The 4 Things To Avoid In Winning Positions
Discover the four main things that stop players converting their winning position into a win!
About My Free Live Training
As you can see from the image above, I am hosting a live chess training session on Thursday from 12 to 1 pm GMT+10 (Sydney) time on the subject of 'How To Convert An Advantage Into A Win'.
You can access the training only if you are a member of my free Facebook group, Adult Chess Improvers, which you can join here.
If you are already a group member, register here so you don't miss out!
To help you get the most out of the free Thursday training, here's an article of mine on the four main ways we fail to convert a decisive advantage into a win.
4 Things You Should Never Do In A Winning Position
Do you remember when you had a winning position but got swindled out of the win?
Here are the 4 main pitfalls to avoid when you have a winning position (as noted in Smerdon's book 'The Complete Chess Swindler'):
- Impatience
- Hubris
- Fear
- Kontrollzwang (trying too hard to control everything in the position)
So, what do you think this should be replaced with?
- Patience
Please take your time - as long as you need to play good moves and win the game.
- Detachment
Instead of focusing on the result or questions unrelated to the position on the board, we detach ourselves from these extraneous things and consider the position from the opponent's perspective.
- Objectivity
Instead of being afraid of every little idea the opponent may try or doubting ourselves, we honestly appraise the situation as it is.
- Flexibility
I mean this in the context of appreciating that there is more than one way to convert an advantage into victory and being open to all possibilities.
What about general principles, you may be asking?
You probably remember phrases like 'when ahead in material, exchange pieces' or 'Be particularly mindful of the opponent's threats'.
However, these tend to have various exceptions - for instance, trying too hard to stop every little idea of the opponent could lead to losing the initiative if we are not improving our position significantly and making well-timed counter threats.
