Chess Practice Drills the Pros Use Every Day
By Lalit Akhade, Founder & Head Coach, ChessMates Academy · Published 2026-03-22 · 7 min read
Chess Practice Drills the Pros Use Every Day
Grandmasters do not just play games and hope for improvement. They practise deliberately, using specific drills designed to build the skills that matter most at the highest level. Most of these same drills — scaled to the appropriate level — are exactly what improving players at every level should be doing.
Here are the practice drills that produce the fastest real-world improvement.
Drill 1: Puzzle Sprint (Daily — 15 minutes)
What it is: Solve as many rated puzzles as possible in a fixed time period, prioritising accuracy over speed.
How to do it: Set a 15-minute timer. Open your puzzle platform (Chess.com, Lichess, Chess Tempo). Solve puzzles until the timer rings. Do not rush — think each one through.
What it builds: Tactical pattern recognition, the foundational skill of all chess improvement.
Pro equivalent: Elite players solve tactical puzzles daily even at grandmaster level. Magnus Carlsen has discussed his early career puzzle training. Every top player has a puzzle routine.
Drill 2: Endgame Training Positions (3x per week — 20 minutes)
What it is: Practice specific endgame positions — not puzzles, but theoretical positions where you know the technique and practise executing it correctly against a computer or practice partner.
How to do it: Start with the three fundamental positions: 1. King and queen vs king (drive to the edge, avoid stalemate) 2. King and rook vs king (same) 3. King and pawn vs king (opposition technique)
What it builds: Endgame precision — the ability to convert advantages reliably.
Pro equivalent: All elite players have deeply studied endgame theory. Endgame technique at the highest level is what separates draws from wins in otherwise equal positions.
Drill 3: Candidate Move Training (During games — mental habit)
What it is: Before every move, force yourself to generate at least 3 candidate moves before calculating any of them.
How to do it: In your next game, commit to never playing the first move you think of. Generate three alternatives first. Then evaluate which of the three is strongest.
What it builds: Broader board vision, avoidance of tunnel vision, discovery of moves you would normally never see.
Pro equivalent: Garry Kasparov described candidate move generation as one of the fundamental thinking disciplines separating strong players from weaker ones. It sounds simple; it transforms how you see positions.
Drill 4: Classic Game Study (1–2 times per week — 20 minutes)
What it is: Play through an annotated grandmaster game with a physical or digital board, trying to guess each move before looking at it.
How to do it: Find an annotated game (many free resources available on Lichess, or in books like Logical Chess: Move by Move). Before reading the annotation for each move, look at the position and decide what you would play. Then compare.
What it builds: Strategic pattern recognition, opening ideas, middlegame planning, and the broader chess intuition that comes from exposure to master-level decision-making.
Pro equivalent: All elite players have studied thousands of master games. Anatoliy Karpov was famous for exhaustive game study; Magnus Carlsen has described similar habits.
Drill 5: Opening Rehearsal (1 time per week — 20 minutes)
What it is: Play through your opening repertoire — the specific lines you use as White and Black — without an opponent, from memory, to the positions you typically reach.
How to do it: Set up the starting position. Play through your opening lines as you would in a game. When you reach the end of your preparation, evaluate the resulting position: Is it good for you? Is your king safe? Are your pieces active?
What it builds: Opening confidence, reducing the time you spend thinking in the opening (saving it for the middlegame), and recognition of the positions you typically reach.
Pro equivalent: Professional players rehearse their opening preparation before every tournament game. A grandmaster walking into a game has typically studied the resulting positions for hours before sitting down.
Drill 6: Blunder Elimination Review (After every game — 5 minutes)
What it is: After each game (especially losses), identify your single worst move. Understand exactly why it was bad and what you should have played.
How to do it: After the game ends, open engine analysis. Find the moment your position went from good/equal to bad. Look at your move there. Now understand: what was the threat I missed? What move did I underestimate?
What it builds: Targeted pattern recognition for your specific recurring weaknesses. This is the highest-return review activity available.
Putting It Together
A weekly practice schedule using these drills:
- Daily (15 min): Puzzle sprint
- 3x per week (20 min): Endgame training positions
- 1–2x per week (20 min): Classic game study
- 1x per week (20 min): Opening rehearsal
- After each game (5 min): Blunder elimination review
Total weekly time: roughly 3–4 hours. This is sustainable and produces consistent improvement.
At ChessMates, our coaches assign specific drill combinations between sessions based on each student's current development areas. Book a free trial class and get a personalised drill programme matched to your level.