about to start study of chess...guidance needed

Hello everyone. I started playing the game of chess about a couple of months ago. Since then, I've been playing games against the computer, with mixed results. Right now I am currently at the 1200-1300 level (chessmaster plays a darn good game at those ratings, but usually makes a blunder, and then plays good chess again).

I have fallen in love with the game of chess, and I wish to take my game further. So I have decided that I will dedicate myself into studying the game. However, I will need help from you guys, to give me the right course of action in order to maximise results.

I have figured out with my school, work, and other activities that I can dedicate about 2 hours every weekday solely for chess, and about 3-4 hours every weekend day (so 6-8 hours total during the weekend).

I have found the following website, with organized study plan, so unless you guys say otherwise, I will use it as my guiding tool.

http://kensoffice.webs.com/kenschesslessons.htm
http://kensoffice.webs.com/chessbeyondthebasics.htm

I also have the following books to help me:

Logical Chess Move by Move - Irving Chernev
Amateur's Mind by Jeremy Silman
Bruce Pandolfini's endgame course 
303 Chess Tactics - by Fred Wilson and Bruce Albertson
Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games by Laszlo Polgar

I also plan to play a game against the computer each day.

Please help me with my chess education. Kindly give me good advice on how to improve my game, if my study plan sounds feasible, and what needs to be changed/altered.

I also have the Josh Waitkin courses featured by Chessmaster which is actually pretty helpful.

You know of all of these sources and have five books and you are asking for more?  Isn't that sort of like a first-grader asking for more books before he has the first grade down pat?  You could remain very busy and get a headache just attempting to keep up with what you have.  Okay, so I'm ribbing you a little, but not totally, because one can only study some many things at once, not to mention playing against the computer everyday and learning from your loses doing that.  Don't burn yourself out before you even start. 

Ha, I am one to talk, because every time I go into a bookstore the first thing I do is go to the chess book section.  I have not read all of those chess books I purchased. Is it possible to have too many chess books?  I cannot really answer that question, because i haven't enough yet to determine if that is possible. 

I have Chess: 534 Problems..., Logical Chess Move by Move and Pandolifni's endgame course. And I purchase a chess book yesterday, too.  

Enjoy chess!  It is a game for a lifetime.  Truly the game of the gods. 

I have that, too.  I am teaching my wife to play chess and that saves time and energy on my part for her to watch those courses. Not to mention that Josh is much more qualifted to instruct chess than I am.  It is always good to have others' oppinions other than a husband's. 

I'm not looking for more books, I was just wondering if the choice of books and my plan overall is sound.

I've started browsing through Logical Chess and I like Chernev's approach.

I think that 12 week study course is very ambitious. You don't need anything more than that. Stick with that program for 12 weeks and you'll have taken a big chunk out of a process that usually takes much longer. 'mastering the fundamentals' -- is exactly what you should be working on imo. Good luck. Enjoy yourself. 

I would suggest playing chess against humans rather than computers.  It's a lot more fun and will probably help you improve faster.  This site is great for that.  Play some quick games and some slow games.

Tactics are also great.  Chesstempo.com is excellent for that.

Overall I would suggest you spend most of your time playing and doing tactics and less on theory. 

Hope this helps and good luck!

You might want to add a book that collects some GM games.

Kasparov's My Great Predecessors series is very well annotated.

I recommend Volume 5 (Korchnoi and Karpov) if you can only get one .

Another great Kasparov book is The Test of Time which collects games from his early career, including the 1982-84 Candidates cycle

studying is boring. i almost never study, and look where i am! 1900!

Great Scott!  I am guilty of what I have accused other of doing, and that is not reading some one's post thoroughly. You did say, "Please help me with my chess education. Kindly give me good advice on how to improve my game, if my study plan sounds feasible, and what needs to be changed/altered"  

I have a first-printing of Logical Chess and I really have liked it through the years.  However, since we moved I have not been about to find it.  It is in descriptive notation, which I learned to play chess.  Someone in another forum told me that there is a newer addition in algebraic notation. If I cannot find the book I will purchase another, but you know Murphy's Law for that - soon as I purchase a new one I'll find the old one. I'm sure if that would be the case I could give it to a friend in need. 

I think playing both is good. But for me, nothing beats playing OTB (over the board). Facing your opponent is such a challenge. 

But how can you be certain you would not be 2000 or more if you studied? 

You just helped me, because I have never heard of Pawn Power in Chess. (Mercy, there's another chess book I just gotta have!) Pawns intrigue me.  When I first began playing chess I was such a woodpusher, but of course, I soon learned there was more to pawns than shoving them around the board. I lost too many games not realizing their positions on the board too often, far too often, found them wanting and lost in the endgame. 

Consider it done, becasue I jsut ordered it from Amazon.  I wasn't kidding when I wrote:

Ha, I am one to talk, because every time I go into a bookstore the first thing I do is go to the chess book section.  And Amazon is just too easy. 

Man, I love chess!

how do i know i care? lol jk i probably will once i become 20, after i quit school and devote my life to chess. but if i can become 2100 by 20 years of age (uscf not chess.com and im like 1600 rite now, but thats cuz i never really play uscf, i only play oscf, which i am like 1800) then there is something wrong with all you people that study and study and study and fail to understand how to castle, or ask what openings to play. and i want to prove to people that study doesnt neccesarily mean read books. i play a ton of chess games, and i never go over grandmaster games. whats the point? its boooooring!

and also, if your really wanting to practice against a computer, chessmaster sucks. get rybka or fritz

 Good Luck with that... 

I have been considering purchasing Fritz, but I have read some comments on these forums that some people think Rybka is not the best.  I purchased Chessmaster before I heard of either of the other two, maybe before they were available. 

Study tactics solely until you reach a consistent 1600 (this is turn-based chess. Live standard rating approx 1400), then read thoroughly through one section of the Amateur's Mind a week, taking careful note of every position and playing through variations yourself. Also start working on basic endgames once you reach 1500 turn based/1300 live standard

By the time you finish TAMind (with tactics training still going on) you should be around 1700 (1500 live standard). Continue with tactics training and study openings, more thorough endgames and annotate master games. HTRYC by silman will be good once you've got to about 1800 turn based.

A copy of Fritz is brilliant for checking your games AFTER you annotate them yourself - chessbase 2009 premium is brilliant for a database program and TWIC is a great source for master games.

This is pretty much the system I used (with extra opening study for my own interest - I love opening theory) and it's got me from 1200-1800 in a year.