Studying chess making me a worse player?

Dear Chessfriend,

My name is Gabor Balazs. I am a Hungarian FM, fighting for the IM title. My top ELO is 2435. I have been playing chess for 21 years. I won the Hungarian Rapid Championship twice (U16 and U18).

I love teaching chess and it is very important for me that both of us enjoy the lessons beside the hard work. I have pupils almost all the levels from beginners to advanced players (1100-2200 ELO).

Why should you choose me?

- I have a widespread opening repertoire (a lot of openings are analysed by strong Grand Masters).

- I have a lot of chess books in PDF and Chessbase format, so I can teach you the main middlegame plans, the art of calculations, famous chess games and the endgame theory.

- I have elaborated, personalized training plans, which help you to improve your skills effectively.

- I help you analyse your games deeply, so you can realise your mistakes and learn from them.

- I am really flexible and hard-working person, the quality of my work is really important for me.

Please, contact me (balazsgabor1991@gmail.com), if you are interested in working with me, I am looking forward to your message.  

@The100PerChallenge2 If you got started into chess, welcome! I hope you have a lot of fun playing and learning!

@MickinMD Thank you for sharing your coaching experience! I really liked your approach and I'm saving the links you provided to my (rapidly) growing library.

@kindaspongey Thank you for the suggestion. I have been looking at the contents though and they overlap a lot with other books that have been suggested earlier!

@Aida_Admin It does help, but to sort everything is confusing. Some people say studying openings doesn't make sense when you're under the 1000s and midgame and endgames are more important, while many "basics" books start straight away with short explanations of multiple openings. It's hard to sort all this out.

@Bgabor91 Thank you for the offer but before looking for a coach I think I would need to learn quite a bit more (my top rating was 990 and recently I dropped to the 800s).

Now, about my experience so far since I started this thread!

When I started this thread, I had some learning resources I thought would be enough. I was wrong. I would like to tell a story of a miraculous improvement but this is not the case. I have been diligently playing both standard and blitz games, analysing them after I play them, reading books recommended in this thread, doing tactics on the board and in general following all advices people have been giving.

At some point I was about to hit the 1000s, but then for some reason everything went downhill. Maybe it's a lack of focus, maybe is my insistence in playing the Italian opening, and certainly sometimes is playing pieces without thinking twice about it. Now I'm sitting in the mid 800s and people only seem to become stronger and stronger no matter at what level.

I need to sit, focus, and follow an exact learning plan. I need to make a change in my approach or I'll be stuck forever. Or maybe I just don't have enough potential to be better? 

 Dear Daniel,

I understand your view, but beleive me, it is important to know, how you should search for the best move in a position or in a tactical example. And it is not easy to find out by yourself, a coach can help a lot with it and also with the basics. Without the basics you can't improve your skills efficiently, so you waste too much time. But of course, it is your decision😊 But if you are interested in learning the basic skills, you can write me a message 😊

Daniel,

I agree, a coach will help or joining the local chess club. But what I think at your level is that your should study openings. There are plenty of tools out there but I recommend Bookup.  It is a very old program that has been renamed to Chess Opening Wizard.  It allows you to practice openings by playing the move on the chess board screen.  If you are in training mode, which I recommend, it will not let you enter the wrong move.  They also have middlegame and endgame books where in training mode it will not let you enter the wrong move.  On your part, after you make the right move, ask yourself, why is this the right move and why can't I play something else.  Little homework. I teach chess in Ohio for free and only tach basic opening and tactic skills.  Secondly, chessok has a program that teaches tactics. If you make a bad move, it will show you a similar picture, not as hard to solve. It is like a crawl, walk, and run training method.  I think it is $30.00 https://shop.chessok.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7_26_44&products_id=610&zenid=fjlmh3vp3ou21u4jgvfucjrd07  is a youtube course of one of the course.  

I did not intend to indicate that you should obtain the Gude book. I just thought that the table of contents might be of interest as an indication of one view of what a new player might try to learn.

I am not sure what specific books you have been looking at, but some books discuss multiple openings with the idea of helping you to make choices about what you would like to try to use in your early games. I am unable to say for sure, but it seems unlikely that any book is expecting you to be able to use most openings. I think the important point is that it is not a simple matter of whether or not to study openings. The question is how much you should attempt to learn. Based on a look at some of your games, I think that you could benefit from some improved understanding of openings, such as what one might obtain from Logical Chess or Discovering Chess Openings. If I remember correctly, you expressed an intention to start on the Logical book. If you have gone ahead with that, I would suggest that you continue with that book for now.

