Unpublished Work © 2026. Alex Povazh. All rights reserved
Chess documentaries
Magnus 2016
The Great Chess Movie. A 1982 Canadian film directed by Gilles Carle and Camille Coudari
Men Who Would Be Kings (Chess in Washington Square Park) 1987~ 88
American Gambit 1988
Kasparov versus Deep Thought 1989
Searching For Bobby Fischer 1993
Garry Kasparov: The Chess Player 2000
Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine 2003
My Brilliant Brain – Born Genius 2007
Odysseus’ Gambit 2011
Bobby Fischer Against The World 2012
Computer Chess 2013
Me and Bobby Fischer 2010
Zero level in chess refers to the lowest possible rating, a bottom tier of knowledge and skills. Moving from zero to understanding chess basics takes a few weeks to few months of consistent practice. Between understanding and the ability to use your knowledge in practice there is a lap of time that depends on your abilities, perseverance and memory. Becoming an intermediate chess player of 1200-1500 can take anywhere from six months to several years, depending on your talent, perseverance, and ability to learn ad digest huge junks of info. Below are some suggested plans for getting your footing in the chess world from zero level.
I divided the transition into two stages: Stage 1. ZERO TO 500+ and STAGE 2. 500+ TO KILO.
In this stage 1 article I would like to present the opinions of chess experts whom I trust more than others, believing that the most important component of the learning process is game practice and tactical training.
Stage 1. ZERO TO 500+
Chess basics (Chess Pieces, Fundamentals, Intermediate, Advanced)
Practice (mostly Checkmates and Fundamental Tactics)
Time to spend: few weeks to few months. The skills above are vital for making your very first steps in chess!
Once you have mastered the main points from the list above, you can continue moving on.
TACTICS, TACTICS, TACTICS
Tactics decide most of very beginner and intermediate level games (0-2000). Higher-level players make fewer tactical mistakes, so they don’t give tactics much priority in their preparation. Although I remember the answer of one of the top ten female Grandmasters in the world to surprised questions about unexpectedly quick defeats of her opponents in one of the recent tournaments years ago: “Tactics! I have been doing tons of tactics lately!”
A tactically weak player loses material or gets checkmated in the opening (the first dozen moves). Trying to teach openings to beginners is both futile and harmful: your opponent will most likely not play your script. You should work on creating your vital skills to improve your TACTICAL VISION from the very first days of chess. The three pillars on which your development is based are:
(1) VISUALIZATION. The ability to mentally move pieces on the chessboard without touching them. Ability to see the end-up position after you installed your piece on a new square. Ability to see the consequences of the mentally played move… just about there the CALCULATION emerges.
(2) CALCULATION. The process of evaluating potential moves and their consequences. Visualization and Calculation combined is the number one priority of a zero and beginner chess player. Otherwise you cannot play chess. Starting with opening puzzles is a good approach: this way you will become familiar with opening constructions and it will all fly into your mental library.
(3) A chess player’s THINKING PROCESS. Systematic cycle of evaluating positions and variations on the board after every single move made, assessing your opponent’s threats, planning your candidate moves… based on your mental library of tactical and positional patterns, on which your brain keeps constantly working and synthesizing the new information even while you are out of the game and off the board. Checks, Captures and Threats (CCT). This takes time and thousands of games played, after which you will reproach yourself for assessing consequences before making your move.
All that for the sake of tactics, your tactical vision! Without tactics you cannot play chess. Period.
Tactical puzzles by openings is a wise approach because doing so you catch tons of opening setups your brain would absorb and process. You may never encounter a particular opening formation in your games over the board, but the tactical patterns are always the same.
Once you register on lichess and start solving tactics on lichess, you will have your stats.
Important! Lichess automatically adjusts tactical puzzles to your current level separated from your game rating. Normally your puzzle rating should be 300-600 points higher than your live game ratings. There you’ll have your Puzzle Dashboard, a comprehensive analytics tool, displaying your progress on specific tactical patterns. The dashboard breaks down your rating and accuracy for every specific tactical pattern (a theme). Nice! You can identify your tactical weaknesses right there on the fly. You can review puzzles you failed to crack. After a rated game you can use the Analysis board to generate puzzles from your blunders.
You can re-solve tactical puzzles from your puzzle history in circles to boost your pattern recognition skills. For getting really better in tactics that way, you need to do it regularly at set intervals to beat the stuff into your head.
Learning to drive in an open field or empty off-road area is an effective way to master basic vehicle control…
… without the pressure of traffic. It helps beginners get a feel for the car, understand spatial awareness, and build confidence before moving to paved roads… You already know how chess pieces move. White to play. Study this position carefully and find the shortest way to checkmate the other guy. With your eyes on the board right below, mentally move pieces and craft your plans one by one. Once you have done that, set this position on lichess Board editor and check computer’s way of making things done: lichess – top menu – TOOLS – Board editor – set the position – ANALYSIS BOARD. Learn from the engine by reading the engine’s thoughts!
