I am primarily a fitness industry evangelist who is cutting through the noise in the fitness industry. My goal is to promote the reputable few while exposing the many who lack integrity. However, this particular blog is all about my path back to chess master level ratings. I am going to explore and explain all my training on this blog. It should be quite informative as I go through the process.
Well, as you can tell, the month of November saw me falling off the chess mastery wagon. I am back up again and plan to post that promised analysis. Does anyone know of a good chess game plugin that can be used here to display my games in a format where the comments are readable and the game reviewable?
I am ready to make this the year of chess mastery. I am asking that you join me on the journey!
This has been an extremely busy time period in my life. I have alot of small projects going at one time and have had to focus on those. My chess training time has been limited, but I have managed to get some work done.
Unfortunately, I believe I have fallen behind on the lessons the school provided me. I am going to need to spend some time catching up on that. However, I have continued to work on the thinking process. It has expanded my vision during games. I played a great game recently against a decent player and came out on top as Black. The game started out as a King's Gambit thematic game. I plan to annotate the game soon and post it in this blog.
I have continued doing tactics problems to sharpen my chess vision. It really helps me to do these problems and try to solve them faster and faster. It amazes me how this type of training really changes the way you play the game. I highly recommend this approach to anyone wanting to get better at chess.
I will be back this weekend with another update.
I have been studying diligently and have learned a lot from the program I am going through. The process itself has been enjoyable and I believe my level of play is gradually getting stronger. I put this to the test by playing an online game at chess.com. It is like a correspondence game. The time limit is 13 days a move (though we both use much less than that).
During this game I am implementing every suggestion given to me in the program. I will post the annotated game here when it is done. However, I must let you know that the approach is really working well for me right now.
I started this blog as a way to help myself once again hit the master level rating. As I went through this first month of the Chess Master School training program I realized why I would always stall out in past comeback attempts. It has to do with their training method expectations. They expect you to consistently apply a method to your games and your training that involves four areas of concentration.
The Method
The method of the Chess Master School involves four areas of focus: (1) self-questioning; (2) to do list; (3) the consequences of the chess moves; and (4) developing intuition and identifying the right plan. These areas, if implemented consistently, will improve your chess game tremendously.
Self-questioning
You have to make it a deep habit to ask yourself questions during a game or when studying. You will be making some great evaluations based upon the answers to the questions you ask. You will be able to identify a real threat from an imagined threat.
To Do List
Every move changes the position on the board. You start to get feedback from your analysis and from your opponent's moves. This feedback must be stored somewhere. This is what the to do list is all about. It is where you mentally store the feedback you have been getting. It can include a reminder to ask the question "Is my King safe?"
Combining the to do list and self-questioning will make it easier to evaluate positions.
The Consequences of the Chess Moves
Again, each move changes the position and that means that there are some consequences -- good and bad -- to each move that is made. It is your job to analyze the moves and come up witn a move that does two things: maximizes what you gain while minimizing what you give up.
Developing Intuition and Identifying the Right Plan
Intuition is defined by the program as "immediately finding and understanding the essence of the position and automatically seeing the move in your mind's eye." This is why tactics training is so important. It teaches you to see patterns in the positions that can lead to victory. It is often intuition that gives you the victory.
What It All Means?
By consistently applying the four principles discussed you will improve your play tremendously. Apply these when you are playing and when you are studying. As you go over a master game, go through the four steps. You will gain a better understanding of what is going on and will improve your play as a result.
As stated, this blog was started so that I could improve my play by teaching you all what I am learning. Thus, I'd like to know what you would like to see me touch on in this space. Let me know via comments.
The first thing you must do when looking for a good move to play is find a move that gives you an advantage over your opponent. You must take the time to find some move that causes your opponent trouble. If you do so on every move you can beat a stronger player than you.
The other thing to look for when making a move is the ability to get a material advantage. In other words, can you win a piece on the move?
There are alot of factors to consider when looking for the right move to play. Some of them are positional elements and some of them are tactical elements. You must train yourself to see and understand both. In order to find the best move on the board you must consider king safety, qualitative value of the pieces, qualitative value of the pawn structure, space advantage and seizure of the initiative. You can practice these things via chess puzzles and game analysis.
Finally, you need to have a plan in order to find the right moves. The plan will guide you towards what moves to play. Ask yourself some questions:
One last question I tell budding chess players to consider: What are all the checks? I ask them to look at this because they tend to miss simple one move checkmates. If they diligently look at all the checks they will not miss one move checkmates.
Remember, nobody can find the best move in every position. Even computers don't manage to find the best move in every position. If that were possible the player would be invincible.
What are the opponent's threats?
Threats come in many colors: a mate attack or other threats against the king, the ability to gain material, putting a piece in a strong location on the board, control of a particularly important square on the board, control of a line or diaganol, or some other strategic gain. For it to be a threat, it has to be something that the opponent can gain on the next move.
After finding threats for your opponent it is your job to evaluate whether or not those threats are real. Only real threats should be taken into consideration when playing your next move.
What are the consequences of the opponent's last move?
Every move has a good effect and a collateral effect. This is something that you should be able to evaluate in a matter of seconds. These consequences are generally positional in nature.
Creating a To Do List
Every 3 to 10 moves the strong player makes a "To Do" list that contains everything they intend to realize in a given position. While you should determine the opponent's threats and the consequences of the opponent's last move on every turn, the "To Do" list should be created only every so often during a game.
The Strong Player Advantage
By considering all threats, determining the consequences of the opponent's last move and creating a "To Do" list regulary during a game, you will have the "Strong Player Advantage" and will win more often than not. These things take alot of practice, so playing alot of games is highly recommended.
In an effort to improve my overall playing strength, I enrolled (a year ago) in the Chess Master School. I am now planning to complete the trek through that class material. By doing so I will definitely become a stronger player. My current plan is to spend at least two days a week on my chess studies. I am setting a goal to play in a tournament in January 2012. I will pick that tournament shortly and post here.
If you are interested in chess, this blog will be exclusively about that topic from now on. Please follow me on my journey back to Master level chess.
