TLDR
How to Learn Chess
Sort:
Your study plan is flawed and counterproductive. You'll be burnt out before you even get 5% of the way through. You're going to be spending way more time reading about pawn structures and strategies and piece play and whatever else when the biggest gains of strength are going to come from analying the games you play, reading annotated games and studying tactics.
Everything else is window dressing.
You're setting yourself up to the that 40 year old guy in the chess club who has been playing chess for 20 years, has read 100 books and still can't break 1600. The same guy who loses to the 10-year old kid who has read a total of 2 chess books his entire life.
You don't get better at chess by reading half a dozen books on strategy. Stop looking for the holy grail of chess knowledge in books. Stop reading books on pawn structure when you still routinely drop pieces to simple 2 move tactics. Stop reading books and start playing games. Go over them. Practice your basic tactics. You can learn all you need to know about strategy from annotated master games up to a certain point. Once you reach that point (a while away), you can worry about the other stuff.
I'm also going to go against the sacred cow of chess improvement wisdom; stop wasting time studying endgames like your life depends on it. Endgames don't matter until you routinely get into endgames where you aren't up gobs of material and are trying to convert an advantage into a win. If you're under 1600 and aren't routinely up significant material by the endgame phase, your problem is the middle game not the endgame.
That could alternatively be written as "learn some level appropriate endgames such as basic mates with superior material, opposition and general endgame principles (rooks behind passed pawns, etc)".
Don't be that guy studying the 500 page manual on bishop vs knight endgames when you're rated 1200.
I totally agree with SilentKnighte5's last comment.
Why would one study the endgame if their games never reach the endgame with almost equal material? His opinion supports one of my posts on this site which is improvement in chess according to ELO
I took the liberty of going over one of your games. You seem to have some great resources for studying, but still make beginner mistakes. I am not saying you're a sandbag, but if you studied seriously the way you said you should be higher. How many hours a day did you do? Did you just jump from book to book? Do you ever reread any? A superficial reading for 20 books is inferior to a thorough read of just one.
I'm going to address the concerns of SilentKnighte5, bgianis and TheGreatOogieBoogie.
To SilentKnight, your comments are invalid because you didn't read the post. I know this because you said so, and I can tell by your response. Why would you comment on something without actually reading it? First, everyone learns differently. It's the third principle I listed under Learning Principles. Judging from your posts you learn by doing. This is why you emphasize Tactics and Analysis more than explanation. I learn by hearing, which means I respond best to explanation. Second, I've been going through this program I've created for 16 months, and I have improved a great deal. For the record I don't care what my ratings are on chess.com save tactics. Otherwise I only care about my OTB progress. And I have improved greatly. Third, I rarely ever drop pieces to two move tactics over the board. And I make a note of it everytime I do. Plus you have no idea how much time I spend on reading, or working on tactics, or understanding strategy, again because you didn't read the post.
Yes I read books, but I also play every week at my chess club, work on tactics EVERY day, read articles and watch videos, and play online chess on chess.com. I'm also working on my thought process and instilling good habits over the board so I reduce my mistakes. I'm working on pawn structure because "Pawns are the Soul of Chess" Philodor said. I'm going over so many strategy books because 1. each book generally gives a little more information about a topic that other books miss. For example, on this website I have never heard the video authors talk about the connection between outposts, open files, and the passed pawn. let alone how to choose the right piece for a blockade. They aren't really mentioned in books either. The only two I've every found it in is My System and Giants of Strategy. Second reading a lot of books on strategy means that a lot of the information will be repeated. Principle 4: Repetition is the Royal Road to Learning. But you don't know this because you didn't read the post. Finally, Chess is about ideas. This isn't me saying this, this is Bobby Fischer. So if you have a problem with that specific statement, take it up with him. And in order to find and apply ideas you must first have knowledge of them. I know this because I'm a trained phhilosopher whose expertise is the study of knowledge.
And guess what, its all working. I am getting stronger. And just so you know, I'm rated well above 1200 OTB. But You will probably never know this because this post is too long for you.
bgianis, I agree with you too on the endgame. A lot of Masters and above really like to start with the Endgame, because it's simply easier to comprehend with less pieces on the board. But most of the Endgame principles are the exact opposite in the opening and middlegame. For example, centralizing your king in the endgame as opposed to castling in the opening. Plus most endgame principles will not be used by a beginner because they will never reach the endgame. I personally reach the endgame in half my games so I have to study it.
I read the link you posted. It looks like a ligitimate way to progress. But I personally don't like the early emphasis on openings. I do believe focus should be spent on opening strategy. But this is different then studying specific openings. And I do agrree that openings aren't really important until around 1800.
TheGreatOogieBoogie. First I love the online name. Second, I know that ten minute game was bad. I'm not good at speed chess. But I'm trying it out to expose myself to it and to test how well I'm absorbing ideas. But Why are you analyzing a ten minute game? many GMs think analyzing speed games is a waste of time because more errors are made. Kramnik won't even play Blitz or Bullet because he thinks its detrimental to your chess. If you want a better idea of how I play look at my online games. Because trust me, I don't play like that over the board.
Oh, and I forgot to add that I don't read any book superfiscially. I take extensive notes. Depending on the book, I do read them more than once. And some of the books I have read aren't on the original list, such as Giants of Strategy by Neil Mcdonald, which I highly recomend. Its a better writen My System. And I will be reading those two books multiple times.
interesting thoughts. i guess that the one thing we can be sure about is that improvement comes by working hard
Inyustisia wrote:
interesting thoughts. i guess that the one thing we can be sure about is that improvement comes by working hard
That is absolutely true.
