How to Eliminate Blunders from your game

Lets face the facts - you may be quite a strong player, know tactics, middle-game strategies, reasonably good endgames and quite some opening lines or forests. And yet you tend to commit these blunders time and again - and not just in fast games - but also in slow timed games. In fact, all the way up to 2200 Elo, over 90% of the games are decided or can be decided by relatively simple blunders. 

I am also prone to blunders and am kicking myself for missing the application of the simple stuff when knowing so much about the game and its intricacies. It has got more to do with mental discipline and training your brain systematically than any lack of knowledge or conscious application of it. Most of times, you miss the simple blunder either because you just don't even consider that move (either for yourself or for your opponent) or are so much engrossed in the local plan and area of the chessboard that you refuse to grant those few crucial seconds to just check out safety.

I found the articles of Blunder-proofing at Exeter Chess Club, UK to be quite useful. Blunders can be due to 3 types of misses:

1. You miss the threat of your opponent after his move and fail to respond to it effectively, allowing him a free run on his move
2. You miss an opportunity for you when its your turn to move and thus lose out on a game-decider
3. You miss the threatening replies your opponent can make after you make your move - basically you only consider some replies and not all

The threats or opportunities in these types of blunders are mostly simple tactics which may be at most 1-2 or 3-moves deep. Any deeper and I will not really consider it a blunder unless your are 2200+ Elo already.

So, I have created the below program for my students and for myself. I have made it a simple ladder so that it is extremely easy to follow and make a habit for your mind and the brain:

This entire exercise has to be done with slow games (45 minutes or 60 minutes) where you write down not just the score of the game but also on each move, what are the threats that you see, or opportunities that you see. Create a notebook for this and it is important to write down with pen on paper and not on mobile or laptop.

First Stage  - Just focus on 1 move threats and never miss any of these in  3 ways as explained above

1. Opponent's Threats - Play 10 games -  After every move of the opponent, write down all the 1-move checks and captures that the opponent can make (his threats) before you decide 
2. Your Opportunities - Play 15 games - Here, not only do you write down your opponent's threats after his move, but you also write down all the 1-move checks and captures opportunities for you, before you decide on your move
3. Opponent's Replies - Play 15 games - Here, not only you write down opponent's threats and your opportunities, but after you decide your move, before playing it, write down all the 1-move threatening replies in terms of checks or captures that your opponent can make after you make the move

Second Stage  - Now that you have got into the habit of systematically thinking out all the threats at 1-move depth, Now focus on 2-move threats and follow the same rigor. It is important to follow these exactly step by step and not attempt to do all things at once. There are several reasons for this which you will realize as you play.

1. Opponent's Threats - Play 15 games -  After every move of the opponent, write down all the 1-2 move checks and captures that the opponent can make (his threats) before you decide 
2. Your Opportunities - Play 15 games - Here, not only do you write down your opponent's threats after his move, but you also write down all the 1-2 move checks and captures opportunities for you, before you decide on your move
3. Opponent's Replies - Play 10 games - Here, not only you write down opponent's threats and your opportunities, but after you decide your move, before playing it, write down all the 1-2 move threatening replies in terms of checks or captures that your opponent can make after you make the move

Third Stage - If you reach here after systematically playing 60 slow games, you must already have improved a lot in reducing the blunders and it must be visible in your game analysis. Congratulations! But you can continue one more step and reap the full benefits. 

Here, you train your mind to not just stop at 2 moves but look at the forcing lines till the end (forcing lines are where there can be major events like captures, checks and mating nets for a cornered king or a possible loose piece visible or a pawn is about to promote etc) 

Play 20 slow games where you note down all the threats and opportunities till the end of the forcing lines.

 

Using Lichess to Improve your game, everyday!

I use Lichess extensively for my chess coaching. My students are part of teams on lichess and use the platform for both practice games as well as competitive tournaments. 

Today, I am going to explain how you can use the platform not just for playing but for improving your game by analyzing your own games and learning from them systematically. This article alone can add 100 elo points to a beginner over a period of 3 months if you follow systematically.

The feature is called "Learn from your mistakes" under the Analysis Board and Computer Analysis.

Firstly, know that all your played games on lichess are archived on the cloud and available to you for review or download. You need to go to your "profile".

  Your profile page will show a lot of data and stats about your games on lichess. Towards the top right of the page, you get an option to "download" all your games, Towards the middle right, you can click on "games" to look at the summary list of all your games.

Choose any of the games you are interested in analysing and click the "analysis board" button.

Now, you can either play through the games and look at optional moves varying from the game. The top right toggle button enables/disables engine estimates of the position and there is an option to "show the threat". 

You can also "request computer analysis". I suggest you do this only after you have gone through the entire game yourself first without seeking computer help. This is the best way to improve. 

