HGabor's Blog

The truth about checks-captures-threats

2025-08-08T10:38:02.35Z

Probably the most common advice you hear in chess is that you should always look for forcing moves (aka checks-captures-threats, or CTT). Every chess content creator seems to have a post or Youtube video about that. Still, I think this advice can be a bit misleading.

Thinking in counterthreats

2024-12-09T13:34:17.12Z

A little case study about threat handling - how to do it as a GM

Effective training methods - calculation training

2024-12-02T14:03:23.512Z

A post about improving your calculation skills.

Effective training methods - doing tactics

2024-09-27T11:47:50.286Z

My previous post was about chess training in general. We will dive into the details now. So, what you should actually do during your training sessions? Let's start with the most obvious one: solving tactical puzzles.

How to make your chess training effective

2024-09-19T11:17:51.17Z

This is the first post of a series about effective chess training. In the following posts, I will discuss the most common training methods one by one - what they are, and how to get the most out of them. But first, let’s talk about training in general.

How titled players lie to you

2024-08-16T13:56:18.764Z

This post is a word of warning for the average club player. As the chess world is becoming increasingly salesy, snake oil marketing is becoming more and more the norm. It is time to reconsider how much you trust titled players.

Typical mistakes Nr 2 - Not picking up forcing moves

2024-05-16T12:24:26.098Z

This is the second post in a series of the most typical mistakes I encounter as a chess coach. I thought it might be useful to share these on this blog.

Typical mistakes - Defending against unsound attacks

2024-04-25T11:06:29.165Z

This is the first post in a series of the most typical mistakes I encounter as a chess coach. I thought it might be useful to share it on this blog.

Procrastination in chess decision making

2023-11-15T16:25:50.48Z

This post is about another common mistake I see a lot as a chess coach. Pretty much all my students do it from time to time, and some of them are especially prone to it; so I thought it might be useful to write about it.

Don’t drop your ideas like hot potatoes

2023-11-01T09:26:56.407Z

This is just a quick post is about one of the most common mistakes chessplayers make when calculating variations. I see it happening all the time while doing calculation exercises with my students; and of course, I used to make it a lot myself when I was a beginner.