Some time ago I wrote an article giving five tips that (in my experience) will help players of about Elo 1400 (ECF 100) improve their play to around Elo 1720 (140). I then almost immediately had to write a follow-up because it was quickly pointed out I had somehow missed out the most important method – that is, analyse your own games which now occupies the number one slot!
I’ve been thinking about this, and – a year and a half later – I’m writing my list again. In addition to the obvious point that you need to play regularly, here are my top five how to improve at chess tips:
- Analyse your games. Do this with the help of players stronger than yourself. Also using chess programmes such as Fritz can offer lots of surprises regarding just how many tactics you missed during the game!
- Learn about openings but concentrate on the ideas behind them, and don’t waste your time on learning wrote theory. Learning all the grandmaster theory moves is just a waste of time: your opponents may play technically inferior moves, but that won’t help you because you won’t know how to take advantage. Having said that, playing over the theory is a good thing if you use it just to help you understand the ideas
- Spend time studying simple tactics and improving your tactical ability. Being a tactical opportunist – even just using just short (say three move) combinations - will pick up a lot of points. Also, learn to consturct attacks against the enemy king – weaker players tend to have a poorly developed sense of danger
- Learn about endgames. This is where I am lacking in practicing what I preach, although I’m now working on rectifying my lack of endgame knowledge (but it’s a slow process)
- Learn to use your time. I’ve often watched the strong players and noted time and time again how they use all their time; they do not rush. I used to like having a time advantage even if it was only a few minutes, but now I understand that this is folly: paying attention to your position is much more important!
Note that this is an updated version of an old article. The original has moved here.
