Many players think of the middlegame as a distinct phase of the game, separate from the opening. After all, isn't this how we all learned as beginners? It's true that your objective must change as the opening phase of the game comes to an end an...
A lot of good chess lessons came up in a recent "Blitz Battles" video that I made. We talked about pawn structure transformations, Isolated Queen Pawn positions, and more! The video is below. If you haven't already, make sure you sign up on Ches...
In the previous installment of the Roadmap to Master series, I covered how to get started in chess from scratch. Now we're going to talk about how to take your game to the next level - and beat beginners consistantly! Watch the video below, and ...
Most chess players spend their time practicing their calculation, playing chess games, and studying the nuts and bolts of the game. This is all well and good - but today, I want to talk about 3 MENTAL mistakes that are costing you points! Ment...
One myth that stops many players from developing a Master-Level Opening Repertoire is a lack of self-belief. They reason that only "genius" Grandmasters with photographic memories can memorize long opening lines, and never put in the effort to d...
One of the questions I get asked the most is "What does it really take to become a Chess Master?" I'm starting a new video series to address exactly that. Here's the first installment, covering how to get started in chess. If you have any frie...
During my series on constructing a Master-Level Opening Repertoire, I've gotten several questions about what the most important aspects of opening preparation are. (I actually have an exclusive training video that covers this in detail. It's NOT...
Several players have reached out to me in the past few weeks to get access to my EXCLUSIVE training on building a Master-Level Opening Repertoire. (If you haven't, it's still not too late! Click HERE and let me know, and I'll send you the video....
Most chess players have several misconceptions about opening preparation. It's not too hard to understand why. When we hear about Grandmasters with photographic memories playing 30 moves from memory, "opening theory" can feel out of reach for mo...
In a recent blog post, I shared a training with all of you about learning all of the "Branches of the Tree" for a particular opening. The general theme of the article was that most players think about opening preparation completely wrong, and that...
Many chessplayers think that developing a Master-Level Opening Repertoire is unattainable. I frequently hear players say that they "don't have the memory" to prepare their openings deeply. Now, I find that this often isn't true. Memorization d...
As a chess coach, I see it time and time again. You play the opening just fine, get all your pieces into the game...and now what? Around moves 10-15, so many players all the way up to Expert strength start playing some pretty lackluster moves! ...
Do you know the difference between a "Fixed" Opening Repertoire and a "Variable" one? (HINT: A fixed repertoire does NOT mean you can play the same moves against anything your opponent throws at you!) If you want to understand the difference, ...
Last blog post, we talked about how many players shy away from learning and analyzing long, complex lines in the opening, fearing that it's out of their reach. This leads them to settle for unambitious opening systems, or to constantly end up pl...
Many chess players are intimidated by long opening variations. They resign themselves to playing the Colle System their whole life, or constantly end up in middlegames where they "don't know what to do" (because they've never learned their opening...
Over the past few months, I've had several player ask me for advice on getting better at blitz chess. It's a good time to answer that question - we just kicked off the ChessPathways Blitz Streak Challenge, where the ChessPathways members (free t...
Welcome back, readers! It's Blake from ChessPathways.com, and I don't have any chess boards to show you today - just a simple philosophy for handling your opponent's "time trouble" that I wish I had learned long, long ago! ______________________...
I'm often asked by our ChessPathways members if I think they "have what it takes" to become a Chess Master. While it's certainly not an easy road, I believe that the possibility exists for all who dedicate themselves to it! Are you up for the ch...
I'm happy to announce the second winner of our ChessPathways "Tournament Challenge," where I encouraged our members to play long-time-control games and analyze them! Brendan played in the New West Summer Open and scored a respectable 3/5. I enjo...
![[Results are IN!] The Danger of Exchanges](https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/blog/378534.8b0660a2.300x169o.93187a1631b5.jpeg)
The ChessPathways.com "Tournament Challenge" has recently concluded, where I challenged our community to get out there and play a tournament and annotate their games - either Over-the-Board (OTB), or a simulated online tournament by playing severa...
We're continuing on with the ChessPathways.com "Openings" series by considering an offbeat pawn sacrifice black might employ - the Elephant Gambit Every King's Pawn Opening player has likely been surprised with 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d5?! before. Perha...
We're continuing the ChessPathways.com "Openings" series today with a video on the Ponziani Opening. This tricky opening has never been popular in elite chess, but it's easy for white to get a sizeable advantage if black is caught off guard! ...
We're continuing on with the ChessPathways.com "Openings" series today with a video on the Evans Gambit. This Romantic-era chess opening originated hundreds of years ago, but retains its popularity today. Kasparov even famously used it to take d...
We're continuing on with our ChessPathways.com "Openings" series with the Philidor Defense! Almost every chess player has encountered the Philidor Defense at some point. This opening isn't popular at Super-GM level these days, but it's better th...
We're continuing on with our ChessPathways.com "Opening Overviews" series today with the Benko Gambit. The Benko Gambit is unique in that the pawn sacrifice is not played with the aim of achieving a big attack. Instead, black sacrifices a pawn f...