Computer Analysis will take a few seconds to a couple of minutes depending on quality and length of the game.

As you can see, firstly, the engine estimate of the game progress is shown as a graph. 

(In beginner games, this graph will jump to positive and negative territory many times showing that both sides made blunders and the game swung wildly. In a master game, you will see very little oscillation and one side steadily increasing its advantage to a win or almost equal through the game to a drawn game. The numeric analysis is always in terms of unit equivalent of a pawn. +1 means white if effectively a pawn ahead while -0.5 means black is effectively half a pawn ahead)

The analysis below the game notation shows the number of inaccuracies, mistakes and blunders of both the players (each category is more severe than the previous) and also an average centi-pawn loss score. The latter shows how many centi-pawns you are likely to loose on every move you make. 

(Average of 50 centi-pawn loss means you are effectively losing half a pawn on every move you make! Obviously, the lower is this number, the better is your play. But do not look at it as a single game. Average it over 20-50 games and you get a pretty good idea of your playing strength).

It doesn't end here There is more and its all free!

Click the "learn from your mistakes" button and you are taken to the critical junctures in the game where you made a mistake. You are prompted to think and play a better move. If you cannot find it, the solution is viewable. Look at it carefully - one time, two times, three times and understand why your move was a mistake and the solution is a better move. Try to understand it fully. 

If you have come up to this, then congratulation! You are really committed to improvement. There is one more tool for you.  

At the bottom of the graph, you will see more options. Go and click the last link "FEN and PGN"

 This will make the entire game, including the blunder and mistake analysis available to you as a PGN download.  You can download the raw game, the annotated game with commentary, get a link to embed it in your webpage and also download an animated gif of your game.

Is there anything else that you need ?? Not until you reach the Expert Level (Level 7 in my ladder).

Types of Chess Learners/Improvers

Today, we will look the different type of chess students along the dimension of their ambitions and the backing of motivated hard work they are ready to endure. This by no means implies that one strata is better than the other. All strata have their place in the ecosystem and not everyone is trying to become the World Champion!

• Hard Runner - An ambitious player, who is both reasonably good and knows that he can go places with hard work. He/She is very competitive and keen on improving and winning  - Ready to do tough work for long hours on self-motivation and able to build stamina. Keen to take up any good challenge and tough Tests with a view to learn. 

• Ladder Climber - Is also keen on improving but may not be ready for long hours and tough tests. Would rather focus on improving one step at a time and not aim for the top upfront. He/She are still committed and self-driven and will continue to improve but will take a pragmatic call if asked to make large sacrifices.

• Chess for Enlightenment - These are the folks who are more interested in the wonderful world of chess for its knowledge and beauty sake and not so much for competitive results or betterment of ratings. These folks would not be ready to a stringent routine to work and improve but will devote their spare time for increasing their chess knowledge. They would be interested in the World Championships as well as chess history, progress, advances in computer chess etc.

• Chess for Entertainment - These folks look at Chess more for entertainment with interesting puzzles, positions, anecdotes etc. They will occasionally engage in some learning, probably will buy a few books for leisure reading and reference, may do one course or two and then focus on the interesting or analogy sides of chess. They will follow World Championships but not much below that.

Generally, this forms a pyramid with most people at the Chess for Entertainment category and fewer and fewer as you go up in terms of commitment, stamina and hard work.

And this applies for many other things in life, beyond chess and other games and sports.

Perfectly fine!

Learning Chess, Scientifically

Here is a my approach to teaching Chess (for those who are familiar with the basic rules and are comfortable moving pieces accurately and playing a full game) - it is based on the renowned Russian method.

Basics/Starting Chess (L1)

Firstly, it is very important to know the rules of the game clearly and exactly. This includes castling, check and mate, stalemates, drawing rules, en passant etc.

Then, it is crucial to get a proper understanding of the movement of the pieces - pawns, knights, bishops, rooks, queen and the King! Not just the obvious moves but the intricacies and the board geometry. 

Also, it is important to get an introduction to the notation of the chessboard and the language of chess. 

[Of course, a more detailed understanding is required as you go to the next level L2]

For kids of 5-6 yrs age, this this is best taught by the parents themselves as the kids do not yet have the ability to remain focused beyond 10-15 mins in a class session. 

When two beginners play, there are huge number of mistakes on both sides - pawns, pieces, even Queen is left undefended and sometimes not noticed by the opponent. Even after winning a Queen or Rook of the opponent, the game goes seesaw as a beginner is unable to convert a winning advantage (even a Queen plus)  into an actual win. Beginners may not know how to checkmate - a lone king may also survive long against Queen plus King of opponent.  

