If you’re a 1000 strength player ambitious to become a 1500 strength player this post is for you.

Monday’s position was taken from a game from our summer tournament between two players who are both some way short of 1500 strength but eager to improve.

Let’s go back a few moves from the puzzle position to this, at the conclusion of a tactical sequence which needn’t bother us here, with White to play.

How would you assess the position?

A 1000 guy will probably count the pieces, observe that both players have a queen, rook, minor piece and six pawns, and tell you it’s equal. A 1500 guy will look at other aspects of the position as well: development, king safety, pawn formation, piece coordination, for example. In this position he’ll notice that White has a lead in development while Black’s king is potentially exposed, and conclude that, as long as he acts fast, White is winning.

White made an excellent choice here: 20. Re4, which is the computer’s first choice as well. The rook might want to move to g4, for example, later on. Other excellent moves are fxg7, Re8+ and Nd5, all of which give White, despite the even material at present, a crushing advantage.

First lesson: 1000 players assess positions by counting points: 1500 players consider multiple factors when assessing positions.

Black played 20… Qc5, and now 21. Re8+ is immediately decisive. A nice line is 21… Kh7 22. fxg7 Kxg7 23. Ne4 Qc6 24. Qd4+ f6 25. Nd6!, a clearance sacrifice, followed by Qg4+.

But he missed it. Why? Because he was looking for captures and threats, but didn’t look for checks first.

Second lesson: 1000 players look for captures and threats, but often don’t consider checks first: remember to use a CCTV: look for CHECKS, CAPTURES, THREATS and VIOLENT MOVES in that order.

No matter: 21. fxg7 and 21. Nd5 are both also good. Let’s stop and think. White has queen, rook and knight within reach of the black king, while the black bishop and rook haven’t moved. Three big guys attacking, but only one big guy defending – sounds like a pretty unfair fight to me.

Instead White played 21. Na4. I could imaging Levy Rozman demonstrating this game. He’d be watching in disbelief, screaming “WHAAAAAAAAAAT!?!?!?!?!?” White’s attacking on the kingside: why on earth should he want to move his knight to the far side of the board?

This is the sort of thing I see over and over again at this level. Here’s what I think is happening.

500 guys hang pieces regularly, so if you want to become a 1000 guy it’s smart strategy to threaten your opponent’s pieces whenever possible: at some point they won’t notice and you’ll win the game. 1000 guys, on the other hand, have learnt not to hang pieces so you must find other ways to beat them. If you want to reach 1500 level you have to appreciate this.

Third lesson: 1000 players seek to create threats in the hope that their opponent won’t notice: 1500 players understand that their job is to put their own pieces on better squares and force their opponents’ pieces to worse squares.

White’s still a lot better even after Na4, but if Black is thinking about the best square for his queen he’ll try Qf8 to defend his king. If he’s thinking like a 1000 player he’ll look at how he can create a threat in the hope that his opponent won’t notice – and that’s what he did, opting for 21… Qf5, to threaten the rook.

This is the position I left you with on Monday. Now White has only one good move, and, if you use a CCTV it will be the first move you consider.

Just 22. Re8+ (CHECK!) Kh7 23. fxg7 (CAPTURE!) Kxg7, 24. Qd4+ (or Qc3+: CHECK!) Qf6 25. Rg8+ (CHECK!), winning the queen. Not difficult to find if you’re asking yourself the right questions in the right order. (If you got this far in your analysis on Monday you can award yourself 100%.)

Instead of doing some serious calculation he just thought “How can I attack his queen?” and played 22. Rf4.

Fourth lesson: 1000 players don’t automatically calculate sequences of forcing moves, just playing one move at a time. 1500 players try to calculate all forcing sequences accurately.

Black replied with the excellent 22… Qe5 (Rb8 was an imaginative option) and now White looked around for a way to create a threat. Instead of looking for checks, captures and threats he was looking for threats, captures and checks. He couldn’t find a suitable threat so finally decided to play 23. fxg7, a capture and an equal exchange.

But it wasn’t an equal exchange at all. Black correctly looked for checks before captures on this occasion and spotted that 23… Qa1+ was mate next move, whereupon White resigned.

The three unmoved pawns in front of the castled king should be an immediate danger signal, sending the red light flashing. Something like 23. h4 or 23. f3 would have led to an equal position, according to Stockfish. But mate is mate!

Fifth lesson: 1000 players forget to look for danger signals: unmoved pawns in front of a castled king is one, but there are many others: for example an enemy line piece looking at one of your more valuable pieces.

Sixth lesson: 1000 players might look for their own Checks, Captures and Threats, but they don’t always remember to look for their opponent’s Checks, Captures and Threats.

There’s one final lesson for you.

Seventh lesson: if you’re a 500 or a 1000 player seeking to become a 1500 player, read my Chess Heroes books!

My thanks to both players for producing such an instructive game!