General advice?

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Date: 18 Feb 2006 09:01:24
From: doctorjohn
Subject: General advice?

I have a question about books and programs that has probably been asked
here many times by others. I am a 47 years old advanced beginner -
somewhere between 1300 and 1500 when I play at yahoo.com games site. I
have played family and friends off and on for 40 years but never really
studied and never competed; in the past couple years I have bought:
"Chess" by Polgar (up to #1900 so far),
"Winning Chess: How to See Three Moves Ahead" by Reinfeld (have read
most of it in fits and spurts over several years);
"Reassess Your Chess Workbook" by Silman (halfway through in fits and
spurts over the past 2 years),
"How to Beat Your Dad at Chess" - read through the whole thing pretty
quickly-
and an endgame book which is encyclopedic - by Mueller I think- (can't
get my hand on it at the moment) - it's a bit overwhelming almost and
I've only done the pawn endings and skipped ahead to the Lucerna and
Phildor endings since someone said I should know those (and they do
look pretty helpful!)

So now I'm trying to improve for a little tournament in July. A friend
lent me a book, "Action Chess: Purdy's 24 Hours Opening Repertoire".
If it is in fact is what it claims to be - a way to get out of almost
any opening without a major blunder - it seems like a good place to
start. The author proposes it as adequate for players up to about
1900-2000 rating. Is this in fact correct?

I also just ordered CT-ART which also seems to be great, if it's all it
claims to be.

Any thoughts on these various tools that I have and which is most
likely the most important at my level?

And: the tournament will be G30. Should I play slower while trying to
learn? Or G30 as the tournament will be?

Thanks for any and all thoughts,
Dr. J

Date: 21 Feb 2006 15:10:48
From: John J.
Subject: Re: General advice?

With CT-Art, concentrate on level 10 and 20. You will improve very fast with
that software, as I have.

"doctorjohn" <[email protected] > wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I have a question about books and programs that has probably been asked
> here many times by others. I am a 47 years old advanced beginner -
> somewhere between 1300 and 1500 when I play at yahoo.com games site. I
> have played family and friends off and on for 40 years but never really
> studied and never competed; in the past couple years I have bought:
> "Chess" by Polgar (up to #1900 so far),
> "Winning Chess: How to See Three Moves Ahead" by Reinfeld (have read
> most of it in fits and spurts over several years);
> "Reassess Your Chess Workbook" by Silman (halfway through in fits and
> spurts over the past 2 years),
> "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess" - read through the whole thing pretty
> quickly-
> and an endgame book which is encyclopedic - by Mueller I think- (can't
> get my hand on it at the moment) - it's a bit overwhelming almost and
> I've only done the pawn endings and skipped ahead to the Lucerna and
> Phildor endings since someone said I should know those (and they do
> look pretty helpful!)
>
> So now I'm trying to improve for a little tournament in July. A friend
> lent me a book, "Action Chess: Purdy's 24 Hours Opening Repertoire".
> If it is in fact is what it claims to be - a way to get out of almost
> any opening without a major blunder - it seems like a good place to
> start. The author proposes it as adequate for players up to about
> 1900-2000 rating. Is this in fact correct?
>
> I also just ordered CT-ART which also seems to be great, if it's all it
> claims to be.
>
> Any thoughts on these various tools that I have and which is most
> likely the most important at my level?
>
> And: the tournament will be G30. Should I play slower while trying to
> learn? Or G30 as the tournament will be?
>
> Thanks for any and all thoughts,
> Dr. J
>

Date: 20 Feb 2006 09:27:42
From: Richard
Subject: Re: General advice?

doctorjohn wrote:
> Thanks.
> I must say, I have been reading more than playing in the past year,
> but I did find a local chess club and hope to get there once a week.
> It's mostly kids at a much lower level than I am, but there are several
> guys there who are definitely better.
> I did buy my first chess clock about 2 years ago, and almost always use
> it even with neighborhood games. I haven't been recording games, but I
> don't think it's required at this tournament.
>
> John
>

I've been analyzing my own play/study habits recently to figure out why
I've stopped improving, and actually seem to be regressing a little in
playing ability.

