Chess Study is Fun!
Studying is the most fun you can have, when not actually playing. Now, hear me out. I know you all love the game of chess, but when you're wanting to improve (and even the best players are always wanting that, just like the lowly improvers like me), you have to put in a bit of study. But how to make it fun, when playing is surely where all the fun is?
While you don't have to take notes, or annotate games, doing that is fun too, if you approach it in the right way. I've invented a Chess Bunny Clubhouse in my notes, where the bunnies help me work out puzzles I'm trying to solve (I'm doing "The Woodpecker Method" puzzle book at the moment), and not only do these imaginary little guys (shush, don't tell them, because they're convinced the clubhouse is real) help me to think, they also give me a good laugh, and keep me going, as I doodle them in the margins.
Thinking Hats on Down at the Bunny Chess Club!
Honestly, with all the puzzles to train us on tactics, openings, endgames, it's almost more fun than playing, because it's where you can kick back and relax, in a stress-free mode, to learn and absorb all that good ol' chess knowledge, like a sponge.
My latest discovery is how to properly make use of the chess analysis board, with all its options to view best moves ( you can even see these in some apps in a pop-up window that lets you play through the entire line visually, when you hover over the moves) as well as seeing Master Games in their database, and practice from positions, try out different moves, and all sorts of other options that can improve your game, all with the click of a little slider bar option. Puzzles have the same kinds of options available as well, so it's well worth finding out what all the different options mean, and how to make the best use of them. I was a bit confused until I found a good video to help me figure out why you got things like big and small arrows for different moves, and what the percentage marks were. There's a lot going on, but plenty of quick tutorials for you to up your game in analysing your game(s), or tactics, or anything you're studying at the moment. This thing is soooo much fun.
Do you use the analysis board? What study tools are your favourites? I'd love to compare notes with you. Feel free to drop a comment, some tips, hints, an analysis of a game (let's not have so much fun we forget to play games ourselves too, to improve our skills as well as putting in the study fun time), whatever you want to share, because of course we want to share the chess fun, and learn how to play better.
