Very good! I wish u all the best with ur goals!
Helipacter's Training Journal
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Welcome and thak you for sharing! You might want to check out the "Chess Tactics Server" for largerdaily tactics doses (and more threats from your girlfriend)
Cheers both; I do use Chess Tactics Server pretty much daily, as I find the ratings a lot less severe than the Tactics trainer on this site.
Anyway, I'm going to post a game that I won recently, and any comments would be greatly appreciated (helpful ones of course!); I'll try and post a match a week, regardless of result:
Cheers
Russell
The first few moves is Alekhine defence: Maroczy variation (1. e4 Nf6 2. d3)
The Game Explorer is a relianle friend/tool
That's true, thanks. I've never really used it much before. It seems that the line played is a rare one - I quite liked it though (as black), but I am wondering what would have been the outcome if white had reached to D4 instead of D3???
Here's another one of mine. This was a loss that became a win. Anything helpful is welcome:
I'm currently reading Marin's "The secrets of defense in chess", which is highly informative - though I am reading it in Spanish, so I could be missing a few things (!!!!).
All in all it's a very thorough look a common game situations, and how best to tighten up a defense when faced with certain attacks. It's helped me appreciate Steinitz a lot more.
I also have John Nunn's "The mammoth book of chess" and Basman's "Chess openings" on the way - if anyone has these books can you let me know if they're good purchases?
Cheers
Russell
I have an older edition of "The Mammoth Book of the Wold's Greatest Chess Games" and that one is good. "The Mammoth book of Chess" is also good. I especially like the very short presentations of different openings.
It sounds like it covers a great deal of ground - regarding the amount of games it has. I think, for the price I paid, it will be worth it - even if I can't follow every move that has been made right at this moment.
Right then folks, here's a question for you: I've seemed to have hit a wall with regards to my training, can anyone help?
I'm still currently doing my training, but it seems that I've lost some sharpness over the past couple of weeks. (This has been noted by me because my tactics trainer score on this site has plummeted, as has my score on another website - also I've made some extremely stupid moves in games recently - even by my standards.)
Should I continue with the training, or should I ease up a little bit? I imagine that a few others have gone through this, so any advice would be more than welcome!
Does it feel fun to train? The fun factor is important and a motivating factor. Try something new, say, playing blidfold vs Fritz.
Doing the training isn't the problem really, it's that I'm feeling less sharp about chess in general - I practically gave away my queen the other day in a game.
I think it could just be the other side of a chess addiction. Anyway, I think I will look at new ways to spruce up my training, and maybe I'll give myself a break from tactics for a while.
Again, any suggestions would be helpful.
Helipacter, there may be many reasons for the "lack of sharpness" as you put it. First, how long have you been playing chess and taking as seriously as you are now? I know when I first started playing, ESPECIALLY in tournaments, that my nerves sometimes got in the way of seeing the board as I would have had I not been nervous. Secondly, are the players you are playing against stronger than you? If that is the case, then EXPECT to not be as sharp as the other players but LEARN from what they are doing to you. Sometimes, the best tactics learned are the ones used against you. Lastly, it could be a regular "slump"; you could just be losing a bit of your "edge". Take a small break from chess, or try a new opening like 1) d4 or 1) c4 since in an earlier post you said you liked the ruy lopez. See what works for you. Good luck
Hi SP,
I think it is a genuine slump - so it's just a matter of time before I'm through it. I've calmed down on the tactics for this week, just to give myself a break - and it's helping!
I'm currently reading Mike Basman's book on Openings, so that is giving me a lot more to think about, and through his analysis I'm understanding the goals of certain openings (he explains lines in The Queen's Gambit, The Sicillian Dragon, The Guioco Piano, The Nimzo-Indian & The Morra Gambit). I've not really picked an opening yet, and I'm hoping that studying the above will have an effect on my tactics.
In all though, thanks for the advice!!!
Helipacter, How do you like Basman's book?
My advice is to not pick a particular opening until you've played a bunch of them to see what you like. I started playing a lot of d4 openings just because everyone I knew played e4. Now I have to go back and become a beginner all over again to learn my e4 openings.
SP - I am trying not to stick to one opening, but to get a general feel for a few of them. It helps that not too many of my opponents know an opening further than the first 4 or 5 moves, so you don't have to learn the main lines parrot fashion.
Farbror - I'm enjoying it. My only complaint is that he breezes through a lot of information, so, for example, in 10 pages he's covered about four or five traps that a player could fall into, and all this information is a little too much to take in all at once - but I suppose this is common in a book of openings. Have you read it?
I picked it up on my trip to Manchester recently. It is waiting to be read.
Yeah, it's enjoyable, I'm not actually onto any of the opening sections just yet - I'm reading about attacking cetralised kings (Scolar's mate, Legall's mate & Fried Liver), then I'll be onto attacking a castled king - finally I'll be on the first opening section.
Another interesting book that I'm looking at getting is Adam Wells' book on the similarities between Chess and Football tactics. The book compares the tactics and psychological tricks of the great managers of football to the great chess players. It's had pretty good write up, so I'll be getting it shortly I think.
Hi,
Firstly, thanks for the invite!
Right then, I used to play a chess a lot when I was younger (ages 10 - 12), and I was one of the best in my school. However, after going to tournaments and finding out that this wasn't good enough in the chess world I gave up, promising myself I'd come back to it at some point.
Many moons later and I'm back! I've been re-teaching myself everything over the past few months, and now I'm in the first flush of full-on chess love: and chess love is like addiction, some would say it's as strong as a crack addiction, only without the loss of teeth and employment.
I've promised myself that I'll work hard and attain a 1300-1500 rating by the end of the year. I'm doing tactics daily (on the chess tactics server - aswell as the 3 free I get here), and I'm reading up on chess ALL THE TIME - much to my girlfriend's annoyance! I've got 3 books: Winning Chess (Seirawan); Chernev's Logical Chess Moves and Bronstein's 1953 Zurich book. Of these I've found the Chernev book most useful. (I'm also reading the Chess Tactics Explained Website, which is very useful!)
I'm currently on a search for my perfect opening. Though I'm currently playing E4 (Ruy Lopez-ish) as white, and as black, well, that's a toughie - it's not pretty(!), it's some sort of KID/Sicilian horribleness... I can't really put a name to it other than "The Loss-Meister". Anyway, I've identified that the opening/midgame transition is my (current) biggest problem, so this is what I need to address first.
Right, I've got to go as my girlfriend is threatening to torch all 3 of my chess books if I don't "get off that fricken site" (only she didn't use the word fricken!)
Cheers
Russell