One thing I've come to realize is that there's this trap that a lot of
adult players fall into of studying more than playing. I think part of
the reason that kids improve so much faster than adults is that they
play all the time and don't study quite so much. Personally, I think I
enjoy studying more than actually playing, but I know that if I want to
become a better player, I need to play more.

You mentioned that you play at Yahoo, which is your first mistake. I'd
recommend switching to FICS (freechess.org) for a good, free site. Just
about anything is better than Yahoo. If you've got a good, friendly
place to play, maybe you'll play more. Look for me as fromper on FICS.
:)

As others have mentioned, analyzing your games afterwards is key.
Another bonus of going to FICS is that you can have the moves of your
games emailed to you automatically after every game. Go through them on
your own and see what analysis you can come up with, then ask a better
player to look at them. If you don't have any friends locally who can
do this, post some games on this newsgroup, and you're sure to get some
advice, especially if you include your own analysis with it.

--Richard

Date: 21 Feb 2006 14:24:28
From: David Richerby
Subject: Re: General advice?

Richard <[email protected] > wrote:
> You mentioned that you play at Yahoo, which is your first mistake.
> I'd recommend switching to FICS (freechess.org) for a good, free
> site. Just about anything is better than Yahoo. If you've got a
> good, friendly place to play, maybe you'll play more. Look for me
> as fromper on FICS. :)

I'd also strongly recommend FICS over Yahoo. Otherwise, you might be
in for a shock in your first Black game at this tournament as your
opponent will probably play neither 1.e4 2.Bc4 3.Qh5 nor 1.e4 2.Qh5
3.Bc4, the openings that seem to start an outrageous proportion of the
games on Yahoo. :-)

Dave.

--
David Richerby Solar-Powered Metal Drink (TM): it's
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ like a refreshing juice beverage
that's made of steel but it doesn't
work in the dark!

Date: 19 Feb 2006 00:44:54
From: doctorjohn
Subject: Re: General advice?

I mentioned recording the games because the professor commented on
being accustomed to playing OTB - and I was thinking, if I have to
record games at this tournament, I'd better get used to it ahead of
time also. I'm not sure that I would recognize my weaknesses even if I
saw them, but maybe I can find a local person to help with that.

I take the lack of comments on the specific books to mean that they are
generally acceptable.

I know that it's tough to coach one's self, and I don't want to be
overly analytical, but I do want to have some specific goals to keep me
focused and motivated. My plan is to play every Tuesday at the club,
1-2 games at G30; work (play) on CT-ART for a couple of hours per week;
and spend a total of about another half hour per week with the endgame
book or Silman's book; maybe 15 minutes per week on openings. That's
probably as much time as I have.

Dr. J

Claus-J=FCrgen Heigl wrote:
> doctorjohn wrote:
> > I did buy my first chess clock about 2 years ago, and almost always use
> > it even with neighborhood games. I haven't been recording games, but I
> > don't think it's required at this tournament.
>
> With only 30 minutes for the game it may be a borderline case for
> recording the game as this will cost you 2 to 3 minutes of your valuable
> thinking time. But on the other hand you can learn a lot analysing your
> games. The minimum you can learn is where your weaknesses are and put
> your efforts in training accordingly.
>=20
> Claus-Juergen

Date: 19 Feb 2006 12:40:34
From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Claus-J=FCrgen_Heigl?=
Subject: Re: General advice?

doctorjohn wrote:
>
> I know that it's tough to coach one's self, and I don't want to be
> overly analytical, but I do want to have some specific goals to keep me
> focused and motivated. My plan is to play every Tuesday at the club,
> 1-2 games at G30; work (play) on CT-ART for a couple of hours per week;
> and spend a total of about another half hour per week with the endgame
> book or Silman's book; maybe 15 minutes per week on openings. That's
> probably as much time as I have.

The advantage of a tournament is that you play a lot of games in a short
time of which you can draw conclusions. One method of analyzing your
games could be:

Step 1: Play over a game making notes without using a computer chess
engine. Make notes about your thoughts during the game (when you played
it in the tournament). Note what your plan was, what the expected answer
of your opponents was, about which alternate moves you were thinking,
why you didn't play them, which answers you did fear most.

While in the tournament (or better before), ask the tournament director
if making notes during the game is allowed. Current FIDE rules forbid
it. If it is allowed making notes about alternative moves not played or
answers feared but not played can help you in your analysis later.

