My Goal and Reading List to Get There

So last week I sat down and had supper with the local FM at my club.  My otb rating is between 1950 and 2000 Fide.  My main question I asked him was how I can go from 2000 to 2300 FM.  He had an interesting answer that I did not expect.  I expected the obvious answer, study endgames, look at GM games and refine your openings.  Instead he gave me an answer that I think gives alot of hope to people who want to improve.  He said take what your already good at (in my case attacking and trying to out calculate your opponent) and just improve on that.  So he said specifically for me just to study tactics and attacking manuels.

So I am going to try his advice.  I am going to stick to only tactics and attacking manuels. 

In order the books I plan to read are

1) Pawn Sacrifice! by Timothy Taylor... as the title states this book is all about pawn sacrifices.

2) Gambit Play by Angus Dunnington... the book describes itself as a thorough education on gambit play

3) How to Become a Deadly Chess Tactian by David LeMoir... The book focuses on motivation, imagination and calculation

4) Understanding the Sacrifice by Angus Dunnington This focuses on the positional factors of sacrifices

and 5) Secrets of Attacking Chess by Mihail Marin This book seems to focus on value of notions of logic and justice in deciding when to attack.

Along with this I to do 1 hour of tactics per day on a CD sI have called Tactics in the opening to stay sharp, plus two ten minute blind games against Chess Master Personalites every day.  Starting with the lowest personality, I will play till I can continously beat them soundly. 

I am hoping by this time next year i can hope to hit FM. 

Please wish me luck and send me your encourgment as it is a stiff goal for myself.

Thank you

FM is Fide Master, 2300 rating on FIDE

Good luck, just study hard and you can reach any goal, even while many people are telling you that you can't.

Hi

Aagaards Attacking manual 1 & 2 are highly praised. Especially for players who are willing to make a real efford (actually do the hard work and spend time solving the excersises). I have not read these myself because they are supposed to me for stronger players than but once I get to Your level I will. There was a review in the danish national chess magazine by GM P.H. Nielsen (2700) and he praised these very highly. his only objection was that some of the excerses was a little too hard for him;-)

best,

Larsen_fan

Vukovic's Art of Attack is a great book. It really helped my game. There aren't any excercises, but it really goes into depth about how to build up and execute an attack effectively.

I have read Vukovic's Art of Attack.  Great book.  Aargard's attacking manuels I really want to read as I really think highley of Aagard's writing.

Strange. Most people would say you should work on your weaknesses most.

So when are you planning to stop dropping pawns for no apparent reason?

When I was at 1900, I read the exellent : Play like a grandmaster by Alexander Kotov.

And after reading this and do like 45 minutes by day of tactics on chesstempo really seriously, i past in one year at 2150.

How come then your FIDE rating is 1135?

My FIDE isn't listed as 1135.  http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=2602938 

Henzie, I never think in terms of dropped pawns only my compensation.

I was referring to santoy55.

he was asking that question to santoy55, not to you. 

FWIW, I think your FM was wrong, but working seriously on those books obviously can't hurt. Good luck, and keep us posted about your progress from time to time.

Good luck in your goal.

You work approximately 7 times harder than the average chess player.....

Thats a good sign towards success...;)

I know this is probably a tall order considering your a attaker and higher rated but what do you suggest as a reading list for someone who's streght is more in positonal/strategical aspects and who's rated in the 1500's OTB to reach say 1700 OTB ?

Actually, I have the same goal, though not within a year, as there aren't so many good tournaments here (currently in Slovenia) where I could raise my rating so fast. We could exchange ideas, if you'd like :)

One has to be good at tactics, yes, certainly... but most of all, one has to be :constantly alert: for both dangers and opportunities, which can be summed up by the classic: "if you see a good move, look for a better one" .. we all know this elementary advice, but IMHO, this is where most of our mistakes originate... even when you learn some opening, obtain a decent repertoire, learn both the basic :and: the advanced tactical and strategic ideas in various positions... at least this is what I've noticed in my own case...

I used to play chess before ad a kid, had a trainer, but most of the games were not :fide: rated, as it costs some money for the organizers and there wasn't much money back at that time in Serbia... so my national rating is 2175 and the FIDE rating was stuck at 2005... I had draws against some FMs, many wins over CMs, but obtained neither the CM title nor the rating, so now I've decided to go for it again and take no prisoners :D My PhD studies are coming to an end, so I've got some more time for chess again, finally.

I played one rather weak tournament a few weeks ago, scored 8.5/9, but I played too fast (average 25min/game) (as I've gotten used to blitz), so I usually made some inaccuracies which I could've avoided otherwise... so, for me the goal is to try playing like Ivanchuk, lol - s  l  o  w  l  y... (but preferably without the time trouble) and then take it from there.. but I'm focusing more on building a solid repertoire, strategical - but with some tactical opportunities. I don't intend to go all-out on move 5, but I want to reach complicated, rich positions, where my understanding can give me the edge...

Chessmaster,

I'm no expert but I suggest you ought to read Silman's How to Reassess your chess and the workbook as well. If you have, load yourself up on tactics(ALL positional players need tactical strength to get anywhere...

P.S. I'm kind of on the same goal but I'm trying to reach 1800 or maybe even 1900.

Any tips?

Good luck to you in your quest! Your insight may help me too!

If you seriously want to reach your goal some day spend just as much time studying defence and honing your skills in that area of the game.

Here are two suggestions as far as books go:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Defend-Chess-Colin-Crouch/dp/1904600832/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Defence-Chess-Lyev-Polugayevsky/dp/1857441540

The book on defence by Polugayevsky is really good and worth studying well written.

Chess is not a one sided conversation you need balance to survive in the black and white jungle.