thanks!!
Chess improvement.
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I am glad you liked it!
Oct 24, 2016
0
#6
heismans thought process has improved my game immensely I beat a 1780 otb at my chess club which was all due to thought process I also beat a 1675 uscf the same day. my provisional rating is 1005 uscf
Oct 25, 2016
0
#7
Where is the chess guide for people who have an online chess rating of 400?
The first section works for them. Useing a thought process will really improve your. Improving how well you use it is the next step.
Good points. I also think in chess patience is important. Look for threats, captures & checks & don't rush.
Yes. The thought process gets more advanced, but those basic things will help you a lot. I will post 1200-1400 segmant before to long.
Cool. I'd like to get from 1600 to 1800 to 2000 but it feels like a massive leap.
It is. But I have gone from terrible player to about expert OTB in 2 years. and I have only been playing for 2 years.
The highest section I go to is 1800 to 2000
That is impressive. You must be fairly young. If you push hard you could probably reach master level if you've already hit 1800 after just 2 years.
Time for the next section!
1200 to 1400
Should work on: Tactics, Thought Process, Endgames, and Basic openings.
Quickly we will look at a problem that stops people from improving. Then we will be back to the scheduled program :)
The higher you get the more you have to work on. It becomes tricky to improve. One way to get around this is to set aside 30 solid minutes every day to study, each day doing a differant topic. Useing the differant topics shown in this post for your rating range you can build a study plan. This will focus your study and help you advance up the rating range! One other problem is the amount of resources. There are many topics to study and many resources to use. The resources I recamend in these posts for your rating range is all you need to get. More like all you need to study. If you want to get something(course, membership, book, ect.) consider it carefully.
Okay back to the scheduled program!
The tactics are the same as the previous post. If you know any other tactics resource that is fine as well.
Well since we keep disrupting the program...heres another useful tip.
Quality is better then qaunity. This is true for study time. The above tip/disruption of program(program is being used loosly here) tells us to set aside 30 mins a day. If you want to be a strong play(expert/master+) then one hour a day is best. But wait, we just said quality is better then quanity. So how do we improve the quality? The best way to improve quality is to:
1. Stop playing bullet/blitz during your study time!
2. Play slow games useing a thought process.
3. Sructure your training time.
Here is how to structure your study time.(this is a example for this section. If you were in 1000 and under section spending 30 mins doing tactics and 20 minutes playing 10 min chess would be best)
Spend the first 10 minutes studying tactics. Dont worry about how long you take. You must improve your abilaty to see tactics. This will also sharpen your tactical vision slighty for the rest of the session. Spend 20 minutes playing 10 min chess well using a thought process. Spend 15 minutes looking at common opening theory. Openings like the ruy lopez and opening traps. Spend 15 minutes studying endgames.
Now the above example will vary for players based on what their mood or energy level.
Back to the scheduled program. I apoligize for disruptions!
Now to thought process! Still use the thought process we looked at in the first post (section 1000 to 1200) looking at checks, captures and threats first. Now here is some more pieces of info. After your opponent moves you can check how dangerous it is by giving them a second move. This just means if they could move again what would they do? This will help you stop hanging pieces because if you do this you will see they can take your piece! Another imprtant thing to do is to see how the position has changed after your opponent has moved. For example if they just played h6 and they had already played f6 this means that g6 is now a weak square.
Opening study time!
For opening study watch videos on the fried liver attack. Also look at basic opening tricks. Watch out for the opening theory pit hole (which I fell into when I was first studying). This is where you look at openings and memorize the moze order. This is 100% a waste of time. You will improve nil. The best thing to do to learn openings here is look at WHY grandmasters play the openings that way. Learning the plans behind the opening will give you boost. This is a bit advanced for this rating section but you can take a stab at it if you want. James Eades book Chess Openings for Dummies is a good place to start opening study.
Endgames!
For endgames you should get Jeremy Silmans book Silmans Complete Endgame Course. Just do it. You will not need to get another endgame book ever. It will boost your endgames 10 fold. Heck it even beats online endgame study courses. You know what (nice fellow) why don't we put it on a gold pedastal and worship it! It is that good.
