Chess Tip Of The Day

The fewer pieces there are on the board, the more squares will become available for the heavy pieces, and consequently their strength increases for every exchange. Jacob Aagaard, Excelling At Positional Chess

You should not eat a heavy meal during the hour before you play. Digestion will influence the amount of blood going to your head. Jacob Aagaard, Excelling At Chess

Among the positions that form exceptions to Tartakower's famous aphorism, "all rook endings are drawn," those where the stronger side has an outside passed pawn supported from behind are especially unpleasant for the defender. Mihail Marin, Secrets Of Chess Defence

I have developed a rough method for a preliminary evaluation of rook endings. For each favourable element, such as an extra pawn, spatial advantage, the more-active rook, or an important weakness in the enemy's camp, one point is awarded. If the difference between the two sides is one point the position is clearly better but not necessarily winning. With the exception of some extreme cases a score of 2-0 or 3-1 should guarantee a win. Mihail Marin, Learn From The Legends

There are said to be two ways of improving as a chess player - by accumulating knowledge and by working on your shortcomings. For beginners, the acquisition of information is more important. For more experienced players, who already possess a solid theoretical grounding, efforts to eradicate a range of characteristic mistakes become no less important. Vladimir Popov, Chess Lessons

When your head is spinning with success, that is the time when the blunders occur. So try to develop the rule for yourself that when you seem to be getting close to a win, be on the lookout. Alexander Kotov, Think Like A Grandmaster