Every game out there requires some level of skill in order to be played properly, or if you want to actually present a challenge to someone and be competitive. Some games are more akin to games of luck rather than skill and such games do not really have skill expression and if they do, it doesn’t matter in the long run, when luck takes over.
Games like chess and checkers, require you to express your skill, otherwise a toddler who practiced will be more than good enough to beat you. In order to be good at chess and checkers, here are the skills that you should practice.
Patience
Games like chess and checkers require patience, mostly because you need to take your time to learn all the moves, and not to rush and make the wrong move, no matter how pressured you might be to make one. Blitz chess doesn’t allow that, but that is a special category.
Patience can easily be practiced through solving puzzles.
Chess puzzles are aplenty and they have been used since the dawn of professional chess to practice and prepare for matches and tournaments.
Puzzles represent specific problems chess players will at some point face when playing. Sometimes, you will need a couple of days if not weeks to solve a chess puzzle. Take your time and work on your patience and the puzzle.
Memory
Your memory will play a key role in the game of chess and similar games where you have to think ahead and anticipate your opponent’s moves based on what they have on the board, as well as your own pieces.
Chess is an interesting game in this regard, because not only do you have to anticipate your opponent’s moves, but also prepare your own and browse your memory for the puzzles that you solved and the strategies that you read about.
Typically, chess players are much better at recalling information than non-chess players, as they spend lots of time learning about moves and practicing them, until they become muscle memory. Memory is a key skill in any board game.
Creativity
Chess is a game of logic and all that, but logic alone will not solve some problems.
When push comes to shove and a player is beating you in the logic department, you have to start being creative and challenging them on another level. If you present them with odd situations and force them to adapt, then you will have at least some advantage.
Creativity can make some impossible situations draws or victories, provided that you also have enough skill to match your opponent.
Pruning
One of the most important skills in chess is pruning, where you narrow down the list of moves that need to be made into only the important ones, and then you analyze those moves. Beginners often think that experts are like computers, analyzing all the possible moves.
In truth, experts waste very little effort on that, because of pruning. They know which moves they should focus on and which ones are irrelevant to that particular game.
These are some of the skills that could help you become a better chess and checkers player.