Many people invest a lot of time and energy into their chess training. Even though the input seems to be similar, the output varies greatly. That is why you need to find an effective way to train your chess skills. And I’ll show you my favorite method in this article.
What you can control is what exactly you spend your time and energy on.
I hope you read my article on how to set up a training plan. If not so, please do it now. After you allocate the time, you are ready to know what exactly to do with this time.
The most frequent question I get is: “What is the most effective chess training”? As we are all on our separate paths, it is hard to give a general answer. But there is an easy method to find out what training would be the most effective for yourself.
And that is really the question you should ask. There is no universally effective chess training, but the most effective chess training for you!
I was really amazed to only learn about that method when I was a GM already. Most people maybe do something similar, but not exactly that.
The method is free and very easy to implement.
Beware Of Get Rich Quick Scumbags
But before getting there, let me digress for a moment. There is one more thing I want to get off my chest before I dive into the method.
While doing my research for this article I got really mad. Searching for some advice on the most effective chess training, I nearly only got articles wanting to sell you something. They go like this:
‘Improving in chess can be really tough, but we found the fastest way to make your results explode immediately’. Then they will present you with some obscure theory of what you should do.
This varies from learning new openings to doing puzzles or learning endgames. And then they follow up with a very generous offer:
‘Buy now for only 50$ and you will instantly boost your rating by 100 points and additionally find your dream wife in the next 5 days’.
Please do me a favor and do not give them any money. Improving in chess is tough and takes a lot of effort. There is also no general rule as to what you have to do to become an XXXX-rated player. Certainly, there are some patterns, but no one-size-fits-all scheme…
The Method
Now I feel a lot better and ready to guide you through 3 easy steps. Let’s do it.
1) Guess Your Biggest Weakness
Write down your biggest weakness chess-wise. This will serve as a comparison to the real picture later on.
So, what is your biggest weakness? Choose one.
We will start with the following categories. The more experienced you get, the more into details you can go:
- Opening Theory
- Tactics/Calculation
- Strategical play
- Endgame
You picked one? Wrote it down? Ok, we can go on:
2) Analyse Your Losses
In order to know what is the most effective training for you at this specific point, you will have to find out why you lose games.
Why?
Because if you stop making the mistakes that lead to your losses, you will automatically improve!
This is going to be a bit painful, but worth it.
Prepare at least your last 10 Losses and go over them with an Engine. The bigger the number, the more trustable the result. Please don’t take Bullet games, there is not much to improve in this lottery.
Now here is what you have to do:
Find your LAST mistake in each game that led to the loss. Put that mistake in one of the 4 above categories and make a sign there.
If you are already a Bishop down and then blunder your Queen, the Queen blunder does not count. Find out why you lost the Bishop.
The same goes for being worse out of the opening, then outplaying your opponent and having a winning position only to then blunder. The opening was NOT your last mistake that leads to the defeat.
Here is my most recent classical loss as an example:
In this position playing white, I did see the possibility of Bd5, but after some calculation decided against it and played Qf1? It is very bad because Qe7! wins immediately.
The rook is hanging and Qh4 is coming, there is no way to protect h2 without losing the knight on g3.
As the position would be roughly equal after Bd5, this one definitely goes into the category of Tactics/Calculation. Note that I ould have lost some moves before but managed to fight back. Only sign the mistake that really leads to the loss of the game!
Next one:
This game is one of my most instructive losses recently. It is already featured in the article on fear-based thinking.
I should have won a long time ago but ended up here. I will not confuse you with details, but 41.Nc6+ Kd7 42.a7 Kc7 43.Rh8! makes a draw. I played 41.Nd3? instead and missed that after b3 42.Rh7+ Kf6 43.Rb7 black has Raa5! and wins!
You see the pattern already, once more tactics/calculation.
3) Find Your Biggest Weakness and Start Working On It
After having finished the analysis of your recent losses, you will have some data. For me on a basis of 10 losses it would be:
- Opening Theory: 0
- Tactics/Calculation: 7
- Strategical play: 2
- Endgame: 1
Let me make an assumption: A considerable amount of you considered Opening Theory to be your biggest weakness before watching your games. Most of you will have been proven wrong and should work on something else instead.
Your Most Effective Chess Training
Now that you have an idea where you lose your points, you should organize your training accordingly. In order not to neglect one part totally,
I would recommend that you allocate 10% of your time to each category no matter what. The other 60% should be weighted with your results.
In my case this would mean:
- Opening Theory: 10% + 0/60% = 10%
- Tactics/Calculation: 10% + 7/60% = 52%
- Strategical play: 10% + 2/60% = 22%
- Endgame: 10% + 1/60% = 16%
This can be a very good guideline for my further training. After a certain period, one should repeat the process and see if the mistakes shifted. Then obviously the focus areas should also shift.
