I Need A Chess Syllabus

The Game Room
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I’ve been stuck between 950-1050 for several years. I know I need to study, but I literally don’t even know where to begin. Pick up an openings book?* Do tactics puzzles over and over again?

*How does one even claim they’ve “learned” an opening and then move on to the next? I’ve memorized exactly one line of the King’s Gambit Accepted (1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 g5 4. h4 g4 5. Ng5 h6 6. Nxf7 Kxf7 6. Qg4). Do I now move on to one line of the King’s Gambit Declined, call it a day for now, and move on to the Slav Defense? Do I need to learn five lines each of KGA and KGD? Ten lines each? 100 lines each?

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One lesson that I learned far too late is that opening theory is more important than the openings themselves. The two basic principles are to control the center of the board, and to maintain at least parity of material. Control of the center usually starts with advancing one of the royal pawns, to which your opponent will usually respond by attacking either the pawn’s own space, or one of the spaces it attacks. If your opponent has more pieces attacking that space than you do, then they can capture that pawn and countercapture any pieces of yours that capture their pieces, giving them a material advantage, so you either need to bring more force of your own to bear to maintain parity, or move the threatened pawn, or counterattack some other vulnerable piece somewhere else. Follow these principles, and you’re likely to end up in an at least workable opening, even if you don’t know what a chess scholar would call it.

3

This is definitely the type of thread to call for the help of @glee. Memorizing openings, from all I’ve heard and read, is not really productive at this level to improve skill (though it may be nice to know and understand a couple basic ones), but learning foundational chess is (like what Chronos is talking about.)

4

The classic ‘problems’ text is Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games by Lazlo Polgar (father and coach of the famed Hungarian Polgar sisters). These are basically just a broad selection of problems, combinations, and tournament games in chess going from openings to end game, some common and others quite obscure, but all intended to guide you into improving your game from end-to-end.

There are tons of chess tutorial and problem books out there, and many of them are pretty good but the one I started with is Jeremy Silman’s Complete Book of Chess Strategy, Vol 1 (as far as I know there is no Vol 2). I also like Yasser Seirawan‘s Winning Chess series though I have to admit that I didn’t work completely through every book.

Playing chess is time-consuming because getting good requires repetition and trial, and not having played in even casual competition in almost twenty years I’ve lost a lot of even basis mid-game skill. I think the most crucial thing to breaking your threshold is blocking out a couple of hours every day and just working through problems over and over until the patterns become intuitive in your thinking.

Stranger

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Most kind! :smiley:

Hi, I’m a retired chess teacher and have an international rating.

a) Memorising openings is wrong at every level (even Grandmasters don’t do it. :flushed: )
This is because:

  • you want to understand openings, so you can react well when your opponent plays an unexpected move
  • there is a massive amount to ‘remember’
  • there are much better ways to spend your valuable time

b) Chronos is on the right lines with sticking to principles in the opening.
Assuming your opponent is not threatening anything with their latest move (always worth checking!), you should try to:

  • control + occupy the centre (it’s the most important part of the board)
  • develop your pieces (i.e. bring them out to attack more squares)
  • get castled

To explain each of the above in more detail:

  • the centre is defined as e4, e5, d5 + d4. It’s important because from any of those squares you can quickly reach any other part of the board. And if you control the centre, your opponent’s pieces have to go the long way round to get anywhere.
  • on g1, the White Knight controls e2, f3 + h3 (=3). By playing Nf3, the piece now controls g1, e1, d2, d4. e5, g5, h4 + h2 (=8)
  • after a sequence like e4 … Nf3 … Bc4 … OO, your King is safely tucked away and your rook has come into play

c) Next it is a good idea to learn about tactics. (Tactics are things like pin, fork, skewer, overload and discovered check.)
Tactics are fun to play; crop up quite a lot and are relatively easy to learn. :sunglasses:

Here are two examples:

  1. e4. d6 2. d4 Qd7 3. Nc3 Qc6?? 4. Bb5 (this pin wins a Queen for a bishop)
  2. Nc3 d5 2. d3 e5 3. Be3? d4 (this fork wins a piece for a pawn)

If you get a book on tactics (or use the Internet), then play through lots of tactics, you will come to spot patterns - which is a huge part of playing chess well.

d) I think an important way for players of your strength to improve is to study endings (particularly basic checkmates.)
This may seem odd, since the ending is a long way away from the start!
But here’s the thing - endings are great to study because:

  • there’s only a few pieces on the board, so it’s much easier than openings
  • you can usually see if you are making progress
  • once you learn the correct way, you can use it forever
  • it avoids the frustration of being ahead on material, but unable to win

You should master these checkmates:

  • K+Q v K
  • K+R+R v K
  • K+R v K
  • K+B+B v K

Not only do they come up, but you will gain confidence and learn to plan ahead.

e) Finally you should play games.
A friend about your standard is jolly useful; a computer program is very convenient.

