Have started to study My System from my laptop but found it not as smooth as studying from book. For a start I cannot scribble on it, cannot accompany me inside restroom and cannot fast flipping the pages. Comforting myself that I have saved many trees and this is just a matter of familiarisation…
Week 3 Report
Opening
Nil
Middlegame
FinishedChess Fundamentals. Chapter 1: First Principles. Skipping the first few pages since I think I know how to deliver checkmate via lone rook.
Chess Strategy. Chapter 2: The eye of the Grandmaster. Interesting! Especially on the research done by de Groot that discovered strong players do not be a strong player because they calculate quickly and accurately but because they know how to access a position, finding the right orientation and eventually finds the best move. Well, that is a good news for someone who can count not many steps ahead… (me!)
Not Finished
My System: Chapter 1:The Element. Finished halfway. Need to finish the element by this week.
Endgame
Covered R vs N (via UCE and FCE). Covered R vs B (via UCE)
Opening
Nil
Middlegame
To cover
My System: Chapter 1: The ElementChess Strategy: Chapter 3: Thought process and line of thinking
Chess Fundamentals: Chapter 2: Further principle in Endgame play
Endgame
Rook and Bishop (FCE) and starts to look at the rook ending
hi GM58,
ReplyDeleteI guessed your input actually more than that, how about following Anand-Gelfand's match?
:-)
seng
Hi Mr Who Beat Udani (and seduted his rating in process),
DeleteI did follow Anand-Gelfand's match which i am hoping for Anand's to retain his crown...but in privatelah.
Jimmy and Hairulov (as well as other blogs) have done a great job covering it so maybe i will not cover it (except maybe for that like/don't like article)
Sorry, Ilham. What i meant is following the Anang-Gelfand match should be considered as part of your effort to become GM58, hence it shall be jotted down in your "week 3 progress report".
DeleteMy good friend YCS,
Deleteyalah...after all it is still part of chess activity...will put it my next report.. Anang-Gelfang match!
Can I give some advice? Chess Fundamentals is a good general starting book. Forget Nimzowitsch - you can read it when you become stronger to marvel at it! Chess Strategy for Club Players is okay and John Nunn's Understanding Chess Endings is sufficient as a basic primer. What you need is to work on tactics and calculation as that is what chess is all about in today's world of computers. Since you have given yourself time to become GM, begin your opening study with classical openings i.e. Either 1.e4 or 1 d4 as White and main lines but for sure defend as Black against 1.e4 with 1. ...e5 and against 1.d4 with 1... d5. Playing and studying the positions arising with give you a good foundation for other openings later but more importantly you will play correctly and increase your understanding of playing standard positions.
ReplyDeleteOops, I forgot to mention that at the end of the day, improvement in chess is about playing and analysing (to eliminate weaknesses, get better ideas and see continuations you may have missed) and you need to have a good sparring partner who is stronger than you to provide this (besides your computer engine).
ReplyDeleteHi Peter,
DeleteThanks for the advice. Appreciate it. Agreed that tactic is important but problem with me is that i have been studying tactics for like...25 years! and as result it influence my choice of opening (Blackmar Diemer Gambit, Marshall Attack, Morra Gambit...you'll get the picture). I almost never studied Standard Openings or proper endgame...the only strategy i know is f4,f5,sac f7. Either win gloriously (very rare) or lose stupidly (happen most of the time)
As a change now i 'force' myself to study positional and endgame...things i should do 20 years ago...
Initially i intend not to study opening but your advice above make me rethink...maybe i should!
Yes, i make a resolution to religiously study all my games...before this i let dustbin to analyse my scoresheet.
Tactics are tactics. What I mean is you have to be sharp - have good combination vision and then know how to execute and in that tactics has a role as does mating patterns and calculating ability.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that you big problem is not understanding what is important in a position - that is positional evaluation and from that to make plans. Of course if you play only such gambits as you mentioned then you will be stereotyped for tricks and only be able to orient yourself in such situations. Strategy can be attack too but usually some manouvering is needed against the weakness in your opponents position or such things as improvment of your own pieces.
For this of course you need to learn the positional elements but end of the day is deciding what is most important and also beings able to exploit and for that you have to improve your technique and these is where your hard work you plan should pay off!