One of the most basic guidelines we use to teach chess is, “Look at every Check, Capture, Threat, and Sacrifice Every Time!?! Regardless of what you think… Whether they can take you or not… Whether it makes sense or not… to see where everyone can and can not go for Kings, and Queens and Rooks!?!” Except for threats you have to know what the other 3 are just to say you play chess! But, to employ this rule in a game takes discipline. I laugh when other chess companies have, “non compete” agreements. We’ve never used them and never will. Why? Because being great at chess is a matter of discipline. Knowledge is “power”, but it takes discipline to become a “force”!!! I told you last month that I’m not holding back on my secrets anymore! The stuff I’m giving you in the notes to these positions is guaranteed to make your game blunderproof!!! When you finally acknowledge that discipline, not knowledge is what wins chess games, winning and losing at chess becomes a choice of whether or not you care. When you care, you will win or draw…When you don’t care, you will win, draw, and lose.

What you are about to see are the Va Novice and Amateur Follies. Every position you are about to see is from an actual game! Some players left a pawn out there, some missed mates in 2, and 3, and 4 moves. Others broke the rules of the opening, middle and end game. Some where stuck in the, “you take me, I take you back” mentality. But the reason they all failed to take advantage of their opponent’s mistakes or their own opportunities was because they did not consider every check, capture, threat, and sacrifice! Well start with the simple and work our way up to the complicated!

Black just takes on d4. If white takes on d5, the knight will take on c2

Chess needs philanthropist, but not at the board! lol White has no worries taking the pawn on e5. If by reflex black tries Ne4?, white’s Nf7! will remind black just how different the position is from when that would work!!

Black should have exchanged queens and took the loss of the piece. Lucky for black that white played 2. Ne5?? instead of 2.Ne7 and 3. Qg7 mate!

In the game white played Rac1?? What they missed was 2. Qd5!! cd 3. Rc8 Re8 4. Re8 Qe8 5. Rb1! and the king and queen are unable to get off the back row a the same time. White will play 6. Rb8 winning the queen and remaining a piece up! All combinations get easier to calculate when the moves in the combination are checks, captures, threats, and sacrifices!?!

The whole purpose of putting the bishop on the long diagonal is that everything in front of a bishop, a rook, and a queen, should be treated like it’s a ghost. White wins material by playing 1. Nd4!

Same game with a chance to hit the long diagonal again! White wins material again, this time with 1. Ne5!. If the queen takes they win the knight and the rook. If the knight takes then it’s 1… Ne5 2. Bf4! (Yes, it’s better than taking the rook!?) Bg4 3. Qe1! 0-0-0 4. Be5 with a huge advantage!

Anytime you can threaten mate, you must look for at least a w,b,w,b,w, or a b,w,b,w,b, to see what your opponent can do!? The minimum length of a combination is 2.5 moves. If you can’t or won’t look that far ahead, all of your games will be filled with missed opportunities!! 1…Ng4! (b)is a killer move! After 2. Bf4 Qd4 (b) 3. Kh1(w) Nf2(b)( that’s what I meant by a w,b,w,b,w, or a b,w,b,w,b.) 4. Rf2 (or face a smothered mate!) Qf2 5. Qh3 h5 and black is an exchange and a couple pawns to the good!

Everyone can see checks, captures, and sacrifices. Heck, if you can’t see those, stop telling people you play chess!! Tell people you are a piece mover?! LOL. Looking at the checks, captures, and sacrifices, will lead you to irresistible threats!! White is in a mating net after 1…Nf5! From here all white can do is keep throwing players on the sword until it’s over. 2. Rf2 Rf2 3. Rg1 Be5!! ( If you play these fianchetto systems, Be4 and Be5 have to constantly be on your mind!) 4. Qf2 Qf2 5. Ne5 Rb8 6. Nd3 Ng3 7. Rg3 Rb1 8. Ne1 Re1 9. Rg1 Rg1 mate.

Yes, the last 3 examples are from the same game. That knight on h6 should be able to collect retirement for how long it’s been sitting there doing nothing. Why not 1…Qd5!! 2. Qe3 Qh5! 3.Qf4 Qh3 4. Rh2 Rf3 5. Rh3 Rf4 and wins easily.

Oh come on, it’s a Sicilian and your king is still in the center! No way could black take that pawn. Black had to just take his licks after 1… 0-0 2. Nd4 bc 3. Nc6 Rfe8. At least in that continuation white still has to figure out what to do. Instead black got punished swiftly with 2. Bd6 Qb7 3. Rc6 Ra7?? 4. Be7 Qe7 5. Rc8 mate. Black could have fought longer with 3… 0-0 4. Rc7 Qb6 5. Re7.

One of the biggest errors amateurs make is looking at their opponents rating instead of at the board. White has a strong advantage every way you look at it by just taking on d6. Let’s see what happens as the game progresses

Everybody knows or should know that getting rid of your backward pawn is a priority. Everyone knows that the way to counter an attack on the wing is by activity in the center 1st then possibly on the other wing. Here black misses their chance to take the initiative by playing 1…d5! 2. e5 Ne8 3. Kb1 Nc7 4. h4 d4 5. Ne4 c4! 6. Qd2 Nb5 and it is the black team that is marching! 1… d5! 2. ed Nd5 3. Nd5 Qd5 4. Bd5 and where did the attack go. One of the things about castling queenside is you will nearly always have to spend a move to get your king to the b file because they are still too exposed. If you ignore this guideline it can get you in big trouble!

