still just good amateur - Chess Forums

Oct 22, 2017

0

#1

I am getting on .... ok old! So not a chance of being a great player but it would be nice to learn how to improve my game. So many coaching and online course but would like something pitched to improve me without having to have a youth’s brain transplant! I would be happy playing just a bit better! Any ideas, courses, etc welcomed.

IMKeto

Oct 22, 2017

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#2

Follow Opening Principles:

1. Control the center.

2. Develop minor pieces toward the center.

3. Castle.

4. Conect your rooks.

Study tactics...tactics...tactics...

Study basic endgames:

KQ vs. K

KRR vs. K

KR vs, K

Study basic K+P endings.

KP vs. K

Opposition.

OldSim

Oct 22, 2017

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#3

I am fine with all that but seems that I get to move into middle game at what seems even but a few moves later seem to be down a piece or at tactical or positional major disadvantage

OldSim

Oct 22, 2017

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#4

DeidreSkye - yes maybe that is a good way forward will try that as I think there are flaws in 5he way I think at middl game point - I used to be an ok club player in my late 20s so it must be locked back there somewhere!

IMKeto

Oct 22, 2017

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#5

[COMMENT DELETED]

IMKeto

Oct 22, 2017

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#6

OldSim wrote:

I am fine with all that but seems that I get to move into middle game at what seems even but a few moves later seem to be down a piece or at tactical or positional major disadvantage

At your level, worrying about the middlegame is useless. Just follow the usual advice:

Double check your moves.

After your opponent moves, ask yourself: "What is my opponent trying to do?"

Work on not dropping pieces, and not missing simple tactics.

Trying to work on the middlegame while youre still doing the same beginner mistakes is a waste of your time.

kindaspongey

Oct 23, 2017

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#7

torrubirubi

Oct 23, 2017

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#8

Here is something you can try:
1. Learn a basic repertoire. All good players will advice you not spending a single second learning openings, but the same people will crush you already in the opening phase. There are billions of possibilities to learn a basic repertoire both for white and black. Try the website Chessable, there are good free books to start to learn.
2. Analyse all your games for blunders, mistakes, missed combinations and deviations of your repertoire. ALL GAMES, no exceptions. If you can get a stronger player to explain you some strange engine's recommendations, use this help.
3. Play chess, especially daily chess. Play, analyse, play analyse, and do regularly exercises on tactics, endgames and strategy. Not too much, but regularly, and you will improve your chess at a regular basis.
Good luck

torrubirubi

Oct 23, 2017

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#9

Well, I knew that this topic is controversial. Nevertheless, even here in chess.com you find lessons on openings for beginners, and in some of these lessons you will find advices on concrete lines which are very hard to find for weak players only following principles. For example, putting a pawn on c3 in the Italian game and sacrificing a pawn by castling. Of course we can always tell somebody that these moves can be deduced from opening principles alone, but weak players have difficulties to distinguish which principles are more important in a giving position. Deirdre, dedicating some time to learn openings doesn't mean that you have to stop thinking when playing. These things are not mutual exclusive. My point is that all aspects of the game should be treated from beginning. Having a basic repertoire means to be able to accumulate chess knowledge on a regular basis, since you have to play openings in every game.

I didn't argue that beginners should memorise long lines by heart. Much better is to take a book where the author try to explain the ideas behind most moves. Memorisation is part of the work, but only when reasoning behind the moves are considered.

torrubirubi

Oct 23, 2017

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#10

By the way, in Chessable I spend the same time learning endgames as learning openings. And I do my tactics everyday, both with Chessimo and here.

IMKeto

Oct 23, 2017

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#11

torrubirubi wrote:

Well, I knew that this topic is controversial. Nevertheless, even here in chess.com you find lessons on openings for beginners, and in some of these lessons you will find advices on concrete lines which are very hard to find for weak players only following principles. For example, putting a pawn on c3 in the Italian game and sacrificing a pawn by castling. Of course we can always tell somebody that these moves can be deduced from opening principles alone, but weak players have difficulties to distinguish which principles are more important in a giving position. Deirdre, dedicating some time to learn openings doesn't mean that you have to stop thinking when playing. These things are not mutual exclusive. My point is that all aspects of the game should be treated from beginning. Having a basic repertoire means to be able to accumulate chess knowledge on a regular basis, since you have to play openings in every game.

I didn't argue that beginners should memorise long lines by heart. Much better is to take a book where the author try to explain the ideas behind most moves. Memorisation is part of the work, but only when reasoning behind the moves are considered.

I dont think its os much controversial, as it is beaten to death. It just seems that so many beginners either want a "short cut to success", or they view themseves as better players than they actually are. There always seems to be a pattern with beginners asking for advice:

1. What openings should i learn?

2. How do i develop a middlegame plan?

3. How deep should i learn openings?

You seldom see anyone asking for simple, basic advice on improvement.

