Checkmate!

More people than ever are saying this word. The mix of the pandemic and the Netflix Show "The Queen's Gambit" have given a big boom to the chess world.

The series, which has been watched by 62 million people worldwide, has given a lot of visibility and credibility to the game. It's not just "nerds" anymore that play the game. Everybody is welcome!

There are many newcomers during the pandemic, and I plead guilty as one of the new disciples of the game. I created an account on chess.com in December 2020 and have played many games since. I tried to learn the basics and give an overview of how to begin to play this fantastic game.

There are a couple of principles that you want to follow to improve your rating. The first rule you should know is: Take the center of the board! If you control the center, you got more space for your other pieces to move and then make a better attack. This may sound a bit abstract, but if you check pro games, 90% of the time, they will start with either E4 or D4, the two middle squares of the white pieces.

Another principle you should follow as a beginner is not moving two times the same piece in your first ten moves. You should develop your pieces as quickly as possible. When I say develop, I mean to move a piece out of his beginning square to use it more easily. Some people like to move one pawn to free the queen and then go on a trip with their queen for seven or eight moves. You will lose if you do that. Just don't.

The two guys I describe below are two professional chess players and are or have been teaching before. They are both very talented and passionate about the game, and I think that's a requirement to be a good teacher.

The first guy I'm going to recommend watching is Benjamin Finegold. Benjamin has been a GrandMaster since 2009 and a very entertaining teacher. He has a couple of videos to show the principles, and this guy is hilarious! A couple of his videos are made in front of kids in some school's club, and he just kept roasting them while teaching. His videos are pretty long, but I think they are worth the time invested.

The second one is my favorite and also one of the chess community favorites, GothamChess. Levy Rozman, an InternationalMaster (just under Grandmaster), is one of the most entertaining YouTubers for chess. When I start following him in January 2021, I think he has maybe 150k-200k subscribers. On June 1, less than six months after, he has 1, 000 000 subscribers.

This guy is so devoted to the community that he makes recaps of tournaments worldwide almost EVERY DAY, and the content is pretty good. During a couple of months, each day, I was waiting to check out his new video after the job.

To begin with Levy, I recommend his series e4 ONLY rating climb. It's the one that makes me go from 800(you start at that number of Chess.com) to 1200(where I'm at today). In this series, Levy will face players from 800 to 1600 in the following video by applying the basics principles mentioned earlier and many more. I don't think I would be at the level I'm at today if it was for this series. I don't think you can have better FREE content to start with chess.

I hope you have as much fun as I do playing the game!

Let the games begin!