This is the type of over exposure I was talking about. Here, the magic 10 take over. They are Range, Speed, Power, Force, Time, Space, Mobility, Initiative, King Safety and Material. These 10 things are affected by checks, captures, threats, and sacrifices! Being able to see w,b,w,b,w’s and b,w,b,w,b’s are how you increase yours and take away your opponent’s!! Here black eliminates white’s attack and steals the initiative by improving the range, speed, power, and mobility of their team with checks, captures, threats, and sacrifices!! 1… Bb2! 2. Kb2 Qf6 3. Be5! {Black has to close the diagonal. 3. Kb1 is worse, ex… 3… Rae8 4. Qa7 Re7 5. Qa6 Re2 6. Rh2 Rh2 7. Bh2 Qc3!! 8. Rg6! hg and wins. If 3. Qc3 then 3… Qc3 (3… Qf4? would throw it all away because of the beautiful move 4. Bd3!!. Black can’t take with 4… cd in this line because of 5. Rg6! hg 6. Rh8 Kf7 7. Rh7 Ke8 8. Qc6 Kd8 9. Qd7 mate!!) 4. Kc3 Rf4 5. Kb4 Re8 6. Rh2 Re5 7. Ka5 Rd5 is winning for Black.}. 3…de 4. c3 Rad8 5. Rd1 Rf7 black has a winning position. If you think these are long sequences for novices and amateurs, break them down into the 2.5 or 3.5 moves at a time and it won’t seem that way. Remember, 2.5 moves is the shortest a combination can be. A smothered mate, which every chess players love to watch is 4.5 move if you count from the 1st check!!

By now, you should be getting tired. If you are, that’s a problem of stamina!? Having to look at all of this is why they give you 90 minutes for 30 moves and then 1 hr sudden death. It’s because you waste so much of your time at the board looking at unimportant moves, continuations, and positions. Playing on line and doing puzzles on line does not build stamina because all the toys/tools do the thinking for you. Using a chess engine is supposed to provide a comparison not a discovery!? lol Here black panicked themselves into a mating net. The game concluded with 2. Rg6! hg 3. Be6 Kg7 4. Bh6 Kh8 5. Bf8 Rh7 6. Rh7 Kh7 7. Qh2 Bh4 8. Qh4 mate. Black missed the winning 1… Qa2!! 2. Be6 Re6! 3. de Bb2 4.Kd1 Qb1 5. Ke2 Qc2 6. Kf1 Qf2 7. Kf2 Re8 8. Re1 Bc3 and white will have to give back more than a rook to stop the pawns.

It’s late in the game, you may be tired, but you must continue to look for mate. Here white missed 1. Rg8 Kh6 2. Bf5!! Rg1 3. Kh3 Rg3 4. hg g4 5. Kg4 Bg7 6. Rfg7 a1(Q) 7. Rh7 mate

I watched a lot of players trying to be aggressive while actually missing the most aggressive moves they could make. Why isn’t 1 or 2 pawns enough? White has a forced continuation at their disposal. After 1. Nc7 Rc8 2. Ne6 fe 3. Be6 Rc7 white is up a pawn with plenty of attack left! If black tries to get cute with 1… Bc4?!, then 2. cd Rc8 3. Nd5 Nb4 4. Nf5! still makes it clear who is in charge! It’s not black. You don’t need to open the f file to dominate black!?

In this position black played …d5 letting white off the hook. The dark squared bishop has no retreat! If black is to seize their opportunity, they must play 1… f6!(b) 2. Bf4(w) g5(b) 3. Bd6(w) Be4(b) 4. Re4(w) Qd6(b). This was a, b,w,b,w,b,w,b. This is what we call a, “4 banger”!? If you intend to compete against players that have all the time in the world to decide what they want to play, 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5 combinations have to be a part of your arsenal. I can guarantee that when you finally start considering combinations that are this long, each move will be a check, capture, threat, or sacrifice that drastically alters the magic 10!!!

I saved this one for last for 2 reasons… 1.) It embodies at the highest level the secrets that no one is talking and writing about in chess books, and 2.) Because only the people who made it all the way through to the end deserve to understand this trajectory altering secret!!! The king is not the only piece that can be in check!?! No bold, no italics, just the truth!!! Once you realize that kings, queens, and rooks, can be in check it will change the way you look at a chess position. “I take you, you take me back”, is the 1st hurdle in a 20 hurdle race!? This whole combo is because of the queen being in check, not the king! 1…d4-d3! (check! When you are one of our students, this is a check!) 2. Qd1 dc (check!) 3. Qc2 Nd3 4. Kh1 Nb4 (check!) 5. Qd1 Bg2 6. Kg2 Ne1 7. Qe1 bc and black is winning. For those of you who were wondering, on 2. cd? there follows 2… Nd3! 3. Kh1 Ndf4!(check!) and white loses their queen!

Thanks for all the games!! They were a joy to read and more instructive than I could put in this article. If you want to learn more about our form of chess discipline, please contact us!! if you are not ready for lessons or coaching, we will get you ready for free!!! We hope you learned something unbelievable!! Coach Mike C 804-426-6058