Solid Chess Training Plan for Class Players

Chess is such a difficult game. Some of us are new to it with the latest chess boom due to the pandemic. Others have been around the game their whole life. What I want to focus on in this post is creating a training plan for a class player to reach higher classes.

Before we can create a training plan we have to identify our weaknesses objectively without excuse. I hear a lot of "I lost because of time pressure" or "I was trapped" and things like that. Though you may think its one of these things most likely it is something else. I lost because of time pressure is an easy one to debunk since the question is why were you in time trouble? Taking too much time on move per move and not spending it on the critical part of the game is a common issue. I was trapped is usually not understanding your opening or being in unfamiliar territory and positions.

Whether you are new or a seasoned player it is common to enter positions you have not seen before, especially in openings you are not familiar with or into middle games that just turned from an opening that didn't go your way. So the question is how can we stop this from happening?

Bruce Lee was quoted once saying "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." This is such an interesting quote and it can really be applied to any topic or subject. We only become good or great at something if we have continued practice at it. Same goes for openings, middle games and end games.

With that being said you have to identify your issues in your game. I see many players playing tons of blitz and bullet and then ask "Why is my rating dropping 200-400 points because I went on tilt" Well the answer is right there. You are on tilt and playing way too many games. Play less and analyze more. I hear this from top players all the time. Analyze your games. For those interested in how to do that check here.

Look at your last 10 games and ask yourself how did I lose? Dont look at the engine. Analyze your game. Was it tactics? Positional weakness? Endgame? Fell for a trap? All of these are identifiers to you. Its all useful information. Here is an example. I was on a 7 game losing streak at my club. I wanted to know why. So I got out some paper and started taking notes against all my games. I found a few things.

1. In my 7 losses I found all were in openings I knew nothing about with the exception of one. One game I played a London which I was familiar with however never played against a Dutch. So essentially all were unfamiliar positions to me. I also found in all of them I lost while attacking.

2. My attacks were dubious at best. Usually with lack of proper material for an actual attack. One or two pieces when my opponent was easily defending. I also found all were in someone tactical positions. Sharp and difficult to calculate past 2-3 moves. Many variations and continuations. Easy for miscalculation.

3. Never made it much to endgames. Though I did play a few end games the ones that did reach and end game I was already at a severe disadvantage based on material and evaluation.

With all of the above information I realized my main issue are playing into openings I am unfamiliar with and my tactical vision really needs to improve. Along with keeping clear of sharp and tactical openings is ideal for me. I am more of a positional player so I needed to work my openings around this ideal. I have suffered from what I think many have in chess which is not playing into my strengths and trying to be something I am not. Though I love the idea, as I am sure everyone does, being like Kasparov, Fischer or Tal, and having some amazing attack that works out over the board. We all want that but what if you are simply not an attacking type of player? Then what? You will need to find out what type of player you are and play into those areas while working on your weaknesses.

Great! Now we have identified our weaknesses. For me its opening preparation or rather lack there of, premature attacking and poor tactical vision. (some will say openings are useless as a beginner or even intermediate and though this might hold some weight I think some ideas in whatever openings you play is a good place to have at least general knowledge of.) This is HARD to admit to however we cannot improve until we have learned such insights. Now for my training plan. As many of you I am sure you have limited time as do I but I am serious about my chess improvement and if you are serious about anything make other concessions is something you will have to consider. So I have about 10-12 hours a week to put towards chess. Yes this means less Netflix people.

Training Plan

1. Opening Preparation (2 hours - 15-30m a day) in my given openings I want to play. For me this is the English Botvinnik System for white. English and French Defenses as Black based on e4 or d4 on move 1. I follow Simon Williams instruction on the opening preparation due to I really like how he presents material and it works for me.

2. Tactics (4 hours) - this is the biggest gap in my play it seems. So solving blundering is a good place to pick up many rating points. I am following the 7 circles process laid out by Michael de la Maza in his book Rapid Chess Improvement.

3. Strategy (2 hours) - Middle game plans and strategy for each of the three openings listed above.

4. Endgame (2 hours) - Starting with 100 endgames you must know, Silman's Complete Endgame Course and then Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual for subject matter.

5. Game Analysis and Review (1-x hours) - really as many hours extra I can devote to this. Really diving in deep to understand why I lost a game. Looking at each game with complete objectivity to hone in on mistakes and solving them.

So given all of that I think this is a complete and helpful training guide and template for any improving chess player to follow. You can make whatever necessary changes you like to cater the plan to your play-style and short comings in your game. Without really looking into your issues making a plan is almost useless since you will just randomly study whatever the next creator shows. At the very least having a plan will be easy to follow and know if you are on track or off course.

Let me know what your training plans are. Do you like this? Can improvements be made? I am only a humble club player trying to find out what works best for me but would be certainly open to hear from higher rated players what works or even doesn't work for them. Let's start a discussion to help class players reach their full potential.

Now the real works begins.....

Take care and be well - Let's Improve Together!

Nicholas Sloan