looking for tips and tricks and or theory

Do puzzles

Follow those and you will get to at least 1000. Of course, play long-time controls so you can think and make sure you are following these rules and that you aren't hanging any pieces for free. You will also need to analyze your games afterward to correct your mistakes. If you are losing within the first few moves, that is an easy fix and all it takes is the opening database and the engine to find a good continuation to avoid the opening trap

You should learn most important principles of a chess game. That will give you a solid understanding of a chess game and you will know what to do in every position. Then, you should optimize your calculation so you don't miss tactics in your games. Your rating will skyrocket. I can help you with all of this. Message me if you are interested.

"64 Commandments" of Chess by Bruce Pandolfini...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/64-commandments-of-chess-by-bruce-pandolfini

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

Hi there!

Those are all good general tips that you have listed. I've had a look at a few of your games from today (at the time of this post) and I have two more tips that I can recommend you. For reference, all of these games were from ones that you lost, because I think these games are the best ones to show when giving tips.

1. Don't Hang Your Pieces

The first bit of advice I was given when I wanted to start improving my play was about hanging pieces, and it is a crucial place to start. A hanging piece is any piece which your opponent can capture for free. You want to avoid hanging pieces at all costs, because losing a piece like this can turn a relatively equal game into one where your opponent gains the upper hand with very little difficulty.

Here is one example to look at:

In this position, White's Queen is threatening to capture your pawn on a6. Instead of defending it or moving it, you played ...g5, seizing more space on the left side of the board (for reference, this is still a good move, but ...Qc8 is the best move). White responds with g4, and now you have a threat against two of your pieces at once: the pawn on a6, and the Bishop on h5.

The best move here is to play ...Bf7, moving it to safety and accepting the loss of a pawn. Instead, you played ...Qc8 to defend the pawn, but this is now a mistake as it leaves the Bishop hanging. Thus, White captured it and the advantage squarely went to them. It's also worth noting that after White played g4, you spent nearly a minute thinking about your next move and either missed the hanging Bishop, or chose instead to prioritise the pawn. This was the wrong move to make: when choosing between saving a pawn or a piece, it is generally better to choose the piece as it is more valuable.

The takeaway: always look for hanging pieces both on your side and on your opponent's side. Keep your pieces safe and protected, and don't make any risky moves that might leave a piece hanging or vulnerable to getting trapped. And if your opponent hangs any of their pieces, you should capture them!

2. Look for Checkmate Threats

One of the most infuriating things I find in Chess is when you are winning a game, and then you make one wrong move and lose to a mate in one. So learning to spot these imminent checkmates is another important thing to learn. Sometimes they are obvious, and sometimes they can be sneaky.

Here is another example from one of your games, and in this one you were winning, and then lost due to blundering twice:

I've added some annotations for you, including the moment where you hung a Bishop, but the key moment is when you played Qh5. While you were threatening to play checkmate, your opponent had a checkmate trap ready to spring on you with their Queen and Bishop lined up and pointing at the f2 pawn. The only thing stopping this trap from springing was the Rook on f1. And unfortunately, you moved it out of the way which allowed a mate in one.

In fast games it can be easy to miss these traps. But by taking the time to study the board, you can easily spot these quick checkmate threats. These are some more obvious ones:

• A Queen and a Rook stacked on top of one another pointing at a vulnerable King.
• A Queen and a Bishop lined up on a diagonal pointing at a vulnerable King.
• A Queen and a Knight targeting a vulnerable square which could lead to checkmate.

The pawns on b2, b7, g2, and g7 are especially vulnerable to these quick checkmate traps. So look for any of the following piece positions lined up at these pawns, especially if you've castled. The main takeaway here: study all the pieces on the board.

Summary

To summarise the points here:

1. Make sure you aren't hanging your pieces. When it is your turn to move, first see if any of your pieces are under attack and if they can be protected, move to safety, or equally traded as a last resort if it won't hurt your position. Also don't move a piece to a square where it can just be taken for free: really take the time to think about where you move the piece you want to move.
2. Look for quick checkmate threats. Take the time to study the board and think about where the weaknesses are in your position and whether moving a piece would lead to a quick checkmate or not. Here's a few ways you can get better at this:
   1. Before moving a piece, ask yourself what it is currently doing. If it is stopping a quick checkmate (like the Rook in the aforementioned example), then don't move it until the position changes.
   2. After your opponent makes a move, ask yourself "if they could play one more move right now, what would they do?". This will massively help in spotting quick checkmate threats and will allow you the time to properly counter them.

I hope this helps you!

Kind regards,

- Logan

I play the same openings and l

And try to memorise the lines from game theory shown on youtube from youtubers, london with white, sicillian an kings indian black