The stronger you get, the higher the automatic percentage of the opening will be. But if you are not a titled player yet, be absolutely sure to spend LESS than 50% of your time on openings no matter what.
Additional Remarks
I tried to keep this as simple as possible. This is only the starting point of that method. Over time you can get more sophisticated.
If you only take away one thing then it is to really control which area costs you the most points.
Mostly your feeling will be off here! The one time you get trapped in the opening feels much stronger than the several times you get slowly outplayed strategically. Don’t fall for the tricks your brain plays on you!
Now it is your turn to turn this theory into practical training.
If you want to know how I analyze my own games in detail, then this blog post is for you: how to analyze your own games.
And if you want some help on your journey to chess mastery, I can recommend from the bottom of my heart the Chess Plattform ChessMood. (This is an Affiliate Link. I only recommend things I truly love and enjoy using myself).
You can access a variety of courses, from opening to the middle game and endgame. And if you decide to become a PRO-Member, you will even get a 1-1 introduction call with a GM in order to organize your chess training.
Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Noël
P.S.: if you liked this article, then you will certainly also like my FREE guide to organize your chess training. Get it HERE.
Here is an interesting question. I learned and played chess back in 1969 thru high school then on into college. Worked my way up to 1800 rating. Back then all I had to study from was Chess Openings Theory And Practice 1964, Lasker’s Manual of Chess 1960 which I paid $2.75, Lasker’s Greatest Chess Games 1963, Reshevsky’s best games of chess 1960, Bobby Fischer My 60 memorable Games 1969 I paid $2.95. I haven’t played for the past 20 years, Life happens. I miss the game especially after I heard about that young player Magnus Carlson. So 2 months ago I started back up. I can’t believe how far chess software has come over the past 20 years. I purchased Komodo Dragon. I’d like to ask what defenses do I study. Right now I have been working on Sicilian Najdorf B90, Ruy Lopez Berlin C65 & C67, Queen’s gambit declined D37. These are the ones I played back then. I’m working on only the 1st 10 moves of each and using the software to play against the computer. I don’t think I’m ready to play people just yet. However I did obtain membership with USCF. We have a large chess club here in Virginia Beach with about 300 members. I’m plaining on joining this spring. SO again, what defense are people playing these days and should I just concentrate on one of them for now?
Hi Mike, glad you found your way back to Chess!
I would encourage you to focus on one opening at a time. I have several articles on the blog explaining my way of studying openings, make sure to check them out. Learning the plans & ideas is much more important than the actual move by move theory. So joining a club and discussing it with other people can be extremely beneficial as well!
Enjoy the game & keep improving 🙂
Hi Noël,
I’m around 1900 (blitz) on Chess.com. I found most of my mistakes stemmed from calculation, but I think it is because I usually play blitz games (3+2). Should I focus on tactics/calculation in this circumstances?
Hi ChessLover,
You are not alone. Blitz games are mostly decided by tactical errors. If you want to improve your Blitz, I would encourage you to invest a lot of time in tactics training. You can check out my article on the subject to get some ideas: http://nextlevelchess.blog/best-chess-tactics-training/
Have fun improving!
Hello Noël, I was very surprised to see that 50% of my losing mistakes were strategic endgame mistakes. I know how to work on technical endgames, but how to work on (mistakes in) endgames with (much) more pieces and pawns?
Hey Ton, indeed that is surprising! Depending on your rating, there are different resources.
1) My beloved Chessmood has a course on “instructional classical endgames”. 30 well-explained endgames from top cracks analyzed and explained in an understandable way. Here is the link: https://chessmood.com/course/classical-chess-endgames/?r=nextlevelchess (full transparency: if you sign up I get a small provision).
2) Mastering Endgame Strategy by Johan Hellsten (Book) is part of his 3-book series which has a high reputation among chess improvers.
3) The correct exchange in the endgame by Rozentalis (Book). This is a very specific little book but has some valuable insights.
Hope you find something that helps you! All the best,
Noël
As I am a great fan of Lars Bo Hansen’s Gambit books I started reading Secrets of Chess Endgame Strategy. 🙂
Sounds like a good choice as well. Do not know the book though, so let me know what you think of it. Have fun! 🙂
Hi Noël
I’ve recently picked up chess as a hobby and I’m really bad at it, like I assume many beginners like me must be, and I’m trying to take my first steps towards improvement. Your blog, while I’m a bit overwhelmed at the moment by the amount of info I’ve read in the different posts I’ve visited, seems of good advice and I’m definitely gonna try to implement them in my training. I however face a big problem when it comes to apply what you discuss in this post above, and that comes with categorizing the mistakes that lead to my losses. I’m still trying to find my foot and figure out where in my games the opening ends and when the endgame starts, what is tactics compared to strategy. Do you have an advice that could help a budding amateur sort himself out on that front ?