OK, that’s a good start.
Now (if you’re interested) I have played practice games right here on the SDMB.
We have two threads - one of the game (in which I will offer to let you take back blunders :wink:) and one for comments and analysis.

Here’s such a game: Chess: glee v Mosier - The Game Room - Straight Dope Message Board
and the accompanying thread: Chess: glee v Mosier comments - The Game Room - Straight Dope Message Board

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I’ll just mention that I play a bit, but am also not very good; I’m currently bouncing between 1300-1400 on chess.com in rapid rating. I don’t memorize openings. I don’t think you really should except perhaps to be aware of traps.

Developing pieces, getting castled and stopping blundering of pieces should get you to at least 1200 without knowing any complicated tactics or openings.

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@glee will you take paid lessons over the net? Failing that, play me in a game or two on a chess website and give me some analysis?

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@HeyHomie, what chess website is that rating from? There are large differences in rating “calibration” across sites, so it will help adjust the advice.

First: If we assume chess.com, then at your rating your games are nearly all being decided by one- or two-move tactical blunders, either by you hanging a piece or by your opponent hanging a piece and you noticing or not. Sound opening principles will help get you into positions that are less likely to lead to such blunders (at least right out of the gate), but grinding openings isn’t likely to show much in the way of results.

Second: What time control are you playing, and are you analyzing every game after? The answers should be “long” (e.g., 15|10, which is long for online) and “yes”. Knowing how to analyze a game after it’s finished is a critical skill even at your level, and if you feel unsure about how to approach that aspect, do ask! This alone will offer you significant improvement, since you will learn from literally your mistakes.

Third: What is your tactics rating on what website? Assuming chess.com again, then at a rapid rating of about 1000, your tactics rating needs to be above 1600 at a minimum. Yep, that’s right. Ratings cannot be directly compared from one game format or pool of players to another, and in my experience teaching new players, researching in forums, and in my own chess trajectory, that’s about the gap between those rating systems on that particular website. If you struggle to get your tactics rating up, then that’s what you should grind, taking each puzzle seriously (not rushing to the first guess of a move) and understanding your mistakes and the solution when you miss one.

Fourth: Going back to the first point, the most common tactical mistake you’ll make is leaving a piece undefended. Every time you move something, some squares/pieces becomes newly attacked/defended and others become unattacked/undefended. If, for every move in the game (yours and your opponent’s) you ask “what is now undefended, after that move?” and then play accordingly, you may find that that opens many game-changing opportunities.

Having said all that, more custom advice could be provided if you were open to sharing a link to your online chess profile (here or in DM) so we could analyze a few recent games. I’d be happy to do that. Or you could just post the move lists or PGNs from your last few games into the thread.

I’d also be happy to play a few live training games with a fellow Charter Member, with some discussion either during or after play using Discord, Zoom, or other voice system.

9

I find it curious that you list them in that order. From my point of view, KQ is basically the same as KR, just with less potential for mistakes (because the opposing king can’t close with the queen), but KRR is much simpler than either of them. Though I’ll certainly agree that KBB is the hardest of those four (and KBN harder yet-- Do you recommend studying that one?).

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I could be talked into that!

But before you pay me anything, let me offer a free training game as mentioned above. Then you can see if I’m worth it.

I’ll set up the two threads and you can play White.
If you prefer, I can even offer the type of opening. Which do you like the sound of?:

  • a steady positional game
  • a sharp tactical game
  • just see how it develops
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Oh, I didn’t mean anything by the order - I just thought those were the easiest to start with.
They all let the player plan ahead (because the opponents only has a King) and also start to get a ‘feel’ for how powerful the pieces are.

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The game thread is at Chess: Glee v HeyHomie - The Game Room - Straight Dope Message Board

and the discussion thread is at Chess: Glee v HeyHomie (discussion thread) - The Game Room - Straight Dope Message Board

Mods, if I should have put the two above threads in Thread Games, then please feel free to move them!

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Wow, @Pasta , thanks! Over at lichess(dot)org, I’m HomieH, please have a look if you’re signed up there. I almost exclusively play 10+5 Rapid. I know that real tournament controls are best for daily practice, but Haiyaa I’d never get more than one game per day in if that was all I played. Yes, I analyze my games afterwards, but at this point I fell like a third grade revealing his math homework for mistakes. I’ll take you up on your offer to play online but it’s Sunday afternoon where I am and I have a full slate of shit to do, we’ll talk Monday afternoon.

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Thanks @glee , I’ve made my opening move. No need for an online chessboard, I have a physical one right here to my right.

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Aha! The idea was so spectators could follow the game!

