What happened to points 08-44?
Tactics Improvement
Sort:
Very interesting post. Outside of chess I have invested at least 34,500 plus hours in my trade. I can agree with the 10,000 hour thing. I am a guru in my trade.
We pretty much dont get a grip until that point (10,000 hours).
I have just recently begun investing more of my time in studying my games, tactics, openings and taking notes on my games. In the end it is persevence that will improve my game.
Well what will White do if Black plays 1...Bf5?
de la Mazas book is crap. All of his "reviews" in the book are from players no one has heard of, and he quit chess after his one "victory"
The only redeeming value is the part about repetition, but that is true of anything in life.
If you want to become good at tactics, you need to spend a lot of time. However, you will get there much sooner if you have a method rather than relying on "intuition". Intuition without ever having had a method is generally faulty.
Don't forget about concentration. Being fully absorbed in the analysis may give better results. Sometimes I spend two hours analysing a game but half of the time I think about something else.
Nipplewise wrote:
Don't forget about concentration. Being fully absorbed in the analysis may give better results. Sometimes I spend two hours analysing a game but half of the time I think about something else.
If you didn't watch Maria Sharapova on the TV, hang up posters of supermodels, and listen to teeny bop all the time, like Britney Spears, you wouldn't be distracted!
Tactics Improvement
01. Tony Robbins says “Repetition is the mother of skill”. People often forget up to 90% of
something they learned only 30 days after learning it. The only way to avoid this is to use
repetition.
02. Ask your chess friends what they think of your tactical abilities, and ask them to be honest. If
they say anything other than “great”, keep studying tactics
03. These two articles totally changed my outlook on the
importance of studying tactics. Don’t get too wrapped up on the exact specifics of his “Seven
circles” program, but the tangible progress that he made in his rating. His rating history speaks
for itself http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlMain.php?12775875, including a first place finish
in the World Open under 2000 section.
04. Another important point from de la Maza is the idea between “Chess knowledge” and “Chess
ability”. Focus on “Chess ability”. Don’t be one of these people who knows all the theory of the
Sicilian Najdorf poisoned pawn variation, but loses a piece on move 30 to a 2 move combination.
05. an excellent interview with my tactics hero Michael de la Maza. Lots of great quotes and insights in
this article about the importance of studying nothing but tactics until you reach the expert level.
06. In his book “Outliers”, Malcolm Gladwell discusses what he calls the “10,000 Hour Rule”. This
rule basically means that it takes about 10,000 hours to get REALLY good at something. This is
the amount of time most players have spent to get to the Grandmaster/International Master
level. The most important thing isn’t being a “genius” (although this helps), but the sheer
amount of time doing quality practice. The more time you spend studying tactics, the better
you will get at them. There are no shortcuts.
07. Certain Grandmasters tend to earn reputations such as being a “positional player”, or an
“opening specialist”. But all of these Grandmasters are also unbelievably amazing at tactics. If
you want to play like your favorite Grandmaster you must first master tactics.
45. Life Master Brian Wall advocates looking at every legal move. If you are missing tactics or good
moves, this might be something that you want to try.