Greetings all,

I have returned to chess after many years and would like to go beyond just a
casual club player. My question to those who are experienced competitive
players is, what is the best way to study. I have bought a library of chess
books and CD ROM'S. Many of them are on the Openings that I would like to
learn. I feel I have a sufficient amount of Middle Game and Strategy
materials to get me through, and a small, but good source of End Game
materials. The majority of my chess materials however are on Tactics.

I guess my second part of the question is: In what order (or priority)
should I go about learning the game? I keep hearing the maxim, "Tactics,
tactics, tactics." So I chose that to study first and foremost. I am
thinking I should then learn the End Game after brushing up on my Tactics.
I am not sure if that is the "right" order, but it seems natural to me.
From here I am not sure which to study next. Do I continue to go in
"reverse" order and study the Middle Game, or concentrate more on Opening
Theory.

What is the best way to develop Chess Knowledge? Does it matter? Any
recommendations from advanced players would be appreciated.

-Frank

Frank,
I am not an advanced player (just over 1500) but the following urls /
articles etc may be of help.
Chessville http://www.chessville.com/index.html
There are some articles written of players of a variety of strengths which
include study materials and the order in which you should study them. try
the home page then Instruction tab and follow to General instruction and
advice followed by the path to improvment and also the article suggestions
for improving your play. They also have an excellent forum where you will
get serious answers to questions from some very experienced players. GM
Nigel Davies also has a question and answer column on the site.
Many coaches will advise you to play 1 long game a week rather than several
short games. This way you can build a proper repertoire of how you approach
a game, select your candidate move look at your opponents possible replies
etc. To get the games I would suggest joining the Online Chess league. You
play on a team of usually 6 players with a 4 player line up each week. This
allows you to take a week off as there will always be 2 players not playing.
Each tournament usually lasts about 8wks and the sections are U1500 U1800
and OPEN. The games are run through a cheat detection system and suspect
games are also examined by a National master. As a result we have minimal
cheating in the league and you can be assured you have the best chances of
online play against a person rather than a computer cheat that you are
likely to get anywhere on the internet. Time controls are 60min 15sec
increments and we play on both FICS and ICC. Further details at the url
below,
Hope this helps,
John.
Online Chess League : http://www.chessville.com/ocl/index.htm
"FRANK" wrote in message
...
Greetings all,

I have returned to chess after many years and would like to go beyond just
a
casual club player. My question to those who are experienced competitive
players is, what is the best way to study. I have bought a library of
chess
books and CD ROM'S. Many of them are on the Openings that I would like to
learn. I feel I have a sufficient amount of Middle Game and Strategy
materials to get me through, and a small, but good source of End Game
materials. The majority of my chess materials however are on Tactics.

I guess my second part of the question is: In what order (or priority)
should I go about learning the game? I keep hearing the maxim, "Tactics,
tactics, tactics." So I chose that to study first and foremost. I am
thinking I should then learn the End Game after brushing up on my Tactics.
I am not sure if that is the "right" order, but it seems natural to me.
From here I am not sure which to study next. Do I continue to go in
"reverse" order and study the Middle Game, or concentrate more on Opening
Theory.

What is the best way to develop Chess Knowledge? Does it matter? Any
recommendations from advanced players would be appreciated.

-Frank

On 2004-04-24, FRANK wrote:
What is the best way to develop Chess Knowledge? Does it matter? Any
recommendations from advanced players would be appreciated.

This is just a list of recommendations, not meant to be complete. It's
late at night and I'm going to ramble a bit :-)

Openings: Basically just play what you want behind the board, just
like the middlegame. Then after the tournament look up the line in a
book or database and see what the theory is. Compare this to your
thoughts during the game.

The idea with studying openings is that you remember the things you
thought hard about in a recent tournament game best. Avoid having
knowledge from books only, without your own analysis. That *will*
cause problems, also with concentrating, the moment you leave your
theory knowledge. Besides it's a waste of time.

Middlegames: well, probably the game will be decided by tactics. But
typical positions have their own typical tactics. I have read some
books on planning (like Silman's "How to reassess your chess"), but I
get most of my knowledge from playing through games. Annotated games
are great, but also just playing fast through lots of database games
from the same opening - once you've casually skimmed a hundred games
from the same similar position, you have a good idea of what both
sides are trying to do there.

Endgames: probably my weakest area. The hardest part of the game, in
my opinion, is where you have an opponent say 300 points higher, there
is an endgame on the board (say R+N+5 pawns v R+B+5 pawns), it is
equal, perhaps slightly better. You offer a draw, but your higher
rated opponent refuses. He's going to grind you down for the next two
hours. When you're finally lost, you have no idea where you went
wrong.

In my experience, if you can do that to someone, you're a really
strong player.