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The most popular opening moves for White are:

  1. e4

Possibly the oldest opening move (since the moves of the pieces last changed in the Middle Ages); often leads to open games and sometimes gambits.
Standard replies include 1. … e5, 1. … c5, 1. … e6, 1. … c6, 1. … Nf6, 1. … d6, 1. … d5 and 1. … g6.

  1. d4

Along with e4, probably the most popular opening move; can leads to semi-open and blocked games.
Standard replies include 1. … d5, 1. … Nf6, 1. … f5 and 1. … g6.

  1. c4

Came in about 100 years ago; often leads to manoeuvring positions.
Standard replies include 1. … e5, 1. … c5, 1. … e6, 1. … c6, 1. … Nf6 and 1. … g6.

  1. Nf3

Also came in about 100 years ago; and likewise often leads to manoeuvring positions.
Standard replies include 1. … d5, 1. … c5, 1. … e6, 1. … Nf6, 1. … d6 and 1. … g6.

Professional players will have prepared analysis for at least one opening (in which case it will be very detailed), or far more often two or three. (Having this choice makes it harder to predict what they will play* - and hence harder to prepare for them.) This analysis can easily go to move 15 (or even further in highly-analysed openings.)

Note that it is far more important to understand the ideas in the opening as opposed to learning variations. :sunglasses:
There is a continuing battle to find new moves and new ideas in existing openings.

*I remember preparing to face a Grandmaster in the British Championship. I looked up 50 of his recent games. He had four different openings in his repertoire. :nerd_face: :roll_eyes:

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After White opened e4, I want to challenge his pawn in the centre.
So 1. … c6 prepares 2. … d5 when I can answer 3. exd5 with cxd5.

For interest, this opening is called the Caro-Kann (probably named after two chess players who popularised it.)
It’s considered sound and played by Grandmasters.
White main option now is 2. d4 (occupies + controls the centre; letshe bishop on c1 come out.)

(Black can play 1. … d5, but after 2. exd5 Qxd5, Black loses time keeping the Q safe (e.g. after 3. Nc3 White has developed a piece and Black has to move the Q.)
Note that a tactic can occure very early in chess i.e after

  1. e4 d5
  2. exd5 Qxd5
  3. Nc3 Qc6?
  4. Bb5!

White wins the Queen with a pin. :open_mouth:

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[Moderating]

I think that, strictly speaking, the game thread should go in Thread Games while the commentary goes in The Game Room. But there’s also an argument that both should be in the same forum, which could therefore be either. And it’s not like it’s an earthshattering matter either way. So, yeah, I’ll just leave them where they are.

19

@HeyHomie, I’ll take a look at your last few games here, starting with the most recent as of now.

Game 1

1. e4 e5 2. f4 d6 3. fxe5 dxe5 4. Nf3 f6 5. d3 Ne7 6. Nc3 Bg4 7. Be3 Nec6 8. h3 Bf5 9. g4 Be6 10. Qd2 Bb4 11. a3 Bf8 12. O-O-O Ne7 13. Nb5 Nbc6 14. Bc5 a6 15. Nc3 Qd7 16. d4 O-O-O 17. dxe5 fxe5 18. Qg5 Qe8 19. Na4 h6 20. Qe3 g6 21. Nh4 g5 22. Bd3 gxh4 0-1

1. e4 e5 2. f4 d6 3. fxe5
Several important notes already. First, the King’s Gambit is fine to play, but it’s not easy to play at your level. With any opening, you need to understand the important themes, but with this one in particular, you can get in trouble in a single move (unlike in more “normal” openings, where subtle deviations from ideal are just that – subtle – and won’t make a lick of difference in your games.)

In this case, the absolute most important theme of the King’s Gambit is to get a rapid lead in the development of your pieces to develop an attack quickly. If you don’t achieve this, you’ve just given away a pawn for nothing and exposed your precious king for nothing. Your move 5. fxe5 fails to fit this theme in serious ways.

First is that you waste time taking black’s e-pawn. You don’t need to take it. You don’t want to take it. Imagine you played 5. Nf3. After that move, you have a knight newly developed and black cannot get his dark-squared bishop (on f8) out to anywhere useful. So you’re ahead by two aspects of development – your knight is out, and his bishop can’t get out (very freely) yet. Not consider 5. fxe5 as in the game. Upon the recapture 5...dxe5, your knight is still on its starting square and your opponent’s f8 bishop has it’s entire diagonal to get to immediately – no further prep move needed.

So, thematically, in the King’s Gambit, you can’t waste time like that. You need to develop ASAP. (This is true in any opening, but the punishment in the King’s Gambit can be much worse.)

Having said all that, 5. fxe5 loses for a tactical reason immediately. See if you can spot what black should have done in reply, instead of recapturing the pawn? As a hint, if you had played 5. Nf3, this devastating strike from black would not be possible. Answer in this spoiler tag:

5...Qh4+! The only two ways to deal with this check are Ke2 – yikes! – or g3, which is followed by the loss of your rook on h1 after ...Qxe4+.

