This is a section to help members develop their skill and give some pointers to further chess improvement. As time allows and interest is shown I will attempt to fill out this section with more details.
Useful link
End games
As a starter I have listed the basic end games that any beginner should attempt to master.
King + Queen vs. King
King + Rook vs. King
King + Bishop (black square) + Bishop (white square) vs. King
King + Bishop + Knight vs. King
King + Pawn vs. King
King + Queen vs. King + Pawn
Far more difficult but important in practice
King + Rook vs. King + Pawn
King + 2 or more Pawns vs. King + 1 or more Pawns
Middle Games
Probably the most important advice is to practice tactics first before getting too involved with strategie. At the beginner level games are often decided by significant loss of pieces/material or a relatively simple check mate. As you progress you find that opponents make less mistakes and fall for fewer traps this is when you will need to study more advanced concepts.
For the beginner I recommend the following.
1. Study lots of combination puzzle books.
2. Learn as many common check mates as possible
3. Study some simple middle game concepts e.g. Rooks on the 7th rank
4. Get familiar with common traps, ideas and combinations that occur in your favorite openings.
Openings
There are general rules on how to play the opening.
1. Develop quickly
2. Castle as early as possible
3. Control the center
For beginners it is difficult to know what is the best choice of opening. There are number of systems that are flexible and can be played without worrying too much about what the opponent is doing. Also there are common attacks or defensive systems used by beginners because the theory is easy to understand.
1. Hedgehog systems - defensive and slow setup but difficult to breakdown.
2. Kings Indian Attack systems - simple setup with a common attack plan.
3. English Attack against Sicilian defense - simple setup with a common attack plan
4. Center-Counter against e4 openings - immediately avoid white preparation.
5. c3 anti Sicilian.
6. Bb5 anti Sicilian.
