Chess Acronyms You Must Know!

I believe that chess learning becomes fun and engaging with acronyms and making them part of your chess culture could help you in structuring your thinking better. 

Recently, I made a video on the acronyms that you could use in your chess practice as well as events.  I have found that using the acronyms is very useful in training and I advocate this to all my students. After watching the video, do let me know your favorite acronyms or the ones you found most useful!

CCTP stands for Checks, Captures, Threats and Pawnbreaks. It is one tool that could prove useful in tactical situations. You can head to chess.com/puzzles and try to apply the CCTP approach. Look for forcing moves, make a list of candidate options and then by process of elimination or comparison, make your decision.  Here is an example from my own game where CCTP worked well:

CTG: CTG stands for "Call The Genie" and it is basically a way of reminding yourself to think of a dream position you would like to achieve in a game. Such free thinking can pave way for constructing a plan. This works especially well in positions where you are strategically better. 

Here is an example in which the great Tigran Petrosian thinks of an elaborate plan and executes it. He visualized a dream position for his pieces and then achieves it!

KAPP: KAPP stands for 'Keep All Pieces Protected' and this was advocated by John Nunn in his book 'Secrets of Practical Chess'. Most of the games at the beginner level are lost due to hanging pieces. This acronym reminds us to keep all our pieces protected. 

For other acronyms, do watch the video:

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