Effective Chess Study
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So, I have been playing off and on for years. I picked it up from my dad who was a collegiate champion and titled player. Sadly, while he was still alive I never took it too seriously. However, my 6 year old has recently taken interest.
Im sorry I prematurely posted and cant edit...give me a moment to finish...
Anyway, I am more interested in taking chess seriously and devoting some time to it. Fortunately, I have a decent library already, and have bought my own books as well. My problem is I become so overwhelmed with them. Generally, my problem is long variations. For instance, I am trying to piece together an opening repertoire. The books I have give main lines, explain the ideas of the opening, etc. but every few moves or so, bam. 20 moves of sidelines that just make things cumbersome. I figure the best way to work through these is to play them out on the board (digital seems easier personally) and work through them. But understanding moves that arent forced escapes me. I just seem to struggle with a method for effective study of books and games, or exactly what I should study. Granted that I am fairly versed on basics like endgames, mating patterns and the usual beginner stuff. What I need to know is what to study, but more importantly, how.
"... Overall, I would advise most players to stick to a fairly limited range of openings, and not to worry about learning too much by heart. ..." - FM Steve Giddins (2008)
"... Once you identify an opening you really like and wish to learn in more depth, then should you pick up a book on a particular opening or variation. Start with ones that explain the opening variations and are not just meant for advanced players. ..." - Dan Heisman (2001)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140626180930/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman06.pdf
"... To begin with, only study the main lines ... you can easily fill in the unusual lines later. ..." - GM John Nunn (2006)
"... I feel that the main reasons to buy an opening book are to give a good overview of the opening, and to explain general plans and ideas. ..." - GM John Nunn (2006)
"... If the book contains illustrative games, it is worth playing these over first ..." - GM John Nunn (2006)
"... the average player only needs to know a limited amount about the openings he plays. Providing he understands the main aims of the opening, a few typical plans and a handful of basic variations, that is enough. ..." - FM Steve Giddins (2008)
"... For inexperienced players, I think the model that bases opening discussions on more or less complete games that are fully annotated, though with a main focus on the opening and early middlegame, is the ideal. ..." - FM Carsten Hansen (2010)
"... Everyman Chess has started a new series aimed at those who want to understand the basics of an opening, i.e., the not-yet-so-strong players. ... I imagine [there] will be a long series based on the premise of bringing the basic ideas of an opening to the reader through plenty of introductory text, game annotations, hints, plans and much more. ..." - FM Carsten Hansen (2002)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627055734/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen38.pdf
"The way I suggest you study this book is to play through the main games once, relatively quickly, and then start playing the variation in actual games. Playing an opening in real games is of vital importance - without this kind of live practice it is impossible to get a 'feel' for the kind of game it leads to. There is time enough later for involvement with the details, after playing your games it is good to look up the line." - GM Nigel Davies (2005)
https://www.chess.com/article/view/learning-an-opening-to-memorize-or-understand
https://www.chess.com/article/view/3-ways-to-learn-new-openings
https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-to-understand-openings
Chess.com study plan....
https://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-directory
As far as the opening is concerned, the best book to begin with is....
"Discovering Chess Openings" by John Emms
https://www.amazon.com/Discovering-Chess-Openings-Building-Principles/dp/1857444191/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501766560&sr=1-1&keywords=discovering+chess+openings
It deals exclusively with the fundamentals of opening PRINCIPLES....it is not a manual of opening variations...that is, its focus is not the presentation of specific opening variations for their own sake.
Once the lessons in the John Emms book above are absorbed, the following is an excellent chess opening repertoire book for the beginner-intermediate player...
My First Chess Opening Repertoire for White by Vincent Moret....
https://www.amazon.com/First-Chess-Opening-Repertoire-White/dp/9056916335/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498873652&sr=8-1&keywords=my+first+chess+opening+repertoire+for+white
The following list includes several opening repertoire book suggestions (e.g., by Lev Alburt, Jef Kaan, John Emms) targeted to the beginner-intermediate player....
Good Chess Openings Books for Beginners and Beyond....
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-openings-books-for-beginners-and-beyond
For some opening repertoire suggestions by GM Nigel Davies and IM Andrew Martin, two well known and popular trainers and authors, see:
Martin's repertoire...(click the icons with downward pointing arrows to download the pgn files)...
http://www.chesspublishing.com/content/repert.htm
Davies' repertoire...
http://www.chesspublishing.com/content/repert2.htm
The following articles relating to choosing an opening repertoire are interesting and informative...
http://www.mark-weeks.com/aboutcom/aa02i07.htm
http://grandpatzerchess.blogspot.com/2007/03/openings-for-improving-players-part-1.html
http://grandpatzerchess.blogspot.com/2007/03/openings-for-improving-players-part-2.html
http://grandpatzerchess.blogspot.com/2007/03/openings-for-improving-players-part-3.html
Finally, the following might be of interest....
How to Build Your Chess Opening Repertoire by Steve Giddins. A book to guide you in the considerations involved in choosing your openings - the title says it all.
As a general rule, when studying books and master games at the beginner level, it's more important to pay attention to the moves that are played, not ones that could have been played.
In any given position, there are likely several perfectly acceptable moves. Spending time analyzing all of them doesn't make sense from a practical standpoint. For instance, should you spend much time analyzing the initial position?
Is any one move here better than another? Probably not, in any practical sense. Similarly, when going through master games, most non-forcing variations are 'of interest' but not essential for the beginner/immediate student.
Your first goal should be to understand the winner's moves. Can you see the logic behind these moves? If you have annotations to help you, great. Pay attention to the main line, the moves that were played. As you begin to understand the game, you can then ask questions. Why was X played here? Was a different move or idea possible at an earlier time? Here's where you can look at variations and see if they spread light on these questions.
In short, if you can begin to understand the ideas behind the moves, mostly the mainline of the winner, then you are studying effectively, regardless if you pay attention to the non-forcing variations. Forcing variations, of course, should not be ignored.
RussBell wrote:
...
"Discovering Chess Openings" by John Emms
...
My First Chess Opening Repertoire for White by Vincent Moret....
...
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9033.pdf
Aug 3, 2017
0
#8
Jd19eight0 wrote:
Anyway, I am more interested in taking chess seriously and devoting some time to it. Fortunately, I have a decent library already, and have bought my own books as well. My problem is I become so overwhelmed with them. Generally, my problem is long variations. For instance, I am trying to piece together an opening repertoire. The books I have give main lines, explain the ideas of the opening, etc. but every few moves or so, bam. 20 moves of sidelines that just make things cumbersome. I figure the best way to work through these is to play them out on the board (digital seems easier personally) and work through them. But understanding moves that arent forced escapes me. I just seem to struggle with a method for effective study of books and games, or exactly what I should study. Granted that I am fairly versed on basics like endgames, mating patterns and the usual beginner stuff. What I need to know is what to study, but more importantly, how.
Openings are the last thing you should be trying to study.
Everything right now should be tactics...tactics...tactics.
Trying to memorize openings/lines of theory/etc. isnt going to help you:
not drop pieces
miss simple tactics
double checking your moves
asking yourself after your opponent moves: "What is my opponent trying to do?"
All you need is Opening Principles:
Control the center.
Develop towards the center.
Castle.
IF....and i stress IF....because this gets asked ALOT. You insist on studying openings. DO NOT...i repeat...DO NOT just try and memorize lines of theory. Try and get some sort of understanding as to "why" for piece development, and the pawn structure.
"... For beginning players, [Discovering Chess Openings by GM John Emms] will offer an opportunity to start out on the right foot and really get a feel for what is happening on the board. ..." - FM Carsten Hansen (2006)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf