"What's the going rate for selling 100 rating points?" Let's start with "It's illegal and I wouldn't do it, and neither should you or anyone else!" Now that we got that out of the way, I can then state "Interesting question! I've never had that o...
"How can I tell if a chess book is too advanced for me?" Excellent question. Often you can't! Even books' suggested reading levels (eg by rating) are often misleading, partly because the publisher wants to sell books, not exclude readers who migh...
"If I play for a legal trap and it doesn't work, can I still have a good game?" Sounds like you might be a lawyer (or need to consult one)! This is also a good example of how I need to "interpret" questions on my Q&A show. Since the questio...
"I get really nervous during important games; what should I do?" "I get really worried about my rating. Do you have any suggestions?" I think these two questions, while undoubtedly different, are in some senses closely related. As I have noted, ...
When I first started playing, it eventually dawned on me that there were only two gears to play chess: Try your best or resign. For a critical tale of how I reached that conclusion, please refer to The Train Story. Today I would like to relate an...
When I was in high school, our school had no chess team, so I would frequently travel after school to our arch-rival high school and hang out with their strong team. One of the players on the arch-rival's team was Ricky S. Ricky was a year or so ...
"What can I do to get worse at chess? Right now I am playing too well." Great question, and possibly not as silly as it may sound. After all, GM Znosko-Borovsky once wrote a book called How Not to Play Chess, so why not look at ways to get worse?...
In mathematical logic there is a theorem which basically states "If you start with a false premise, you can prove anything." Back in the late 1960's and early 70's, the main attraction at the Penn State Chess Team meeting often was not IM Donald ...
"What rules do you break the least (most)?" I'm a US Chess Federation Senior Tournament Director, so I try not to break any rules at all! For example, I never move my knights like bishops and I press my clock after each move. But I think the ques...
"I read chess books and I understand them but when I get the same situations in a game I don't do the right things." This is a common complaint, but it is so generic that, unless I knew exactly what the viewer read and his chess situation, it is ...
"I know doing basic tactics puzzles is good for me but I don't have much fun doing them. How can I make them more fun?" A great question. But of course the answer depends on a large part of what is preventing that study from being fun. It might b...
"Are you an aggressive player or defensive player?" Answer: Always play with confidence, aggression, and respect for your opponent's moves and ideas. Chess is not the type of game where you can just stick your head in the ground and say "Don't hu...
I sometimes get asked "When reading a book of annotated games, wouldn't you learn more if you studied a game slowly than read it quickly?" Of course that is true for each game, but it skirts the real issue. And it's clearly true in absurdum: you c...
Occasionally I hear some intermediate level players protest that any problem that does not follow the normal "needs" of a chess game can't be helpful to your game. These "normal" concerns would include: White (Black) to play and win (if you are n...
"I don't do better as White than as Black; what is wrong?" On the average, having White against a player of equal value means you should score about 57% of the points (e.g. 40 wins, 34 draws, and 26 losses in 100 games), which translates to about ...
"What do you tell someone who is losing too much?" The main reason for losing too much is playing too many players who are much higher rated than you! So we have to ask, "Do you mean you are in a slump (If so, check out Breaking a Slump) and losi...
I've noticed that many inexperienced players believe that becoming a good tactician is primarily a matter of obtaining a large mental "database" of familiar tactical patterns, somewhat as they think becoming a good opening player means memorizing ...
"Should I continue playing a weak opening if I know it well?" This is one of those questions that depends on more information, such as: "How weak is the opening?" "Who considers it weak?" "Who are you playing", etc. I gave the example of the "W...
I received several questions asking how I would handle weird openings like 1.d4 d5 2.Be3?! and 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qd6?. The number of permutations of possible weird openings, even on the first two moves, is enormous, so no one can be "prepared" for al...
Friday the 13th wasn't too unlucky for the show - we had lots of varied and interesting questions. Today's show was moved back an hour to allow for the finish of the telecast of the 4th round of the Sinquefield Cup. One question involved the Worl...
"How do you know which candidate move(s) to analyze first, especially in non-tactical situations?" This is the kind of question that you can write an entire book (or at least a big chapter) about, such as Soltis' How to Choose a Chess Move. Howe...
On today's show the great majority of questions involved getting better at chess, and most involved openings (with a smattering of endgames thrown in). I think many players have this "improvement model" in their head where they memorize an opening...
Alert: If you are interested in how rules get changed and/or tournament pairings get made, this article should prove fairly entertaining. If not, then just skip it, as the story may not be your cup of tea . Our Main Line Chess Club runs ongoing U...
"Show the first 14-15 moves of a Sicilian Dragon and explain the main ideas of some of the moves" (!) Hmm. They write entire books about sub-variations of the Yugoslav Attack (like Mayer's book on the Soltis variation) and I am supposed to show th...