Fortunately black missed that.

5...dxe5 4. Nf3 f6 5. d3 Ne7 6. Nc3 Bg4 7. Be3 Nec6 8. h3 Bf5
And here defines where you should spend pretty much 100% of your attention, syllabus-wsie. You pressured black’s bishop to move, and it did, but it moved to another square that was guarded by a white pawn. Completely free bishop! (9. exf5).

At your current rating, this sort of thing is all that matters. And grinding tactics problems is the biggest way to improve this. The other is analyzing your games afterwards (with the computer evaluation running, since you’re looking for tactical oversights) to see specifically what you aren’t seeing in your games. You just need repetition on (1) seeing the board holistically and not just tunnel visioned on your current plans, and (2) training your pattern recognition for key things that look “wrong”.

9. g4 Be6 10. Qd2 Bb4 11. a3 Bf8 12. O-O-O Ne7 13. Nb5 Nbc6 14. Bc5 a6 15. Nc3 Qd7 16. d4 O-O-O 17. dxe5
There’s a lot to say about the moves leading to this position, but as noted, none of it matters. None of it. All that matters are the tactical opportunities. Here, instead of 17. dxe5, you can fork two of blacks pieces with a pawn. See if you can find that alternative move. (Are you familiar with that tactical idea (“pawn fork”)? Knight forks get all the attention, but other pieces can fork as well, and a pawn fork is an essential concept/pattern to train up – again, via tactics puzzles and game post-analysis.)

17...fxe5 18. Qg5 Qe8 19. Na4 h6 20. Qe3 g6 21. Nh4 g5 22. Bd3 gxh4
White resigned? Very unexpected. Sure, white is technically losing. But technically losing means nothing at your current rating. I guarantee that your opponent was going to give you several more opportunities to win a free piece back. Maybe even his queen! Beyond all that, he only had 18 seconds on the clock, so his rate of blundering is even hiring than normal. I suppose maybe you had to go take a phone call or something IRL, but if not, you definitely don’t resign here.

Summary take-a-ways:

  1. Analyze your games with the computer to see the tactics you overlooked. If you aren’t sure how to go about that, do say
  2. Do tactics puzzles.
  3. Do tactics puzzles.
  4. Do tactics puzzles.

That’s your syllabus. :slight_smile:

I would recommend trying something less double-edged than King’s Gambit as well, but that’s a minor thing. Openings really don’t matter for you right now, as they are just not deciding your games. Tactics are 100% deciding your games.

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The next game from your lichess history…

Game 2
1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 Nc6 3. Bc4 g6 4. Qf3 Nd4 5. Qd1 Nf6 6. c3 Nc6 7. a3 Bc5 8. d3 O-O 9. Bh6 Re8 10. Qf3 d6 11. Bg5 Ng4 12. Bxd8

1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 Nc6 3. Bc4 g6 4. Qf3 Nd4
This is a cheesy little opening from white that new players like to try, since it can catch other new players off guard. Two notes about 4...Nd4.

First, in general, you shouldn’t move the same piece twice in the opening. Your b6 knight is already developed. It’s already doing work protecting your e5 pawn and guarded other squares. Your primary most important job in the opening is “Get your pieces developed and castle!”, second only to “Don’t hang any pieces in the process of doing so.” Moving the same piece twice like this means you don’t develop a new piece, and often it puts the piece on an unprotected square (not so here). And for what benefit here? To tickle the white queen for one move.

Aside from that general principle (In the opening, you should get developed and not try to do anything), there is a much more important issue with 4...Nd4. See if you can spot white’s better response than the played 5. Qd1. I’m surprised they missed this, since it’s generally the entire point of this opening approach where the white queen and bishop harass black’s kingside. Spoiler:

White could have played 5. Qxf7#. Checkmate. The tactical pattern here is that the lines along which the bishop and queen both attack are converging on one important point – f7 – and you don’t have anything supporting that square (aside from the king). Notice that if you religiously stick to the above opening principle, you might have stopped the tactical threat by playing 4...Nf6 even without noticing the threat, since 4...Nf6 both develops a piece (good!) and gets you closer to castling (good!).

5. Qd1 Nf6 6. c3 Nc6 7. a3 Bc5 8. d3 O-O 9. Bh6 Re8 10. Qf3 d6 11. Bg5 Ng4 12. Bxd8
Tactics decide the game. As you gain more tactical vision, we could talk about things like the dark square weakness around your king, which make your position very tough to play even if you didn’t drop your queen here. But all that matters at the moment is that you didn’t notice the tactical threat, so talking about how to prevent it strategically isn’t important yet.