Chess S.O.S.

artfizz,

Unfortunately, nobody else is laughing either, so perhaps your parents were
right in retrospect(just kidding, you are pretty funny).

Do you really work as a comedian or were you kidding?

 Chess is an excellent way to spend your time, and there are tons of studies that show that students who spend time on chess improve academically across the board.  There are about thousand ways you could spend you time that would be worse for you, so your parents should be happy that you enjoy the game.

If you are talking about becoming a professional chess player, however, you actually probably have a better chance to go to the NBA than to make a living at chess.  Only a tiny number of people world wide can make a living on prize money alone.  A slightly larger number can make a living through a combination of prize money, coaching, writing, etc.  Because you live in the U.S. it is even harder to make it work financially.  There is almost no support for chess in the U.S.  Prize funds at tournaments are small, and even if you were to make Grandmaster probably the only way to make a living would be to move to a large city and coach, and even then you are never going to get rich.

So, enjoy the game, its a great game and good for your brain, but plan on having a day job. 

A good tool that can help you improve almost right away is to study tactics.  Chesstempo.com is a free website with tens of thousands of tactical puzzles.  At lower levels, the most important thing to study is tactics.  Until you get to the point that you are seeing at least two and three moves threats against your opponent, and are seeing and preventing when your opponent can use those combinations on you, games are going to be decided by tactics, not subtle positional or strategic issues.

If you want to study something beyond tactics, get a good endgame book, like Silman's Complete Endgame Course.  Many low level players neglect endgame skills.  They focus almost exclusively in trying to play for mate in the middle game.  It is a huge advantage to have the skills and confidence to reduce the positions into an endgame if you can't find a mate attack in the middle game.

The most common mistake for low level players is to spend to much time trying to memorize opening lines.  While this is clearly needed for higher level play, games are rarely won or lost in the opening.  If you can avoid tactical errors, develop your pieces, and fight for control of the center of the board, you are doing ok.  Its ok to spend some time on openings so you can know a few setups to aim for, don't think you need to commit a large repertoire to memory yet.  That is really something that happens when you are starting to play the higher divisions in tournaments.  For now, get your pieces out there to active positions, and always look at the tactics.

Only the elite few make any signifigant money at chess.  Most who try to make a living out of chess can't do it. 

If your only reason for playing chess is money, then I'd recommend something else unless you have a lot of natural talent.  Obviously, if you are one of those kids who learned early and has been beating everyone you played from age 6 and on, sure, go for it. 

I don't think it's all about the money, though.  After all, there are thousands and thousands of chess players who have never made any money off of chess and never expect to.

Chess is essentially a logic game.  In general, people who play chess are good at thinking things through.  It improves the memory, and studies have shown that kids who play chess tend to get better at math, science, and general problem solving.  It's good for the mind - at any age.

I was a programmer most of my life, and I'm pretty sure that the fact that I'd played chess when I was young helped my logic when I started programming.

Spending some time playing chess is bound to be more benefitial than sitting around watching TV like so many people do.

Also, for books, someone mentioned Abebooks.com.  I use them quite often when I want to find a specific book.  I live in Dallas, and there are a lot of bookstores around (plus a decent library), but instead of spending a lot of time and gas-money driving around looking for a specific book, I usually go to AbeBooks, find what I want, and it gets delivered to me a few days later.

There are far better things for your chess play than studying openings. At sub 2000 it usually turns into memorization anyway.

To get to 2000 I studied 20-40 tactic diagrams a day and looked over my favorite Grandmaster's games (Tal). A good tactics book (like the one I mentioned) and a games collection written by your favorite player should do the same for you in no time.

P.S: Don't pay much attention to online ratings (this may seem biased but). The ratings can be quite skewed. A 2200 here can be a 1600 USCF. Vice versa can also happen. My last tournment I got a PFR of 2200 but here am rated 1900, school makes me miss games(20% time-out/23% lost).