So, at the L1 level, I recommend:

• To get a good vision to notice when the opponent's pieces are undefended or when your pieces are left undefended. This allows you to go up in material against the opponent 

Good practice with puzzles/positions in noticing and doing these free captures (where one side can simply win a piece or a pawn for free)

• To know the basic technique of winning when you have massive material advantage 

Either by direct checkmate or by promoting your pawn to a Queen and then checkmating

• Understand the basic mating patterns and start to notice them on the board

Practice with "Mate-in-1" positions - where in a give position, you are to play and checkmate the opponent in 1 move

 

For studying chess systematically at your own pace, I wholeheartedly recommend the apps and courses from ChessKing - a company founded by strong Russian GMs and IMs. It has top quality content, beautifully organized and presented for self-learning and also allowing you to measure yourself at every step along the way.

(By the way, It is not just for self-study. I use ChessKing extensively for both myself as well as for my students. You will find me as a Trainer on ChessKing. If you are interested, you can request to become a student there. When you are a student, I can see and monitor the progress as well as give out assignments and tasks) 

The basic course for L1 level (and ok for Kids beyond 6 years to even adults for that matter) is Chess School for Beginners

I will write a separate page on how to use the ChessKing courses effectively and all the features and capabilities and the way to utilize these. These will become important as you go to level 2.

The wonderful thing about ChessKing is that they have the exact same course available on both mobiles  (android as well as iOS) as well as the web-browser (chrome, safari, IE whatever). And once you login and link your id, you can play and continue from any of the 3 and see the progress updated on all channels.  

For teaching to even younger children, Check this post about  Chess kindergarten or teaching Chess for toddlers

A Guide to Chess Levels

There are chess players and there are expert players and then there are masters .. You have also heard about the GrandMasters. So, what is the scale of expertise involved here ? is there an objective rating and ranking ? Lets see ..

There is an international rating system for Chess which calculates the rating of any international player. This is the Elo Rating (by FIDE) and you probably heard of this already. It is similar to ATP ranking for Tennis players.

And while the world champion Carlsen is approximately at 2850 Elo, top 100 players are somewhere between 2700 and 2850. The best chess engines currently are at 3100 Elo while the neural-net based AI monster from Google's DeepMind labs clocked approximately 4000 Elo rating from the few games available.

Nonetheless, what most of us are bothered about is our strength and how much can we go up to in next month, year or 3 years. For that, you need to know a rough benchmarks for each levels, across all aspects of the game like Openings, Tactics, Strategy and Endgames. I try to explain it here:

Level 0	0 - 200 Elo (Starter)	How pieces move and capture The concepts of mate, check and stalemate Initial position, castling, capturing en passant &pawn promotion Board geometry Value of pieces
Level 1	Elo 200 — 600 (Beginner)	Mating in 1 move in positions with few pieces on the board Finding unprotected pieces and picking best captures Mating a bare king with two major pieces Chess notation Scholar's mate and how to counter it
Level 2	Elo 600 — 1000 (Budding)	Mating in 1 move in positions with many pieces on the board Mating with king and queen or rook Spotting and defending unprotected pieces The rule of the square and what it means in the endgame Double attack, fork, pin. Basic opening principles (piece development)
Level 3	Elo 1000 — 1200 (Developing)	Spotting simple opportunities to use the motifs: discovered check, undermining Spotting and protecting pieces in danger Defending against mate in 1 move Basic principles of chess endings king+pawn vs king Passed pawns The names and first moves of some openings
Level 4	Elo 1200 — 1400 (Amateur)	Finding simple decoy, deflection and interference combinations Finding forced mates in 2 moves Main principles of playing rook+pawn vs rook Occupying open lines The center The names and first moves of all main openings
Level 5	Elo 1400 — 1600 (Club Player)	Finding medium difficulty decoy, distraction and interference combinations Spotting and calculating complex mates in 2 moves Defending against mate and other threats “Good” and “bad” pieces Favorable and unfavorable exchange Strong and weak squares Aims and basic theory of common openings Basic principles of pawn and rook endings (opposition, rook behind passed pawns etc)
Level 6	Elo 1600 — 1800 (Strong Player)	Complex combinations on decoy deflection, interference, undermining Spotting forced mates in 3-4 moves Endings with same-squared or different-squared bishops Key positions in rook, bishop and pawn endings Typical pawn structures: isolated and dangling pawns, their advantages and disadvantages Typical maneuvers Solid knowledge of all main lines in chosen openings
Level 7	Elo 1800 — 2000 (Expert)	Spotting and devising multi-move combinations Main strategy principles and maneuvers Advanced knowledge of opening and endgame maneuvers Base skills used in middlegame Analyzing piece positions to evaluate the situation on the board and devise simple plans Knowing typical combinations and plans in played openings
Level 8	Elo 2000 — 2200  (Master)	Solid understanding of middlegame and typical combinations in various openings Discerning the opponent’s plans and building counter-plans Preventive measures and maneuvering in different stages of play
Level 9	Elo 2200 — 2400 (FIDE Master)	Deep understanding of all stages of play Modern trends in opening theory Employing dynamic and static positional factors when devising a plan Mastery in all endings
Level 10	Elo 2400 - 2500 (International Master)	Currently, India has about 123 IMs while the world has over ~3800 IMs
Level 11	Elo 2500 — 2600 (GrandMaster)	India has 65 GMs while there just about 1655 in the entire world
Level 12	Elo 2600 — 2700 (Strong GrandMaster)	14 India GMs can be called Strong GMs while the world has close to 200
Level 13	Elo 2700 — 2800 (Super GrandMaster)	3 Indian players make it to the Super-GM club while 37 overall in the world
Level 14	Elo 2800 — 2900 (World Championship Contender)	Currently, only 2 in the world, but maybe not more than 4 or 5 max at any given time