Hi Quentin, Chess is really hard so don’t be harsh on yourself. Happy to hear you enjoy it. Progress will come slowly over time.
To your question:
I would categorize the opening as the moves you know by the book. For beginners that do not really know (and you don’t have to!) opening theory, just make it the first 10 moves. An easy way to determine the endgame starting is after a Queen trade. But that is not right in 100% of the cases. If each of the players only has a Queen left, we also refer to it as a Queen-Endgame. If the kings are not in danger anymore and few pieces are left you are in an endgame. Finally, tactics are forcing moves like captures, checks & checkmate (threats). Strategy is a more broad concept. For example, having doubled pawns can be a strategical weakness. You will not lose immediately, but it will be a long-term factor. I have each an article on Tactics & beginner chess strategy which could help define the two better. Hope this helps!
Hi Noël,
Yes your explanation has helped for my self-analysis to find my biggest weaknesses. I have however another question for you before I can truly get going. I think I have a good grasp on what working on openings, endgames and tactics entails, however I have a much harder time defining the same for the strategic aspect. Any help in the right track I can have ?
Hi Quentin, happy it helped! Strategy is all about plans & long-term ideas. It is best to read books or have somebody explain strategical principles to you. I have some books/courses recommended on my resource page. Have fun studying!
Interesting thoughts, Noel! From my less formidable experience, working on tactics is easy, fun (like doing crosswords or Sudoku) and very helpful. I probably owe my highest Elo gain (+100) and only IM-norm to working through John Emms’ “ultimate chess puzzle book” with its 1000 puzzles.
The way I figured out that tactics was a weak point of mine was in our team training in Wollishofen, where we solved a few tactics puzzles from John Nunn’s chess puzzle book, and in longer variations my better colleagues were still able to clearly visualize what was going on whereas I was not. So maybe the method I used (unwittingly) could be formalized as “comparing your skills to those of 100 elo better players to find out what they do better”.
Hi Noël.
I followed yout tips in this article but faced a problem. I made a analysis of my last 10 games which I lost and found that in some cases I made a stupid queen blunder and in another case blundered mate in 1!
So my question is, in which category does queen blunder and mate blunder fall?
Hi Sheersonno,
in both cases, you blundered something which belongs definitely to the tactics category. Try to solve more easy puzzles and ask yourself “what is my opponent threatening” before every move. That should limit your blunders!
I’ve recently come across your blog and really like what you are writing! This article opened my eyes about how I could approach my chess training in a more structured way.
I have one question: In addition to analysing how an equal position shifts to a lost one, would you also encourage people to analyse how winning positions shift to drawn ones? It is similar in my mind, as in both cases you lose half a point, or is there a big difference that I am missing?
Thanks again and keep up the good work!
Hey Fabi, happy to help :-).
You are obviously absolutely right. Converting winning positions is really tough though, so don’t be too harsh on yourself. But that is definitely something you should keep track of. If you want a more specific article, then check out this one: nextlevelchess.blog/winning-won-position/
Enjoy!
Thanks a lot Noël, looking at master games with that same structure sounds like a great advice; never tried that, will do!
Happy to help! Let me know how it went 🙂
Noël, your blog is fantastic and I like how you write about improvement in chess. Thank you!
I have one question to your method. There are games in which I blunder in a position that is objectively very difficult, having been outplayed positionally. I could attribute my defeat to that “last mistake” (blunder), but that’s just kidding myself: even if I didn’t blunder at that point, I’d have probably blundered a move or two later considering how difficult the defensive task has become. How do I approach such situations and how do I find the turning point that led to my demise so as to correctly identify what to focus on in my training? Engines do not seem useful here, because they are amazingly resourceful in difficult situations, while I can never hope to match that.
Hey Andrzej, thank you so much, means a lot!
Fantastic observation. I would definitely put such games in the strategic/positional sector. While you can also make yourself a small note: defend more tenaciously.
In a positional game, it is usually harder to find one single mistake. If it is structural problems, then go for that wrong exchange or recapture. If not, it is rather a lack of a good plan (or feeling where to put your pieces). Anyway, understanding that you got positionally outplayed is the main factor.
You can try to study the structure more deeply with the help of a book or by looking at master games with that same structure. Where do they put their pieces? Why do they exchange certain pieces?
Hope that helps!
This is excellent and very practical advice.
As an older player, who has not played seriously for the past 30 years, but is starting to train again, I have been spending zero time on openings, and devoting all my training time to other aspects of the game, particularly tactics, which is one of my glaring weaknesses.
At my level, which is ~2000 blitz on Lichess, I find that I virtually never get a lost position out of the opening, but rather lose because of strategic and tactical mistakes in middlegames or endgames.
This article and the earlier one on training plans are very useful.
Happy to hear the article is useful to you. I wish you all the best on your restart with chess. It is never too late to improve, age is just a number! Have fun!