10 Simple Rules to Become Better Than 95 of Chess Players

I'm a Grandmaster, I've been coaching chess over the last 15 years and here are the 10 simple and often overlooked ideas that allow you to get better at chess quickly. Comedy number one is counter-pin aggressively. Quite often as you play the opening at some point your opponent will try to pin your knight like this and the almost automatic response of most players is to just put your bishop in between trying to neutralize this pin and it is usually the worst reaction that you can choose. Because hey, yes there is a pin but your knight is already defended and therefore there's no need to fix what's not broken. Instead you can be more aggressive and utilize more active opportunities. So here white could play d5 instead and just start their own attack. Now let's say black doubles down on this pin and they try to put more pressure. What do you do then? Well, I'll give you a couple ideas, you know, in addition or instead of this passive move, Bishop to e2. So the idea one is you can just ignore it because again the knight is already guarded. So even if he takes it, no problem, it's just an exchange. You can just ignore it and if he takes it, no problem, he's gonna waste a lot of time just to achieve this very minor positional advantage and during that time you'll achieve something else. Alright, number two is you can counter-attack on the queenside. He abandoned the queenside with his bishop and therefore you can attack right there. So if you play Bishop b5 or similarly Queen to a4 check, guess what? Very often it will push him to actually drop his bishop back to d7 and you'll solve the problem automatically. Finally, you can consider a sacrifice. This way you let him grab your queen but you start your own counter-attack and in this case black has nothing to do but to give up the queen back and then you end up with extra material and you win the game. Moving on to the second rule, let me show you real quick a game where a 2650 grandmaster lost the game in 10 moves in a rapid game. It was not even blitz. So he was playing black and now after a couple moves so far looks like both sides play more or less meaningful moves, you know, just develop pieces etc. White plays f3 and after a couple of trades, black realized that now white wants to go Nb5 threatening this square. He played Na6 to similarly control it but all of a sudden white played Nb5 anyway, sacrificing the knight. So what is the catch? Well, the knight aims for this square which would actually be a checkmate but of course black can just capture it. But hey, now white just trades off this knight so that he can't jump right there and close the diagonal and after this Bb5 check it is basically all over. The only way for black to delay the game a little bit, notice that we've got the rook right here, would be to cover it with the knight but then after Rxd7 still there's this covered check threat and black is defenseless. There's Rxb7 coming with a check and then grabbing this rook and black tries to move the rook away then it's just a checkmate. And the takeaway from this game is castle early. Aim to castle within the first 10 moves to avoid such opening disasters. Moving on to the next rule. Keep your pieces connected. Try to put them in such a way where they stand closer to each other, where they defend each other and then this dramatically reduces the chances of you blundering them. Plus they'll also work together towards a common goal which will make your attack a lot more successful. Now here's what I'm talking about. I just randomly picked a game between two amateur players and it already illustrates the point perfectly well. If you look at the white position, there is this rook on a1 which is not guarded by any other piece of white. Of course you may be saying, well it's not attacked. Yes, but that's not the point. The point is to keep your pieces harmonious so that they all work together. Also this diamond b1 is standing in the way of a rook. It can't operate because of that and the knight has nowhere to go to, right? It's also blocked out. Plus it's also unclear like what do you really want to do here. So if you want to coordinate white's pieces, what would you need to do here? Well from my perspective, you'd probably wish to develop this knight so that the rooks also start guarding each other. Now you'd wish to develop the knight probably right here because otherwise these two pawns are closing the way. So you could move the queen somewhere here. Then after, let's say, I'll just play a random move for black. You bring the knight right here and now your position is much more harmonious. Look at how your pieces are standing close to each other, supporting each other. These two rooks are also supporting each other and your position becomes a lot better. The very same idea can be applied to black. In the game, I didn't know this. They played Bb3 pursuing some other idea. Now what do you think about black? Well they also have similar issues, right? This rook on a8 is also not connected because of the knight and in general, I would say that pieces are a little bit lacking coordination. This knight is standing in the middle of nowhere, has no squares to go to, blocks out the rook. Plus in general, if you wish to attack on the king side, which seems to be the case because black moved the knight there, maybe preparing f5 or maybe Nf4 or whatever. You've got the bishop looking there, the queen looking there. So you need to bring more pieces towards that area so that they work together and protect each other, right? So for black, I'd say you need to bring this knight closer to the other guys. So maybe you can play f5, then bring the knight right here to f7. So I'll just again play some random move for white, Nf7. And then you can see that again all these pieces start standing closer to each other, supporting each other and supporting this attack on the king side one way or the other. Now we've got the game between Nepomniachtchi playing white against Hans Niemann playing black and this brings us to the fourth rule. Once your opponent played his move, take a second to ask yourself what is his idea. Here black failed to do that, played a move which looks good but unfortunately blunders mate in one. The next rule is a rule of thumb. It's hard to exactly prove that but it turns out to be true most of the time. Develop your king side knight to f3 if you're playing white or to f6 if you're playing black. Let me show you an example of that. In this game, it was the center game and after a couple moves, black delivered this check and now it's time for black to decide where to develop this knight. Now you already know the rules so you know that the correct one should be f6 but in the game black was bothered by the fact that white could play e5 and attack the knight so they decided to choose an easier path and just develop it to safe square e7. Now at first it looks good, like why not? But then think about this situation. White played Qg3 and after black castled king side to also guard this pawn, white started h4 starting this king side attack and here's the problem. There is no black piece that would control any of these squares on the king side in front of the king which makes it very easy for white pieces to maneuver all around and to create various threats. Now let's magically change this position and just reroute the knight to f6 and see the difference. If we imagine the knight standing right here then first of all the knight controls this square itself where