How to improve chess play?

[luisrodg]

First, I know this forum mostly talks about computer chess, however given the name of the forum (TalkChess) and the fact I'm posting in the General Topics forum, hopefully this is not off topic. If it is, I guess you can just close it...

I have never "studied" chess, I just learnt the rules and played. Well, I'm a patzer which can be seen by my 1200 rating on ICC. I want to improve my level.

I asked a GM from my home country on ICC how I could do so given my very limited time to devote to chess and he told me if I cannot commit to seriously studying chess that just by playing blitz (5m min) here and there, my play would gradually go up. Thing is I have been playing blitz for a good year now and my rating hovers around the same 1200. Is there anything I could do to improve my chess?

Thanks.

[royb]

First, I know this forum mostly talks about computer chess, however given the name of the forum (TalkChess) and the fact I'm posting in the General Topics forum, hopefully this is not off topic. If it is, I guess you can just close it...

I have never "studied" chess, I just learnt the rules and played. Well, I'm a patzer which can be seen by my 1200 rating on ICC. I want to improve my level.

I asked a GM from my home country on ICC how I could do so given my very limited time to devote to chess and he told me if I cannot commit to seriously studying chess that just by playing blitz (5m min) here and there, my play would gradually go up. Thing is I have been playing blitz for a good year now and my rating hovers around the same 1200. Is there anything I could do to improve my chess?

Thanks.

I am sure there are many paths to improvement for a player at your currrent playing strength. Tactics are important for a long time up the rating scale; I've heard some say that up to 2300 ELO, tactics tend to dominate the scene in terms of determining who wins the game.

But in addition to just studying tactics positions ad nauseum, I've found some of the Novice Nook articles helpful and an enjoyable read:

http://www.chesscafe.com/archives/archi ... ice%20Nook

There are LOTs of them so browse and select a few that seem interesting to you.

Good luck and most of all -- have fun! The game should be fun or not played at all IMHO.

[OliverUwira]

For improving tactics the easiest way would be to register with a free chess tactics server like chesstempo.com and solve problems.

I'd suggest you take half the amount of time you dedicate to blitz games and use it to solve tactics problems. Those tactics servers have a rating system and will give you harder problems as your rating improves.

Apart from that, buy a primer on chess basics and read it casually (i.e. in front of your fireplace ), but regularly, in order to immerse the motifs and rules of thumb. You don't need to buy a super-modern book for that. Lasker's Chess Manual or Chess Fundamentals by J.R. Capablanca are very good and will get you started gently.

[gerold]

First, I know this forum mostly talks about computer chess, however given the name of the forum (TalkChess) and the fact I'm posting in the General Topics forum, hopefully this is not off topic. If it is, I guess you can just close it...

I have never "studied" chess, I just learnt the rules and played. Well, I'm a patzer which can be seen by my 1200 rating on ICC. I want to improve my level.

I asked a GM from my home country on ICC how I could do so given my very limited time to devote to chess and he told me if I cannot commit to seriously studying chess that just by playing blitz (5m min) here and there, my play would gradually go up. Thing is I have been playing blitz for a good year now and my rating hovers around the same 1200. Is there anything I could do to improve my chess?

Thanks.

Start from the beginning. Learn a few opening that you like and
can play well. Watch a lot of computer games and study them.
Try to guess the next move. Forget the Blitz games. Play games
30+minutes. Never rush your move. Your GM gave you bad advise.
Study the end game well that is where you win or lose after you learn
to play well.

Best,
Gerold.

[Sean Evans]

You can start by buying this book:

http://www.amazon.ca/Play-Winning-Chess ... 196&sr=8-1

Then buy the rest of the books in the series, particularly "tactics" and "strategy".

No one gets better at chess unless they are prepared to allocate some time and effort. The more of both the better the player gets, it is the same for everyone!

Good luck,

Sean

[Dann Corbit]

Read all of Yasser Seirawan's "Winning Chess" series books.

[shiv]

I agree with the other posters that one needs to invest time to improve. However, even an hour a day is actually a lot of time for chess, so you might have more time than you think. First of all, create a tactical goal or objective you want to reach.

Blitz is not bad in my opinion. However, try to play blitz with increments e.g. 5 5 or say 10 3 if possible. Most importantly, go over the games after you play them and try to work out where the players went wrong and consult with a human on the analysis. Solving tactical problems is also good.

When I was younger, I improved from 1200 to about 1900 by just playing blitz for 1.5 years. I was unrated to start with and lived in a country where there were not many chess books or problems to solve. I got my first rating in the US. Interestingly, my first rating was around 1850, which I felt really bad about. I had thought that the lowest rating was 2000 and a rating below 2000 is a negative rating. Luckily, I learned a lot more about the rating system thereafter.

My advice after this experience is to try to play blitz against a human at the local chess club if possible and then go over the games. I felt that I improved a lot from the social aspects of the challenge. Even later in my chess "career", I had improvement spurts when I studied chess with a friend. I might even go as far as stating that I never improved my rating significantly without studying with a friend.

This advice is definitely off topic

[Sylwy]

I asked a GM from my home country on ICC how I could do so given my very limited time to devote to chess and he told me if I cannot commit to seriously studying chess that just by playing blitz (5m min) here and there, my play would gradually go up. Thing is I have been playing blitz for a good year now and my rating hovers around the same 1200. Is there anything I could do to improve my chess?

Thanks.

Hi !

Here's a superb tool :

http://lukasMonk.110Mb.com/

Regards,
Silvian

[Ponti]

This is the "Search of the Chess Graal".



Computers and software can help you:

1) Get a good chess database (there are many) and start the study of master's games; collect your own played games in a file and analyse them.

2) To help studying openings, get Bookup or the free Chess Position Trainer;

3) use convekta`s "CT-ART" or use online tactics websites;

4) Get endgame software by Averbakh (convekta`s) or Dvoretsky (chessbase`s)

5) Some reading _to start_:
- Zürich 1953, by Bronstein
- My System, by Nimzowitsch
- Edmar Mednis`s books
- Studying Chess Made Easy, a recent great book by GM Andrew Soltis

6) Play by correspondence (e-mail, chess sites of "turn-based chess", ICCF, IECG, etc...)

7) Play slow internet-chess games (remember Nigel Short: "Internet Chess is NOT chess!") or OTB chess and tournaments. Anotate and analyse _ALL_ your games, with or without help of a stronger player (or at least with help of an engine).

Just my 2 cents.

[playjunior]

Solving tactics problems on a server is not very useful. Get a book which is systematized and explains patterns etc. Just trying to solve something, failing and seeing the solution is not very helpful (depends on the person, but usually the book is much better).

Do not invest too much time into openings.

Study endgames as much as you can IMO. Even if you like to play actively and attack, sometimes your attack will fail and you need to bail out into a pawn-down endgame and hold it. Sometimes, your attack will just give you a better endgame.

So probably: endgames + tactics and some middlegame concepts. Play simple openings and try not to waste time memorizing all the lines Anand and Aronian play in Semi-Slav (because a) you cannot and b) even if you could that alone won't help you )