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How to Reach 2200 ELO - According to GM Tkachiev

Written by Yury Markushin
Friday, 03 October 2014 00:00

According to FIDE there are about 605 million adults who play chess on regular basis (FIDE defines
regular as weekly, monthly or during past year). It is estimated that 35 million of the world's chess players
are from US, 6 million from UK, 16 million from Germany, 50 million from Russia and 80 million from India.
The average rating for chess players registered officially (either in FIDE or a National Chess Federation) is
about 1200; while 2000 being in the top 3% and 2200 being in the top 1%.

What prevents chess players all over the globe from reaching this magical 2000 or 2200 ELO? Lets take a closer look.

1. The most important step, according to David Bronstein, is to understand the fundamental ideas of chess and to develop the
correct thinking process. That means a strong chess player should have a proper tactical vision, variation calculation ability,
positional understanding and certain endgame skills.
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Out of these 4 factors, the tactical vision is the easiest thing to train. All you need to do is to solve tactics consistently and in the
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correct way. After you have solved enough problems you will definitely see the result.

Working on endgames is a time consuming but a fairly straightforward process. You need to have a basic understanding of
fundamental endgames, how to approach various positions and to be able to win or to draw typical endings.

Calculation of variations is a more difficult skill to possess. You need to be able to visualize the position in your head, and to
calculate what will happen if a certain sequence of moves occurs. You need to keep in mind that it is not necessary to calculate
everything. Humans are not machines and cannot to simply test all of the moves one by one.

The trick is to pick out the right line to calculate and to be able to calculate it deep enough so that you can evaluate the final
position accurately enough to win the game. There are some methods that can be used to improve your calculating ability. One is
solving tactics problems in your head without moving pieces on the board. You can start with easy problems, and move to the
more difficult ones after your calculation skills improve.

The other method is more appropriate for advanced players. Playing blindfold games with much weaker opponents dramatically
helps your calculating ability. It also helps with visualization skills a lot.

Positional understanding is something that can only come with experience. By studying well annotated, classical games,
understanding the ideas behind each move and applying them in your own games, you will quickly make progress in this field.
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2. There is a very good exercise recommended by many professionals and chess coaches that does miracles to ones positional
understanding. You take a game of a strong chess player and try to guess the moves played one-by-one. I suggest skipping a few
opening moves, and start from the early middle-game.

You should focus on guessing moves of the old school players such as Botvinnik, Smyslov, Fischer, Alekhine, etc. At first, it will
be hard for you to guess correctly,but then with some practice you will be able to do it, and your positional understanding will
skyrocket. Give it a try, you wont regret!

3. The next important thing is actually applying your newly learned skills in actual games. Currently, due to advance of computer
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Nakamura, So, Carlsen, Giri are just a to name a few. This technology can be used to sharpen your skills and to test new ideas in
games against real people without leaving your home.

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Credits: parts of this discussion are adapted and translated from the article by GM Vladislav Tkachiev.

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 Last Updated on Saturday, 04 October 2014 01:32

Comments

#4 Lee Lowe 2016-10-11 20:06 0
I have learned most of these, but the POSITIONAL game is what I discovered over 20 years ago. I love the positional
game.
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#3 Matthew 2014-10-09 21:23 +7
The best is something like chess.coms tactics trainer. Its excellent.
Quote | Report to administrator

#2 Yury 2014-10-06 21:18 +6
You're totally right, there are not that many literature on how to improve you calculation ability at chess. There are
books on how to pick the right moves, create "variation trees", etc. The challenge here is that a lot depends on
individual's visualization ability, which indeed can be developed.
Quote | Report to administrator

#1 mariozevich 2014-10-03 10:38 +3
"CALCULATION OF VARIATIONS IS A MORE DIFFICULT SKILL TO POSSESS"...AGREE...AND THERE ARE JUST A FEW
TITLES /SOFTWARE RETATED TO....????....:(
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