Tag Archives: tactical breakdown

Master The Mindset #4: Play With Confidence

In a practical over the board game it is of great importance to play sufficiently quick and also to play with confidence. It pays off to have some knowledge of the opening of course so as to be able to play it with the wind in the sails and also have a feel for the more critcal phases of the game when you really need your time to think. At the same time you have the responsibility – playing white – to make a fist against the black position, and – playing black – to try and equalize, while having some positive imbalance of your own to build on.

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[audio:http://www.betteryourchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/masterthemindset-playwithconfidence.mp3]

Lesson #7B: The Analytical Approach (2)

In lesson #7A I asked you to examine a complicated chess position. In this part you can compare your findings with my explanation of the position. Dont forget the read the postscript below the video!

Postscript: In the video I speak of Rce1 and Rfe1. Rce1 is more precise, since then Black does not have the possibility of Rxc1 after White takes on d5 with his knight.

Lesson #3: The Analytical Approach (1)

In lesson #2 we saw some training positions where it was either possible to make your move immdediately or where more examination was needed. Again: the measure in which you can make you move “immediately” depends on your playing strength.

In this lesson I want to focus on positions that are tactical in nature and therefore require an analytical approach (see also lesson #1 and #2).

In the video I do some assumptions:

  1. the positions were decided to be all tactical in nature
  2. we can’t make the move “immediately”, they need closer examination
  3. we therefore need the analytical approach:
    • tactical breakdown
    • candidate moves
    • calculation of lines
    • position judgement
    • choice of move

Happy training!