https://support.chess.com/article/437-how-do-i-get-better-at-chess
Hi,
This may help with some ideas aswell, puzzles and tactics etc
Learning chess @ 40. Please help me make a plan.
Sort:
The following questions present themselves then.
1. What is the right way to approach puzzles/tactics? What are the learning objectives, and what are the expected outcomes? For ex., am I training for pattern/motif recognition also?
2. What are the things I am looking for when analyzing my games?
3. One problem I frequently face while solving puzzles is that I am unable to visualize a line more than 3 moves deep (sometimes even not that deep if there's a lot of clutter on the board). I get quite a few puzzles wrong owing of this. One way out it appears is to play the moves out on a physical chessboard - this is time consuming and cumbersome, and I am lazy that way. Developing stronger visualization skills instead appeals to me much more. How can this be done?
4. How does one study annotated grandmaster games? I remember flipping through Tal's (I think) best games book, and the annotations were way too brief for my liking.
#30
1. Try to solve them without failing. The outcome is indeed pattern recognition and visualisation.
2. Look for your errors. Look for the right move. What were your thoughts that led to the error? How much time did you spend on the error? How much time was available?
3. Practice
4. The best way is to take one side and cover the moves. Think what you would play and write your move down. Now look what the grandmaster played. Is it the same? Which move is better? Why? Now on to the next move.
for the first one, i've always believed that the goal is to absorb and retain as many patterns as possible as quickly as possible. with that in mind, you should try to solve tactics puzzles within a limited amount of time per puzzle, and if you hit that limit without finding the answer then you should lookup the answer and remember the idea, and move on to the next one. 5 minutes is a decent starting limit.
on the other hand, if you like trying to solve a puzzle no matter how much time you take, just because you want to find the solution yourself, then you should set aside a different time for this kind of chess work. it is rewarding and fun of course, for i am guilty of doing it myself, but it is not very efficient.
on the second, i would say look for basic things you miss, like simple tactics. also you only want to analyze games where you had enough time to think about your choices, so anything below 10 minutes i would say no. also it is better to analyse and preferably annotate your game, a day after you played it at the latest. you want to be able to recall all the forks in the road and the choices you had and the reasons for choosing this move over the other.
on the third, i personally did not do targeted visualization exercises at any point. it might help to try visualizing an empty board, and then placing a piece there and trying to move it around in your head and then a second piece and so on. or something like getting a knight to a square via a specific route but only in a visualized board, and then you speak the moves. once you get to the point where you can visualize many pieces, you can try solving puzzles by just visualizing the entire puzzle and solving it in your head. it takes a lot of energy though.
on the fourth, you want to pick up the concepts being used by strong players and you want to understand the reason they played the moves. for this it is better to get games where the player is the one annotating the game and he explains his thought process. i would also prefer more words and less lines. i don't know specific titles as i didn't do this kind of thing myself. maybe someone can point you to a good book.
Study whatever interests you, whether it's from interactive lessons, chess books, online courses or YouTube videos. Try to learn one thing at a time at a level you understand it. This way you'll be always adding new "building blocks" to your chess knowledge. Play and try to learn from your mistakes.
I mean, a lot of people will give you very detailed and structured study plans, that might sound interesting to optimize your practice. However, in reality, you'll most likely find that you don't quite understand some concepts or get bored trying to learn something that doesn't interest you (yet). It takes a lot of learning to learn how to learn chess.
If you're recreational hobbyist who wants to improve, then just pick a subject that interests you and delve into that. Study it as long as you find it interesting and worthwhile and then switch to something else. All you really need to do is to stay curious and stay consistent. Best way to do that is by doing something that you enjoy. Learning chess takes years, years and years and you'll never learn all of it, so try to make it as enjoyable as possible. Otherwise you'll do it for a month or a year and then give up and quit.
Good luck on your chess journey!
I can't thank everyone enough for patiently answering my queries, and for these great inputs. I have more than enough to proceed. Thanks !
Started at 37 this year 
. Here are the things I've found the most valuable:
- The basic course here on Chess.com (you find it under lessons -> Guide). Really well thought out and a quick way to learn the basic strategies in all parts of the game.
- Play games at a slow time control. Go through them with an engine carefully. Try to understand the moves you missed (sometimes this is very hard, but frequently it will be clear when you look a couple of moves down the line). Annotate the games with your thoughts. At the end of your analysis summarize the most important points that you learned from the game.
- Solve puzzles. Always try to calculate all the way to the end in your head! I catch myself getting too lazy sometimes
. But I think being able to visualize positions in your head is one of the most valuable skills you can have! - There are a few youtubers that are very good teachers. I recommend Daniel Naroditsky for example. I also find lectures by Varuzhan Akobian to be very valuable (especially those for kids lol).