In addition to spending some time in books, use Chess Mentor. It is as close to having a personal mentor as you can get.
Chess for All Ages:
Your online far exceeds your standard and blitz, which tells me that your positional judgment and planning are well ahead of your calculation ability. In correspondence weaknesses in calculation are mitigated by the ability to move pieces around. No need to calculate when you can check a line for yourself on the analysis board after all. So do serious calculation work, not just tactics but also some defense too as that requires a lot of calculation to stay in the game.
Aagard’s GM Prep: Calculation may be too advanced for you, so try Convekta’s CT-ART 5.0, Simple Defense, and Advanced Defense. Buy packages of you can (CT-ART 5.0 is CT-ART 4.0 packaged with their mating pattern and Beginner programs whereas the package Simple Defense is in also includes attack against the king and combinations for club players)
Dvoretsky’s School of Chess Excellence 2: Tactical Play is a great one to work up to as well. It’s a fun book but it still requires some work! Aagard’s Practical Chess Defence is another advanced work, but one that really exercises calculation well.
Of course don’t forget about pawn endings, Secrets of Pawn Endings will really test the limits of not just your calculation ability but also your endgame technique in general.
Nov 1, 2014
0
#33
Sen, your method involves many books... But I don't have money to buy them and I even cannot find them in my country, what shall I do?
Chess.com have plenty resources available for you here. If you don't have budget for books then you can spend your time watching free videos here, play tactics trainer for free. The result nevertheless can be the same.
What I did to my chess improvement here on chess.com is to join groups which have interactive session in which we can help each other in our game. Analyze, give insights, have puzzles, and so on. I just didn't do improve I also used to have many friends here. So glad to be here though :)
nyLsel wrote:
What I did to my chess improvement here on chess.com is to join groups which have interactive session in which we can help each other in our game. Analyze, give insights, have puzzles, and so on. I just didn't do improve I also used to have many friends here. So glad to be here though :)
Which groups do you recommend for those things?
Poryg
You can find free material online. Youtube is full of videos, just type the theme you are looking for. If you don't know or aren't sure what you need to improve read this forum http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/improvement-in-chess-according-to-elo. I created it 1 month ago and in my 1st comment you will find some interesting links.
I guess it kind of depends also what your aiming to improve - if you enjoy playing correspondence chess then you can use as many books as you like whilst playing and as oogie points out you can use the analysis board to deal with calculation. Personally I want to improve at standard time control OTB chess so visualisation / tactics / time management are all important, especially at my level. Dan Heisman's advice about all those seem quite practical. Personally I think interactive tactics online are a lot more fun and motivating than reading a lot of books. There is definitely a danger that you just zone out reading without actually pushing your brain to visualise etc. I'm 100% sure I won't get to GM! I play in the D team of my local club at the moment. Good luck whatever your approach to all posters.
Nov 1, 2014
0
#39
If you're not rated 1800/2000 yet (USCF OTB, not correspondence), you need to focus 80% of your chess study on tactics and calculation. If you're reading books regularly, you're just not going to be spending enough time on tactics.
I did the traditional book route. Like Senchean, I got pretty rapidly to 1500 but then I got stuck at USCF 1500 for years (decades really). My son is doing tactics and tactics only, and he's zipped by me in less than a year after learning how to move the pieces. He will be an A player very soon (maybe this week, maybe next month).
Senchean, you said it yourself: "The brain cannot learn something it does not already know." Chess at its foundation is tactics. The ability to both spot and calculate tactics is the fundamental skill you need before you can advance, before you should tackle openings or strategy. Endgames are useful in that they can help develop calculation/tactical ability as many endgames are just tactical exercises with a smaller number of pieces. And it's not just a few months of tactics you need upfront, it's years and years of the stuff, particularly if you're an adult and won't absorb that material as quickly as a young'un.
Poryg wrote:
Sen, your method involves many books... But I don't have money to buy them and I even cannot find them in my country, what shall I do?
Well, this is true. My method does involve a lot of books. First, Use the internet. There are places you can find information on the game. For tactics use www.chess-tactics.org It's a great website and has all the content from Predators at the Chessboard. Use Youtube. There are many videos on chess. For beginners, the Backyard Professor chess videos can be very helpful. Also, if you have a chess.com membership look at the chess videos they are fantastic. I especially like GM melik Khachiyan's videos. He explains things very clearly.
Also at your level, don't play live chess. the gime controls are too short. And all that will do is reinforce bad habits that will take three times as long to unlearn and relearn the right way to do things. Play Online Chess. There you have 1-7 days, depending on settings, to make a single move. Use the time to analyze the game and make better decisions. This will help you create better habits for playing over the board and faster time controls.
I kind of have a similar regimen. I'll have an endgame block then a middlegame block and do some tactical drills as a warmup. A good book to build on Art of Attack is Dvoretsky's School of Chess Excellence 2: Tactical Play and maybe his Analytical Manual too.
There are so many great resources to organize one's study. I'm currently working on Comprehensive Chess Endings 2: Bishop vs. Knight, minor vs. rook, then stop when I reach the rook part (that's a separate block) then read the appropriate section in Dvoretsky's book.