Also bonus question, could playing a lot of online games benefit 'planning' in live games?
How could it not?
Think
I allready thought about it but I'm not sure. Maybe it can be useful to spend lots and lots of time in correspondence games trying to come up with the right plan. On the other hand, you don't have that time in live chess. So I want to hear other people's thoughts.
Personally, I think 960 would help, because it's almost as if you are starting right away with tactics, as opposed to scripted openings that experienced players can make in their sleep.
improve your standard chess, yes or no? and why?
Also bonus question, could playing a lot of online games benefit 'planning' in live games?
discuss
Chess improves chess, I don't know why 960 would be any different.
Well if anything it would hurt a bit, because the pawn structures and maneuvers would tend to be funky and not applicable to standard chess. For example I played certain scandinavian sidelines a lot... and it turns out, depending on how white responds, I was getting transpositions into Aliekhins, slavs, frenches, and nimzovichs (not mainlines, but I was being exposed to different structures and ideas).
So as Estragon said these get stored away in long term memory and are useful in future games.
Assessing a position and making a plan in 960 doesn't earn you any more skill credits (a term I just made up heh) than it would when you do it in standard chess. In fact all your regular misunderstandings and limitations apply. If you want to get better at middlegames you should read a middlegame book, study endgames, and look over master games in openings you like to play :p
improve your standard chess, yes or no? and why?
Also bonus question, could playing a lot of online games benefit 'planning' in live games?
discuss