Chess Tutoring, Chess Coaching, Chess Classes with NM Will Stewart

This topic seems much easier to understand than it actually is. A stubborn, unyielding mentality is a strong characteristic of any good chess player – so how are you supposed to combine that with a flexible mindset? After you play your 1st move, you should immediately start working on a general plan for the optimal placement of your pieces with respect to your opponent’s moves. Playing the opening with an inclination towards flexibility will enable [...]

It doesn’t mater if you play chess on the scholastic, amateur, intermediate, advanced, or elite professional level – you always want to win as much as possible. Many chess players will tell you with a straight face that they only play chess and go to tournaments to have fun and enjoy the game – that winning simply isn’t their largest source of motivation. I think that’s completely insane – if you’re going to do something [...]

It is very natural that the more energy you put into a chess game, the more you become emotionally invested. This can cloud your judgment and lead to second-best decisions, which is exactly why you should be fully aware of the dangers of emotional thinking in chess. It is absolutely critical to play your best chess in every single game that you play, and to do that you will need to be thinking like a [...]

Chess960 is always interesting, and in this game I was able to close down the center and gain good control of the light squares. Black was able to gain a lead in development due to white moving her pawns a lot in the opening (d4, f4, c3, e3). With 7. …f6 and 8. …e5 I was able to break the center and gain activity for my minor pieces by opening the position. After winning a [...]

Welcome to my 3rd Beginner Chess Openings Series on the Slav Defense. My 1st and 2nd Beginner Chess Openings Series featured the “Stonewall Attack” and the “French Defense.” These three openings represent a comprehensive opening repertoire for the beginner chess player. Examining the big picture of this beginner opening system, you will find that the general ideas and pawn formations are very similar – enabling the beginner chess player to focus more on understanding general [...]

I opened with e4 and black played the Caro-Kann Defense – so I played 3. e5, the Advance Variation. I tried to complicate things early with an aggressive set-up in the center, although black was able to achieve a good outpost on d5. Afer 11. h4!? I think black should have played 11. …Nxe3 to exchange one of his knights off. After 12. Bg5 and 13. Ne2 black’s knights became redundant, fighting for the same [...]

Picture the following scenario: a chess player sits down at the board, shakes your hand and says good luck, and starts blitzing out the first 15 moves in 5 minutes even though you each have 60 minutes for the entire game. Meanwhile, you take a good 25 minutes for these same 15 moves and achieve a healthy advantage out of the opening. This same opponent probably moves this fast against everyone all the time, especially [...]