Hello everyone. I'm new here, and I noticed there wasn't a lot of activity. I thought I'd just start posting some interesting ideas and see what you guys have to say. I'm not a NM, IM or GM in any way, I'm just a big chess enthusiast who would like to discuss chess with other enthusiasts. If you have any criticisms or comments on any of my ideas, feel free to chime in. The more the merrier.

Without any further ado: Five Ways to Improve Your Chess Game.

One: Learn principles, not positions. Many chess players start out by memorizing openings and strategies in the hopes of destroying their opponent with easy gains early on and riding out their advantage until the end. Unfortunately, this tactic yields short term results but long term losses. By focusing on contrived situations, the would-be student of chess ignores the fundamentals of good chess strategy. What results is that the player will progressively move away from their areas of comfort and toward increasingly unknown territory. A better way to play chess, according to international masters Kasparov, Waitzkin and Seirawan, is to focus on the actual principles of play. After all, aren't the various opening techniques and mid-game strategies based on those principles?

Two: Don't try anything fancy until you've mastered what you know. The vast majority of chess players play one of two strategies: King pawn forward or Queen pawn forward. The reason is because those two are the most efficient strategies. The Sicilian Defense, English Opening and Nimzo-Indian Defense are awesome strategies, but only in the hands of masters. In the hands of amateurs, they likely create holes that a canny opponent will easily exploit. By all means, experiment with those strategies, but stick to tried and true methods during important games.

Three: Go to tournaments. You might think you're not ready, but no one does. A chess tournament will expose you to more diverse styles of play than anything else. There are even different categories to insure that you don't face an opponent who is devastatingly superior to you. Playing against your friends or at a local chess club is great, but in the end you will only be exposed to a limited number of players and play styles. Tournaments include such factors as pressure and diversity that completely change the face of a good chess game.

Four: Document your games. International Grand Master Josh Waitzkin has this to say, "If you aren't documenting your games, you aren't playing chess. You're just flailing around and hoping you'll get better." By documenting the moves of your previous games, you can analyze them later and improve on the mistakes you made. Face it, your memory is flawed. Unless you're an eidetiker, that is. As such, you will never be able to remember exactly what mistake you made. And who knows? Maybe you'll look back on the game and realize that the mistake you thought you made wasn't a mistake at all... or maybe you made the real mistake much earlier. Documenting your games is an aid to memory which will provide you with insight into the strengths and weaknesses of your particular play style.

Five: Play online. Playing against a computer is demoralizing and difficult because the computer always wins. Playing against a computer can be rewarding though. Computers don't mock you when they win. Computers don't cheat. Computers don't feel mercy. Computers don't mind if you take back a move and try again. Despite all that, I still recommend playing online. Use a computer to re-examine your games. Playing online will expose you to new players. Worst case scenario: They're cheating (using a computer), which is what you'd be playing against anyway. Best case scenario, you play someone just above your level and can see the different strengths and weaknesses of various strategies. Either way, you win! Play online for free here: www.instantchess.com/

I'll see you there.