You need to play slowly enough to be able to use all the relevant ideas. It's particularly important when you're going over your own games afterwards that you reflect on all relevant considerations. As you practise doing this, you'll get faster and faster until you're on it like a car bonnet.
Practicing the Concepts in Chess Books.
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I was playing 30 min games, but still couldn't do it properly. Maybe daily chess I suppose? Would writing out like an algorithm(to see the thinking process so that I wouldn't skip unintentionally) and playing with it be good? Also, I'm guessing from your answer that I shouldn't practice the topics 1 by 1.
Feb 10, 2021
0
#4
Writing out your own check-list sounds like a good idea. There's a discussion about this here:
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/your-mental-checklist-you-run-through-before-each-move
Also, I forgot to add this: As I said, I couldn't keep up even with 30 min games, so if I start playing daily, should I play daily only, or can I play any other mode? Cause again I feel like if I start playing in any other mode, I can repeat the same mistakes again and solidify that incorrect play.
Running through a mental checklist on every move is the basis of Bruce Pandolfini's book, "The ABC's of Chess." The list starts with "Is the King in danger - in check or checkmate in the next move?" Find a digital copy online or get a physical copy to see the rest of the checklist. Bruce also recommends to play slow or long games.
There's a reason that even pilots with 1000s of hours flight time in a plane still use checklists: they work.
I like Daily games because they give me the time to think about and apply my current study ideas, including using checklists. I don't think this means you shouldn't play other time controls. It's good to balance the slow methodical approach with faster intuitive play. The right balance is a whole other topic of debate though, which largely depends on your goals.
I am a beginner like you. I also have a long checklist. What works really well for me is to play OTB against Stockfish or Chess Tiger on iOS. I will take my sweet time and go through my checklist. Sometimes it takes me a day before I make a move OTB. Once I do I put it into Stockfish and then I replicate the computer's move to OTB. This works well for me because I can go through the checklist slowly to make sure I am seeing the position correctly. I also leave the position on my board so I can study it every time I walk by or have some free time. There is no hurry to make a move, so I can study the position in full detail.
I have the book called "Play Winning Chess" by Yasser Seirawan, and I think it's a great book. I already read it till the 6th chapter and I tried to took at least 1 week on each chapter so far to try to practice the concepts. There were 4 main ideas: Force, Time, Space, and Pawn Structure. I haven't had any problems with the tests and quizzes so far, but even though I tried to practice with playing and also looking at gm games, I found out that I couldn't keep up with everything at once. Especially with the pawn structures cause I'm not as much as familiar with it compared to the other ones.
In games, I feel like I'm getting hypnothized and forget to check for weaknesses, look for spaces and usually play like a more tactical game and then just find myself finishing the game without not looking anything positional, but play 1-2 move chess.
What should I do? Should I just take 1 thing and only practice that till it becomes second nature? But then I feel like it's going to cause me to misevaluate a move because of considering only 1 aspect. From the games I played and watched, I think chess is not a game where you can easily isolate and focus on 1 aspect but maybe I'm wrong. Appreciate the answers, thanks!