Advice needed on chess study

Sort:
htesligte

Hi all,

 

From now until about newyears I have two days a week off. I intend to use these days for chess study, but I need some advice on how to do it properly. 

Some brief information about me, I'm rated somewhere between 1400 and 1600 and believe I know basic chess principles. I try to do tactics about half an hour / one hour every day (on another website). I know very little openings, and the only opening I know out of my head is the Four knights, symmetrical variation. For other openings I am aware of the basic principles like castling early, developing pieces, playing toward the center, those kinds of things.

 

So I know studying openings is not advised for players below 2000-2200, and I haven't really done that for that reason. But of course I do feel awkward in the opening and I tend to blunder in sharp lines. I feel I do need a bit of study there, or would you really recommend against that?

Tomorrow I will try to do my first "chess-study" day, and I have it planned as follows:

  • 0800-1000: Study from Tune your Chess Tactics Antenna
  • 1015-1200: Analyze some of my games, maybe grandmaster games.
  • 1230-1330: Tactics
  • 1345-1500 (can be later): Online game with long time control (9030/4545)
  • (after that): analyze game
  • (evening): watch some chess videos on YouTube

 

I would like your opinion on this schedule. Would you recommend more book reading? Something with more focus on openings? 

I have the following resources:

  • Chessbase 13
  • Fritz 14
  • Tune your chess tactics antenna (Emmanuel Neiman)
  • Understanding chess move by move (John Nunn) (a bit above my rating, sometimes I get completely lost in his variations and I find it hard to motivate myself to get through all the lines)
  • How to reassess your chess (also a bit above my rating, some stuff I understand, some stuff too difficult)
  • Silman's complete endgame course (read until the 1600+ stuff)
  • Openings for amateurs (Pete Tamburro) (android app)

So what would your recommendation be? How do you do chess study? I am very interested as I want to use my time as best as possible.

D-mate19
Wow, great Plan! I just spend hours on chess.com goofing around :P
kindaspongey

For someone seeking help with openings, I usually bring up Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014).

http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html

"Every now and then someone advances the idea that one may gain success in chess by using shortcuts. 'Chess is 99% tactics' - proclaims one expert, suggesting that strategic understanding is overrated; 'Improvement in chess is all about opening knowledge' - declares another. A third self-appointed authority asserts that a thorough knowledge of endings is the key to becoming a master; while his expert-friend is puzzled by the mere thought that a player can achieve anything at all without championing pawn structures.

To me, such statements seem futile. You can't hope to gain mastery of any subject by specializing in only parts of it. A complete player must master a complete game ..." - FM Amatzia Avni (2008)

Shakespeare-Voltaire
Wait is it really true that you should not study openings for players below 2000? That can't be right because there are so many books on opening for beginners which go over the ruy, Sicilian, etc.
htesligte
Shakespeare-Voltaire wrote:
Wait is it really true that you should not study openings for players below 2000? That can't be right because there are so many books on opening for beginners which go over the ruy, Sicilian, etc.

Well, that's what I have read a lot. Most people recommend focussing on just playing a lot, endgame and tactics. So that's what I'm going by now, but I do feel I need to incorporate a bit about openings. But let's just see how today goes.