Engine is your best sparring partner to practice specific positions!
Playing against material-down Stockfish level 8 (2600+).
Lichess gives you the opportunity to train against the greatest “Grandmaster” of all times, against level 8 Stockfish. This “coach” can’t speak a word and can’t explain simple chess truths to you, but you can discern the truth by moving pieces back and forth on the board and peering into the computer’s positional evaluations like you would into the eyes of your beloved dog.
Very beginners are not advised to play against weakened Stockfish due to the engine’s unrealistic, non-human behavior but practicing specific positions against strongest level 8 Stockfish is excellent for building your judgement, mastering your techniques and understanding strategy and variations. Material-down Stockfish will not play stupid moves, but will fight you with full-power combat chess despite your monstrous material advantage. That is exactly what you, a beginner chess player, need to have.
Just go and play against the strongest level 8 Stockfish by depriving the engine of the queen and both rooks right now. The subsequent post-game analysis will show you ideas and best moves you have just missed but now can see and learn.
Lichess – top menu – TOOLS – Board editor – remove black’s queen and both rooks from the chessboard – CONTINUE FROM HERE – PLAY AGAINST COMPUTER – select the strongest level Strength 8 (2600+) – select white pieces – Play against computer.
You already know how pawns and pieces move, and what you don’t know or have forgotten, you’ll learn right in this game. So, you, playing white pieces, have an overwhelming material advantage of more than 13 pawns. Your task is to defeat your opponent. Thanks to the material advantage you have been given in this game, you can immediately exploit the vulnerability of the black king “stuck” in the center of the board. It is through the blown open center files (vertical columns of squares) that you will be able to throw your rooks (heavy pieces) into the game escorted by your queen (tremendous power), which is impossible to do in a normal game because, unlike in this training game, your opponent will have all the resources to prevent you from doing this. Of course, you can bring your rooks into play along their files (vertical columns of squares), but there they will not directly threaten the opponent’s king and therefore your rooks will not be able to immediately engage in an attack. The ability to quickly exploit a material or positional advantage is an indicator of a chess player’s strength and technique. After playing the same training game from a given starting position several times, you’ll quickly learn how to capitalize on your advantages, and the position will no longer be relevant to you. Set up a different position and beat level 8 Stockfish. You can master any typical position in the same way, but that’s in the near future, not now. Right now, your goal is to beat Level 8 Stockfish in the fastest possible way. A hint / or a spoiler: (1) quickly blow up the center files an jump on the other guy on e8 with your pieces, then trade pieces on the board, thereby revealing and aggravating your opponent’s material disaster in this game; (2) try to find positional vulnerabilities in your opponent’s setup and try to exploit them.
Post game analysis is the most effective way to improve your chess! Never miss that blessing opportunity!
Learning chess mechanics and getting ready for the next part of this book
C20 King’s Pawn Game: Wayward Queen Attack
Once you have gotten your bearings in chess, you know how pieces move and you have checked some of lichess games, your goal is to bust the other guy’s king! 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5. Playing white pieces, go jump on the boss on e8 right in the very beginning of a game against… Stockfish 8, the strongest level, and see how Stockfish crushes you. Then set the position after 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 on lichess.org Board editor and let Stockfish 8 to crush you with white pieces.
That way you will learn tons of things, your brain will get tons of info it would absorb, digest and synthesize for your future reference. This is one of your daily practices full of energy and excitement. The “500 TO KILO” section of this book has a detailed overview of this aggressive variation named C20 King’s Pawn Game: Wayward Queen Attack, violating Opening Basics but very efficient against zero and very beginners, so by familiarizing yourself with it here, you’ll be fully prepared for that article in the future.
“PAWNS ARE THE SOUL OF CHESS”.
FRANÇOIS-ANDRÉ DANICAN PHILIDOR
YOUR “GETTING BETTER IN CHESS” PLAN COULD BE THIS:
(1) Learn chessboard coordinates (Lichess – top menu – LEARN – Coordinates).
(2) Learn basics (Lichess – top menu – LEARN – Chess basics).
(3) Tactics, tactics, tactics (Lichess – top menu – LEARN – Practice – FUNDAMENTAL TACTICS, ADVANCED TACTICS).
(4) Join a chess club to play with friends and discuss things.
(5) Play against Stockfish level 1 to 3 you sparring games: engine is available 24/7 and ready to play whatever position (Lichess – TOOLS – Board editor – set a position – select Stockfish strength – select color – Play against computer.
As soon as you learn the basics of chess listed above, we are waiting for you in the STAGE 2. 500+ TO KILO!