Moving into progress post six of the semester I wanted to get another level of strategy under the belt. I decided to read up on space, which is a simple concept but a deeper understanding really opens the door for strategy. Being not only adaptable to how the board plays out but to also know when to take advantage of space on the board as well as when to back up and play the passive angle. I first read up on chess-teacher.com where I was able to tackle the concept a little deeper. This mixed with a couple youtube videos one being by the Hanging Pawns channel on youtube.

 

I was really able to make a direct correlation between this concept and the game itself when I was able to analyze a game after my lesson. I was able to see that I had the space advantage on the board but really didn’t take advantage of it and my opponent came back and beat me in the end. From my chess exposure so far it has definitely been the game that I’ve learned the most through my losses and not my wins. That seems to be the one drawback from playing against computer opponents as well compared to real people. Computers sometimes allow your mistakes to go unpunished while the real people will really get on you for it.

 

I think moving into the coming week, I’m going to be doing more puzzles and lessons on the chess.com site as it seems to be the ultimate utility for furthering your game as a whole. I think for right now furthering my knowledge will prove to be more beneficial than trying to increase my rank among chess players.

Total Rank Growth: 400 -> 700

Links:

https://chess-teacher.com/the-advantage-of-space-in-chess/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t81S1wLUOcU&ab_channel=HangingPawns

chess.com