ErikWQ

Oct 23, 2017

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#12

An hour of tactics a day keeps the blunders away! Well not completely but you get the point.

IpswichMatt

Oct 23, 2017

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#13

BobbyTalparov wrote:

I recommend watching John Bartholomew's YouTube series: "Chess Fundamentals", and "Climbing the Ratings Ladder" (especially the tactics training portion of the latter) and practice what he goes over in both your games and tactics training sessions.

+1, John Bartholomew is also highly entertaining

MickinMD

Oct 23, 2017

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#14

OldSim - as a fellow older-brain slower-brain guy, I work tactics problems every day -at least a few- and study SIMPLE strategies. A good book is Fred Wilson's Simple Attacking Plans. It focuses on four straightforward principles that revolve around pointing your pieces at your opponent's king and 37 example games. It has made me more aggressive, something I wasn't doing enough before.

Additionally, the 2nd chapter of the old classic by GM's Keres and Kotov, The Art of the Middlegame, entitled, "Strategy and Tactics of Attacks on the King," are the best 50 pages of chess instruction I've ever read and was the heart of what I taught the high school team I coached (despite being only a club-level player myself) to three consecutive state scholastic championships team trophies along with the chapter on Overprotection from Nimzowitsches My System. Kotov's chapter 2 explains, for example, how to determine if you should castle on opposite sides, where Pawn Storms win the game, or on the same side, where Pieces win the game and how to proceed with them.

I also recommend, as IpswitchMatt does, the John Bartholomew YouTube series on "Chess Fundamentals," It's a series of 11 games that each explain a principle. On his YouTube page are the pgn files of all the games to make it easier to follow along.

kindaspongey

Oct 23, 2017

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#15

"... In the middlegame and especially the endgame you can get a long way through relying on general principles and the calculation of variations; in the opening you can go very wrong very quickly if you don't know what ideas have worked and what haven't in the past. It has taken hundreds of years of trial and error by great minds like Alekhine and, in our day, Kasparov to reach our current knowledge of the openings. ..." - GM Neil McDonald (2001)

"... Overall, I would advise most players to stick to a fairly limited range of openings, and not to worry about learning too much by heart. ..." - FM Steve Giddins (2008)
"... the average player only needs to know a limited amount about the openings he plays. Providing he understands the main aims of the opening, a few typical plans and a handful of basic variations, that is enough. ..." - FM Steve Giddins (2008)
"The way I suggest you study this book is to play through the main games once, relatively quickly, and then start playing the variation in actual games. Playing an opening in real games is of vital importance - without this kind of live practice it is impossible to get a 'feel' for the kind of game it leads to. There is time enough later for involvement with the details, after playing your games it is good to look up the line." - GM Nigel Davies (2005)

IMKeto

Oct 23, 2017

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#16

MickinMD wrote:

OldSim - as a fellow older-brain slower-brain guy, I work tactics problems every day -at least a few- and study SIMPLE strategies. A good book is Fred Wilson's Simple Attacking Plans. It focuses on four straightforward principles that revolve around pointing your pieces at your opponent's king and 37 example games. It has made me more aggressive, something I wasn't doing enough before.

Additionally, the 2nd chapter of the old classic by GM's Keres and Kotov, The Art of the Middlegame, entitled, "Strategy and Tactics of Attacks on the King," are the best 50 pages of chess instruction I've ever read and was the heart of what I taught the high school team I coached (despite being only a club-level player myself) to three consecutive state scholastic championships team trophies along with the chapter on Overprotection from Nimzowitsches My System. Kotov's chapter 2 explains, for example, how to determine if you should castle on opposite sides, where Pawn Storms win the game, or on the same side, where Pieces win the game and how to proceed with them.

I also recommend, as IpswitchMatt does, the John Bartholomew YouTube series on "Chess Fundamentals," It's a series of 11 games that each explain a principle. On his YouTube page are the pgn files of all the games to make it easier to follow along.

Yep...good advice.

Work on tactics, work on the basic ideas, and principles of the openings you play.

kindaspongey

Oct 23, 2017

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#17

MickinMD wrote:

... the old classic by GM's Keres and Kotov, The Art of the Middlegame, ...

http://dev.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/Art-of-the-Middlegame-The-77p3554.htm

torrubirubi

Oct 23, 2017

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#18

Deir, understanding lines and repeating them by spaced repetition are not mutually exclusive. And of course some people have problems in visualise lines with ebooks, but I do not have problems with this. But you are of course right in the sense that people have to understand brings and not only memorise them.