I broke 1600 by intensely analyzing my own games. First look over your tournament games (not blitz!) and tell us what your biggest weakness is.
Help with study plan
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Jun 21, 2011
0
#3
I just want to welcome you to this site, Grandpatzer64. I believe you will enjoy it very much.
Platogeek and Godspawn: Thanks for the advice! I play a game every week ( 90 minute SD) and usually analyze it afterwards. My tactics are pretty good for my level , I tried tactics trainer on my friends account and I could solve most of them at the 2400 tactics trainer rating level. As far as endgames go I know a bit about pawn and rook endings but I usually rely on calculation in the endgame.What I think I need to learn is how to grind out a win positionally, most of the time I play very obvious attacking moves and end up in risky positions. I'm hoping GM game collections ( Chernev and Giddins in my chess library ) will help with this.
Crosspinner: Thanks!
If you are going to upgrade to a diamond membership and gain access to ChessMentor, then I think you will find a number of courses to be valuable. Silman has a 300 lesson monster called "Elements of Positional Understanding" that sounds like it's just what you need. I've struggled through most of it and it's certainly opened my eyes as to what good chess is about. A little over this old patzer's head, but still a nice way to find out how real chess players think. That's the most obvious course for you, but you'll find a number that deal with the middle game that will probably help. OOPS It's actually called "Roots of Positional Understanding"
baddogno wrote:
If you are going to upgrade to a diamond membership and gain access to ChessMentor, then I think you will find a number of courses to be valuable. Silman has a 300 lesson monster called "Elements of Positional Understanding" that sounds like it's just what you need. I've struggled through most of it and it's certainly opened my eyes as to what good chess is about. A little over this old patzer's head, but still a nice way to find out how real chess players think. That's the most obvious course for you, but you'll find a number that deal with the middle game that will probably help.
300 lessons?! Cripes! If it's over your head, it would be over mine, but what's the rating range?
Jun 21, 2011
0
#7
Grandpatzer64 wrote:
Crosspinner: Thanks!
You're welcome. It looks as though you are getting lots of help. This just one thing great about this site. I have met some good friends here and I throughly enjoy it all!
woodshover wrote:
baddogno wrote:
If you are going to upgrade to a diamond membership and gain access to ChessMentor, then I think you will find a number of courses to be valuable. Silman has a 300 lesson monster called "Elements of Positional Understanding" that sounds like it's just what you need. I've struggled through most of it and it's certainly opened my eyes as to what good chess is about. A little over this old patzer's head, but still a nice way to find out how real chess players think. That's the most obvious course for you, but you'll find a number that deal with the middle game that will probably help.
300 lessons?! Cripes! If it's over your head, it would be over mine, but what's the rating range?
The average rating is 2067. It's the second hardest course they have. Silman's explanations and hints are quite good however, and believe me, if I can struggle through it, almost anyone can. Will it take a few (dozen?) reviews before I "get" the course? Undoubtedly......sigh.
I'll make a partial attempt at a suggested book reading order.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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1. Logical Chess Move by Move--Chernev
2. The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played--Chernev
3. 50 Essential Chess Lessons--Giddins
and study Silman's Complete Endgame Course(through your rating level or a little above it) concurrently with those.
----------------------------------------------------
4. & 5. My System--Nimzovich and The Art of Attack in Chess--Vukovic (It's difficult to decide where to place these because they're a mixture of relatively easy and not so easy material.)
6. Reassess Your Chess--Silman
7. Pawn Structure Chess--Soltis
and the Basic Mates, Pawn Endings, and Rook vs. Pawn sections of Fundamental Chess Endings--Mueller.
----------------------------------------------------
8. Attacking Manuals 1 & 2--Aagaard
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's about as much as I feel even marginally comfortable suggesting.
Books left out because they don't really fit into a sequence(such as MCO) or because I know absolutely nothing about them(the rest of them):
Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual--Dvoretsky
Secrets of Pawn Endings--Mueller
The Middle Game Part 1 & 2--Euwe & Kramer
MCO--DeFirmian
Practical Rook Endings--Korchnoi
Perhaps someone else will offer some advice on where those would fit in. Perhaps someone else will improve on my suggested reading order, as well. I'm pretty confident about the first segment of my list, but it gets shakier after that.
Jun 22, 2011
0
#10
One alternative, that I personally haven't tried, so take it for what it's worth. Consider connecting with a coach, even for a few lessions. Have an evaluation with the coach to get their perspective on where you need the most help and then ask for a recommended course of study. You don't necessarily need to continue with regular lessions so you can minimize the expense. Might make sense rather than continuing to fork out for books, etc without a better direction. Most folks seem to advise a focus on tactics but sounds like that may not be an issue for you.
Jun 22, 2011
0
#11
Study endgames and tactics! Rook and pawn endgames are very common, so learn the Lucena and Philidor positions ASAP. King and pawn endings are the easiest to play, and plenty of them are not easy, so study them as well.