it stands. It also guards this pawn h7. It controls a couple squares in front of the castling and also this square just in case. Therefore all that makes it a lot harder for white to easily maneuver on the king side and create threats. Now back to the actual game. White played h4. Black tried to cover up the king somehow but h5 kicks away the knight and Nd5. Black tried to counter-attack the white bishop on c4. They thought it would give them some time to regroup but white came up with this counter-strike Bg5. Now this pawn cannot move because it's pinned down to the king. Therefore the queen needs to move away but then Bf6 is yet another unpleasant surprise for black. The pawn can't move because it's pinned and Qxg7 threat is real. Black played g6 but after the trade white came up with one final blow Qxg6 and after h6 which is forced there is this rook to h8 beautiful checkmate. Black has just pushed his pawn forward attacking the white queen. How would you play here if you I'm pretty sure that a lot of players would notice that there is this weakness along these squares and they would probably play Qh6 threatening mate in one on the next turn. Now the problem with this move is it is black to play now and black has some time to do something to protect his position. For example he can play f6 to block this diagonal. Now there is no Qg7 threat anymore after the trade. Black is fully defended and white didn't achieve anything. Which brings us to the rule number six. Always consider forcing moves first and the forcing moves are checks, captures and attacking moves. These are the moves that force a particular reply of your opponent. When you play a forcing move your opponent has no time to defend, to pet his dog or to do whatever. They have to obey the move that you just played. In this case that has nothing else to do but to capture it but now you can keep attacking with yet another forcing move and once the king moves that is a checkmate. Now it's time for a little challenge for you. It is black to play. White has just captured your pawn on d6. What is your move that you're going to play here? Please think about this and if you can find the solution write it down in the comments below. Rule number seven is the one that I like a lot. It's very simple to follow and super instructive. Here after a couple moves white played c4 attacking the queen. What would you play here if you were black? Lots of players if they're familiar with Amposon at all would capture this pawn on c3. Which brings us to the rule to take as a mistake. Now usually while making an exchange people only consider that it is an equal exchange where trading a pawn for a pawn. However they miss to notice that besides this trade there is also one more noticeable change in the position. If you take on c3 white would recapture with a knight thus developing his knight and attacking the queen and that is something that happens very commonly in such situations. When you force an exchange yourself you often help your opponent to advance his pieces and to improve his position and that is why you need to avoid that. In this case however black was still optimistic despite the queen being attacked. They realized that they can grab this pawn in the middle of the board. They thought that they're winning material but what came up with this juicy surprise knight to d5 and all of a sudden white wins. The queen is attacked and if black accepts the sacrifice or does anything else there is this knight to c7. Rule number eight if you can attack do it. Usually in chess you have a choice from a wide range of moves such as in this position. What could you play as white? Well a whole lot of moves. For example you can just play d3 and then develop somehow and it would be a normal game of chess. Well then I can go there somewhere here, right? But what if instead you try to play a more aggressive move such as pawn to c3? That move would be a lot better for a couple reasons. When you attack you actually hit two birds even three birds with one pawn. So first off you improve your position. If black captures right here on c3 that allows you to develop your knight which is good for you. Secondly you also worsen your opponent's position. In this case we're taking away this most active pawn of black which is bad for him. And finally you're also utilizing the power of a forcing move. Your opponent does not have time to do whatever they want but they have to respond to your move which is again great for you. That is why attacking moves are the best. Now after this trade you could bring the knight out after knight of six. Again what would you play here? Now of course you can just play d4 which is a fine move but if you ask yourself can I attack straight away you can find the move queen b3 which creates a direct threat to his pawn and to his king. Now black has to play some awkward move of the queen but after that you can still play d4 but now he can't get his bishop out. It's blocked and if he plays g6 it takes longer and now bishop g5 is already very unpleasant, creates the spin, threatens knight to d5 and even if they try to play h6 to kick out your bishop you can once again follow the very same rule. Play the attacking move and black is done. Alright, attacking moves are the best but what if you don't have any? This brings us to the rule number nine. Use pawn breaks. In this case it was a game of Fischer and white is clearly standing better. They've got more space. This monster is not on d5. They're putting pressure but nevertheless it's hard to break through and what Fischer did is he played rook a1. Now why such a strange move? Is he already setting it up for the next game? Not really. He prepared this pawn break a4. This undermines black's pawn chain on the queenside and after this we opened up some lines. Now rook is getting active. We have some targets. We can double up against this target in the future and after that it's virtually impossible for black to hold it. There's one more concept about pawns which can make a big difference. Think about this position. It is white to play. How would you play here if you were white? There are plenty of moves which would make sense. You can develop a knight or a bishop. You can develop a rook, move the queen somewhere, play h3, whatever but there is only one move which basically wins the game on the spot. It's the move pawn d6 which brings us to the rule number 10. Blockade his pawns to hinder development. After the trade you may be thinking hey how can it win the game? This knight can easily run away and that is true but that's not the major problem of black because the main problem is since this pawn on d7 is blocked it can't move forward therefore this bishop and the queen cannot be developed normally. Since the bishop cannot be developed out of here the rook can also not be developed and black is kind of stuck all together. They just can't do anything. If you try to continue the game for a couple more moves let's say we go bishop g5 to hit the queen and then we play knight c3. Black is kind of running out of moves you know because this pawn can't move, the queen can't really move. Why would you take this? The bishop can't, the rook can't. Black just can't do anything. That's how strong this concept is. Just by blockading this little pawn on d7 you basically achieved a totally winning game. And if you're thinking all these rules are helpful but how do I put them together in a single system that I can actually apply in my games then check out this free masterclass and it's gonna help.