Hello everyone,

I am looking for advice how to improve my game.

I do have a decent positional understanding of the game, even in the games I ultimately lose (and later analyze with Chessmaster software), I seem to have gotten a winning position and wasted it later on.

My usual game progresses as follows:

 - I develop OK, usually better than the opponent;

 - I have decent pawn structure, few pawn islands, if pawns doubled, then only to the centre, etc etc

 - Then the opponent does some crazy move which makes the situation completely tactical.

- I start looking for a way to defend/attack because I think there should be something. There isn't or I cannot find it.

 - I blunder, I lose.

Later, when I have a look at the situation with chessmaster, it shows me in WINNING position, sometimes even the most annoying annotation phrase: "<insert color I am playing> is asleep at the switch and does not see the forced win".

So I study tactics. Solved craploads of puzzles (had nice book with 300 puzzles of "mate in x", another one of different kinds of puzzles, also, everything that comes with the chessmaster software), I am doing the tactics trainer on this site. Puzzles are easy, because you know there is something  (on tactics trainer I have a rating between 1600 and 1700 which is OK compared to 1100 in live chess :)). In the real game, however, I don't have the "alarm bell" when there actually is something and I often look for a tactic when there is none and lose on time or think I "found it" and make a mistake.

What should I do?

I'm sorry if this doesn't help, because I don't have that problem.

But, here goes: I would recommend looking for patterns on chess puzzles and applying them to live games. For example, if you have several minor pieces crowding the kingside with an advanced h pawn, well, that reminds me of several mate puzzles I've seen on this site. Try to approach the game as a puzzle whenever you intuitively (spelled wrong surely) feel there must be a solution there. The intuitive part comes from gazing at chess puzzles all day long.

Go to chesscafe.com, find the Archives button at the lower right of the home page and click it.  On the Archives page click Novice Nook.  Find articles about The Seeds of Tactical Destruction.  There is one from Jan 2003.  These articles helped me see when tactics were likely to be available in a position.

I would recommend you try out our Chess Mentor program as this is a very helpful tool in improving your chess (www.chess.com/chessmentor)

Clavius wrote: Go to chesscafe.com, find the Archives button at the lower right of the home page and click it.  On the Archives page click Novice Nook.  Find articles about The Seeds of Tactical Destruction.  There is one from Jan 2003.  These articles helped me see when tactics were likely to be available in a position.

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 Yes! I was just going to post a link to that article. I wholeheartedly second that advice.

thanks, got the articles.

probably the problem is that I have been playing too many short games, so I don't think through enough moves of a sequence

long games, here I come :)

 

Fritz has a nice option called sparring where the programme plays pretty well but makes occasional tactical mistakes, of a type that are fairly "human". You can get it to flag these up with a warning light or keep them hidden. If you miss the tactical shot, it flags it in the game commentary and inserts a training question, so that if you play through the game again, when you get to that move a little quiz box pops up asking you for the best move. I find it quite useful for working on tactical awareness.

Ok, then I should dump chessmaster and get fritz... :)

oh well, whatever :)

gimce wrote:

Ok, then I should dump chessmaster and get fritz... :)

oh well, whatever :)

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 No need for that! Chessmaster is quite good. Which version do you have? I have 10th edition, and it has different "personalities" of different skill levels to play against. That's similar to what wharris described.

I have the Grandmaster Edition

I have tried the personalities, however, the nature of mistakes they make looks inhuman, some "neglects pawns" guy let me snatch 4 pawns for free.. No human player in his right mind would do that.

So annoying.. :)

Today I have my tactict trainer rating above 1850... and I still lose games to 900 rated people due to missing seemingly obvious tactics :-)

 

what sort of time controls do you play?

 

I would suggest sitting on your hands.

My little Lithuanian player, I have more practical advice than rote memory or making yourself a slave to Chessmaster or Fritz. Of course, my rating is no indication of this wisdom but the best teachers are not necessarily the most successful in real life or real chess. I recall one of the Polgar sisters advising a player to concentrate on playing the black side as much as possible to develop defensive skills such as counterattack and tactical accuity. Most players are very poor defenders and most go all out for the attack in the opening or middle-game. The problem with that is if you are on the short end - you have a lost endgame. Gameknot.com has free problems on its opening pages which I deem much better than chess.com. Also, GM games of note are free and by player name on chess-poster.com. The music is free too.In the last edition of SCO, Schiller has a table in the back that lists 4 styles of play-attacking,positional,conservative,and unorthodox. These are matched with player strength(USCF) and appropriate GM. For instance, most attacking type players should study Morphy first and Fischer later on. The Tao of Chess is good but you might be past that in skill. Make sure you review all the possible tactical variations. The Windmill, X-Ray, and don't forget the Desparado- I have won and lost several games because I didn't consider a desperate last ditch save or sac. Most of the wins came in games in which a higher rated player was strangling my position and I had to trade down or sac a piece for counterplay.Once I even won $50 as an upset prize.And last, look over Bobby Fischer's game when he was 13 against Larry Evans. The Queen sac comes out of nowhere. Good luck, Sam :)

How about playing unrated games with someone who will mentor/chat you through the scenarios you find baffling?

It sounds like you need to sharpen your calculation. When you are on Tactics Trainer, here on the site, try to COMPLETELY solve the problem. (Your rating will suffer, but forget that for now.) Try to analyze through the complete tree. You know, something like "white plays Rh5+, black has exactly two moves (Qh7 and Kg8). First, if he plays Qh7, then white ..." You get the picture.

Another thing you can do in turn-based chess is utilize the notes section. The format I use is this (taken from the hypothetical above).

1: Rh5+
1.1: Qh7 Rxh7+ +-
1.2: Kg8 Ba2+
1.2.1: b3
1.2.2: Qf7

This type of thing can be great for storing the analysis tree. And later, if you start thinking "maybe there's another move" then you can add it

2: Qg3

Hope this helps!

-- Ozzie