With the Candidates Tournament 2018 currently underway in Germany, you have to wonder what makes these players so good. The tournament is an eight-player double round-robin, and the winner earns the right to challenge Magnus Carlsen in the World Chess Championship 2018 for the title.
While we can't all be as good as Magnus, we can improve our game. Here are five things you can do to better your chess.
1. Practice drills
When athletes practice, they repeat short exercises over and over again. This helps to improve speed, form, and efficiency.
In chess, drills are great for strengthening tactical decisions and for improving positional play. The best part is: there are tons of sites that offer drill exercises, and you don't even need a human opponent to get to it.
2. Watch a lesson
Whether you're a beginner, intermediate or advanced player, you're bound to find a video on youtube that'll teach you something new. A quick search delivers over 140 000 results on youtube alone. There are also many paid services you can subscribe to, making it even easier than ever before to sit in on a coaching session. Check out Garry Kasparov's Masterclass series, ChessKid and ChessUniversity.
3. Improve your vision
Pattern recognition is the key to chess mastery. Chess.com offers a new powerful tool to practice chess patterns with the launch of their vision trainer. It's designed to help improve the abstract parts of your thinking and enhance your visualisation of the board, leading to fewer blunders.
4. Watch the best
Watch some of the great chess matches of our time. You'll learn some new ideas, concepts, and tactics just by watching the world's best. You can start off with the Candidates Tournament here.
5. Play more
Experience is the best teacher. Playing chess online or against your computer is great, but you could also join a club in your area. We host the Chessnuts Chess Club every Tuesday at our shop in Randburg. All players are welcome and we cater to beginners and more advanced players. If you're interested in joining, talk to us.
Need some help putting these tips into practice?
We have just launched the House of Chess Academy. At only R400 a month, you can come in and do chess under our coaches' supervision for as long as you like (from Tuesdays to Fridays, from 13h30 - 17h00).
What's included?
- ChessKid Golden membership
- Chess Tutor Step course
- iChess video courses
- Foxy openings mega bundle
- Chess University videos
- Susan Polgar course for club players
- and loads more!
Contact Estelle for more info via email (estelle@houseofchess.co.za) or phone (082 488 2774).
