hankas wrote:
Once there was a china man who left his hometown to learn kungfu. On the way, he met an old man who just killed a wild tiger with a single punch. He asked, "Master, tell me how to be as strong as you". The master said, "Do 10,000 punches every day." He asked again, "How long will it take to be as good as you?" The master replied, "Probably after 10 to 15 years." He was surprised, and thought probably this master did not want to share his secret. On the night, he slipped away and went to look for another master. On his way, he met a young officer who with a single kick shook the foundation of a house and caused the robbers inside to come out and to surrender in fear. He asked the officer, "Sir, teach me how to have a powerful kick like yours." The officer laughed and said, "Here carry all these stuffs and follow me ... on foot. I did that for 7 years following my commander before I got promoted." The man thought to himself, "Darn, these things are heavy. There has to be a simpler way and this officer does not want to me to know his secret." So halfway down the road, he asked for a permission to pee and he fled. The man continued walking. On his way, he saw a monk who ran faster than a horse and walked through the thick vegetation as if he was walking on air. He quietly followed the monk through a very long stairway heading up towards the top of a mountain. Feeling exhausted, he finally reached the infamous Shaolin temple at the mountain top. He asked to meet the abbot. The abbot personally went out to see the man. The man asked the abbot, "Show me how I can run faster than a horse and walk on walls." The abbot smiled and whispered something to a monk. The monk quickly went away and return with a pair of wooden buckets. The abbot said, "Carry these buckets and go down the mountain. There is a well at the foot of the mountain. Carry the water up here until those 13 large jar outside is full of water. Do that every morning and every afternoon for 5 years. Then, after that, come back to me for further lessons." The man carried those buckets down the mountain, but he never returned to the temple. He thought the monks must be trying to keep the secrets all to themselves. So he went to look for another master. To cut the story short, the man went all over China but he never become a kungfu master. All those advice given by the people who replied are all valid. The videos by NM aww_rat are particularly good. It is just that the OP refuses to see those advices and keeps looking for the "magic pill" that will turn him into a chessmaster overnight. Unfortunately, there is no such pills. The infamous Russian or Botvinnik's method requires an insane amount of hardwork and long hours. There is no shortcut.
Thanks. I learned to be a master on my own. I figured out how I did it and share the methods I used. So, there are shortcuts, but you still have to do the work. I train you to do just that. The latest videos, 005-008 really are going to help a lot of aspiring masters, but they need to see 001 to 004 first.
I was thinking a lot about this topic yesterday night and I think I came up with the missing piece.
Studying how a grandmaster plays certain positions is not enough. It's like watching Messi play football to be able to play like him. Imo opinion it's necessary to set up those example positions from the book and play against a strong opponent and repeat the process until you can exploit that small advantage you have. You should also practice playing the opposite side. It's very time consuming so 10000hours might be close to the truth. Unfortunately if one of your family member is not a master it's really hard to find a strong player who can practice with you all the time. A different approach could be to learn all the theory from the book which is not an easy task and look at your games you play online like practice games. It has drawbacks though because you need to recognise the theme and remember all the information.
I was also thinking about tactics study. One might think that solving puzzles = practice. However I think it's just half of the work. All the tactic puzzles are somewhat artificial and every pieces on the board are on the perfect square to launch a tactic. You "only" need to find some forcing moves which is not easy and still beneficial but if you train yourself to find the right moves in ready made positions, can you expect those perfect situations to appear in your own games? You also need to practice to get in those positions which could allow a tactical shot.
To sum up
Practice in real games = Improving
Reading,examining, playing through games is not enough.