Figure out which openings you've had the most and least success with. Ditch the least successful ones right away, no matter how much you think you like them or how much you think they suit your style. Don't be afraid to try out new openings, but don't cling to them stubbornly if you lose with them consistently.
I haven't read all the books on your list, and neither has anyone else so take everyone's advice (except mine of course :) with a grain of salt. I have read My System and the books by Chernev and highly recommend them. The only book on the list that you should not "read" is MCO - it is a reference book, not a book to be read cover-to-cover!
BTW I now recognize Karsten Mueller, he's a German GM who does (or did) endgame videos for ChessBase Magazine and I've watched a dozen or so of them, so I'd guess his endgame book is worth a peek.
Jun 22, 2011
0
#12
Thats a real nice book collection you have there, for the improving player! Some of the books is also on my to-read list. I would suggest the following order:
Reasses Your Chess
Fundamental Chess Endings
Secrets of Pawn Endings
Silman's Complete Endgame Course
My System
The Middlegame part 1 and 2
Logical Chess Move by Move
Attacking Manual 1 and 2
Pawn Structure Chess
50 Essential Chess lessons
The 62 Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played
I think these books should be useless having the other books, but maby something new is in some of them, but I believe it wont be much.
Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual
Practical Rook Endings
The Art of Attack in Chess
And MCO should'nt be readen cover to cover, but used when you need it, always nice to have such a book.
Good luck by your reading!
Check out my blog with reviews on a few of the books, more comming up!
http://blog.chess.com/SimonSeirup
Wow! I never expected so many replies in less than a day! Based on everyones advice and Quasimorphy's and SimonSeirup's lists, I've started to put together a plan of study.I'll post it here when I'm finished with it and hopefully someone else might find it useful. I'll also try to fit in Silman's Chess Mentor course somewhere too.
I've tried most openings at some point in my life and I've established a decent repetoire for black ( still working on my white openings). And yes, I do intend to use books like MCO and Fundamental Chess Endings as reference books.
Jun 22, 2011
0
#14
SimonSeirup wrote:
Thats a real nice book collection you have there, for the improving player! Some of the books is also on my to-read list. I would suggest the following order:
Reasses Your Chess
Fundamental Chess Endings
Secrets of Pawn Endings
Silman's Complete Endgame Course
My System
The Middlegame part 1 and 2
Logical Chess Move by Move
Attacking Manual 1 and 2
Pawn Structure Chess
50 Essential Chess lessons
The 62 Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played
I think these books should be useless having the other books, but maby something new is in some of them, but I believe it wont be much.
Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual
Practical Rook Endings
The Art of Attack in Chess
And MCO should'nt be readen cover to cover, but used when you need it, always nice to have such a book.
Good luck by your reading!
Check out my blog with reviews on a few of the books, more comming up!
Yes it is a tough barrier but maybe you should work on different kinds of subjects and maybe work on your weaknesses
Jun 22, 2011
0
#15
Grandpatzer64 wrote:
Wow! I never expected so many replies in less than a day! Based on everyones advice and Quasimorphy's excellent list, I've started to put together a plan of study.I'll post it here when I'm finished with it and hopefully someone else might find it useful. I'll also try to fit in Silman's Chess Mentor course somewhere too.
I've tried most openings at some point in my life and I've established a decent repetoire for black ( still working on my white openings). And yes, I do intend to use books like MCO and Fundamental Chess Endings as reference books.
I believe Fundamental Chess Endings, is good to work with cover to cover, to learn the principles of endings, and then follow up with endgame studies (Silmans Endgame Course for example). But I think its a good idea working with endgame sometimes, while mainly reading another book. It can be tough only working with endgame hours a day.
SimonSeirup wrote:
Thats a real nice book collection you have there, for the improving player! Some of the books is also on my to-read list. I would suggest the following order:
Reasses Your Chess
Fundamental Chess Endings
Secrets of Pawn Endings
Silman's Complete Endgame Course
My System
The Middlegame part 1 and 2
Logical Chess Move by Move
Attacking Manual 1 and 2
Pawn Structure Chess
50 Essential Chess lessons
The 62 Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played
I think these books should be useless having the other books, but maby something new is in some of them, but I believe it wont be much.
Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual
Practical Rook Endings
The Art of Attack in Chess
And MCO should'nt be readen cover to cover, but used when you need it, always nice to have such a book.
Good luck by your reading!
Check out my blog with reviews on a few of the books, more comming up!
I think I will read The Art of Attack before Attacking Manual as it is slightly less advanced. I have heard good things about Endgame Manual but there seems to be quite a bit of overlap between it and Fundamental Chess endings. I think I will read them together, supplementing FCE with the occasional chapter from Endgame manual.
It is indeed a good collection! A friend of mine who has recently stopped playing tournament chess lent them to me and I hope to achieve the same results as he did( he claims that the books helped him get from 1500 to 2100).