Do your parents have a problem with you having any hobbies in general?  Or is it that they're some sort of rednecks and can't understand why you'd like to have an intellectual hobby?   Do they have any hobbies?  Perhaps you could just compare your chess hobbie to their hobbies.  Do they waste time watching TV?  If you can't convince them by using an adult oriented logical argument, remember you're almost 18, pretty soon you'll be off to college or a job and a life and you can do what you want. :)

Chess doesn't have to be about income. For me it is about peace of mind and the desire to get better. As Fischer once said " I like the moment when I crush a man's ego". As far as getting better, chess.com has many resources. I find www.chessgames.com to be helpful. It gives you access to all of your favorite players games. I use www.365chess.com for their opening explore since I can't use chess.com's opening explore (because I am a free member). As far as books, "The mammoth book of the world's greatest chess games" by Graham Burgess, Dr. John Nunn & John Emms has been an asset to my chess game. As well as "Modern Chess Openings 13", and "Tatics and Stratigy" by Graham Burgess.  I am 21 and just learned how to play chess January of this year. My question for the community is what do you recommend to drastically increase my end game. What books would you recommend? And do end game puzzles really help to increase your end game that much or just a little bit?    

                          Thank you all.

It sounds like you have two key ingrediants...a goal and determination. I have no specific advice...just encouragement.

 I think my parents are just tired of everything I do. I am a very academic and athletic student and I work my butt off at school. I don't have a drivers license yet and they are just tired of taking me to all my Quiz Bowl trips and baseball games and then having to pick me up from them. I understand their grief but thats what parents are for right? Also I guess I can get obsessed with some things. I fell in love with the Rubik's Cube about 4 and a half years ago and never stopped until I reached 29.20 seconds. Then baseball came and I spent most of my time doing that. Now it's chess and I spend a lot of time doing it trying to be the best that I can be. My point is, I guess they are just tired of keeping up with me and want me to slow down a little. But with chess I am  afraid that won't happen.

Also, I feel a major factor limiting my success is I have no one to play with at my school. Everyone that I've played has no true interest for the game and they just quit playing me because I was to good I guess. This year I tried setting up a chess club but the teacher who said would host it never did. Then at the very end of the school year he said he'd like to set up a chess club for next year. That confused me but hopefully he will stick to it. We had had a chess club a few years ago, but all it was was a place for kids to play chess. There was no teaching invovled and no one was learning much of anything. But hopefully I can get one started during my last year of high school :'( and it will stick around for a while.

Thanks

Jacob_W

How close are you to a library? Borrowing chess books from the library is how I got beyond the raw basics of chess. Chess books are at 794.1 in the Dewey Decimal system that many libraries use. Some libraries also have a books by mail program so that you can request books through the mail.  You could mix in some school work books so that your parents won't suspect something. I used to be at the library so often that they gave me my first job.

     The library in my town has only two chess books and I have already learned all I can from them. One was an endgame book by Jose Raul Capablanca and the other was about chess traps and pitfalls and I forgot the name of the author.

As for asking them to get some books, I will definetly do so as soon as possible. Thank you.

You can also look at inter-library loan services.  Most libraries participate in networks that share resources between different library systems.  If you know what book you want, chances are they can find you a copy, although it may take them some time.  This can be very helpful in circumstances where you might not have the funds to purchase many books (I certainly don't).  It lets you preview a book, see what you think of it, and if it is truly helpful then you can put it on a list to buy when funds are available (or birthdays or Christmas  roll around, etc.)

Speaking of Christmas and birthdays, why not ask for chess books as gifts?  If you told your parents and other relatives what titles you were interested in, or asked for a Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com gift card, I think you might impress upon them how important this is to you.  Also, you might want to point out that there are some chess scholarships available.  True, you must be VERY good to get one, but there could be some long term benefit (financially) for them to support you in your passion. 

  I have never heard of chess scholarships before but I will definetly look into them. Thank you.

This is clutching at straws now but you could try giving chess-themed gifts to your Mom and Dad and hope this will have the appropriate subliminal effect ...

I'd recommend checking out Dan Heisman's Novice Nook column on the web. He's written over 100 monthly articles to help beginner/intermediate players improve. Start with his columns "A Generic Study Plan" and "The Four Homeworks".

***Fromper, What is the website for Dan Heisnman's columns?

 Yes, I didn't want to stress this point to strongly, but with the huge range of options kids have to ruin their lives, brains, and general chances at life in this country, I would think parents would be doing back handsprings of joy that you like spending your time on something like chess.  Yes, the chances of making any serious money on chess are tiny, but considering the alternatives like a World of Warcraft obsession or huffing industrial solvents, I think I would be absolutely pleased to have me kids seriously interested in chess.

It's on Chesscafe.com, or you can go to his web site DanHeisman.com and follow the link from there. I didn't mention the web site in my first post, because I've had mods delete my posts for including links here before. I figured you'd just google it.

With some of those cheap plastic sets and boards from China you can combine chess and huffing.

***Formper, I did google it. lol sorry. I still need advice on mastering end games. Anyone?