I need a study plan
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Candidate35
Oct 11, 2016
0
#1
Do you play OTB? If you don't you need to start. If you do then do you catalog your games by summarizing the critical moments, missed chances, how the game was won or why it wasn't? By doing that you'll see trends in your play that will tell you where you need to focus your study on.
Oct 11, 2016
0
#2
I don't know what a good study plan is, but my experience may help a bit.
Which is, reading a good book, (going through all the lines and everything) can give you insights not only to the subject matter, but to chess in general. So with the following five general categories: opening, endgame, strategy, tactics, annotated game collection, I suggesting getting a highly rated book in an area you either haven't studied, or you feel weak or uninformed, then reading it, perhaps multiple times.
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Oh, and try to interact with it, don't just play over the moves mindlessly. Pause at diagram for example and take 1, 2, or 10 minutes to come up with the moves and ideas you'd play if it were your game.
Save interesting positions or ideas for review or further exploration later. Maybe a variation you came up with the book ignored.
the chess.com study course is pretty good.
See intermediate sections
https://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-directory
A chess player who doesn't like to sac sounds like a boxer who doesnt like to punch.
Or a poker player who doesn't like to bluff.
Or a tennis player with no balls
tigerche wrote:
Right now I don't know what to study so I'm just grinding out games. I'm feeling like it's not enough.
Here are some facts about me:
uscf~1700
style: aggressive but I don't like to sac
i can calculate very well but i blunder occasionally
Style? Forgot "style" You have no style.
Every player can "calculate" to somce extent.
What exactly is "agressive" but you dont like to sac?
Basically, you have given us nothing to go off of.
If you want help, post some OTB tournament games with a long time control.
Nikprit wrote:
Or a tennis player with no balls
Advantage Nikprit
tigerche wrote:
The rest of you shut the hell up.
rude
Oct 11, 2016
0
#10
When people ask for help, then get bent out of shape about constructive criticism it's typically a sign that they're not ready for help.
My comment was an echo of Dale's--which was not rude at all--and commentary on something that immediately stuck out to us both. Having an aversion to piece sacrifices is a significant detriment to your play and will be taken advantage of relentlessly the higher you go. Your defensiveness about this suggests that, as Chris said, you're looking for the suggestions that you want to hear, not the suggestions that you need to hear. Part of improving is listening to answers, not just to questions you asked, but to questions you didn't think to ask.
Oct 12, 2016
0
#12
Everyone likes to play strong moves... especially if it means you're winning!
It's probably not that you don't like to sacrifice. It's that you don't know how to evaluate those positions, or don't have much experience conducting an attack on the castled king for example.
That's why I avoided gambits for so long; it created a big imbalance in the game that I didn't know how to calculate. Eventually, I realized the only way to overcome it was to go for them anyway, have a few games where I foundered, and then gradually catch on to the feel of how those games flowed.
my icon is so big now
Edit: well not on page 2 it's not
Read The Amateur's Mind by Silman. Great book, I'm actually rereading it right now. Then How to Reassess Your Chess, same author. Practice tactics and strategy puzzles when you can, work on endings. I played OTB a lot as a teenager and a lot of the higher class B and low to average class A players knew openings very well but lacked the endgame knowledge to convert an advantage into a win.
Possibly helpful:
Simple Attacking Plans by Fred Wilson (2012)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090402/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review874.pdf
Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev (1957)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104437/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/logichess.pdf
The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev (1965)
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/
Winning Chess by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld (1949)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf
Discovering Chess Openings by GM ohn Emms (2006)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf
Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014)
http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html
Chess Endgames for Kids by Karsten Müller (2015)
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/chess-endgames-for-kids/
A Guide to Chess Improvement by Dan Heisman (2010)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708105628/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review781.pdf
jhubchess wrote:
"Read The Amateur's Mind by Silman. Great book, I'm actually rereading it right now. Then How to Reassess Your Chess, same author. Practice tactics and strategy puzzles when you can, work on endings. I played OTB a lot as a teenager and a lot of the higher class B and low to average class A players knew openings very well but lacked the endgame knowledge to convert an advantage into a win."
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708094419/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/ammind.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708095832/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review769.pdf
Good advice from 0110001101101000.
And following from the last post, study endings. Most club players don't do this enough, and it improves your whole game. "Capablanca's Best Chess Endings" I recommend.
Not liking to sac? I thought everyone liked to win with a nice sacrifice. My guess is not liking to sac stems from a lack of confidence in calculation. If so, learn the elements of tactics very thoroughly, overloaded pieces et al. and then tactics trainer for you.
Hope this helps.