Step 2: Compare the notes with the advice of a better player. A human
player is excellent because he can explain things.

Step 3: Compare your notes and the advice with the results of a good
chess engine on a computer, also look up specific questions in books. A
computer is excellent in finding missed tactics. You can play out your
plans and alternative plans against the computer and see how they work
(or not). You can also see if your fears were justified. A book helps to
detect were you or your opponent deviated from opening theory. The book
identifies whether this was an error, if it could have been exploited
and how. You can look up what to do with certain pawn formations and how
to develop an appropriate plan in the middlegame (here the advice of the
better player is very valuable). You can look up typical endgames of the
kind you encountered in your game. Make notes about the results you
discovered in case you want to go over your game again in the future.

Step 4: With the newly acquired knowledge of the books, you can train
against the computer (positions from your game or from the book). This
allows you reinforce the learned material and refine your knowledge.

Step 5: You can always do tactical puzzles. If there were tactical
motives in your game you missed (the computer will find them for you)
you can train similar positions. Again here a good book with puzzles
sorted in tactical motives helps. CT-Art is excellent to do this also.

The advantage of this method is that you learn a lot about the games and
lines you play in contrast to learning something about games other
people play. This should help you to do things better next time. Of
course you shouldn't neglect playing over annotated master games. I also
understand you only have a limited amount of time available and perhaps
can't do all in the depth you want to.

When reading a chess book that is a textbook (compared to a puzzle book
or other kind of training book) I prefer to stick to one book at a time
and not dividing up the time between several books. It helps keeping you
focused. Also you don't have to switch constantly between the book
authors different thinking styles.

Reading tip: have a look at Dan Heisman's articles in his Novice Nook
column on Chess Cafe. I think you will find them very helpful.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/danheisman/Articles/Novice_Nook_Links.htm

Claus-Juergen

Date: 18 Feb 2006 15:15:52
From: doctorjohn
Subject: Re: General advice?

Thanks.
I must say, I have been reading more than playing in the past year,
but I did find a local chess club and hope to get there once a week.
It's mostly kids at a much lower level than I am, but there are several
guys there who are definitely better.
I did buy my first chess clock about 2 years ago, and almost always use
it even with neighborhood games. I haven't been recording games, but I
don't think it's required at this tournament.

John

Moriarty wrote:
> "doctorjohn" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> >I have a question about books and programs that has probably been asked
> > here many times by others. I am a 47 years old advanced beginner -
> > somewhere between 1300 and 1500 when I play at yahoo.com games site.
> > I
> > have played family and friends off and on for 40 years but never
> > really
> > studied and never competed; in the past couple years I have bought:
> > "Chess" by Polgar (up to #1900 so far),
> > "Winning Chess: How to See Three Moves Ahead" by Reinfeld (have read
> > most of it in fits and spurts over several years);
> > "Reassess Your Chess Workbook" by Silman (halfway through in fits and
> > spurts over the past 2 years),
> > "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess" - read through the whole thing pretty
> > quickly-
> > and an endgame book which is encyclopedic - by Mueller I think- (can't
> > get my hand on it at the moment) - it's a bit overwhelming almost and
> > I've only done the pawn endings and skipped ahead to the Lucerna and
> > Phildor endings since someone said I should know those (and they do
> > look pretty helpful!)
> >
> > So now I'm trying to improve for a little tournament in July. A
> > friend
> > lent me a book, "Action Chess: Purdy's 24 Hours Opening Repertoire".
> > If it is in fact is what it claims to be - a way to get out of almost
> > any opening without a major blunder - it seems like a good place to
> > start. The author proposes it as adequate for players up to about
> > 1900-2000 rating. Is this in fact correct?
> >
> > I also just ordered CT-ART which also seems to be great, if it's all
> > it
> > claims to be.
> >
> > Any thoughts on these various tools that I have and which is most
> > likely the most important at my level?
> >
> > And: the tournament will be G30. Should I play slower while trying to
> > learn? Or G30 as the tournament will be?
> >
> > Thanks for any and all thoughts,
> > Dr. J
> >
>
> If this is an OTB tournament and you've never played in one before, your
> biggest struggles will be acclimating yourself to across-the-board play.
> You may not feel comfortable at the board, and you may blunder because
> of it. That's just the way it goes.
>
> In general, I'd say don't OD on studying at the expense of playing. I'm
> also a bit skeptical of Purdy's opening book, although most of his stuff
> is highly regarded. I'd recommend tactical practice and endgame study,
> although in the few days before the tournament, do one last walk through
> of your openings.
>
> -T

Date: 19 Feb 2006 01:10:18
From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Claus-J=FCrgen_Heigl?=
Subject: Re: General advice?

doctorjohn wrote:
> I did buy my first chess clock about 2 years ago, and almost always use
> it even with neighborhood games. I haven't been recording games, but I
> don't think it's required at this tournament.

