I need to start training more ... most of what I have been doing is looking at openings. I have made a fairly big change in the openings I am playing. Although I still need to keep doing this, at the very least I should be doing a lot of tactics as well. There are other things to train but, at least for a while, I think looking at these two things will be best for me. What do you think?
Training Schedule
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My time is getting more and more limited. I have occasional sessions with my online coach and I try to do 15+ minutes of Tactics each day.
I train tactics almost every day between 30 mins to an hour depending on success rate. Then I read books and play OTB. What doesn't work is reading books for too long at a time. I find that when I get tired I just rush through the positions in each game because I want to see the result. Improvement comes when you carefully study every move to try and see the whole picture. Therefore I restrict myself to a maximum of 1-2 games per "session".
Also I don't know really if studying tactics as I do on Chess Tactics Server and chess.com really improves my play. I mean sure, there is a notable improvement in my games compared to say half a year ago but that might just as well come from the fact that I've played numerous OTB games since. What is to say that getting hundreds of chess problems thrown at you in a short time interval makes you improve? My rating on Chess Tactics Server has stayed pretty much constant at about 1550-1600. The same holds true for chess.com but on here my rating varies more because it seems that every problem constitutes quite a bit of rating-change as compared to other sites. Anyway, because my ratings don't seem to improve much I have been contemplating giving up tactics problems and focusing more on studying master games and reading books etc.
Nov 4, 2008
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#6
I study, and teach my students how to study, games of grandmasters ... usually older grandmasters who played with ideas rather than these heavily analyzed lines ... I find this provides inspiration if nothing else... however, I don't spend all that much time doing it :(... I really should.
Agreed! Study older masters are very important for improvers and everybody else!
I don't manage to have anything close to what I would wish, in terms of time, but here is what I do:
- I have weekly online lessons
- After each lesson, I try and review the lesson material
- I thoroughly comment at least two games per week, for analysis
- I do 15/20 minutes of tactics every day
- I try, once a week, to go through master games
- When I can (few times a week) I read a "Novice Nook" article
that's basically it...
Every day I make 1 hour of Tactics Trainer and read a chess book - 1,5 hour. I really feel that I'm better at tactics than 1/2 year ago.
Apart from that I play 1hour-1hour live games (avoiding blitz) about 3 times a week on Chesscube.com (nice design!) and analyze it with the computer <- this part I really like, maybe even more than the game itself! And I sometimes study openings with books and Game Explorer, right now Chigorin defence (if you want I can send you some analyis of mine) which I really like!
I try to study 1 hour every day alternating between tactics, middle game, and openings. Eventually, I will do much less opening study and add endgame study. In addition to studying, I play as much chess.com chess as possible at 10 minutes or more. I also do occasionaly studying and training with Fritz. Once I being real OTB play I will analyze my games.
Webhead, I recommend that you start to analyze your games manually at once! That is a very good way to improve your thought process by learning from your own misstakes.
Nov 4, 2008
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#12
Hadn't played for years but when I came back to it I made a big improvement by using the game explorer and computer analysis...I saw I was giving far too many games away within the first 10 moves.
Manchero wrote:
Hadn't played for years but when I came back to it I made a big improvement by using the game explorer and computer analysis...I saw I was giving far too many games away within the first 10 moves.
wow, a Diamond member! You are the first one I see! How do you feel being "Diamond"?
Cheers,
Andrea
How do you train? How much? What works for you and what don't? Share your experiences.