Yusupov and the Older Lower Rated Player

It has been an interesting couple of up and down days. On Friday, I ended up swindling a win out of a totally lost position on my daily game. Friday night I went to chess club and the only players in attendance were very strong. I ended up losing every game. Saturday morning I played 4 games of blitz. Again, I lost every game.

It was thus with some trepidation that I started doing the exercises in Yusupov for chapter 11 on pins. It was with relief when I got the first easy one right. Going into the last one, I had gotten every problem right. However, on the last one, I fell into the incorrect line. I ended with a score of 19 out of 21, which gave me an excellent for the chapter. I'm not sure if the chapter was just easier than some of the others, or if all the time I have been spending doing tactics training on ChessTempo paid off.

Last night, I decided to play a game against the computer on chess.com at level 8. It turned out well. Here is the game.

@ oldpatzermike: congratulations! being 1700 USCF at the age of 67 is a great achievement

those are some helpful excerpts, nice thx

Thank you, but it's not that big a deal: I was over 1800 when I returned to chess last year after a long time away from it. If the rating gets back up over 1800, then I'll think it was a real achievement. 

Look into the Chess Steps books/curriculum. It was developed for scholastic chess in the Netherlands. But it is highly thought of for a systematic approach to learning for adults too.

https://www.chess-steps.com/

You can find the books various places such as amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=chess+steps

The only issue with the Chess Steps series is that the suggested timeframe is too slow for most people. It's the recommended one for children. Else, the content is pretty good.

This topic has been an interesting read throughout. It's cool to see much older players than me working towards improving their game, and challenging the whole "too old to learn" stigma.

I just purchased the 1001 Chess Exercises for Beginners book on Chessable, and plan to go through all of the tactics at least a couple time. You know what they say about chess and tactics... I want to sink the simplest tactical concepts and motifs so deep in my brain, that they'll become more or less autonomous. I think going through these exercises a few times should help.. :-)

One thing I absolutely know for sure at this point is that at my age you can definitely improve at tactics. If tactics is as important as many people think, then significant improvement is possible. I don't happen to think it is as all important as some around here opine, but obviously it is important. Here is my rating graph from ChessTempo.

My low rating on that site was shortly after I started doing tactics, I think back in April. It was 1349. My rating as of today is 1622. (My peak attained recently was 1634).

As for how much time I have spent working on tactics (not counting Yusupov, which adds to it), On ChessTempo I have spent 120.7 hours so far.

I have now made it half way through the first book. In Chapter 12 on double attacks, I got all problems correct for a score of 17 of 17 points, which is excellent.

So by chapter, I have scored as follows:

1) Mating Motifs: 15 of 16 = Excellent

2) Mating Motifs 2: 16 of 21 = Good

3) Basic Opening Principles: 18 of 31 = Pass

4) Simple Pawn Endings: 14 of 22 = Pass

5) Double Check: 16 of 16 = Excellent

6) The Value of Pieces: 13 of 19 = Good

7) The Discovered Attack: 12 of 15 = Good

8) Centralizing the Pieces: 13 of 27 = Pass

9) Mate in Two Moves: 9 of 12 = Good

10) The Opposition: 16 of 26 = Pass

11) The Pin: 19 of 21 = Excellent

12) The Double Attack 17 of 17 = Excellent

Chess is a funny mistress. I had a poor week in terms of tactics and dropped about 70 points on ChessTempo to 1550.5. And although about half of that was in one day where I worked a lot of tactics (and should have quit), it wasn't confined to just that one day. Yet I turned around, got the perfect score in Yusupov, and I felt like I was seeing things really well when doing this latest chapter.

I think I have done enough of the book now to give it a hearty recommendation for those strong enough to do the material. And you don't have to be real strong. As long as you are a solid class C player (USCF) I think you can probably do it, if you are willing to put in the effort.

I do absolutely recommend doing it the way he says, i.e. actually put the pieces on a board. And I think I recommend NOT being real careful about placing them. In real games, they aren't going to be precisely so.

I also recommend getting a fairly nice set to use for doing this. You are going to be using it a lot, and you may as well enjoy a nice wooden set when going about it. Anything that makes the process a little more enjoyable helps with the time commitment needed.

Chapter 13 was on realizing a material advantage. I thought I understood the concepts pretty well and I was doing great in the test up through the last two exercises. I already had 14 points and if I got both right, I would get an excellent. Just one point between them (they were each two point problems) and I would secure a good.

Chess is sometimes harsh. I got both of the last two problems completely wrong. The last exercise was particularly aggravating where I missed the idea entirely. If I had used even an ounce of common sense, I would have realized I was on the wrong track. I was tired and probably should have put it away for the day and come back, but I wanted to finish up.

Well I did, just not the way I wanted.

