A chess coach saves time, helps to focus on the priorities, pays attention to mistakes. It could be challenging to find the right coach in your area, but the Internet gives access to the best chess trainers from across the world. Chess.com website, for example, has a section with real coaches who can help you to learn chess. The site supports different languages, which is excellent.
Learning chess with an online coach leads to greater efficiency, gives psychological freedom and personal space to both sides. There is no need to spend time on the road, and a student listens to the chess coach’s voice as if on the radio, which is also great for this difficult game.
A chess coach is not only game master but also a psychologist who uses pedagogical techniques to help you gain new knowledge and develop new skills. Chess teacher explains and shows, sets priorities, acts as an authority for a student to pay attention to and respect.
Chess becomes so complicated at advanced levels that an inexperienced student can quickly burnout. A chess coach has to work as a psychologist planning graded activities from simple to complex and vice versa, adding humor and creating a positive atmosphere. It makes learning chess more fun and exciting to perceive.
Professional chess trainers often apply the 80/20 rule, which states that 20 percent of the causes generate 80 percent of the effects. In other words, they focus on developing specific chess skills instead of playing the whole game. Such a method saves time and energy. It directs the chess student’s attention to the essential things.
Years ago, you had to learn to play chess with a coach only. Today it is possible to learn chess by yourself through books, algorithms, and online. Consulting with chess coach is minimized, and players can do the rest of the work independently.
Chess online trainers help to learn the basic rules of the game. You can study opening theory, learn about the middlegames, the endgames, tactics, strategy, and other aspects of chess. When you learning chess online - you has to solve exercises offered by a computer. Chess computer proposes to try again when you make mistakes, or it gives you a hint.
The computer rolls out chess positions instantly. There is no need to arrange them on the board manually, which saves time and allows you to practice chess at any time of the day or night. You can even learn chess while lying on a sofa with a smartphone.
Of course, when you choose to learn chess by yourself, you will have to do some serious work, read good books and play many games. A chess player develops skills while practicing and reconsidering outdated values.
There are several mobile applications and specialized websites that can help you learn how to play chess well.
Chess.com can become a sweet home for any future chess player. This popular website has everything you need to learn and play. It offers interactive chess lessons, tasks, training matches, and lectures for both newbies and experienced players. Tens of thousands of people from all over the world use this site to play chess every day and communicate in online forums.
Chess.com has its rating system, which changes after each match. It motivates chess players play better to improve own rating. The website’s algorithms automatically pair chess players to the best-matched opponent so that even newbies get a chance to win. And as you gain experience and improve your rating, you can make friends on this website. In theory you can play online chess with Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, and other Grandmasters who actively use this platform.
You can set the time limit on live chess. It can increase your emotions but also lead to mistakes. Experienced Masters like to play 3-minute chess games. But for beginners it is more useful to play longer games, move it up to a ten-minute match or higher. This way, you can think critically about each position and find the best move. The better you understand chess, the bigger your satisfaction is from playing it.
Mobile applications for iOS and Android devices play a significant role in a self-study chess. There are two main types of them, multifunctional like Chess.com (iOS, Android) and highly specific, that focus on training a particular chess skill.
"Chess Openings" (iOS, Android) is an excellent mobile app for learning first part of the game, which start every match and influence the course. There are hundreds of possible chess openings, and each one has its name and variant.
When you use "Chess Openings" app, there is no need to remember the name of each opening. The application automatically names opening and provides you a list of historical relevant matches to watch. Watching chess games of Grandmasters is like an online tutorial by famous players.
For example, you choose some chess opening and then lose a game. Then app will show you that the eighth World Chess Champion Mikhail Tal used the same opening in 1983 but played differently. Watching the games of chess champions is a great way to understand their logic and strategy and use it in similar positions in the future.
The endgame is a critical stage of the chess. A few pieces are left on the board, but each of them is very strong now. Players who good plays endgame show their good knowledge of the chess board’s geometry and excellent skills to move each piece type.
"Chess Endings" (iOS, Android) is a mobile application with more than 2400 essential endings from real matches and tournaments that are grouped in chess lessons. This app can help you understand the main chess endgame principles and the practical value of each piece.
Anyways, beginners should focus mainly on the principles of chess openings, endgames as well as tactics. The continuous improvement of these skills can help to beginner reach master level quickly. Still remember that chess is a game for your brain, so no applications or coaches can make your brain work if you lack interest.
You can learn how to play chess at any age. However, chess players who train since early childhood usually show the best results. The earlier you start learning how to play chess, the closer your level will be to the master, by official or online rating.
The FIDE rating system includes several categories. The start point is Category 4 (Class D), which increases to Category 3 (Class C), 2 (Class B), and then 1 (Class A). The higher chess titles include Candidate Masters, Masters, and Grandmasters, which is the highest title a player can attain apart from World Champion. By the way, Magnus Carlsen is the reigning World Chess Champion 2020. He learned chess when he was five years old.
Chess players strike a happy medium when they grow to Category 1 and win games among friends. Knowledge of theory and skills give the possibility to get to a higher level.
Little kids need to play with real-life chess pieces because tactile sensation plays a vital role in keeping them engaged in the game. A child must to understand how computers and smartphones work, see the difference between the real and virtual worlds, be able to follow the voice guide, and maintain a conversation with a coach.
Adults learn to play chess faster than kids because they more self-motivated. Besides, choosing a good chess coach can minimize the time of growing from a beginner to an good player in just a few months.
Chess is one of the most difficult intellectual games, where earning a win gives you the title of a smartest. You can compare chess to war because of the struggles for intellectual dominance and superiority over the opponent they have in common. Chess game trains brain, teaches to think, analyze, and comprehend.
A chess teaches to win and lose with dignity, become psychologically mature, manage inner resources, control emotions, and make better decisions. It helps to build self-esteem and learn to think first about the problem, not after.
According to legend, a wise man who invented chess for the king was offered a reward. He asked to put one grain of wheat on the first square of a chessboard, two grains on the second, four grains on the third, eight grains on the fourth, and double the number of grains on each next square.
It turned out that the aggregated number of grains on all of a 64-square checkered board would reach 1200 billion tons of grains, which is more than the harvest of all the wheat on the planet. This joke symbolizes the simplicity and complexity of this game.
After making the first four moves at the beginning of the chess game, players have about 300 billion possible moves to make after. This number is higher than the number of atoms in the Universe. A chess game is a mixture of rules, tactics, intuition, and strategy, and this challenge can scare away some beginners.
There is a theory according to which a player starts to “professionally” enjoy chess after training for about 10 thousand hours. It can take so much time to understand all aspects of the chess, learn to see the strong and weak sides of the opponent, and choose the strategy that leads to the desired result.