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!!