Chess is a one-of-a-kind game that requires immense patience, well-developed skills, intelligence, presence of mind, and strategic thinking. It is more of a journey as you go through every single step of learning, unlearning, and relearning. Therefore, you need to practise the sport devotedly, day in and day out, to ace the moves and become a better version as a chess player.
This read-up is primarily meant for you if you have a strong passion for chess and desire to be a significant someone in this field.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Therefore, to master chess, you must first understand the fundamentals.
1. Know the Rules
The first step is to focus on knowing the rules. This includes understanding the chess pieces, the different boxes on the chess board and how the pieces move. Next, you need to learn how to set up a board.
Check out some authentic websites, Youtube tutorials, and books on chess. Learn the concept and try it out.
Find a practice partner, whether it’s a virtual one on the computer or a friend. It would be ideal if you could practise with a sibling or family member.
2. Practice Daily
Once you are acquainted with knowing the rules, it’s more of a daily practice. But do remember, chess is not about memorising the steps, moves or strategies. It is more about understanding the concepts and repeating them as you play. So, you must implement your skills instead of just trying to retain the information.
Understand the general concepts such as developing pieces, and castles, arranging pieces on squares, forming your knights towards the centre, and dominating the centre. Then slowly learn to adjust to new situations.
Chess is a game of training on strategies and calculation. First, improve your vision and learn how the sequences play out. Then, improve yourself to have a balance of tactics and calculation.
3. Pick your role model
By now, you have already grasped the important fundamentals of playing chess. It’s not time to gear up towards the intermediate level.
Watch the different chess matches at the national and international levels. This is the time when you need to focus on learning the different strategies from the leading players. See how they act upon a situation and adapt to unfamiliar situations. Watch them closely to see their thinking patterns.
It’s very important to have role models and favourite stars. Every star in chess is a culmination of years of practice and different experiences. Study their commentaries and figure out why they made certain moves.
At this stage, you may participate in smaller tournaments that will help you get over your fear of losing and facing the opposition. Without losing, you can never achieve success.
4. Get Professional Training
Time to embark on being an advanced version of this amazing sport! At this point, get into a training institute or hire a coach. The right chess coaching with a meticulous curriculum to follow, topped up with hands-on practice sessions and exposure to real games will help you understand your strengths and derailers.
The right training in chess motivates you throughout the entire learning experience and directs you towards growing every day.
Let us help you
A crucial part of learning chess is to find the right training, apart from learning and understanding the skills and rules. We at Saswath Academy, provide quality training to children from the age of 5 onwards. You can take a trial class and see for yourself, how effective we are!