Grandpatzer64 wrote:
Platogeek and Godspawn: Thanks for the advice! I play a game every week ( 90 minute SD) and usually analyze it afterwards. My tactics are pretty good for my level , I tried tactics trainer on my friends account and I could solve most of them at the 2400 tactics trainer rating level. As far as endgames go I know a bit about pawn and rook endings but I usually rely on calculation in the endgame.What I think I need to learn is how to grind out a win positionally, most of the time I play very obvious attacking moves and end up in risky positions. I'm hoping GM game collections ( Chernev and Giddins in my chess library ) will help with this.
Crosspinner: Thanks!
I agree with others, great collection :)
What helped me play more positionally was Pawn Structure Chess by Soltis and Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual. PSC is not nearly as dense, and I'd recommend reading it first (DEM is more of a reference book, a bit hard to get through).
As a different poster said though, it's quality over quantity! Take your time with the book you choose and really go over it well. Books like DEM and Art of Attack are at least worth one or two hundred rating points each if you take the time to absorb them. Depending on how much time you have to study this may mean a number of months before you've done them cover to cover, but it's worth it. I'd recommend keeping a notebook nearby to write any notes or page numbers down as you go though.
A note on combining FCE with DEM... they're both very dense books so it's pretty ambitous to want to supplement one with the other. Remember the point is pulling out info from these books to enhance your play, not standing on a mountain of "I did ___ number of pages today!!" Maybe you made it though "only" 5 pages one day because you re-read them or took some time analysing positions on your own to dig into the positions. If this new info was important or interesting enough to you though then it's more than worth it to sacrifice time for quality.
waffllemaster wrote:
Grandpatzer64 wrote:
Platogeek and Godspawn: Thanks for the advice! I play a game every week ( 90 minute SD) and usually analyze it afterwards. My tactics are pretty good for my level , I tried tactics trainer on my friends account and I could solve most of them at the 2400 tactics trainer rating level. As far as endgames go I know a bit about pawn and rook endings but I usually rely on calculation in the endgame.What I think I need to learn is how to grind out a win positionally, most of the time I play very obvious attacking moves and end up in risky positions. I'm hoping GM game collections ( Chernev and Giddins in my chess library ) will help with this.
Crosspinner: Thanks!
I agree with others, great collection :)
What helped me play more positionally was Pawn Structure Chess by Soltis and Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual. PSC is not nearly as dense, and I'd recommend reading it first (DEM is more of a reference book, a bit hard to get through).
As a different poster said though, it's quality over quantity! Take your time with the book you choose and really go over it well. Books like DEM and Art of Attack are at least worth one or two hundred rating points each if you take the time to absorb them. Depending on how much time you have to study this may mean a number of months before you've done them cover to cover, but it's worth it. I'd recommend keeping a notebook nearby to write any notes or page numbers down as you go though.
A note on combining FCE with DEM... they're both very dense books so it's pretty ambitous to want to supplement one with the other. Remember the point is pulling out info from these books to enhance your play, not standing on a mountain of "I did ___ number of pages today!!" Maybe you made it though "only" 5 pages one day because you re-read them or took some time analysing positions on your own to dig into the positions. If this new info was important or interesting enough to you though then it's more than worth it to sacrifice time for
I think I will study one thoroughly and skim thorugh the other and do the puzzles for both. I plan to use the more comprehensive reference-oriented book as my "skimming" book and the other as my 'studying" book. So far it appears that DEM is easier to understand so I will focus on it.
SimonSeirup wrote:
I think these books should be useless having the other books, but maby something new is in some of them, but I believe it wont be much.
Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual
Practical Rook Endings
The Art of Attack in Chess
And MCO should'nt be readen cover to cover, but used when you need it, always nice to have such a book.
Good luck by your reading!
Check out my blog with reviews on a few of the books, more comming up!
Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual certainly isn't useless. It may be overkill untill you're at least approaching expert level but I wouldn't go tossing it in the bargain bin just yet (plus, it has blue text which is cool)
Hey everyone, I'm new to this site and I have a few questions. I am a 1650-ish USCF player and I've been playing for 3 years. I've kinda gotten into a rut lately ( broke 1600 in December last year and haven't really gone up in rating since) and I'd appreciate some guidance on make progress. I have the following books
Logical Chess Move by Move-Irving Chernev
The 62 Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played-Irving Chernev
My System-Aron Nimzowitztch
Reasses Your Chess-Jeremy Silman( I was so disappointed to find out he left awhile before I signed up here)
Silman's Complete Endgame Course
Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual
Fundamental Chess Endings- Karsten Mueller
Secrets of Pawn Endings- Also by Meuller
The Middlegame part 1 and 2 by Euwe and Kramer
The Art of Attack in Chess-Vladimir Vukovic
Attacking Manual 1 and 2-Jacob Aagard
MCO-Nick de Firmian
50 Essential Chess lessons-Giddins
Practical Rook Endings-Korchnoi
Pawn Structure Chess- Andrew Soltis
Can someone suggest a reading order of these books and a study plan based on these and Diamond membership privileges here ? I have a good collection of puzzles to practice with and some opening knowledge. Thanks a lot!