You're as bad as the moves you make. There is no excusing your bad moves, only making corrections to yourself will get rid of them.
I think that's an excellent advice, and it relates to more than chess. You can't blame alcohol for your mistakes for example. Or you can't go around telling everyone you were in fact a very talented genious but only lack the ambition to achieve any kind of success.
orangehonda, yes, it was a ton of work. there are 9 positions pre-selected that you can use to see how the computer workout works. if you need more than that, $5 buys you your own 30 day trial. unless you don't have $5, it's a bit strange to say hey, wow, you really sweated there for 150 hours, looking tired man, you ok? now, could i have your product for free?
as you can see from when i finished the guide to using computer workout and posted in this forum, i worked from 7 am to a bit after 3 am yesterday with two one-hour breaks and one 30-min break. you can probably imagine that's a slightly disappointing response to have gotten. but i know lots of someones will appreciate it!
If I can also have the disembodied voice of Daniel Rensch ranting angrily about the way I play as I use the workouts, I think I'd double my investment in chess.com ... where do I send the check! :)
Thanks for all the hard work you put in, David.
dpruess, 1 hour breaks seem a bit excessive to me. No wonder it took you so long...lol Just funnin David, thx for the hard work indeed!!!
BTW, the link on your previous post ( ) does not take me to "your" blog anymore, it just goes directly to the main chess blog(s) page and yours is no where to be seen now. Did something change or is your boss punishing the rest of us for your abusive break habits? 
lol
How can I get back to your original blog explaining the study tips etc. That was some quality info, and now I can't find it 
lol at Shivsky's idea. Bring on the Danny rants!!!
Ironically, I'm trying to master imbalanced and instructive openings to better my game. I feel if I get a really good understanding of the french, ruy lopez, sicilian, queen's gambit, and king's indian (among many others in fact, such as the dutch and benoni, but these would be my big 5) and learn from the masters playing these openings I will significantly improve from where I am now. That takes a ton of hard work though, but in any case at least it's fun to look at those strategically and tactically complex openings, AS LONG as you aren't reading theory like a zombie, you need to try to find your own moves and try to understand it.
After trying to navigate some very sharp openings through memorization (I know that's a bad way to do it) I'm taking something of a similar approach. Even though I'm not a 1.d4 player I'm trying to understand the basic ideas behind many different types of opening structures. Going back to opening's I can wrap my head around and leaving my memorized knowledge earlier to substitute a clear plan is satisfying and improved my results (in club games). I went into some IQP/panov positions on purpose for about the first time ever lol.
Not only does memorization help you less, for me it's often just plain boring to just stare at, but when I actively try to figure out what's going on and maybe even analyze some moves before seeing what theory suggests, it's a lot more fun and helpful. And in fact I'm loosely involved in the sicilian (play a couple rarer variations, don't play e4 anymore) and I don't even play the ruy lopez from either side but it's still very instructive looking at those games.
@ Goldendog: Thanks. They sound good! I'll see how I do with the 1st volume.
Ironically, I'm trying to master imbalanced and instructive openings to better my game. I feel if I get a really good understanding of the french, ruy lopez, sicilian, queen's gambit, and king's indian (among many others in fact, such as the dutch and benoni, but these would be my big 5) and learn from the masters playing these openings I will significantly improve from where I am now. That takes a ton of hard work though, but in any case at least it's fun to look at those strategically and tactically complex openings, AS LONG as you aren't reading theory like a zombie, you need to try to find your own moves and try to understand it.
After trying to navigate some very sharp openings through memorization (I know that's a bad way to do it) I'm taking something of a similar approach. Even though I'm not a 1.d4 player I'm trying to understand the basic ideas behind many different types of opening structures. Going back to opening's I can wrap my head around and leaving my memorized knowledge earlier to substitute a clear plan is satisfying and improved my results (in club games). I went into some IQP/panov positions on purpose for about the first time ever lol.
Not only does memorization help you less, for me it's often just plain boring to just stare at, but when I actively try to figure out what's going on and maybe even analyze some moves before seeing what theory suggests, it's a lot more fun and helpful. And in fact I'm loosely involved in the sicilian (play a couple rarer variations, don't play e4 anymore) and I don't even play the ruy lopez from either side but it's still very instructive looking at those games.
