The lower you go on the rating scale, the more likely a game is decided by one guy blundering, and the other seeing the punishing tactic.
The higher you go on the rating scale, the fewer people blunder, the more tactical pitfalls they see (and avoid) and the more important getting a slight edge in the opening is.
This is basic stuff. It's why coaches tell kids to ignore openings until they've done say 2000 or so tactical puzzles.
Before that we give the basic 3 goals guideline:
1. Develop pieces
2. Evacuate king
3. Fight for the center (and any move which ignores these rules should be rejected in the early stage)
Nothing more is needed until you have your tactics straight.
BrendanJNorman wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 6:04 am
This is really not so controversial.
Any decent coach can point this out.
The lower you go on the rating scale, the more likely a game is decided by one guy blundering, and the other seeing the punishing tactic.
The higher you go on the rating scale, the fewer people blunder, the more tactical pitfalls they see (and avoid) and the more important getting a slight edge in the opening is.
This is basic stuff. It's why coaches tell kids to ignore openings until they've done say 2000 or so tactical puzzles.
Before that we give the basic 3 goals guideline:
1. Develop pieces
2. Evacuate king
3. Fight for the center (and any move which ignores these rules should be rejected in the early stage)
Nothing more is needed until you have your tactics straight.
I disagree that nothing more is needed because there are some traps that it is good to know to beat your opponent even when you are a weak chess player and I am not talking about getting a slight edge but about getting a winning position out of the opening.
I saw games between weak players when white won after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nxe4 4.Qe2 Nf6 5.Nc6+ simply because white memorized the trap and the moves and black did not.
BrendanJNorman wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 6:04 am
This is really not so controversial.
Any decent coach can point this out.
The lower you go on the rating scale, the more likely a game is decided by one guy blundering, and the other seeing the punishing tactic.
The higher you go on the rating scale, the fewer people blunder, the more tactical pitfalls they see (and avoid) and the more important getting a slight edge in the opening is.
This is basic stuff. It's why coaches tell kids to ignore openings until they've done say 2000 or so tactical puzzles.
Before that we give the basic 3 goals guideline:
1. Develop pieces
2. Evacuate king
3. Fight for the center (and any move which ignores these rules should be rejected in the early stage)
Nothing more is needed until you have your tactics straight.
These are very good advice, but the main problem of beginners is that they constantly ignore the opponent moves and threats and simply make their own moves without caring for the opponent best reply and hang pieces or allow checkmate in 1 or 2 moves. That is what most coaches needs to always remind their students to always try to play both sides of the board before they select their moves.
NOTE: I believe that beginners learn chess faster when their coaches sit down with them and replay those games that they lost, by asking them as they replay each moves explain to me what were you thinking before you made this move and why you select this move. You will be surprised to find out that 99% of the times they hung a piece or made a blunder, simply because they were only thinking of their moves and did NOT considered the opponent best reply, in other words they were only playing their side of the board and NOT asking themselves if I make this move what is his best reply to my choice of move.
I just played a game as a guess in ChessTempo.com, and wanted to test GM Ben Finegold theory or belief that Chess Opening is NOT that important for lower rated player, and even if I chose the worse Opening reply for Black by moving my Knight to the edge, my opponent later ignored some moves that I played and Blunder a Knight by moving it to a square guarded by my Bishop and then totally ignored that I was going to trap his other Bishop with a simple pawn push, just to prove that the main reason for most weak players to hung pieces or Blunder is that they simply only consider their next move without even paying any attention of what I was going to do to him. Jus like GM Ben Finegold stated that learning chess opening does NOT really matter when the most serious problem of weak players is that they never ever consider their opponent best reply when they are just playing their side of the board.
Here is another game that I played as White, where my Opponent did NOT even considered my best next move to attack his Queen and Bishop, so he only considered to play Bishop to g7? on his last move.
NOTE: This is very common for us Weak chess players NOT to consider our opponent best reply when we are just considering to make a move, but the latest advice for me stop blundering from a GM was to always check my opponent best reply before I even consider making a move.
[pgn][Event "Chesstempo game"]
[Site "Chesstempo.com"]
[Date "2023.12.8"]
[Round "?"]
[TimeControl "600"]
[White "guest_7656"]
[Black "guest_6906"]
[WhiteElo "1500"]
[BlackElo "1500"]
[Result "1-0"]
1.a4 {[%emt 0]} {[%clk 00:10:00]} 1...g6 {[%emt 0]} {[%clk 00:10:00]} 2.d4 {[%emt 13.2]} {[%clk 00:09:46]} 2...Nf6 {[%emt 9.26]} {[%clk 00:09:50]} 3.Nf3 {[%emt 9.53]} {[%clk 00:09:37]} 3...b6 {[%emt 1.94]} {[%clk 00:09:48]} 4.Nc3 {[%emt 9.75]} {[%clk 00:09:27]} 4...Bb7 {[%emt 2.14]} {[%clk 00:09:46]} 5.e4 {[%emt 19.81]} {[%clk 00:09:07]} 5...d6 {[%emt 1.83]} {[%clk 00:09:44]} 6.Bb5+ {[%emt 11.62]} {[%clk 00:08:56]} 6...Nbd7 {[%emt 4.3]} {[%clk 00:09:40]} 7.e5 {[%emt 14.22]} {[%clk 00:08:41]} 7...dxe5 {[%emt 6.71]} {[%clk 00:09:33]} 8.dxe5 {[%emt 1.57]} {[%clk 00:08:40]} 8...c6 {[%emt 11.18]} {[%clk 00:09:22]} 9.Bc4 {[%emt 17.42]} {[%clk 00:08:22]} 9...Ng4 {[%emt 34.21]} {[%clk 00:08:48]} 10.Bxf7+ {[%emt 25.21]} {[%clk 00:07:57]} 10...Kxf7 {[%emt 2.89]} {[%clk 00:08:45]} 11.Ng5+ {[%emt 7.9]} {[%clk 00:07:49]} 11...Ke8 {[%emt 4.9]} {[%clk 00:08:40]} 12.Qxg4 {[%emt 14.61]} {[%clk 00:07:35]} 12...Nxe5 {[%emt 2.11]} {[%clk 00:08:38]} 13.Qg3 {[%emt 12.28]} {[%clk 00:07:22]} 13...Bg7 {[%emt 8.39]} {[%clk 00:08:30]} 14.Ne6 1-0[/pgn]
Last Example of Weak players NOT considering what his Opponent is doing and simply moving his pieces
NOTE: The last 2 games I played as a guess with the White Pieces
[pgn][Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2023.12.08"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Guest8038361361"]
[Black "Guest6661058776"]
[Result "1-0"]
[TimeControl "600"]
[Termination "Guest8038361361 won by checkmate"]
1. h4 e6 2. Nc3 Be7 3. Nf3 e5 4. Nxe5 Bxh4 5. e4 d6 6. Nxf7 Kxf7 7. Qh5+ g6 8.
Qxh4 Qxh4 9. Rxh4 Nf6 10. d4 Nc6 11. Bc4+ Kg7 12. Bh6# 1-0[/pgn]