Seems like a reasonable choice. If I remember correctly, there are some sample games (1, 2, and 5) explained in Logical Chess. Maybe, at some point (probably not now), you will want to look at some more games in a book like My First Chess Opening Repertoire for White
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9033.pdf
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/vincent-moret/

or First Steps: 1 e4 e5.
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7790.pdf

https://chesscafe.com/book-reviews/first-steps-1-e4-e5-by-john-emms/

I recently took a look at your page, and, if I am reading the symbols correctly, there were about twenty blitz games in a row for today. If you keep that up, perhaps the Soup Nazi will come after you. There seems to be a widespread belief that that sort of behavior is likely to interfere with efforts to improve.

"... I recommend that if you are a beginner, you should avoid speed chess for a variety of reasons. Among them:

• it can get you into a variety of bad habits,
• cause inexperienced players to rush in slow games, and
• can be very frustrating when you are not very good and can't see the chessboard very accurately in a short glance.

However, once you get good enough to have sufficient board vision and tactical vision to play speed games, I do recommend you add them to your practice repertoire. ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2017)

https://www.chess.com/article/view/is-speed-chess-good-for-you

"... I would guess up to ninety percent of your playing time should be slow games (thirty minutes for each player or preferably more) and the other ten percent speed games. ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2009)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627020325/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman100.pdf

It is vaguely possible that I might be able to say something helpful if you are more specific about what you have been reading.

Hi @kindaspongey!

Thanks for all your comments! I'm aware that playing many blitz games can harm my game but in days like these when most of us are locked at home there's not much else to do. Most of the blitz games I play are 10|0 though and even if they are fast paced there's no that sense of urgency that you play with 3 minutes with increments or bullet time controls (I have no interest at all in playing bullet).

About the books I'm reading, at this moment (since I don't want to overload myself), I'm reading Jeremy Silman's "Complete Book of Chess Strategy" and Irving Chernev's "Logical Chess", combined with some video series, mostly about developing (https://www.chess.com/article/view/video-series-on-development). Silman's is helping about getting an overall overview, which I complement with suggestions on this thread, and Chernev's, since I have not gone past the kingside attacks I'm looking a lot at the board's kingside during my games when I'm able. I'm really liking the series about development since it made me realise that in many games I keep pieces doing absolutely nothing.

@daroach I would love to join a chess club, and I was planning to before we were practically forced to stay at home all the time. I am planning to do so as soon as we are "free" to go outside again. I guess a coach is an option, and I hear you there @Bgagor91. It is something I'll give it some thought.

Hi Daniel,

All right!  If you need a coach anytime, you can write for me, of course.  I wish you luck till that time.

I can certainly understand the desire to play Blitz at this point, but that doesn't change that it may be a factor in what you report:

"... for some reason everything went downhill. …"

"... I would guess up to ninety percent of your playing time should be slow games (thirty minutes for each player or preferably more) ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2009)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627020325/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman100.pdf

Does that book have much in the way of sample games? I saw that book once, and it seemed to me that the large section on openings was not likely to be very helpful.

Hi @kindaspongey,

No, Silman's book doesn't have any commented games, just practical examples not more than 3 or 4 moves ahead. I'm still enjoying it, though, as it doesn't cover just the first moves of a large section of openings but also middle game tactics (I have yet to see what the endgame looks like). I admit that in this case Chernev's book is more interesting going through games that illustrate not just different ways to attack and defend but also does it from the perspective of many common openings for beginners.

About blitz games, I'm doing my best to stay away from it since the madness yesterday (you might notice I have not played any today), but it's hard!

I am a big fan of illustrative games, but its not like I'm an experienced trainer or anything, so maybe the Complete thing is a useful book. These days, I can certainly understand some Blitz activity. Just don't be surprised if it doesn't provide you with rating improvement.

"... Having fun playing bullet is great stuff, while 3-0 and 5-0 are also ways to get your pulse pounding and blood pressure leaping off the charts. But ..." - IM Jeremy Silman (June 9, 2016)

https://www.chess.com/article/view/longer-time-controls-are-more-instructive

It is a very common.

IM Jeremy Silman addresses this very issue in his extremely popular book "How to Reassess your chess". 

Here is an excerpt from the Intro-

"One pitfall must be mentioned before we finish this introduction and get into the lessons. Most players have developed a certain proficiency with their styles. They are skilled in their mediocrity. when you start changing the way you think about the game, you may find your results will actually get worse! Don't panic.

As you master the materials in this book, your downward plunge will reverse itself and you will soon find yourself at a point of understanding ad achievement far beyond anything you have previously obtained..........." 

@kindaspongey I can totally understand liking illustrative games. Being new to chess literature I find them really fun to read and follow on the board. And yes, I definitely don't expect to improve my game by playing Blitz. In fact, watching streams of people playing bullet seems to be really harming at my level. Playing 10 minutes games doesn't help but is good for unwinding!

@Morphys-Revenge That sounds like a book I would like to read. Now, I wonder if they sell it in ebook format! Thanks for that excerpt!