Thats all for this group! I apolozige for: bad grammer, bad spelling, and bad jokes(thats fatal. dang)
Have a good day and until later!
Oh for the first 2 sections get the book Chess for Dummies by James Eade. it really helped me go from horrable, terrible, and just plain bad to Begginer with a clue. Thats what started my improvement.
edguitarock wrote:
That is impressive. You must be fairly young. If you push hard you could probably reach master level if you've already hit 1800 after just 2 years.
I am younger then 16. I am also aiming for master level in less then 2 years. The biggest problem will be finding a tourn to go to.
DMGame, I would love to sign up to your lesson page, i need all the help i can get!
Big thanks for tips & help. Like most players, could do with all the help & advice going... I win & lose in a haphazard manner but as I'm retired (old & crusty) forget to much too quickly, so probably way too late for me now :( But do enjoy a game...
This will be a very short series! It will focus on topics players of each rating range should study to maximize improvment!
1000 and under.
Should work on: Tactics
Tactics are the number one thing for players rated under 1000 to work on! This will help you win games agianst opponents with tactical patterns and cause your rating to climb very quicky!
The best ways to study tactics are: There are many websites and books that give you tactics to practice. Some sites are just for tactics! Chess.com has tactics trainer which is useful, however with only 5 problems a day for basic members it can be hard to practices. Getting a gold or platinum membership can be very helpful for practicing tactics. Igor Sukhin has a book that focuses on basic tactical patterns. The book (titled Tactics in attack and defense) is in his basic chess camp series. I highly recamend it for basic tactics! Finally Chessbase.com has a tactics server as well. This is also very helpful. ( I hope mentioning chessbase is okay) All of the above are very helpful!
1000 to 1200.
Should work on: Tactics, basic endgames, and thought process.
This is quite a bit more then the previous rating range!
Tactics are same as above. These are slighlty less important however they will still be a huge help.
For basic endgames it is important to know the staircase mates, king and rook v.s king, king and queen v.s king, how to avoid stalemate, Bishop v.s Queen, knight v.s queen, king and pawn v.s king, and finally opposition. Oh and it wouldn't hurt to know the tricky use of rook pawns as well. This seems like a huge amount to learn but believe it or not it should only take 30-60 minutes to master all of it! I will create a lesson page that talks breifly about these endgame topics but only if I am asked to by a player who wants to improve.
Thought process is tricky. This is a key part to improve. So Many players learn all about endgames and openings when they learn chess and finally when they reach 1600+ they learn that in order to improve...they have to learn the dreaded thought process!! The horror! What is this beast?! How do you fight it?? Then most players drown and never improve. But by learning the thought process early on before you reach 1600+ you will become a literall monster over the board. Well maybe thats a lie but you get my point. Oh and a bonus, your improvement will come very quickly! The people who beat you and laughed at you when you were 1200- will now hide from you when you offer them a challenge. They will not understand how you improved so quickly(well unless they read this)! So now on to thought process basics!
The basics to a good thought process are:
1. Look at checks, captures, and threats first when searching for moves. This way if there are any instant moves you will find them upfront and not waste time or miss it all together! And I mean ALL checks, captures and threats! No matter how silly they look.
2. Analyze wide before deep. This means that you look at most moves(but not obviously bad ones, unless they are a check, capture or threat) and put them aside as candidates and LATER when you have your selected moves analyze those deeply and well. Again, analyze all checks, captures, and threats first.
3. Try to figure out all the reasons your opponent made their move. Then try and punish their move. If you see no way to punish it(try and punish it with checks, captures, and...well you know. But try and punish it with these first) then do what the position says
4. And speaking of talking(positions). Basic ways to do what the position wants are: 1. Improve your worst piece 2. Place a piece on a weak square 3. Attack a weak pawn
We will cover positional chess in higher rated sections.
Book recommendations:
1. All tactics books mentioned above( By all I mean one)
2. Silmans Complete Endgame Course: From beginner to master by IM Jeremy Silman
3. The Improving Chess Thinker by NM Dan Heisman
These are recammended to all the sections in this post.
I hope you enjoyed and I apoligize for all spelling mistakes and improper grammer. Until next time!