You mention the ruy and how you study but don't play it. It's interesting isn't it? Even if you don't actually play the specific opening moves seeing different ideas is useful and can even come up from some completely different opening. I just started experimenting doing this to broaden what I know, but surprisingly it turned out to be useful quickly. Might by a bit silly that I get excited over something like this... but I really like chess 
orangehonda, yes, it was a ton of work. there are 9 positions pre-selected that you can use to see how the computer workout works. if you need more than that, $5 buys you your own 30 day trial. unless you don't have $5, it's a bit strange to say hey, wow, you really sweated there for 150 hours, looking tired man, you ok? now, could i have your product for free?
as you can see from when i finished the guide to using computer workout and posted in this forum, i worked from 7 am to a bit after 3 am yesterday with two one-hour breaks and one 30-min break. you can probably imagine that's a slightly disappointing response to have gotten. but i know lots of someones will appreciate it!
lol sorry . "Hey great job, lots of work, but make it free" didn't lift your spirits any? I didn't mean it like that.
NM Dan Heisman has a lot to say about roadblocks that we seem to be in denial about.
Shivsky, thanks for this link. I wasn't aware of Heisman's monthly columns at chesscafe.com (or all the other resources), and I've already found a couple gems scanning through his column titles. For others, here's a more general link to a list of his archived columns for the past 9 years (scan up and down the page from there for other columnists' archives):
http://www.chesscafe.com/archives/archives.htm#Novice Nook
EDIT: The link refuses to let me include the last portion because they used a space in their anchor name. The URL should end in Novice{space}Nook.
thanks shiv and vladamir. and great idea with danny's voice.
and orange, no prob, friend :)
oh yeah, they moved my blog to news so more people would see it, here's the new link: http://www.chess.com/news/computer-workout-20
@ Goldendog: Thanks. They sound good! I'll see how I do with the 1st volume.
Definitely see if the local library has Vol 1. That's how I ran through Vol 1.
I'd hate to have you buy it and find that it had more easily solved puzzles than you wanted, but the book in total would be good practice no matter what.
http://www.amazon.com/Test-Your-Chess-IQ-Challenge/dp/1857441397
Isn't that obvious, and true with just about any game or sport?
Definitely see if the local library has Vol 1. That's how I ran through Vol 1.
I'd hate to have you buy it and find that it had more easily solved puzzles than you wanted, but the book in total would be good practice no matter what.
http://www.amazon.com/Test-Your-Chess-IQ-Challenge/dp/1857441397
That's a good idea, but unfortunately I've already ordered it. On amazon.co.uk it only cost me £6.99 + £2.75 shipping anyway.
David and other responders to his couple very thought provoking posts, your comments are so interesting to read. I definitely relate to not wanting to hear most advice, but once I'm in my living room looking to study chess, those are the things I work on--and usually are juicy. I've recently made class B, and have done the 7 circles type technique of going over the same set of problems multiple times. I am understanding that you think I would be well served to incorporate more complex problems to practice calculation and visualization? Should these be part of going over master games, harder play/win problems, chess mentor...or all of the above?
I'm still scratching my head at this--but what about the rest of us, or at least me! I would love you to rip into my games, and I'll take my lumps. I have been seeking out stronger players online to go over games, and nobody I've asked is interested. Any strong players want to help mentor this up and coming class B player who does put in effort just about every day on his chess? Want to make it into a teaching video, I'd be happy to take part.
It's the chatting about a game afterwards that I find so rarely online. In person at least, most players will take the time to go over a tournament game.
Sorry for my little rant, thanks for listening.
Jeremy
George: Well, you got no place to go. I'll tell you what your problem is: You brought your queen out too fast. What do you think? She's one of these feminists looking to get out of the house? No, the queen is old fashioned. . Likes to stay home. Cook. Take care of her man. Make sure he feels good.
Liz: Checkmate.
George: I don't think we should see each other any more.
play without fear
George: Well, you got no place to go. I'll tell you what your problem is: You brought your queen out too fast. What do you think? She's one of these feminists looking to get out of the house? No, the queen is old fashioned. . Likes to stay home. Cook. Take care of her man. Make sure he feels good.
Liz: Checkmate.
George: I don't think we should see each other any more.
play without fear
Seinfield was a funny show
hi folks,
the livschitz book is indeed a possibility. another source are tough positions from your own previous games. you know, those positions where you weren't sure what to do, and finally you played a move.
now, i also hinted (or promised) to various people that i'd have another suggestion about studying. here it is, i hope you're thrilled:
http://blog.chess.com/view/computer-workout-20
ooh, very nice -- seems like you put a lot of work into it too. I want to see how good/bad my endgames might be. I already do some of this on my own but hand picked key positions sound very nice. One last thing, how about a 30 day free trial