chess instructions for advanced

chess instructions to become a master

Are you ranked as an advanced or an expert in chess ...and want to know how to become a chess master?   If so you have come to the right place and we are happy to have you here with us.  We offer you the best instructions to become a chess master or even more.  The work behind these instructions took a long time and required us an extensive evaluation of chess books and methods of chess study.  We are proud of the result of our work and we feel it will most certainly help you very much.  Therefore, seriously think of our chess instructions as the tool to wield TO BECOME a CHESS MASTER.

Chess Instructions for the Openings

To become chess master, you have to master the openings.  The opening preparation will additionally include a part with a thorough preparation for the middlegame.  You will have to study the strategic and tactical possibilities of every type of position that arises from the opening variations you play.  For Black, we recommend to choose two systems against 1.e4, one or two systems against 1.d4 and one system for other openings.  Do not forget to prepare against the openings that begin with 1.c4 and 1.Nf3.  You must have one principal system and then another just to "surprise".

For White, the best way is to have one single and very strong system against every of Black's possible defences.  Why a single system?  Because Black has many possible responses and you will have no time to prepare for more main opening lines.  Moreover, after each tournament, you will have to analyze your games, and the conclusions drawn from the opening analysis should be put in practice at the next tournament.

Other instructions for the openings are to avoid choosing simple or rare systems.  At this stage of preparation, you must understand many types of positions, so choose strong variations with many possibilities and plans at hand!

Now, how do you prepare?
Do not even think to copy or memorize the exact variations from the openings books.
The chess informants and the ECO codes are very good for organization but they are not enough.  First you will have to get and review many games in the variations you selected.  Good sources are chesslive.de or BigBase.

Our method of opening preparation:

• Try first to review some games in the opening variations you want to prepare without any annotations (!) and try to discover on your own the plans for BOTH players.  In addition, we must stress this advice - play these games with normal board and pieces, not on your computer!
• Only after you played the selected games without annotations and you have a LIST of questions, study the games annotated - the whole game, until the end!  You will be surprised how easy and DEEP you will understand that opening variation.
• You have to repeat these steps for every variation of your openings.  The necessary time for every variation differs a lot, but a medium can be considered at 10 hours/variation.

This method helps you not only in learning openings, but also in positional understanding and appreciating the tactical possibilities of the resulting positions!  This is very important.  So, do not think that too much time is devoted to the openings, because in the meantime you also learn strategy and tactics.

• the Complete Chess Opening Repertoire

Chess Instructions for the Strategy

Our chess instructions on openings are also excellent for the strategy of your next games.  We advised you to go through the games without annotations and write down a list of questions.  After that you have to study in great depth the same game, annotated at this time.  With this method, you will improve your strategic approach of the positions you will really play.

There are some very good strategy books for advanced-expert level and we recommend you to study them.  We made a list with only the top ones, and still it would be extraordinary if you could read them all.  Is there something wrong with the previous phrase?  Yes, there is!  We do not recommend you to read these books, but to STUDY* them.   (Read at the bottom of this page what the meaning of "study" is and follow those chess instructions!)

• School of Chess Excellence 3 - Strategic by Dvoretsky
• Positional Play by Dvoretsky
• Attack and Defence by Dvoretsky
• Chess Strategy in Action by Watson
• Art of The Middle Game by Keres & Kotov
• Dynamic Pawn Play in Chess by Marovic
• Exploiting Small Advantages by Gufeld
• Winning Pawn Structures by Baburin
• 225 Chess Puzzles for Advanced Course is an excellent source of hard positions and then the solutions follow Karpov's method of thinking in chess.

Chess Instructions for the Tactics

You have to calculate rapidly and precisely!  This is necessary to be able to win against masters!

Try to find a quite time during the day when nothing disturb you and you are not tired.  Sit down in front of your chess set and concentrate on the tactics.  Begin this training with some simple exercises, then pass on to more complex tactical problems and finally analyze completely a sharp game on your own.  The sharp game that you pick for analysis should have a complex middlegame or early endgame that has many strategic and tactical possibilities that usually arises from open games.  This is very helpful in learning how to calculate correctly and mature your tactical skills.

Begin the analysis of tactical positions, first searching for all the moves that seem good.  Then for every move you selected, repeat the previous step: search for the best moves of your imaginary opponent.  Doing so, you will make a tree of the variations that are worthy of being notated.  This method will help you to think in an organized manner.  What and how many moves you choose for your "tree" is up to your initial intuition.  However, the more you practice with this method, the more your intuition will mature.

The following books are highly recommended:

• Chess Tactics for Advanced Players by Averbakh
• School of Chess Excellence 2 - Tactical by Dvoretsky
• Think Like a Grandmaster by Kotov

Chess Instructions

Chess Instructions for the Endgames

At your level, we believe that you know the basics of endgame playing.  If you do not and you think that you must improve in this field, read the chess instructions for the intermediates, too.
If you master the basic endgames and you STUDIED a specialized book, our recommendation of the next one is:

• School of Chess Excellence 1 - Endgame by Dvoretsky

This book is highly recommended not just for the endgames, but for the tactical thinking too.  You must think and annotate every variation on your own and only then look at Dvoretsky's solution.  This book and the method will for sure help you very much.

other chess instructions

• During this period dedicated to study, you have to play in some tournaments, too.  Do not expect to play like a master until you complete your training.  However, your games must be the subject for your study and self-evaluation, like Alekhine said: I consider the following three factors necessary for success: first, the conscience of one's own strengths and weaknesses; second, an exact understanding of the opponent's strengths and weaknesses; third, a higher goal than a one-moment satisfaction.  Our own games are closer to us than any others are, so study them seriously!
• Do not loose your time in front of the computer.  This is a trap that hinders improvement of most players.   Follow seriously our chess instructions and prove your power in official tournaments.  Therefore, we recommend you not to play online and not to analyze with chess programs (too much).  We can just list all what you need from the Internet or Databases that you have.  The software analysis is necessary only for the international level players and grandmasters.
• After you closely followed all these chess instructions, you can set your target on the master rank.  For doing the necessary norms, you have to play better than a medium master, so concentrate and give it all you know.
• PLAY A LOT (7 serious tournaments an year) - find and go to play in International tournaments of 9-11 rounds with 1 round/day, take the laptop with ChessBase with you, prepare against the opponent you'll meet next day and live this wonderful competition atmosphere.  It's really great!

How to STUDY - chess instructions: Analyze on your own all key-positions for some minutes and write down your position's evaluation, the plan and the move you would play, the opponent's counter play, and some variations if necessary.  Only then look at the author's annotations.  This is the key to your improvement and, sincerely, it is not quite easy.  Find the correct way in our course for advanced.

If you follow exactly all these chess instructions, you have assured your qualification for an international (FIDE) category, not just for a national master. :)

Chess Instructions