Solitaire Chess

Solitaire chess is a great way to improve your game and there is free software on the internet available that conveniently lets you play solitaire chess.  But it can sometimes get boring.  I have found a more interesting way of playing solitaire chess. Find chess videos that analyze chess games move by move, this website, chess.com, has many such videos as does YouTube and many other chess andd video sites. Play the video normally but keep your cursor on the stop button. When the first move is made in the video stop it and try to figure out the best move that the opponent can reply with. Then play the video so you can see the selected move and listen to the commenter's  comments. Then watch the next move and so on.  You can do this with any of the available chess videos. You should use ones using the games of your favorite players. For example I like Paul Morphy, his games are tactical and exciting. Or you might want to watch Tal's games and see why he was called "The Magician." Or perhaps you might choose Bobby Fischer's games. The choice is yours, have fun!

Cool idea.  I also like the similar "observing game" on chess.com - although this has more of a time element in it too.

How to "game" works for those unaware is you go into live chess and watch other player games (usually friends and ideally stronger players than yourself, but they don't have to be). While they are playing their game live, you can actually "predict" their move by playing it on the board. chess.com counts how many moves you guessed correctly and incorrectly. It then compares your "score" to others watching the same game. Sometimes it is fun to do alone and other times it is fun to do with popular games so you can "compete" with other observers in a way.

That can be fun and interactive; plus, you never risk your own rating because you aren't actually playing the game. You can even observe someone playing against a GM and it almost feels like you are playing a GM too

I never heard of that before! It does sound interesting and I will give it a try. I especially would like to try it with master games.

Yes. I enjoy playing this game sometimes and especially when two titled players are playing. You know they are going to find ideas that you didn't see initially

I just had a great idea! When playing Solitaire Chess on YouTube, if you want to improve your skills on a particular opening you can search for videos about that opening. Another idea is to improve your skills in a particular type of position. For example the isolated queen's pawn is a common position in chess so you can search for videos about that position. Or you can practice specific endgames since endgames are very important to learn so you can type in for example, "king and pawn endgames." Some types of endgames can be very difficult, for example bishop and knight vs. lone king mates are hard to do but they do come up in games so playing solitaire chess against such positions should improve your ratings. This idea of playing Solitaire Chess with YouTube can be very helpful to someone who wants to improve in chess.

I can totally relate to the occasional boredom with solitaire chess. Thanks for sharing this awesome way to make it more engaging! Combining chess videos with your game is like a brilliant chess masterclass. Personally, I'm a big fan of Paul Morphy, too. His games are so tactical and exciting, right? It's fascinating to see how he played, and your method adds a cool twist to it. In the meantime, if you ever want a break from chess, I've been having a blast playing euchre online lately. It's a card game that's seriously addictive.