How do you personally study chess?

(I think I've seen this topic before here, but I couldn't find a thread on it that was posted on very recently)

How do you study chess? How many hours do you put in (on average) each day/week/etc , and what chess activities do you prioritize? I'm particularily interested in what stronger players do, but all input is welcome!

Osmosis man, osmosis.

I'm hopelessly addicted to digital presentations.  My books sit mostly unread except for Fundamental Chess Openings which is used for reference.  Instead I watch videos, curse my way through a daily dose of tactics puzzles (I was up to 23k problems before resetting the TT), and surprise myself on a daily basis by finding how little I've retained from previous Chess Mentor courses as I review them.  Effective?  Oh, probably not particularly, but then I'm old and have no other goal than amusing myself.  Every couple of months I take a couple of small analysis sets to the library and work through an annotated game or 2, but get tired of explaining to the homeless that "No, I'm not playing with myself".  I also use ChessKing to regularly beat Houdini which helps boost my self esteem.  Okay ChessKing might be giving me a few extra pieces .

At the moment, I put the emphasis on replaying games (classical or related to my repertoire) on a real board, and trying to understand the puzzling moves...

Writing a blog, solving 10-15 tactics, playing 1 long game and studying 5-10 annotated master games is what I try to do each day lately. What I actually do is usually half of it though, different half each time.

iv given up tactics now, i get atactic ratin of 2000+ on CT but it doent translat into my game. iv been folowin a lot of mastas on utub nd im now findin da ideas dat they talk bout in my own games nd when im going thru other masta games (wich i liek 2 go thru slowly as if im playin da actual game).

edit: what did u do zezpwn 1800 bulet is very strong

I read chess books almost every time I take a bath, do 30 minutes of tactics a day, play long games (60 mins with a 30 second increment, not the extremely fast "standard" time controls) whenever I can online and analyze them afterwards (though not as critically as I probably should), try to look up the openings of my blitz games, and play in tounraments when I get the chance!

My USCF is 2050 or so

I do some tactics to warm up my chess brain then I read some out of an instructional book.  I try to do 10 pages but sometimes a game/example is so interesting/confusing I don't get that far hah.

Then I like to do what I think of as the real work, which takes most my time.  I do what hictunec described.  It's very useful when you think for a long time about a position out of your repertoire and you're all wrong.  For every error at home is one less OTB (hopfully!)  I definitely prefer games with some annotations for this.

I was about to say, "Who takes baths?" but then you mentioned your 2050 rating.

Hmmmm... maybe I should switch from showers to baths.

Hahaha. Yeah, I take a bath almost every day. More relaxing, and more condusive to chess study :p. Though I do shower sometimes too.

One technique that I have used since Chessbase first came out CB 1.1 for MS DOS, was to search for the game in whatever book/periodical or enter the game moves into CB by hand (then later using Saitek's Leonardo board interface...now DGT board). I do this because it makes coming back to the position, after playing one or more variations, much easier. Also, I find it much easier to 'see' what's going on in a position when using board and pieces as opposed to a computer screen.

Interesting ideas so far :)

Well'z I do's declares, iz finally found a peep dat' blabs like ma'!

I spend 4 hours a day studying GM game collections from books on my wood set, I study and practice endgames, solve tactics problems and all kinds of checkmates (hundreds of them) over and over and over without setting them up on the wood set, practice visualization of the squares on the chess board with no pieces on it at all, work on planning, analyze and annote my own chess games alone then analyze with friends and strong chess players in a group setting and take notes.

I play very slow games 3 times a week I also play alot ofcorrespondence chess games to keep my game sharp.

You ever think about not doing either one?  Make your opponent pass out and you'll win on time more frequently!

I have switched from book to online tactic's. And I only study openings that I play, although I might play through a game if I have played the opening in the past. At the moment, I am playing only 3 day games, but I am looking forward to playing in some Tournaments. I still like books and a board to go over endgame positions and to keep my interests up with chess history. Getting burned out is not a good thing, and the best cure for me is not to play at all for a while. If you have truely been bitten by the chess bug, you will always come back. And I try to focus on strategy more in the middle game with the endgame in mind. Over all, I do what I have not done in a while.  

Alec847 wrote:

How do you study chess? How many hours do you put in (on average) each day/week/etc

I spend 4 hours a day studying GM game collections from books on my wood set, I study and practice endgames, solve tactics problems and all kinds of checkmates (hundreds of them) over and over and over without setting them up on the wood set, practice visualization of the squares on the chess board with no pieces on it at all, work on planning, analyze and annote my own chess games alone then analyze with friends and strong chess players in a group setting and take notes.

I play very slow games 3 times a week I also play alot ofcorrespondence chess games to keep my game sharp.

That's intense. I take my hat off to you.

That's a lot, Alec! What's your (real life) rating?

I've also noticed that if I play too many long games close together, I start getting lazy and it may become counterproductive.

1. Open a book

2. Realize how much I hate studying chess

3. ??? Close the book

4. Profit