the spot which allows Bxe5 to be a check against the king. This tactic, therefore, relies on the exact placement of Black’s king, the properties of White’s bishop, and the weak point in Black’s position: d6. If it were Black’s move in the position she could minimize damages with a move such as 27…Bb8 or 27…Kf7, both of which alter one of the tactical (short-term!) drawbacks of her position.

So here White’s exploitation of the position is sharp, decisive, and takes advantage of short-term opportunities.

Before showing another example, I should mention the difference between a tactic and a combination. A combination is a forcing sequence which begins with the sacrifice of material and leads (usually through tactics) to the win of material (more than was invested at the outset) or to checkmate. A tactic refers specifically to the short-term device used to exploit certain defects in the position and does not refer to a forcing sacrificial sequence.

Confused? Let me clarify…

In this puzzle, White began with a sacrifice, 28.Rxd6! The move temporarily gives up material since a rook is worth less than a bishop and here it appears that White will just lose material after Rxd6. But because of a forcing sequence (28…Rxd6 29.Bxe5+!) White will regain the material with interest. She’ll end the sequence ahead by a rook and a pawn – an enormous advantage. The move 29.Bxe5+ is a tactic. It is called a “double attack”. The bishop attacks both the king and the rook.

Okay, I think it’s time for another example to help clarify all of this…

Braun(2536) – Negi(2526)

Corus Wijk aan Zee Group C, 2008

White to move, Intermediate puzzle from KEBU Chess Tactics Software 2009

In this position White looks very close to delivering mate to the poor king on f8. In fact, White could play 31.Re8+ and win the queen for a rook and knight – a small victory. But White, correctly, senses that he can do much more. The move he played was 31.Bc6!! And Black resigned.

If Black captures the bishop (31…Qxc6) then 32.Qd8+ Qe8 33.Qxe8# is mate. If Black decides to decline the bishop and move his queen instead, he has to lose it for a small price, and White will maintain enough force to give checkmate quickly.

So just as before, we have a combination with tactical features. This is a recurring theme in chess, and in the vast majority of chess puzzles. 31.Bc6!! is a combination because it, once again, begins with the sacrifice of material. White’s bishop steps onto a square where it can be immediately captured. But if Black takes the gift , a forced sequence leads to mate.

What is the tactical device used in this puzzle? In this case White uses the tactical device of the pin to accomplish his aims. Notice that the c6-square appears to be protected by the knight on d8 as well as the queen. But the knight on d8 is absolutely helpless to participate in the defense of c6 since it is pinned to the king – if it were to move the king would be captured, and thus …Nxc6 is illegal.

As with so much of chess, it takes a little adjustment to the terminology used by players to classify and describe their favorite game. The best way to understand tactics and combinations is to repeatedly solve them and find them in your own games. One doesn’t really need to know the definition of a “tactic” or “combination” in order to be able to use them very effectively in your games.

To solve free beginner, intermediate, and advanced puzzles like the ones in this article you can download a free version of Kebu Chess Tactics Software 2009.

To learn more about tactics and combinational motifs, see articles on this blog including: double attacks, back-rank mate, clearance sacrifice, interference, promotion, removal of defender, discovery attack, deflection, decoy and pin/skewer.