need advice

Hello everyone,

I am looking for advice how to improve my game.

I do have a decent positional understanding of the game, even in the games I ultimately lose (and later analyze with Chessmaster software), I seem to have gotten a winning position and wasted it later on.

My usual game progresses as follows:

 - I develop OK, usually better than the opponent;

 - I have decent pawn structure, few pawn islands, if pawns doubled, then only to the centre, etc etc

 - Then the opponent does some crazy move which makes the situation completely tactical.

- I start looking for a way to defend/attack because I think there should be something. There isn't or I cannot find it.

 - I blunder, I lose.

Later, when I have a look at the situation with chessmaster, it shows me in WINNING position, sometimes even the most annoying annotation phrase: "<insert color I am playing> is asleep at the switch and does not see the forced win".

So I study tactics. Solved craploads of puzzles (had nice book with 300 puzzles of "mate in x", another one of different kinds of puzzles, also, everything that comes with the chessmaster software), I am doing the tactics trainer on this site. Puzzles are easy, because you know there is something  (on tactics trainer I have a rating between 1600 and 1700 which is OK compared to 1100 in live chess :)). In the real game, however, I don't have the "alarm bell" when there actually is something and I often look for a tactic when there is none and lose on time or think I "found it" and make a mistake.

What should I do?

I'm sorry if this doesn't help, because I don't have that problem.

But, here goes: I would recommend looking for patterns on chess puzzles and applying them to live games. For example, if you have several minor pieces crowding the kingside with an advanced h pawn, well, that reminds me of several mate puzzles I've seen on this site. Try to approach the game as a puzzle whenever you intuitively (spelled wrong surely) feel there must be a solution there. The intuitive part comes from gazing at chess puzzles all day long.

 Yes! I was just going to post a link to that article. I wholeheartedly second that advice.

thanks, got the articles.

probably the problem is that I have been playing too many short games, so I don't think through enough moves of a sequence

long games, here I come :)

Ok, then I should dump chessmaster and get fritz... :)

oh well, whatever :)

 No need for that! Chessmaster is quite good. Which version do you have? I have 10th edition, and it has different "personalities" of different skill levels to play against. That's similar to what wharris described.

I have the Grandmaster Edition

I have tried the personalities, however, the nature of mistakes they make looks inhuman, some "neglects pawns" guy let me snatch 4 pawns for free.. No human player in his right mind would do that.

So annoying.. :)

Today I have my tactict trainer rating above 1850... and I still lose games to 900 rated people due to missing seemingly obvious tactics :-)

what sort of time controls do you play?

I would suggest sitting on your hands.

It sounds like you need to sharpen your calculation. When you are on Tactics Trainer, here on the site, try to COMPLETELY solve the problem. (Your rating will suffer, but forget that for now.) Try to analyze through the complete tree. You know, something like "white plays Rh5+, black has exactly two moves (Qh7 and Kg8). First, if he plays Qh7, then white ..." You get the picture.

Another thing you can do in turn-based chess is utilize the notes section. The format I use is this (taken from the hypothetical above).

1: Rh5+
1.1: Qh7 Rxh7+ +-
1.2: Kg8 Ba2+
1.2.1: b3
1.2.2: Qf7

This type of thing can be great for storing the analysis tree. And later, if you start thinking "maybe there's another move" then you can add it

2: Qg3

Hope this helps!

-- Ozzie

well it is true that in the puzzles u know there is a solution...but is a good trainig.

furthermore i tell not to worry because for the ending gams you need time to practice... do not worry!

ha, just to revisit the issue: i started playing online chess, 3 days per move. And i almos literally "sit on my hands":

Rule1: never move the first time you see the position

Rule2: never break rule #1

Results? Well, much better than in Live Chess, that's for sure. Way fewer idiot moves and way, way more interesting games. What is even more interesting, after 2-3 minutes staring at a position I am beginning to see the tactics myself!

Maybe it has been the beginners luck, but so far, it is 7-0-0 against opponents rated...well, 200-300 pionts higher than I ever had in Live Chess :)

Happy me !

try the same situation but different tactics.

teddy_bear, I didn't quite understand what you meant

I'm flabbergasted!