Chess books on openings have been around for a while but they all look more or less the same. Very little thought have been invested in improving the layout or the usefulness of the opening books. There are a few gems out there but they tend to be...
"Chess Openings for Kids" by John Watson and Graham Burgess Too many opening books on the book shelves? Still wondering what you would like to play? Well known chess authors John Watson and Graham Burgess might have written the perfect introd...
You have heard it. You have said it. You have ignored it. Tactics-Tactics-Tactics is the bread and butter for improving chess players. Still, it is hard to follow this fine piece of practical advice. Too many chores and privileges compete for ou...
Nigel has a lot of interesting things to say about chess and chess training. I am really looking forward to read and review this book!
The Starting Out series by Everyman Chess is an obvious starting point for any flirt with a new opening. The series also contains titles on other topics than specific openings. One such example is Starting Out: Open Games by Glen Flear.I have been...
We have all got lost in the Great Unkown of the Middlegame. I very well known feeling to have survived the opening phase of the game just to realize that a murky, clueless middlegame is about to start. You might survive the opening thanks to basic...
After reading and rereading the book ”Studying Chess Made Easy”, I have reached the conclusion that there is perhaps only one thing not to like about the book: The Title It is slightly misleading and somewhat unfair to the author, Andrew Solti...
IM Silman has written an excellent article on "Picking an Opening Style". Here is a quote from the article: "Openings like 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Bc4 and 1.e4 c5 2.d4 (2.b4!?) 2…cxd4 3.c3 might prove appealing for Wh...
Have any of you tried this stuff: Jeremy Silman describes the gambit in an almost approving tone: "THE BLUMENFELD GAMBIT: This old line (popularized by Alekhine's brilliant win with it over Tarrasch in 1922) still has supporters to this day, ...
I use three different sites for tactics training and those sites give me quite different estimates of my tactics skills (approximately 1300, 1500 and 1700 at the moment). Ratings are just ratings but as a professional statistician almost any numbe...
“Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.” Arthur Schopenhauer I am (sort of) guilty of that mistake and I plan to ...
How on earth did (s)he find that move? I will never be able to play like that! My grandmother used to say: “What wrong with talking to yourself? You get wise answers all the time”. Talking to yourself, an inner dialogue is very important during ...
I am so far pretty pleased with my silicon based Study Buddies (CD-discs from Convekta) but I am not at all pleased with my sparring partner (Chessmaster). It appears to be very difficult for software to play bad and humanlike ch...
It is that time of the year when you have to make plans and promises for the future. Well, "chesswise" I will go with: 100 minutes of chess studies per weekAt least one slow game (G/30+) per weekAnnotate most of my slow games (espe...
Does this sound familiar: "I really would like to read a few chess books but...." May I suggest a gentle kick in the butt? Here is my humble suggestion: Let's create a slow shcedule for reading a book (I mean really slow!) and...
Well, My Previous Training Schedule (see blog entry) failed. I have decided to try an even slower regime: 15+ minutes of Tactics every dayAt least two G/30 every weekWorking thru at least one of the semi slow games every weekMeasure "pro...
It makes a lot of sense to study Master Games but what about studying your own games? I do think self-annotated games can be a great way for the ambitious player to improve. The fact that I am a rather crappy player is not an obstacle....
Chess Player? Well, please allow me to define a ”Chess Player” as someone who plays chess. It would be nice to add some quality aspects to the suggested definition or perhaps to do something to improve my Chess Skills. Anyhow, at...
An Opening Repertoire for the Beginning Player First of all: The Beginning players should not memorize openings I think that is an obvious way to get bored with chess. I tried to learn some chess as a kid but I soon got discouraged from ...
FM Steve Stoyko has suggested the following exercise: Pick a non-static Middlegame positionTry to evaluate the main variation of each possible moveWrite down the evaluation and try to estimate the "value" of each variation. You ca...
This might be my only claim to chess fame. I never thought I would experience this Miniature.
My Home Made Self Study Course (T) Littlewood: "Chess Tactics", Batsford (March 28, 2005) (S) Capablanca: "Chess Fundamentals", Everyman Chess; Algebraic edition (December 1994) (M) McDonald: "Modern Chess M...
Well, I decided quite recently to give the Old Brain some work-out. Chess seemed like an excellent idea. I have played Backgammon and Bridge at a fairly high level. However, when I tried chess years ago I soon got discouraged from choosing a bad a...