Are you interested in knowing your level ? 

Find it instantly by taking this online chess self-test at chessking.

(However, it is a bit experimental and over-estimates your strength if you are good at tactics. In my opinion, you can deduct 2-3 levels from the Test output to get your real level)

The folks at ChessKing are kind enough to also offer you 3 or 4 chess lessons free, appropriate for your chess level. Just "expand" your level at the link and it will show available lessons for you.

Chess Kindergarten (for 3yrs and above)

Learning the Chess ABC or Chess kindergarten

It is quite possible for kids as young as 3 or 4 years to get a starting knowledge of chess. 

Contrary to popular belief that they need to be at least 5-6 years, the modern methods of visually introducing the game with animations and graphics works wonders. 

 

A very nice way to let the kid learn this in a fun and animated way with cartoons is use the ChessKing Chess Year 1 course. Check this example and you will understand. 

Even a 3yr old kid can start learning .. today!!

(You don't even have to be registered on the site to check the previews. And of course, registration is free and you can preview a lot of courses apart from this Chess Year 1 course)

Check this brief video introduction  

And this course doesn't just stop there. It also covers all covers captures, traps, tactics, mates etc - enough to take your Kid to Level1 and maybe start beating you and her elder sibling at chess!!

Starting Chess 13 - Board Visualization Recap

More Games from the L1 Chess Tournament

Further from the first online Chess Tournament:

I am publishing here one game won by each of the participants and also lightly commenting on the games. These will also serve as excellent examples to learn from as we go into L2 class.

• Arin caught Akshay in a miniature after losing a rook

• Atharv dominated initially but blundered and Vedansh won

• And our little boy Atharv defeats the tournament winner 

Games from L1 Chess Tournament for my class

I conducted the first online chess tournament for my L1 chess class students on Sunday 24th May.

It was great fun and though everyone was playing online very recently and first time in a tournament, it went quite well and all participants played vigorously. It was held on LiChess 

A total of 15 participants from 3 countries (India, UAE, US) made this a memorable first tournament.

It was a Blitz tournament with 5mins and 5s increment on every move - fairly fast but not unbearably fast. A total time of 55 mins means on average, people played 5 games each. 

Srusthi played an amazing 9 games (!!) while Ashish played 7 games!

            Tournament Statistics

Games played    37

Moves played    2,200

White wins        38%

Black wins          59%

Draws                 3% 

 

The games were full of tactics and inevitable blunders. There were miniatures, long hard fought games, seesaw battles - every drama possible.

Srusthi	10 yrs	Goa	1st
SaiPranav	11 yrs	Goa	2nd
Madhura	12	Pune	3rd

 

Special Mention of young Atharv: at just 8 yrs, he is not only a keen student but also was a serious player in the tournament.

 

Here are some games for your enjoyment ..

1. Srusthi won a miniature against the runner up. 
   
2. Sai Pranav won against the winner. 
   
   
   
3. Madhura won a long game against Arin. 
   
   
   
4. Akshay won a seesaw game against Sachi. 
   
5. Ashish won against sachi. 
   
6. Sachi won against the winner Srusthi, after missing consecutive 5 mate-in-1s. 
   

Chess in the Time of Lockdowns

Friends,  these are strange times of lockdowns and home incarcerations. India went into one of the strictest lockdowns in the world from 25th Mar. 

And just as I was chatting with a friend from US (we share chess as a common interest right from college days), he suggested "why don't you start an online chess coaching during this period ?"

That caught my idea. At my age, I can no longer be competitive in chess but it is a passion and I have spent a good deal of time in researching on chess, especially on the right way to learn and train on chess.

I decided to put this together and went into a quick prep mode and created a set of material for introducing chess to someone who barely knows the rules of the game but wants to learn systematically. 

I circulated the idea on my close knit groups on whatsapp and very quickly, I got some 15-odd students interested in getting coached.

So, here am I. I am going to share the thoughts and ideas on learning chess and my suggested methods. 

-- Shivaji