Generally, mature chess players will stay in the same ratings range
for years. Then, occasionally and only occasionally, a player will
have a burst of rating points. This happened to me when I read Dan
Heisman's material on "Real" Chess versus "Hope" Chess. I gained
about 150 points over six months after assimilating the concept. I
am wondering if other readers can describe a similar rating points
gain and connect the gain to something new that they learned about
chess that had a comparable "impact".

Am I to conclude that I am the only chess player having a ratings breakthrough?


(drummerman) wrote in message . com...
Generally, mature chess players will stay in the same ratings range
for years. Then, occasionally and only occasionally, a player will
have a burst of rating points. This happened to me when I read Dan
Heisman's material on "Real" Chess versus "Hope" Chess. I gained
about 150 points over six months after assimilating the concept. I
am wondering if other readers can describe a similar rating points
gain and connect the gain to something new that they learned about
chess that had a comparable "impact".

No. I had a "ratings breakthrough" last year.
http://www.64.com/uscf/ratings/12763067 Went from 1031 to 1545 from April
2002 to April 2003. 514 points was pretty good, I thought.

I didn't do anything special though. Just rubbed myself in peanut butter
and sacrificed a goat while reading Guns & Ammo.



Regards,

Matt


"drummerman" wrote in message
om...
Am I to conclude that I am the only chess player having a ratings
breakthrough?


(drummerman) wrote in message
. com...
Generally, mature chess players will stay in the same ratings range
for years. Then, occasionally and only occasionally, a player will
have a burst of rating points. This happened to me when I read Dan
Heisman's material on "Real" Chess versus "Hope" Chess. I gained
about 150 points over six months after assimilating the concept. I
am wondering if other readers can describe a similar rating points
gain and connect the gain to something new that they learned about
chess that had a comparable "impact".

Thanks for the kind reference!

As a full-time chess instructor, that is often my job: take someone who has "stalled out" and help them
figure out why they aren't able to continue to improve. As I wrote in the Novice Nook "Learning from Dr.
deGroot" this is very often due to the same causes. From having instructed hundreds of adults, the main
causes include:

1. Not playing "Real Chess", as you put it.
2. Not even trying to find the best move consistently, and
3. Making the same mistakes over and over with little or no attempt to seriously stop the cycle

I discuss this issue at some length in the Novice Nook "The 10 Biggest Roadblocks to Improvement." I also
discuss this often during my weekly chess talk radio show on www.chess.fm Mondays from 7-9 PM Eastern.

All my Novice Nooks and back columns from Chess Cafe are linked at my website.

BTW, watch for my 7th book, "Looking for Trouble" about identifying and dealing with threats, due out in
mid-late October.

Best wishes,
Dan Heisman
www.danheisman.com

"Matt Nemmers" wrote in message news:ZP34b.305751$o%2.137882@sccrnsc02...
No. I had a "ratings breakthrough" last year.
http://www.64.com/uscf/ratings/12763067 Went from 1031 to 1545 from April
2002 to April 2003. 514 points was pretty good, I thought.

I didn't do anything special though. Just rubbed myself in peanut butter
and sacrificed a goat while reading Guns & Ammo.

Mr. Nemmers,

Congratulations on your "ratings breakthrough". :-)

"As a result of a series of exceptional results in tournaments run on the
Swiss system, he (Gata Kamsky) shot to number 8 on the world grading list in
June 1990. Not having made a norm in an all-play-all, he still had no title,
but a rise of more than 300 Elo points in one year is without parallel."
--The Oxford Companion to Chess (2nd edition, p. 189)

When events did not proceed according to his plans for Gata, Rustam Kamsky did
seem eager to dispatch a scapegoat. But did he subscribe to "Guns & Ammo"? :-)

"When angry, count four; when very angry, swear."
--Mark Twain (Pudd'nhead Wilson)

--Nick