nice writeup, @etrengereid.
what do you mean when you say evaluation bar? is that simply an option in the app? (i have not tried it yet.) or, were you using chess.com's engines on the side?
it sounds like rather than look for engine moves, you made your own moves and then checked the engine to see how the bar would swing good/bad. if you made a mistake would you then re-do your moves each time? but never actually look at an engine's specific move suggestions?
The type of chess your are proposing for training is informant chess invented by Kasparov in the 2000´s. It doesn´t look so efficient since you waste too much energy for just being a few points above 2000. As I see it, 2100-players or below miss 2-moves combinations very frequently and it´s easy to beat them because the only recipe is to wait til they fail. I reached 2200 points just playing in leisure time. Then I improved practising with tactics in the puzzle section here. I currently have 2300 points and starting to read or watch about openings and I feel that 2400 points are not far from this date. Another topic that can continue this could be if there are different types of players who have different roads to achieve the top.
nice writeup, @etrengereid.
what do you mean when you say evaluation bar? is that simply an option in the app? (i have not tried it yet.) or, were you using chess.com's engines on the side?
it sounds like rather than look for engine moves, you made your own moves and then checked the engine to see how the bar would swing good/bad. if you made a mistake would you then re-do your moves each time? but never actually look at an engine's specific move suggestions?
I used chess.com engine on the side, and I would check the lines the engine suggested just after the game. No redos (think redos costs).
The type of chess your are proposing for training is informant chess invented by Kasparov in the 2000´s. It doesn´t look so efficient since you waste too much energy for just being a few points above 2000. As I see it, 2100-players or below miss 2-moves combinations very frequently and it´s easy to beat them because the only recipe is to wait til they fail. I reached 2200 points just playing in leisure time. Then I improved practising with tactics in the puzzle section here. I currently have 2300 points and starting to read or watch about openings and I feel that 2400 points are not far from this date. Another topic that can continue this could be if there are different types of players who have different roads to achieve the top.
Its about the form of improvment. Being 2200 alr will probably help u quite abit too i would assume. Like Im going to go through jeremy silmans book this summer and although normally 2200 might improve their rating 50-100 by doing so i will maybe improve mine 100-200 as i have never studied end game (have never studied chess).
nice writeup, @etrengereid.
what do you mean when you say evaluation bar? is that simply an option in the app? (i have not tried it yet.) or, were you using chess.com's engines on the side?
it sounds like rather than look for engine moves, you made your own moves and then checked the engine to see how the bar would swing good/bad. if you made a mistake would you then re-do your moves each time? but never actually look at an engine's specific move suggestions?
I used chess.com engine on the side, and I would check the lines the engine suggested just after the game. No redos (think redos costs).
oh. hm, without redos, how would it help to learn if you made a mistake or not? wouldn't you need to wait for an identical position to try a different idea? or, if you learned you made a mistake, what else could you do but kick yourself and guess what might have been?
nice writeup, @etrengereid.
what do you mean when you say evaluation bar? is that simply an option in the app? (i have not tried it yet.) or, were you using chess.com's engines on the side?
it sounds like rather than look for engine moves, you made your own moves and then checked the engine to see how the bar would swing good/bad. if you made a mistake would you then re-do your moves each time? but never actually look at an engine's specific move suggestions?
I used chess.com engine on the side, and I would check the lines the engine suggested just after the game. No redos (think redos costs).
oh. hm, without redos, how would it help to learn if you made a mistake or not? wouldn't you need to wait for an identical position to try a different idea? or, if you learned you made a mistake, what else could you do but kick yourself and guess what might have been?
U would simply analyze ur game as if u were to analyze a game u played on chess.com. U remember the idea to some extent and apply it or similar ideas when possible.
I hope you improve by reading Silman´s book. I heard it´s a good book and I watched some videos from a guy talking about it. Write an article when you have 2500. For me it´s too boring to read chess books. I´ve never read more than a page and I will never do because they look too large (too much waste of energy just for being a few points above 2500). I think that I can reach 2500 points without them or the informant chess method. Of course 2500 it´s not so high but it is mandatory to go to the next level. Next topic of discussion would be if there are different roads to achieve the top according players typology.
nice writeup, @etrengereid.
what do you mean when you say evaluation bar? is that simply an option in the app? (i have not tried it yet.) or, were you using chess.com's engines on the side?
it sounds like rather than look for engine moves, you made your own moves and then checked the engine to see how the bar would swing good/bad. if you made a mistake would you then re-do your moves each time? but never actually look at an engine's specific move suggestions?