- When it comes to the opening I'm not sure about my approach. I try A LOT of different openings because I enjoy it. But that may be a misstake. I do think learning the classics properly may be better in the long run (Ruy Lopez, Queens Gambit, Italian etc). I'm mediocre at a lot of openings instead . I usually learn the basic moves from the internet. Then every game I play I try to learn a couple of more moves in some of the lines using the explorer here on chess.com. My thinking is that this is a fairly pain free way of studying openings (as opposed to memorizing long lines).
- Silman's book "Reassess your chess". It's one of the hardest books I've read on any subject. Some of the exercises I never understood. But it did give me a solid vocabulary for positional chess. It has helped me wording the analysis of my games. It's a fantastic book, that I plan to read again at some point.
Good luck fellow oldie !
Sep 19, 2021
0
#29
theRawSalmon wrote:
Silman's book "Reassess your chess". It's one of the hardest books I've read on any subject. Some of the exercises I never understood. But it did give me a solid vocabulary for positional chess. It has helped me wording the analysis of my games. It's a fantastic book, that I plan to read again at some point.
You might prefer Silman's "The Amateur's Mind", which is a gentler introduction to many of the "Reassess Your Chess" concepts.
("The Amateur's Mind" is aimed more at beginners. "Reassess Your Chess" is aimed more at intermediates.)
Sep 19, 2021
0
#30
Playing daily chess - chess.com/daily should be helpful, with 1, 3 or 7 days per move time control should be good, you'll have good amount of time to think and to learn "How to think" you can continue to read the books and by following the advices mentioned above. (^^)
Thechess10kp skrev:
Wow #36 has the rest of the thread beat. Really solid advice. The one thing I might add is more books in your arsenal, to learn endgames too.
Thank you for the kind words. Just remember I'm a beginner too, so everything I say may be off . Silman has an endgame book too that I've planned to study. Have you read it, is it any good?
Stil1 skrev:
theRawSalmon wrote:
Silman's book "Reassess your chess". It's one of the hardest books I've read on any subject. Some of the exercises I never understood. But it did give me a solid vocabulary for positional chess. It has helped me wording the analysis of my games. It's a fantastic book, that I plan to read again at some point.
You might prefer Silman's "The Amateur's Mind", which is a gentler introduction to many of the "Reassess Your Chess" concepts.
("The Amateur's Mind" is aimed more at beginners. "Reassess Your Chess" is aimed more at intermediates.)
I wish I knew that, would have saved me a couple of painful months trying to power my way through "Reassess... " lol. I did learn a lot, but it was very tough.
Sep 19, 2021
0
#33
I would recommend watching the chessbrah series on building chess habits.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUjxDD7HNNThftJtE0OIRFRMMFf6AV_69
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8N8j2e7RpPnpqbISqi1SJ9_wrnNU3rEm
Perhaps go through some structured chess courses on chessable.com. Chessable courses provide the explanation of books with the active learning of computer programs.
As for learning by going through games, I recommend the free 'Guess the move' program.
https://sites.google.com/view/fredm/home
input your favorite engine and pgn collection of games.
My favorite pgn site for games.
https://www.pgnmentor.com/files.html
All of these are free (*chessable.com is pay for certain courses but there tons of free courses).
Sep 19, 2021
0
#34
Do some almost all beginners fail to do ... learn the essential endings.
You should play out of your league , you will lose a lot more than if you played others with your rating, but it will become monotonous and you will not learn new strategies...plus it builds character.
#27
"I did consider Bobby Fischer's book" ++ It is basic, but good. It is worth pursuing. If you work though it, then you never ever miss a basic tactic for you or for your opponent.
"(1) Studying books" ++ A book by a grandmaster is better than a mediocre coach. Do not overdo. No more than 3 per year. Books are helpful, but like you cannot learn to swim or to drive a car from a book, you cannot learn chess from a book either: you have to play.
"(2) Working on tactics" ++ Very important, 'chess is 99% tactics' - Teichmann. Engines only confirm that. Engines slaughter grandmasters with middle game tactics, regardless of opening. The grandmasters do not even reach the endgame.
"(3) Doing analysis"
++ Analysis of lost games to learn from your mistakes is the way to progress. AlphaZero got to 3000 strength with no input but the rules by learning from 700,000 games against itself.
"(4) Using computers minimally and only for analysis."
++ They are great to help analyse. They are better than a coach. It is like you have a super GM looking at your games available 24/7 for free.
"I picked Soviet Primer" ++ good
"My System" ++ excellent
"Polgar's books" ++ good
"I will need an opening, middlegame and endgame repertoire"
++ middle game > endgame > opening. Do not waste time on openings: it is a bottomless pit for no real benefit. Endgames can be studied exactly. You cannot really study middle games, it has to come by playing and analysis. Analysis of annotated grandmaster games teaches you openings, middle games and endgames in one package. That is why my favourite book is "Zürich 1953" Bronstein