Chess Openings
Study and play the Main Openings – Variances – Database All Openings – Play the 500 Main Openings Rated – Eco Code System Explained – Eco Code List – Type of Play – By Chess Players – By First Move –By Name – By Eco Code Category – Variances on Chess Boards by Eco Code – Games above 2200 in Rating from Year 2000 to 30. June 2017 for the 500 Main Openings – Old Games from Year 1560 to Year 2012 for each of the 500 Main Openings – All Recognized Openings on Chess Boards – Opening Explorer – The 20 Most Played Openings – Chess Type – Opening Traps – Common Grand Master Openings – Practice Popular Openings Rated – Practice any Opening or Game Rated – Books on Chess Openings – Photos of the Main Openings and more. If you’re Rated above 2200 you might find your Games here within the section Opening Games.
Chess Strategy
To pay attention to the Opening Lines is probably the single hardest thing to do for a club player. With the opening theory evolving very rapidly, Grandmasters dedicate most of their preparation time to the opening analyses. Hours and hours of their time is spent to understand the feasibility of one or another variation, and to search for the tiniest positional advantage. No wonder it is so hard to follow the theory during a live game.
However, there is a trick that can be used to help you to understand what’s going on in the opening stage, as well as to learn something new for yourself.
You should pay specific attention to the opening lines of the Grandmaster’s whose opening repertoire is similar to your own. After the start of the Grandmaster’s game you can input the first 10-15 or so moves into a chess database of previously played high level games, to search for ideas and to understand the opening line better. You can use the Online Game Database to do so and from the Eco Code in the Game you can make a search on Clean Chess to find the Main lines with variances. For some Openings you’ll also find articles and videos.
The Middle Game
Try to understand the plan
The tricky part of the Game. You’ll find The Encyclopedia of Chess Combinations and access to more than 100.000 Tactics in the Tactical Trainer.
After the end of the opening stage of the game, do a complete analysis of the position. You may ask, how do I know if the opening stage has ended? You have to judge by the development of the pieces, castling and so on. After all of these preliminary steps are completed, you may safely assume, it’s a middle game. Often after move 10 or after one of the Recognized Chess Openings. Analyze the position thoroughly and try to come up with a most reasonable plan you’re capable of, based on the positional elements of the position, tactical motifs, pawn structure, activity of the pieces, etc.
Next, you need to compare your plan with the Grandmaster’s plan. If yours is completely different you may re-evaluate the position and change the plan.
You may be able to practice a plan in different Middle Game scenarios and Train Tactics to win more Games and increase your rating. That is a very useful skills for a chess players of any level.
Place yourself in Grandmaster’s shoes
If you smell tactics, try placing yourself in the Grandmaster’s shoes. Doing calculations of lines that can occur after a pawn push, exchange or a sacrifice. Try to find the best possible defensive move for your opponent and evaluate if the tactics you found would still work.
Another great method that can be used to improve your own game while observing your favorite player is ‘guess the next move‘. You take a piece of paper and write down the predicted moves (or better else series of moves) for the side you’re playing on. Then compare your moves with what actually happened in the game. Don’t worry if you cannot guess the correct moves and combinations right away. If you practice often, your thinking process will adjust and you will be able to guess the correct moves more and more often.
Analyze the key positions over the board
If the game has approached a critical point it is a time for a deep evaluation of the position. You may judge if the position is critical or not by a few different factors:
- There is a tactic, sacrifice or an Attack option
- Nature of the position dramatically changed or is about to change
- There is an important decision to be made that will affect how the game will progress
It may be a little difficult to analyze a complex position in your head if you’re at club player level. Feel free to setup positions in the Analysis Program (with the chess engine ‘off’ of course) and shuffle the lines and variations. Turn on Computer Analysis to get an evaluation.
The End Game
Take the Ultimate End Game Course to become a Master in End Games. Checkmate Training from Basic Checkmate patterns to solve more than 4.000 Checkmates going from 1 to 3 moves and learn Quick Kills also called Miniatures.
Learn the endgame techniques
The End Game is mathematically simplest part of the game, though can be very tricky to play in real games. Observe how Grandmasters play at this stage of the game, especially, the positions where they are a pawn up or a pawn down in Rook endgames, two Rooks vs. Queen Endgames, Knight vs. Bishop, or in other common chess endings.
In the Encyclopedia of the End Game you’ll find all the End Game Positions and Courses to Master the End Game.
Improvements and updates are done here frequently. It’s recommended that you take a look at some of the pages again after a while.
General
One of the best ways you can use this website is to study an Opening Group: Eco Codes with Variances. Then Practice it and most important analyse your Games after Play to learn the right moves and variances. Most people forget this and rating is not to increase much during a year. Study – Play – Analyse – Play – Study – Analyse. You’ll have more fun and get stronger. Make an opening repertoire by continue to play the openings and save into your own Database.
You’ll find the 500 Main Openings with Games and option to play them. Plus the Variances shown on Chess Boards, Sorted alphabetically, by name, eco code and category. The Eco Code (Encyclopedia of Chess Openings) is your Key to the World of Chess Openings, which you’ll find explained under Chess Openings.
Besides all this you’ll find Chess Tools, Chess Books, Weekly Updated Top Games by Grand Masters, Weekly Chess Newspaper, Articles and Videos from Beginner to Master Level.