Oh well, I did at least pass. On to the next chapter, which is on open files and outpost.

I did play two really nice games this past week against Komodo level 8 of 20 (skill 7 but it starts at 0).

I made no significant mistakes in either game, which was quite gratifying. And my accuracy scores playing the best move were also quite good, at least for someone at my level.

This week, it was Chapter 14 which was on open files and outposts (strategy 2). He had some nice games to play through illustrating the concepts. Then, as usual, it was on to the exam.

I don't have a problem with the concepts. The exact implementation is sometimes a problem. And sometimes, I get a bit too creative. In the one problem, I tried to open up a new file to use. That wasn't the idea. Anyway, I passed. I had 12 of 20 points. 14 would have been a good.

There is evidence some of this is starting to sink in. I'm pretty horrid at blitz (rated 972), but I took part in a blitz tournament this week. I was way way down in the pack rating wise, and almost everyone I played was rated above me. But I did collect a win against a 1346.

I also had a really good game against a 1652 where I managed a draw. And in fact I was winning at the end, but with just seconds left I had to ditch my Queen to get a pawn to secure the draw by insufficient material. I was also playing Black!

The game had the usual inaccuracies and blunders, but for a blitz game, I think I played extremely well. I played the best move 40.4% of the time, which for me is doing extremely well at blitz. My opponent actually played the best move 53.7% of the time.

I actually enjoy playing players way over me in rating. I can play without any fear, knowing I'm "supposed" to lose. It allows me to play with abandon and enjoyment.

Chapter 15 of Yusupov Book 1 (Build Up Your Chess, The Fundamentals) was on combinations. This was the 7th chapter on tactics. In general, I like the chapters dealing with tactics. I do 10 problems a day on ChessTempo, and another 5 problems a day here on chess.com.

I scored 18 of 22 points. That rates as good. A 19 would have been excellent.

My blitz ability is pretty horrid, but it has been getting better, and I think Yusupov gets at least some of the credit.

Here is a game I played this week in a Twitch subscribers tournament run by Simon Williams. It has a nice Rook sac at the finish, even if it wasn't completely sound.

I've met my match. I've been working on Chapter 16 on KQ vs KP endgames. I'm absolutely getting killed. I understand the basics. But there are so many exceptions, etc. I have literally spent hours on some of the problems and gotten them wrong.

I don't think I have EVER gotten into a game situation this chapter covers, and I probably never will. Most KQ vs KP endgames are trivial. But the non-trivial ones are just incredibly brutal. Even if I get into one where the pawn is on the 6th or 7th rank, I'll probably do well in most practical circumstances.

Anyway, I am learning a lot going through this chapter. But at this point it is clear I'm going to fail it. That will be my first fail in the book.

@Madratter7, 

I feel your pain!

The K+Q vs K+P endings occur far more often than you may realize, but often they turn up in analysis rather than on the board. 

The key to remember is the drawing technique of Q vs Bishop's pawn, and the winning technique vs central and Knight pawns.

The key to understanding the drawing line is that it exists. If the K is too close, there's a win. If the K is too far away, it's a draw. In most cases, you'll have time to work out the borderline issues over the board. 

Go through the positions in the exercises section more than once. If you can set it up against a computer with an Endgame Tablebase where you don't get to see what the engine is thinking, that would be great. 

If you practice this, you will learn it. And it will be worth while! These endgames really do occur often enough to be practical.

Oh, one more thing to remember: In practice, if you can get your Q to the opponent's Queening square before they queen without giving up stalemate or your Q, you win. So, look for short cuts in your games! The exercises are pretty much all more difficult than that.

I really want to thank Karl and SmyslovFan for their encouragement.

When I wrote my original post I only had 7 of 21 points in the exercises I had completed. I had already done the first 9 exercises. The last three exercises were ***, **, and ***. That meant 8 points were available and if I got them all, I would pass the chapter. On the other hand, as those of you who do Yusupov know, the *** problems tend to be brutal.

Well I buckled down, went over some of the material again, and went to work. I got the points and I passed the chapter. For whatever reason, the material just made more sense today, and I was seeing things I wasn't earlier.

So, I'm happy to say I have still at least passed every chapter so far.

Yusupov is really tough going at times, and remember that my USCF rating (from way back) is only 1437 OTB (it was 1628 correspondence). So I'm on the low side of those these books are intended to help.

But I have certainly learned a lot and I still highly recommend Yusupov, even though at times (like this chapter) it can get very frustrating.

Thanks again Karl and Dan.

Thanks @Madratter7 for keeping this blog (and for others contributing). I'm probably similar strength to you and I've got these books but dont have the time to study at the moment. I'm finding your efforts inspiring and look forward to getting some time, hopefully next year, to sit down and begin working through them.