Some Chess Tips

14 Mar, 2025

I've been playing chess for 10+ years now so I thought I'd give some tips on the way that things go. Also clear up some misconceptions. Maybe this'll be one of those "chess misconceptions list" one day.

Tips (aimed at beginners):

Worry about your pawn structure.
"Pawns are the soul of chess," and more often than not, at a high level, a bad pawn structure will doom you. Generally, at low levels, just try to keep all your pawns mobile and connected -- mobile so you have flexibility, and connected so pawns can protect each other, shelter your pieces, and move.
Move those pawns!
Obviously, not randomly. But also don't stick to some set pawn structure -- feel free to use pawns to open lines and to poke at your opponent. Just don't mindlessly push them.
Blitz is ok, bullet is an addiction.
Pretty self-explanatory. Don't play bullet chess. I think I've logged 30,000+ games on bullet and I'm not sure if there's any major upside to it. In hindsight, I would've rather been playing blitz all this time.
In every position, have a plan.
Lasker said "A bad plan is better than no plan" and I wholeheartedly agree. A plan should always be in hand. A plan need not be too detailed or too widespread for example -- plans such as "relocate my knight" or "untangle my pieces" or "get my king castled" work just fine as plans.
Go play OTB (over-the-board).
Chances are that there's some chess club near you or some other people who also play chess that are near your skill level. Go hang out with them and play some chess! I see chess as a social activity (it is a game after all) and thus go hang and don't be too caught up in the details.

Misconceptions:

Good players always know what they're doing.
Counterexample: Me. I peaked at 2500 in bullet and still sometimes and just mindlessly shuffling pieces around. Moral of the story, don't play bullet.
Memorization is very useful.
At a certain point, memorization stops being useful (until you once again get to a high level in which case opening prep matters a ton). Generally, to most players, I would suggest them not to memorize moves and/or setups but rather know how each opening looks, the pros and cons, and generally how to play each one. Over time thus, with a lot of experience and play, one can basically fluidly play/transition from opening to opening which in my opinion is much more useful than playing a static set.
(Note: This does not apply to OTB chess.)
OTB chess is excessively formal.
Most of the time, in USCF tournaments at least, at the lower levels, people are generally pretty informal and casual. That doesn't mean they don't enforce the touch move rule or that they'll forget to press the clock or that they're not ruthlessly competitive, it's just that, well, people are human, and while the chess played OTB is for marbles and points is not the most ruthless place in the world where people look down on others.
Chess variants are kinda stupid.
For you purists out there, there's no convincing you. For everyone else though, some variants are kind of goofy (Horde, Atomic, Antichess, Racing Kings, 4p) while some are actually good (Crazyhouse (zh), Bughouse, 3-check). For general advice, if you're not trying to main a variant, pick a variant that's pretty close to chess and that has practical relevance and simply play it for fun.
The engine is always right.
Yes, when engines play engines, the engine is always right. But consider the 'mood' of the position -- the engine may say +1, but if white is cramped or over-extended and their king is a very precarious position, in practical terms, white is most definitely not +1 and with good counterplay black can equalize. In that same vein, 0.00 does not mean draw-ish -- it simply means that the balance is held in the position.
Also, some +1s are different than other +1s -- a position in the endgame where it's just pawns and kings and white has an extra pawn is much different than a complicated middlegame where white is up a rook but black has a strong attack on the white king.
All in all, take the engine's advice with a grain of emotion as the engine is emotionless.