I used chess.com engine on the side, and I would check the lines the engine suggested just after the game. No redos (think redos costs).
oh. hm, without redos, how would it help to learn if you made a mistake or not? wouldn't you need to wait for an identical position to try a different idea? or, if you learned you made a mistake, what else could you do but kick yourself and guess what might have been?
U would simply analyze ur game as if u were to analyze a game u played on chess.com. U remember the idea to some extent and apply it or similar ideas when possible.
oh, sorry i am confused then. how is this any different from analyzing any game after it's finished? you mentioned having help, trying it "but not on real players".... it sounded like you were describing some sort of real-time assistance, not a post-game engine analysis.
nice writeup, @etrengereid.
what do you mean when you say evaluation bar? is that simply an option in the app? (i have not tried it yet.) or, were you using chess.com's engines on the side?
it sounds like rather than look for engine moves, you made your own moves and then checked the engine to see how the bar would swing good/bad. if you made a mistake would you then re-do your moves each time? but never actually look at an engine's specific move suggestions?
I used chess.com engine on the side, and I would check the lines the engine suggested just after the game. No redos (think redos costs).
oh. hm, without redos, how would it help to learn if you made a mistake or not? wouldn't you need to wait for an identical position to try a different idea? or, if you learned you made a mistake, what else could you do but kick yourself and guess what might have been?
U would simply analyze ur game as if u were to analyze a game u played on chess.com. U remember the idea to some extent and apply it or similar ideas when possible.
oh, sorry i am confused then. how is this any different from analyzing any game after it's finished? you mentioned having help, trying it "but not on real players".... it sounded like you were describing some sort of real-time assistance, not a post-game engine analysis.
Well, this is an alternative approach to the normal play the game then analyze it type of thing. You start playing and as you play you play the engine will show you how u r doing as u play. That makes u think differently as u play and having abit of that sort of thinking is great. Also when playing those magnuses u play against people who plays solid not making 1-3 move type of blunders. Also this way of playing forces u more to analyze ur game than what would normally be the case. Its different imo.
Complicated things these days....
ahh, that makes sense. how do you think you look at the chess board in a whole new way these days?
Nice post
This video personally helped me a lot in understanding chess.
ahh, that makes sense. how do you think you look at the chess board in a whole new way these days?
Kind of hard to explain. My pieces are more harmonized these days. They are working together for one purpose only, to win. I do not care too much about material compared to before if I have it compensated in position. Before playing against those Magnuses I was an 1. e5 player rather than 1. c5 and I also had not much clue of how to deal with 1. c5. Thats some of it 
I often see people asking on this site and various social medias how they can improve their chess skills. What they most often get as an answer is:
"Play ALOT of games."
"Analyze (all of) your games."
"Do puzzles."
"Watch chess videos and read chess books."
"Get a coach."
These answers are all right, but at the same time they are quite obvious - at least in my opinion. People asking for ways to improve are often hoping for an alternative way of improving. To those people, and to others that might be interested, I would like to share with you a way that worked for me. I will however, start off sharing how I came up with this idea. If you want to skip that part you can just start off reading from the subtitle "Me and the evaluation bar vs Play Magnus app".
Play Magnus app
As many other chess players, I came across the play magnus app. And just like most of those players, I wanted to see how far I could go. Being a 1800 player (on this site) I managed to beat the 11 year old. I tried to beat the older ones several times, but they were simply too superior. Suddenly, after playing against the older ones for so long I discovered that they do not play too many openings, especially not crazy openings. Also, if you were to beat them, you could not rely for some simple tactics. Not even if you were to play them a 1000 times (trust me, I have tried). If I was to beat them, I would have to play positionally better, or find some very nice tactics that were to obscure for my rating level. I could simply just give up, right?
- No, in chess you do not give up. I just needed a different approach. What if I could learn to play like these Magnuses? I suddenly came up with a very nice idea.
Me and an evaluation bar vs. Play Magnus app
As the subtitle suggests, I decided to use some assistance playing against the Magnuses. This might seem wrong considering what some people are saying about the usage of an engine, but try it ( - not on real players). The evaluation bar did not just make me destroy the Magnuses. I still needed to find every move, but I got some help so I knew a bit better what I was looking for, and know the exact moment in which I made that mistake. It still required lots of games to beat each and one of them. But in the process of doing so I learnt how to deal with certain openings. I also learnt how to play better positionally and creating plans. I simply learnt to look at the chess board in a whole new way. (This is how learnt to play the sicilian on both sides for different variations.) I went from a low 1800-player to a mid 2000-player.
Some of my games:
I would like end off showing you some of my games I played against the Magnuses with the evaluation bar as an assistance: