These are a few steps  believe can help with openings in chess.

1. Identify the first unfamiliar position. (Out of book, in other words)
2. Evaluate the results of the opening—as the game transitions into the middle game, how do both players stand? Are you happy with the results from the opening phase?
3. Play over the opening moves and look for improvements. In particular, look for candidate moves that you didn’t really consider during the game. (This is because you tend to overlook good candidate moves.)
4. Use ChessBase to run opening reports, find similar games, etc., to help confirm what you’d like to play next time, and to get ideas about piece development and middle game plans.
5. Save the result into a ChessBase database devoted to that particular opening.

(From the Excellent web site, How to Play Chess:   http://www.chessdryad.com/education/magictheater/index.htm  )

Recommended For Beginners in Chess

1. DON'T bring your KING out with your OPPONENT'S QUEEN on the board.

2. The KING must be ACTIVE in the ENDING.
3. IN SUPERIOR POSITIONS, to ATTACK the ENEMY KING, you must OPEN a file (or less often a diagonal) for your HEAVY PIECES (QUEEN and ROOKS).

The most common question among chess players while starting out is, ‘How to Win At Chess?’

The answer is

Education – Read as many chess books as possible. I know most of the chess players are reluctant to agree that chess knowledge winds more games than talent alone, but this is a fact. A case in point being the recent emergence of the current world number one - GM Magnus Carlsen.

Everyone in the chess playing world agreed that Carlsen was a prodigy at chess. That he had it in him to be World champion. However after many years in the chess circuit he wasn’t able to defeat the top ranked chess players on a consistent basis. Only after he started to work on his repertoire with the Great Gary Kasparov have we seen him emerge as a consistent player at the highest level of chess.

Practice- Playing a lot of games gives you experience of being in the situation before. From here you can think of the variations played before and then experiment your way forwards towards the best possible outcome.

In the recently concluded world chess championship GM Boris Gelfand won the title against all odds. At the beginning of the tournament hardly a few chess aficionados would have given him a chance to win the title, let alone call him a favourite. After all this was a gruelling schedule for the 40 year old, a game every day for almost 45 days , with some days having as many as 4-5 blitz and rapid games in between. With the average age of the competing players being in the mid-20’s , to have won the championship shows the amount of practice and experience that makes a champion.

Attitude - Your goal in chess must be to always keep learning, playing interesting chess games and to understand chess rather than to humiliate your opponent. Express your personality through the game rather than through words. Two very good examples of this are the Current world champion GM Vishwanathan Anand and GM Vassily Ivanchuk. GM Anand always has a good word about his opponent, never indulging in controversial statements and plays only on the chess board. GM Ivanchuk on the other hand keeps an element of impish delight in his games, plays chess as though he were still in his teens and often is the sole entertainer in the tournaments.

Always keep at heart the foundations of theses great teachers.

How to Win Chess Games Quickly
Be a good sport - If you care only about winning, then you will just play mechanically and will not create interesting options. Also you will not be able to expand your repertoire. At the same time you should be uninhibited in your games, have a tactical drive. But most of all be a good sport. Winning and losing are part of the game. Do not unnecessarily spoil the atmosphere by charging your opponent or giving rash statements. This will make you an outcast and you might not be invited to many tournaments.

How to Win Chess Games Quickly

It was a game which became an obsession so consuming that it wrecked the personal and political lives of two noblemen in Munshi Premchand’s short story set in the Indian kingdom of Awadh which Satyajit Ray brilliantly brought to life on celluloid in his film ‘Shatranj Ke Khiladi’. Chess, or chaturanga as it was known in the ancient times is more than just a mind game. On a metaphorical level chess can capture the power of the human mind and imagination like no other.

Ancient origins of chess remain obscure though there is fair consensus on the claim that it emerged from Persia. Around the 9th century it began its spread towards Europe and by the time the 15th century closed, chess as we know it today had pretty much emerged. In the five subsequent centuries, chess as a game became more and more organised culminating in the establishment of FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs) in 1924 which helped it emerge as a professional sport. Initially the Soviet Union, for whom chess and politics would always be intricately strung, refused to join but after the incumbent world champion Alexander Alekhine died in 1946 and with FIDE organising the World Championship to find the replacement, it relented. The new champion was Mikhail Botvinnik who heralded an assembly line of Soviet champions in the sport including the most recognisable ones - Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov.

The Indian challenge in the world of chess has perennially been personified by one man-the unassuming and affable Vishwanathan Anand. Anand, the current World Champion and on top of the FIDE’s Elo ratings (a rating system for chess players), emerged meteorically winning the World Junior Chess championship in 1987 and becoming grandmaster at age 18. Today, inspired by his achievements many chess prodigies have emerged from India including Koneru Hampi who is currently number two in the Women’s Elo Ratings. K Visweswaran, a chess trainer who was India’s coach in the recently concluded World Youth Chess Championship believes ‘Anand’s exploits have inspired children to take up chess in India, even at very young ages and with good trainers around and rigorous tournaments, it has meant a boom in the emergence of chess talent on the world stage from India.’

Given its nature, chess requires consummate skill to master and is often seen as the sport of the ‘geeks’. Parimarajan Negi, the World’s Youngest Grandmaster at age 14 told TSI about the secret behind his success ‘I have coaches from Russia with whom I have intensive training sessions.’ In India, and in many other places in the world it remains a special interest sport, the proverbial poorer cousin of other glamourous and lucrative sports. Reefat Bin Sattar, the International Grandmaster from Bangladesh laments to TSI that in his country ‘With cricket catching the fancy it’s very difficult to get people interested in chess, since there is no patronage.’ But for those who have tasted the addiction of this heady mindsport, there cannot be anything better. Just ask Mirza Sajjad Ali and Mir Roshan Ali in ‘Shatranj Ke Khiladi’!

From and Article in The Sunday Indian

Game one

A very tense game. Topalov repeated the same variation as in the second classical game but Kramnik deviated with 14…Re8 (instead of 10…Bg6). Topalov sensed that he couldn’t play for a kingside attack anymore and play was transferred to the queenside. Veselin sacrificed the a4 pawn for a strong initiative but Kramnik was able to bail out with his excellent 36…Nc4! only move.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. e3 e6 7. Bxc4 Bb4 8. O-O Nbd7 9. Qe2 O-O 10. e4 Bg6 11. Bd3 Bh5 12. e5 Nd5 13. Nxd5 cxd5 14. Qe3 Re8 15. Ne1 Rc8 16. f4 Bxe1 17. Rxe1 Bg6 18. Bf1 Rc2 19. b3 Qa5 20. Bb5 Rd8 21. Re2 Rcc8 22. Bd2 Qb6 23. Rf2 a6 24. Bf1 Rc6 25. b4 Rc2 26. b5 a5 27. Bc3 Rxf2 28. Qxf2 Qa7 29. Qd2 Ra8 30. Rc1 Nb6 31. Bb2 Nxa4 32. Ba3 h6 33. h3 Be4 34. Kh2 Nb6 35. Bc5 a4 36. Ra1

Position after 36. Ra1

36...Nc4 37. Bxc4 b6 38. Qe3 Rc8 39. Bf1 bxc5 40. dxc5 Qxc5 41. Qxc5 Rxc5 42. b6 Rc6 43. b7 Rb6 44. Ba6 d4 45. Rxa4 Bxb7 46. Bxb7 Rxb7 47. Rxd4 (1/2-1/2 )

Giant chess pieces carved from ice sit on a chessboard in Trafalgar Square in central London on Wednesday. A live chess game was held between London and Moscow to launch the London Russian Winter Festival which is on Saturday.