Endgame study to me really means two areas, one is the basic endings
with very few pieces - R+pawn vs R, that sort of thing. You just need
to know them extremely well, automatic. There are tablebases for these
things. I search my database (Scid!) for practical games with this
endgame, go to the starting position of that endgame, see what the
tablebase says. If it says white wins, I try to win against the
tablebase with the better side. If it says draw, I try to defend with
the weaker side. Etc.

The other part is the not quite basic endgames; practical endgames
with like 15 pieces on the board - a whole bunch of pawns, some
pieces... This is what I really need to work on. I believe that the
best way is to take an endgame from one of your own games that you
thought was pretty much equal, and then analyze that single endgame to
death for a few *weeks*. Then maybe you've found some good
answers. Then go the next position. Anyway, that's my plan...

Tactics I study from exercise books, and the daily diagram in Chess
Today.

Summary: play through *entire* database games on a regular basis. That
way you see openings in action, see tactics happen, get an idea of
what each side is trying to do in certain situations - and you absorb
some of it and move to the next game.

I'm 1850-ish, probably going to 1930-ish on the next rating list,
Dutch rating.

Oh, and most important of all: play a lot of serious tough tournament
games, against players slightly better than you.

--
Remco Gerlich

FRANK wrote:
Greetings all,

My question to those who are experienced competitive players is,
what is the best way to study.

Intensely and yet with an open mind to alternatives.

I guess my second part of the question is: In what order (or priority)
should I go about learning the game?

Whichever you need most comes first.

Do I continue to go in "reverse" order and study the Middle Game,
or concentrate more on Opening Theory.

Never go in reverse order, always take on the thing
you most need first.

What is the best way to develop Chess Knowledge?

Study, play, discuss, ...

Does it matter?

No, uh, well, do you mean chess, life or what?

Any recommendations from advanced players would be appreciated.

"Enjoy!" - GM Yasser Seirawan

"Just win baby!" - Al Davis, owner of NFL Oakland Raiders

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 00:42:48 -0700, "FRANK"
wrote:

Greetings all,

I have returned to chess after many years and would like to go beyond just a
casual club player. My question to those who are experienced competitive
players is, what is the best way to study. I have bought a library of chess
books and CD ROM'S. Many of them are on the Openings that I would like to
learn. I feel I have a sufficient amount of Middle Game and Strategy
materials to get me through, and a small, but good source of End Game
materials. The majority of my chess materials however are on Tactics.

I guess my second part of the question is: In what order (or priority)
should I go about learning the game? I keep hearing the maxim, "Tactics,
tactics, tactics." So I chose that to study first and foremost. I am
thinking I should then learn the End Game after brushing up on my Tactics.
I am not sure if that is the "right" order, but it seems natural to me.
From here I am not sure which to study next. Do I continue to go in
"reverse" order and study the Middle Game, or concentrate more on Opening
Theory.

What is the best way to develop Chess Knowledge? Does it matter? Any
recommendations from advanced players would be appreciated.

-Frank



Frank,

Rather than offer specifc recommendations on what to study and in what
order, I suggest that you study what ever you are weakest at. What
this means in practice is:

* First start playing games at classical time control or near it.
The fastest time control you should use here is game in 1 hour. Play
opponents of approximately your strength or if you can find them a
lttle stronger. It would be helpful if you had a rating to be more
easiliy able to judge your comparative strength when playing against
someone unfamiliar.

* If the games are not formal tournament games ask permission of your
opponent to write down your thoughts during the game. [For this write
down what you think your opponents next move will be after your move
and why they will make that move. Make note of any of your opponensts
moves that are surprises. Also write down your rationale for each of
your moves and whether your reasoning turns out to be correct.] If
you cannot write down your thoughts during the game, try to
reconstruct them as much as possible immediately after the game.

* Once you have a few of these games with your thoughts go over them
with a strong player and have that player identify your weaknesses and
perhaps even suggest a plan for strengthening those parts of the game
you are weakest at. [Note: You may have to pay a strong player for
this service. I suggest you try to find a chess coach in your area
or find one who works via internet & phone.]


For players rated below 1600 Elo or so the most likely weaknesses a
1. not fully understanding how to coordinate pieces to accomplish some
tactical or strategic objective.
2. not recognizing all of the basic tactical patterns (fork, skewer,
pin, destruction of the guard, etc.) especially in position that
require recognition of multiple patterns to see that a combination
works.
For this reason manyt people recommend the study of tactics for
players at or below this level who want to improve. Until you get to
at least master level you will continue to derive benefit from
studying tactics, although as you get stronger your tactics will
generally stop being the aspect of your game that is weakest and hence
needs the most work.

BTW: One of the reasons many strong players recommend the study of
endings is that they are often tactical in nature. The main
difference is that in the ending the objectives are different:
* from a losing poistion force your opponent to give stalemate.
* enable the queening of a pawn with subsequent checkmate by king and
queen.


Mike Ogush
USCF 1961