The Journey to 1400: Essential Study Habits for the Aspiring Student

I understand that many of you have been playing chess from a very early age. I learned when I was 10 but didn't play seriously until about a year ago (I just turned 30). Having purchased Silman's Complete Endgame Course, The Amateur's Mind, and How to Reassess your Chess I still find myself wondering if perhaps there is a better way to transition from the 8-900 into the 1000+ rating level. I spend a great deal of time working on tactics trainers through chess.com (and my rating has improved considerably) however, are there any recommendations on study strategies from those of you that have learned the game of Chess later in life? 

I've decided to leave "How to Reassess your Chess" for when I reach ~1200 as Silman states explicitly that the book is written for someone around 1400. Currently I use Chess.com in analysis mode to work through the pages of the Amateur's Mind as I cannot visualize the game annotations without the help of a board. Does this sound effective? Coaches, what are your strategies with your students making the journey to 1400? 

Reassess IS hard and doesn't work for everybody.

the Biggest thing, though, is studying your losses. also. have you considered a coach??

Both brilliant suggestions....thank you. Patzer, I have considered a coach but I would prefer to wait until I've exhausted my abilities to learn on my own (e.g. I plateau). I'm a full time academic (Post-Doctoral Fellow) so I certainly don't mind studying/learning on my own as I do it for a living in science!

Bobby, I was wondering if those books were still above my grasp at my current level. I picked them up because they were recommended reading for chess university's 900+ Prodigy program. I've also got "My System" by Nimzowitsch but I figured out real fast that that book was way above what I'm ready for. I'll give those other books a try! Thanks for the recommendation! 

chernov is good; but IM Bartholomew is Excellent.  I find HIS material SO good because he concentrates on just the sort of tactical errors us lower rated players struggle with. he's very direct! about the typical patzer.

OTOH; many annotated games do the same thing slower; by making you notice details that you wouldn't ordinarily see.

again... another advantage of a coach; he can draw your attention to stuff and help you work on your blind spots.

Frankly; I think most of us should have , at least a casual, connection with a coach.  for the price of another book you're not likely to use very heavily its direct, personalized, and instructive.

OTOH, some people find it expensive or a timid to reach out to others.  Are you one of those guys that NEVER asks for directions?  or endlessly mulls over a map- when he doesn't know where he is.....   Overall, books have been less instructive (for me) than when I started studying a couple years back.

BTW; bain is Good; but these are pretty simple tactics. you might consider others for more challenging puzzles.   my Fav is a little known one; "Winning chess Exercises for kids"

despite the scholastic title; these are good hard puzzles you will struggle with; and on each page one of every 9 puzzles is an endgame and the other is a "find the best move" with tactical implications.... NOT a "move" to win a peice or better.

its a really decent book (for a tactics book)

I have every book mentioned, except "My System" (and I will NEVER buy that one).

most of his suggestions are for a lesser player- which is fine

but you said you were avidly studying tactics;  Bain likely won't be enough.  I only got them because there was an internet suggestion to solve simple puzzles very quickly.

please know that Chernov's book is a controversial suggestion.  some people find his suggestions dogmatic and his ideas (at times) refuted.

this is what you get when you go THAT far back in time.  Old chess masters had more an attachment to long term positional play and didn't appreciate how dynamic, counterintuitive play can outplay the solid staid chess player.

note that this is only a summary of what I've read from critics.  I like chernov and although it hasn't helped my game a lot (it hasn't); it hasn't hurt it by any means.  chernov is quite readable and succinct and the old classics often aren't

1400 players are just 1200 players who play faster, really. They still play the same lousy chess I play (I'm around 1200-1300 elo usually) just a bit faster. 

What field, if I may ask?

I study cardiopulmonary physiology as it relates to exercise (in)tolerance at the University of Colorado. Fun stuff. Chess has been a daily exercise in humility for me. Some days you feel like you're really getting it and then the next you lose several games and fail at many tactics puzzles...

Would it be useful to attend a local chess club? This is also something I contemplated but wanted to wait until I had a bit more experience in the digital realm before jumping into OTB ranked games...

YES.  very helpful. IMHO

OTB chess is definitely very instructive, much more than online gaming.

Excellent, good to know! Thanks for the advice everyone. I'll check out Denver's chess club in the coming weeks. 

Tactics...tactics...tactics...

Opening Principles:

Control the center.

Develop towards the center.

Castle.

Learn basic mates:

KQ vs. K

KR vs. K

KQ vs. K

Basic endgames:

KP vs. K

Opposition.

Review your games (Especially your losses)

Get someone better to review your games with you.  

Mike Klein is such a NERD he was above 1400 when he started playing chess. When his opponents saw his nerdy face, they resigned in fear of getting destroyed by a little nerd.

I have some advice for you too, and that is play, play and play... Try to get into the habit of playing and not caring whether you win or lose. Also play continuously against the computer as this is less bruising to the ego. The aim is to read and react to the patterns of a) openings and b) tactics in real time. Reading books in itself is of little use unless you can 'tread in' that knowledge through repetition in real games. I stress that it is really important when you are learning not to worry about any ideas of 'defending your points' - as this will tend to close you off from experimentation. Choose a faster setting than you are normally comfortable with, which will help accumulate more games played to help the above aim, it will also ensure that a lot of moves become intuitive, which is time saving. When you then move back to a slower speed game you will feel better prepared. Also you will discover that winning is more than check mating, it may be no more than surviving while ensuring you have more time on the clock than the opponent. 

This advice helped a friend go from 700 to 1000 in a year. I reckon that in my case I needed an estimated 10,000 games to get to 1400. It took me 3 years to go from an 1100 player to a 1400 player.

Also, if you follow my advice about playing lots, you will get a low Glicko rating (a statistical measure of variance that appears on the stats page of your account) - you need a rating of under 50 to be even a tiny bit confident that your chess.com points are an accurate measure of your ability. 

I hope that helps. Good luck!

Finding a study buddy to review your games with is incredibly helpful; probably the best use of study time I've found yet.  There's a normal human tendency to bury our mistakes and not think about them; but then we repeat them.  Having someone say, gosh, you pushed the b-pawn again and it got you in trouble--why do you keeping doing that?--was worth its weight in gold. 

The study partner should not be more than 100-200 points below you or they generally won't have much to offer (exception:  someone with good strengths in your area of weakness).  But they don't have to be much stronger than you.  A good titled coach can be great; a random strong player may or may not be helpful.  Someone around your level and struggling with the same issues is a good choice, and can often be gotten for free (you can analyze their games in return).

PS Play the computer on a higher setting, watch the moves that it plays on you - adopt those moves against opponents.

a) don't read any chess book until your rating is at least 1400. (watch videos on utube)

b) don't spend too much time on reviews. (just go through the game once to know the turning point)

c) play lots of blitz games.(avoid bullet when your rating is below 1200)

d) play e4. Develop your pieces and castle.

e) practice tactics.

f) check if a piece is enprise before your move.

g) don't study the games of masters. (study the games of Morphy).

Your adice to a 1068 rated player is to copy engine moves?

You do understand that he isnt going to learn anything, but to blindly copy moves with no knowledge as to why they are being made.

I disagree with the idea that Reassess Your Chess is too hard for your level. It helped me go from 800 to 1600 in less than one year.

Also, I don't like the Chernev book, it just states a bunch of rules that don't help you really understand the position, so you won't know if they apply or not. Instead, I highly recommend A Guide to Chess improvement by Dan Heisman and Winning Chess Strategy by Yasser Seirawan. Both of these authors explain concepts in way that novices can understand, rather than confusing them with long variations of moves.