With only 30 minutes for the game it may be a borderline case for
recording the game as this will cost you 2 to 3 minutes of your valuable
thinking time. But on the other hand you can learn a lot analysing your
games. The minimum you can learn is where your weaknesses are and put
your efforts in training accordingly.

Claus-Juergen

Date: 21 Feb 2006 14:27:18
From: David Richerby
Subject: Re: General advice?

=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Claus-J=FCrgen_Heigl?= <[email protected] > wrote:
> doctorjohn wrote:
>> I did buy my first chess clock about 2 years ago, and almost always
>> use it even with neighborhood games. I haven't been recording
>> games, but I don't think it's required at this tournament.
>
> With only 30 minutes for the game it may be a borderline case for
> recording the game as this will cost you 2 to 3 minutes of your
> valuable thinking time. But on the other hand you can learn a lot
> analysing your games. The minimum you can learn is where your
> weaknesses are and put your efforts in training accordingly.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to record your moves, say, while you
have at least ten minutes on the clock. That way, you'll probably get
most of the game written down but won't have the extra distraction in
time trouble. Unless you somehow play the middlegame perfectly but
know nothing about endgames, you'll probably make enough mistakes in
your first twenty minutes to give yourself a good idea of where you're
going wrong.

Dave.

--
David Richerby Disgusting Hi-Fi (TM): it's like
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ a music system but it'll turn your
stomach!

Date: 18 Feb 2006 23:05:53
From: Moriarty
Subject: Re: General advice?

"doctorjohn" <[email protected] > wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I have a question about books and programs that has probably been asked
> here many times by others. I am a 47 years old advanced beginner -
> somewhere between 1300 and 1500 when I play at yahoo.com games site.
> I
> have played family and friends off and on for 40 years but never
> really
> studied and never competed; in the past couple years I have bought:
> "Chess" by Polgar (up to #1900 so far),
> "Winning Chess: How to See Three Moves Ahead" by Reinfeld (have read
> most of it in fits and spurts over several years);
> "Reassess Your Chess Workbook" by Silman (halfway through in fits and
> spurts over the past 2 years),
> "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess" - read through the whole thing pretty
> quickly-
> and an endgame book which is encyclopedic - by Mueller I think- (can't
> get my hand on it at the moment) - it's a bit overwhelming almost and
> I've only done the pawn endings and skipped ahead to the Lucerna and
> Phildor endings since someone said I should know those (and they do
> look pretty helpful!)
>
> So now I'm trying to improve for a little tournament in July. A
> friend
> lent me a book, "Action Chess: Purdy's 24 Hours Opening Repertoire".
> If it is in fact is what it claims to be - a way to get out of almost
> any opening without a major blunder - it seems like a good place to
> start. The author proposes it as adequate for players up to about
> 1900-2000 rating. Is this in fact correct?
>
> I also just ordered CT-ART which also seems to be great, if it's all
> it
> claims to be.
>
> Any thoughts on these various tools that I have and which is most
> likely the most important at my level?
>
> And: the tournament will be G30. Should I play slower while trying to
> learn? Or G30 as the tournament will be?
>
> Thanks for any and all thoughts,
> Dr. J
>

If this is an OTB tournament and you've never played in one before, your
biggest struggles will be acclimating yourself to across-the-board play.
You may not feel comfortable at the board, and you may blunder because
of it. That's just the way it goes.

In general, I'd say don't OD on studying at the expense of playing. I'm
also a bit skeptical of Purdy's opening book, although most of his stuff
is highly regarded. I'd recommend tactical practice and endgame study,
although in the few days before the tournament, do one last walk through
of your openings.

-T