Studying Chess

Yes but why not study openings first and once you get decent positions out of the opening, move on to middlegame and once you reach winning endgames put some work into endings?

By studying endgames first you will be clueless as to how to actually PLAY the game ( as opposed to finishing it off) and will be crushed as you try to apply endgame principles in the opening.

The opening is also the most dangerous part of the game, traps are everywhere and sufficient knowledge is needed to survive.

Opening principles can also be applied to the middlegame whereas endgames are studied isolated.

This is a big dilemma for every beginner or Novice. They have been told that " study and practise and play " . in other words dont postpone playing games because of pure study . well , but how can a novice reach safely to endgame in his training games when he doesnt know the principles of middle game and opening ! ofcourse he can reach the End game but with a big disadvantage that makes the end game a no sense for him! So the best advise is " first study and train all the basic principles of all 3 phases of game " . The logic behind the exaggerated periority of studying End games for beginners comes from several considerations : 1- in End game there are few pieces on the board , so the student wont confuse. 2- in End game the range of piece movements are very wide . so a student can become familliar with potential mobility of pieces more quickly. 3- since the goal of every game is checkmate , a student will be more motivated by finding them than trying complex combinations in middle game where the final goal is not so clear and understandable by a beginner. 4- in End game you need mostly tactics and few strategic knowledge since strategy is the science of long term planning and therefore it's vastly a matter of middle game. 5- End game training often improves your board vision more quickly than other parts of the game. ....etc.

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That's possible with consequences:

1) You don't play your opening and middlegame based on your understanding of the endgame. This is fine in entry level but in master level, no way.

2) Your (initial/temporary) performance will suffer.

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Your mistaken assumption is that we have to study endgame exclusively before opening and middlegame. That is of course wrong.

I use my own method to study chess, which is based on logical concept and common sense.

If you play the Caro-Kann without knowing pawn endgame and pawn structure, for example, you are the one who is clueless to how to actually play the game.

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Then do not study it in isolation. Start with pawn endgame (which will also teach you how to promote a pawn). It is better if what you learn can be implemented so that you will understand better (instead of forgetting it) and reinforce your studying power.

Choose study topics that are relevant to your games/openings. If studying endgame is boring for you, play the Caro-Kann for the sake of studying the pawn endgame.

Playing the Caro-Kann will teach you how to think the GM way. How do I know if I'm not a GM myself, you may ask. I am not a GM, but I'm relying on other qualities that are often even unavailable in GMs.

I haven't employed my statistics knowledge and do the observation, but if you want, you can create a poll to test this (just my intuition): Players who employ the Caro-Kann in any stage of their progress, will not have the hard time crossing master level and will grow faster to GM level.

Practice is necessary, but puzzles are almost as good, and better in some ways. Also you can practice endgame drills against a computer. Give yourself a queen and the computer a rook, and try to go get it. Unless you studied that endgame with modern information, you will fail against the computer. If the rook defends well, the queen will have to move precisely to beat it or to even drive the king to the edge of the board.

I'd say learn tactics, learn checkmates, then endgames, then opening traps, then positional chess, and mix in live games with the positional chess. There are few positional puzzles out there, so you have to play against people to get the practice.

As for positional books, there is so much info out there that you can buy 6 books and there won't be much in common between them. You will get your money's worth.

I think you get very good advices from IM dpruess here (post #35): http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/chess-advice-most-chess-players-dont-like-to-hear?page=2

And an added idea is that endgame and opening are not really studied in isolation. A great way to study the game is to take a game in an opening u are interested in.  Now you have opening, middlegame, and endgame(if it does get that far) in addition to tactics all along the way. 

 

And it has already been mentioned (I think).  But, it is much easier to absorb the strengths of pieces in endgames and YES you can apply those concepts to middlegames and openings.  For example a strong outpost for a knight is useful in the opening and endgame or restriction of an enemy bishop by pawns in a closed position.  Its all related.  Look at an opening manual and see how many times u can find and black or white is better in the ending or maybe black is okay in these endings. 

Here's a link that may have what you're looking for: http://blog.chess.com/webmaster/your-guide-to-chesscoms-study-plans

It has helped some friends of mine.

You can study all you want, but PLAY! This site provides many games. Play others while you are "studying".  You will learn while playing others, especially those rated much higher than you. Seeing the order, and, how they use their pieces in conjunction with your study, in my belief, works wonders. Especially in games where one makes moves not often found in books (offline, as they say). 

I hope you have the time. I wish I did.

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Yes, you can study endings without knowing anything about the opening or middlegame, but if you dont know anything about openings or middlegames you will be LOST before getting to the ending !  You should know basic endings but beyond that you dont need to go any deeper in ending study if you are losing in the openings and middlegames. Look at your lost games , in which phase of the game are you most often losing ? Give priority to the phase in which you are most often losing . 

^Regarding study, Reb is on the mark.

Theoretically speaking, I'd think the justification for studying endgames and end[of]games (e.g. checkmate tactics) first (whether correct or not) is to see the ultimate goal (checkmate), then see those positions in which the ultimate goal will be achieved with correct play (endgames with a forced win; checkmate tactics), and then simply figure a way to get to an earlier version of the win before your opponent recognizes it so.  Then you can use your creativity to get to that "fantasy" position.

But if you don't know those positions, then you are just learning to set up pawn structures and pieces on "good" squares without really knowing why and you won't have a clue why white is better +/=, either in your own head or when reading someone else's analysis.  

As far as fewer pieces being easier to control than "the whole army", I am not buying it...the hardest mate-in-2 and -3 problems that I have encountered are the ones with fewer pieces (that do not go "check, check, mate"), simply because the open board offers so many squares to choose from for moving your first piece.  But if you know the endgame and end[of]game patterns/positions, it makes it 10x easier and perhaps that it is what it makes your candidate move choices 10x easier in actual games.

I'm a new player and I started off studying the opening.  This, however, helped me in a very, very small way.  Then I looked into basic endgame mates, which helped me much, much more.  I suggest you study the most basic of mates, such as the two bishop and one king against one king, rook bishop king against king, two rooks and a king against a king. ONE pawn and a king against another king (very tricky endgame,) one queen and one king against a king, and so on.  Once you master these, I suggest looking into middle game stuff, such as combination attacks and the bishop sacrifice attack on the castled king side.

It's tempting to play openings, but I find that playing my own style wins me 10x as many games as following a known opening, at this level.