My advice for "play time" and "study time" and why it doesn't exist in chess
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A slow game might take me a few hours, and then it might take me another few hours after that to analyze the game with an opening book and engine, and then play around with the analysis, playing variations where I test possibly “threatening” or “aggressive” moves of my opponent. My mistakes still end up being fairly crude. After all that, I end up wondering if I would have been better off doing tactics during those same several hours.
So I have ADHD and it is very difficult for me to watch a step by step tutorial/lesson about attacking. My way of learning is by playing and learning by each game. I study my games and see what I could’ve done and what pieces I missed and what checks I missed. Does anyone else feel this way? I’m still fairly new. I’ve been playing only a couple months and ive still managed to stay at a 900 rank
kartikeya_tiwari wrote:
For those who are not familiar, this concept of "play time" vs "study time" is very popular in especially fps games. The idea is that you "study" a game to increase your decision making while you "play" to increase your mechanical skill. Both are exclusive, you can't train decision making while playing(no time to think) and you can't improve mechanical skill while thinking about plans.
Now coming to chess, these concepts don't make any sense since there is no "mechanical skill" aspect. Therefore playing doesn't actually do anything. Chess is all about thinking and visualization and that you can do anywhere... while training / studying with an engine and also while playing.
Basically, u can sit with a computer program and try to think about the moves, visualize some moves ahead etc and train your board vision while also training your theory. You don't "miss out" on any skill by not playing with people. You should only really play when you feel like increasing your elo.
Basically, my advice would be to spend almost all of your time training, "playing" doesn't give you anything extra. The more you train with an engine and the more you force yourself to look ahead, the better you will get at chess and visualizing forward moves. Play only when you want to take a break from training and i recommend playing longer time controls
Playing does keep you honest, though. Actually applying what you've learned in games and the objective choices you made showing what you actually understood vs what you thought you followed. There is a mechanical skill to having habits that you actually apply in a game where you can't take back and need to make a move, etc.
For those who are not familiar, this concept of "play time" vs "study time" is very popular in especially fps games. The idea is that you "study" a game to increase your decision making while you "play" to increase your mechanical skill. Both are exclusive, you can't train decision making while playing(no time to think) and you can't improve mechanical skill while thinking about plans.
Now coming to chess, these concepts don't make any sense since there is no "mechanical skill" aspect. Therefore playing doesn't actually do anything. Chess is all about thinking and visualization and that you can do anywhere... while training / studying with an engine and also while playing.
Basically, u can sit with a computer program and try to think about the moves, visualize some moves ahead etc and train your board vision while also training your theory. You don't "miss out" on any skill by not playing with people. You should only really play when you feel like increasing your elo.
Basically, my advice would be to spend almost all of your time training, "playing" doesn't give you anything extra. The more you train with an engine and the more you force yourself to look ahead, the better you will get at chess and visualizing forward moves. Play only when you want to take a break from training and i recommend playing longer time controls