Dan Heisman has been teaching chess for over 50 years and has been doing so full-time since 1996. He therefore knows very well what kind of advice actually helps players improve. This book is a distillation of that advice. The book is based around his X (twitter) column "Chess tip of the day" which has been running since 2009 and features over 4,000 tips. The most useful advice has been distilled into 200 tips that contain additional helpful material, including illustrative stories and many diagrams with instructive play. These tips represent ways to highlight and address the most common problems experienced by chess enthusiasts of all levels. They also suggest ways to mitigate or even avoid these these problems entirely and by doing so improve their chess play and learn to study more effectively. The tips lean towards general improvement rather than focusing on specific positions.

The topics addressed include: general improvement, thought processes, psychology, tactics, safety, positional concepts, strategy, openings and endgames.