You Are Going to Lose

Some chess players hinder their ability to improve by being too concerned about losing or worry too much about their chess ratings. Worrying too much about your win and loss record or your chess ratings are going to hold you back from learning how to better play the game. Ratings and records are just numbers. The good news is that you will lose some games of chess. You will probably lose many games of chess before you start to dramatically improve.

You improve your chess game when you add something positive or subtract something negative. Do not take losing personally; take the view that any chess game where you do not learn something is the real bad game, not your losses. When you lose at a game of chess it is likely that you have done something identifiably wrong during the game, so work on learning from that mistake so that you do not repeat the same mistake in the future.

A chess player who worries too much about losing often seeks out weaker chess opponents who will not force the player to learn from his or her mistakes. It may be gratifying to rack up a number of wins, but the lessons that you learn are not there. While playing almost exclusively against players who are rated above you can be demoralizing and hinder your chances to learn good technique, a mixture of about sixty-five to seventy five percent of games played against higher rated players than you and the rest equally rated or less seems to be about right for a positive learning curve. Do not tempt yourself into going for the easy wins; you will not improve your game very much at all.



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1. Offense or Defense
2. God Save The Queen
3. Bluffing
4. Keep from Blocking Yourself
5. Middle or sides
6. Skewering and Pinning
7. Castling
8. Put your Pieces to Work
9. The Power of the Pawn
10. The Double Threat

21. End Game Ideas
22. Doubled Pawns
23. End Game Goals
24. Middle Game Tactics
25. Chart Your Progress
26. Deflection
27. Master An Opening
28. Chess Notation Part 1
29. Chess Notation Part 2
30. Chess Notation Part 3

41. The Classic Kings Pawn Opening
42. Chess Variants
43. Checkmate
44. Defend Yourself
45. Simplicity
46. Attack on the Kings Side
47. Play Against a Computer
48. Zwischenzug
49. Do Not Fret
50. Take Advantage of Your Opponents Doubled Pawns

61. Memorizing Openings
62. Winning a Won Game
63. You Are Going to Lose
64. Castling Ideas
65. A Winning Attitude
66. Develop Your Pieces
67. The Best Move
68. Ways to Protect an Attacked Piece
69. What is Your Opponent Trying to do?
70. When to Capture a Promoting Piece

81. Pinning
82. Plan Ahead
83. Retreat
84. Take a Risk
85. The Best Move 2
86. The Center of the Game
87. The Problem With Pawns
88. The Skewer
89. The Unopposed Bishop
90. Two Weaknesses

(more coming)

Other Chess Resources
11. The Trade Off
12. Three Types of Draws
13. The Strategic Sacrifice
14. Hidden Attacks
15. Understanding The Three Stages of a Chess Game
16. Four Move Checkmate
17. Use Your Moves Wisely
18. Utilizing Your Bishops
19. King Of The World
20. Pony Up


31. Join a Chess Club
32. Chess Etiquette
33. Pay Attention
34. Gambits
35. Have Your Game Analyzed
36. Long Term Thinking
37. Think Ahead
38. Watch Others
39. Learn from Grandmasters
40. The Spike or Grob Opening

51. The King as an Offensive Piece
52. Blockades
53. Chasing
54. Study Chess Problem Diagrams
55. Exchanging Pieces
56. Exploit Weaknesses
57. Learning About Bishops
58. Play the Board
59. The Lone Pawn
60. Why Play Speed Chess

71. When to Capture the Pinned Piece
72. Doing Nothing
73. Which Forked Piece to Capture
74. Explore Variety
75. Studying is Hard Work
76. Activity
77. Center Domination
78. Development
79. Pawns on the Third Rank
80. Piece Values

91. What is your opponent doing?
92. Chess History
93. Lack of Tempo

Books:
Chess History And Reminiscences
Chess Strategy