Memorizing concepts is easier, maybe you should try to learn the endgame better
Memory and Chess
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Sure good memory is nice but don't try to pretend you're savant, it's not worth it (and medically speaking it's form of cretinism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savant_syndrome). What i'm trying to say is that you should want to *understand* what you're doing and not just memorize.
There exist several mnemonic methods and techniques that makes memorizing long sequences of data (anything that can be reduced to a list) easier than it is simply by rote, some of which could be easily adapted to chess, regarding openings and variations. However, putting your time and effort into that sort of practise isn't going to do your chess any good, rest assured.
I think that kind of memory is akin to the kind of memory a baseball fanatic has for runs, hits, batting average, etcetera. They live their game of stats and they care about it almost impossibly much.
The wrong stat screams out "I am wrong" for them.
I suppose the mere exercise of remembering games and playing them over will increase capacity for this particular kind of memory, but I think being continually immersed in the game--and loving it as a lifestyle even--is the key.
I had a friend who was a weak A player while I was a middlin' C, and I was impressed by how he could rattle off games from memory. He seemd to be better at it than other guys around his rating even. After awhile I was able to do better too, just by the urge to keep up with him. No increase in talent but mainly a found desire and some practice.
Later on I realized that he only remembered his own games. His ego was his motivating factor. He thought he was a genius (I'm serious) and he loved proving it by showing his wins off to lower rateds.
Long story short: If you care a lot you'll find yourself remembering.
ChessGuru21 wrote:
I would like help with memorizing opening moves/variations and different chess patterns. I own Bartsford Chess Openings 2 (BCO2) by Garry Kasparov and Raymond Keene, Modern Chess Openings 13 (MCO 13) by Nick DeFirmian, and The Mammoth Book of The Word's Greatest Chess Games by Graham Burgess, DR. John Nunn & John Emms. I play through different opening lines that I would like to use and I play through the games in "The World's Greatest Chess Games", but I am having a difficult time trying to memorize what I am playing.
I have two stories about Bobby Fischer's memory:
In 1963 Fischer played in and won the New York State Open Championship at Poughkeepsie, New York. During the last round I was involved in a complicated ending with Frank S. Meyer, the late senior editor of National Review. Fischer, on his way to the washroom, briefly paused at my board - for perhaps five seconds - and then walked on. A few months later, he visited me at my office, then located at the Marshall Chess Club. "How did that last round game turn out?" he inquired. I told him I had won, but with difficulty. "Did you play Q-B5?" he asked. I told him quite frankly I couldn't remember what I had played. He immediately set up the exact position to "help" me remember, and then demonstrated the variation I should have played to have secured a much more economical win. The main point is that he did not simply remember the position, then analyze it in front of me; he remembered not only the position but also his fleeting analysis as he had passed my board months previously.
Even more remarkable is the fact that Fischer can remember most of his speed games. At the conclusion of the unofficial Speed Championship of the World at Hercegnovi, Yugoslavia, in 1970, Fischer rattled off the scores of all his twenty-two games, involving more than 1,000 moves, from memory! And just prior to his historic match with Taimanov, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Fischer met the Russian player Vasiukov and showed him a speed game that the two had played in Moscow fifteen years before. Fischer recalled the game move by move.
How is that possible!? Can anyone please help me to increase my "chess memory". Memorizing a couple opening lines/variations is easy, but I want to beable to retain more information and for longer periods of time.I would like to memorize 20-30 different opening lines/variations. All 50 of the greatest chess games from my book. Can anyone please help me? A high rated chess player once told me to make the background of everything I wanted to memorize yellow. For whatever reason it is easier for the brain to retain the information. Is this true?
Dude, first of all you are talking about Fischer. Fischer was Fischer...
Secondly, Fischer studied for as much as 14 hours a day- every day. If you invested that much time, you are bound to remember something. Not that I'm suggesting that you do that...
I would like help with memorizing opening moves/variations and different chess patterns. I own Bartsford Chess Openings 2 (BCO2) by Garry Kasparov and Raymond Keene, Modern Chess Openings 13 (MCO 13) by Nick DeFirmian, and The Mammoth Book of The Word's Greatest Chess Games by Graham Burgess, DR. John Nunn & John Emms. I play through different opening lines that I would like to use and I play through the games in "The World's Greatest Chess Games", but I am having a difficult time trying to memorize what I am playing.
I have two stories about Bobby Fischer's memory:
In 1963 Fischer played in and won the New York State Open Championship at Poughkeepsie, New York. During the last round I was involved in a complicated ending with Frank S. Meyer, the late senior editor of National Review. Fischer, on his way to the washroom, briefly paused at my board - for perhaps five seconds - and then walked on. A few months later, he visited me at my office, then located at the Marshall Chess Club. "How did that last round game turn out?" he inquired. I told him I had won, but with difficulty. "Did you play Q-B5?" he asked. I told him quite frankly I couldn't remember what I had played. He immediately set up the exact position to "help" me remember, and then demonstrated the variation I should have played to have secured a much more economical win. The main point is that he did not simply remember the position, then analyze it in front of me; he remembered not only the position but also his fleeting analysis as he had passed my board months previously.
Even more remarkable is the fact that Fischer can remember most of his speed games. At the conclusion of the unofficial Speed Championship of the World at Hercegnovi, Yugoslavia, in 1970, Fischer rattled off the scores of all his twenty-two games, involving more than 1,000 moves, from memory! And just prior to his historic match with Taimanov, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Fischer met the Russian player Vasiukov and showed him a speed game that the two had played in Moscow fifteen years before. Fischer recalled the game move by move.
How is that possible!? Can anyone please help me to increase my "chess memory". Memorizing a couple opening lines/variations is easy, but I want to beable to retain more information and for longer periods of time.I would like to memorize 20-30 different opening lines/variations. All 50 of the greatest chess games from my book. Can anyone please help me? A high rated chess player once told me to make the background of everything I wanted to memorize yellow. For whatever reason it is easier for the brain to retain the information. Is this true?