THOUGHTS OF A CHESS ADDICT

Chess maxims are abound, especially from acclaimed players like Siegbert Tarrasch who was the authority in explaining the importance of chess rules in his time. Today we have a summarised guide of these bits of advice in the form of the 2 books below:  This is the principles book for the intermediate player rated perhaps 1500 and above. The 17 chapters offer a wide range of advice from Attack, Move Selection, Calculation, Defence, Tactics and even Tournament tactics. I like #137:   "The most important novelties are hidden in the games of the old masters" That's why the study of the games of Alekhine, Nimzowitsch and Capablanca will gain you valuable insights on some of the plans they've used and are likely to spin off in positions of current theory.                                         ...

When one talks about confidence, a quiet knowing, what exactly does that mean?  I can only deduce that this confidence comes with fore-knowledge of a particular course of action leading to a predictable outcome. In chess, this translates to knowledge - in fact, GMs have about 100,000 bits of this knowledge in the form of principles of the 3 phases of the game, plus other patterns of chess tactics such as mating patterns, even endgame patterns where 1 look at the arrangement of pawns can determine the course of action to take. It is this knowledge that players need to seek, whether through the study of games, or by deduction in the course of analysing his/her own game. There will always be some positions where it will be impossible to calculate owing to the many ramifications of the variations pending on the player's understanding of the game. In fact, some of the correct moves may not even be discovered during the course of the game as that possibility may not have existed owing to...

What are they? I am afraid some of these names below may be alien to young chess players, who may not have even known who I am talking about. Let me just flash out the titles first, then I will go in depth on my next posting. I own most of them by the way.

 Books that teach yourself are abound in the 80's and I present some of the well written ones, such as Zak's "Improve Your Chess Results". I chanced upon this book while playing in the Merdeka tournament in 1990 at the Times bookstore in KL. The title attracted me so I started to pore over its contents. It was a revelation. Zak is a famous Russian chess trainer having coached many top players, such as Boris Spassky the 10th World Champion, Yermolinsky among others. He was a believer in the attack from the first move and advocated a thorough study of the Two Knight's Defence for young players.   The major topics covered were: How Skill Develops, Typical Mistakes by Young Players, Developing a Repertoire which are relevant to the chess coaching nature in me. Let expand on the topic Typical mistakes by Young Players. The main sub-title under this chapter was " Playing openings without understanding the ideas". I quote: " If a player learns variations w...

I've engaged someone across the Causeway in his postings about the process of creating a GM or grandmaster. Though he approaches it from the motivational speaker point of view, it is laughable ignorance on his part perhaps that several bloggers have tried to dispel  his thoughts which they think will only serve to misguide. So I guess its time to prove myself in what I know about his area of expertise (motivation and mind training) when it comes to chess players. He is not wrong in that there are components in chess by listing the 2 player's minds, the chessboard, the clock. So I shall attempt to recommend the various books below which can help him understand the subject of chess better. Having been around the chess training scene since 1982, although a volunteer then, I have researched quite a bit on the thinking process of the chess player and how it affects his/her  game. 2 landmark books come to mind: Adrian De Groot's classic thesis on the thinking of chess players (fr...

Here are some of my recommendations for good endgame books to read. This covers the area of exact or theoretical endgames. You need only to study the 30 that I have outlined from the huge lot.  What I like about these books is that they have lots of explanations in how the winning method is achieved. Some are even directed towards the level of players and what they should know - eg Silman.   Basic Chess Endings has been around for years as the 1st encyclopedia of chess endgames. Though there are quite a few errors, what I like about this book is that it gives sound advice on what to do when you have no definite idea how to proceed. Take for example pawn endings. So you have 1 pawn more than your opponent. Fine's advice? " The winning process in endings with a pawn ahead as follows: 1 Force a passed pawn 2 Sacrifice the pawn at a moment to get either a a pawn that queens by force b a sufficient proponderence (means more) of material c a win in one of the basic posit...

As promised, I shall now dwell on the business of chess improvement based on my experience. Most players, weak or strong,  fear and respect the endgame respectively. Unlike opening variations where one can devote time to learn 'tricks' to catch the opponent off-guard to snare a piece, a queen or even mate, the endgame does not reward the student in this manner.  I agree with Andy Soltis when he says the chief phobia about endgames is chiefly caused by the chess authors way of presenting the subject. Tons of exact endgames knowledge (where if you know the moves you can win) in the form of encyclopedic information about  how if your pieces lie within the zone you win, if not you draw, or who wins if he has the move etc. Too much of such information is utterly useless as the when the time does come to apply such information over the board, much of it would have been forgotten. On the other hand, there's the other area of practical endgame strategems such as the fortress, cre...

Quite a big word, subliminal. I had just learnt it from reading Andy Soltis's STUDYING CHESS MADE EASY.  I would recommend this book for the serious player wanting answers on how to improve his/her chess through the various ways of studying chess. There are many methods which I find I had in common with the ones he explained in his book. The one I liked best was Subliminal learning - using methods to input chess knowledge to the mind subconsciously. How can this be done? Reading chess books and analysing every diagram one comes across. In his book he gives countless examples of top players doing that, Each time the book is read, different thoughts and perceptions are picked up by the player. One such book I find which does this is Nimzowitsch's MY SYSTEM . You can read this book at different phases and it tells you different things. The other way which Soltis does not talk about and is my own invention, is Chess Game watching. You will need a game-viewer or Chess database like ...

Back in the last 30 years, most of what's known as theoretical chess knowledge existed purely in the form of the printed word - chess magazines, chess books, Informants. These were the main source of information one can get on the latest trends in opening theory, or the presentation of great games played by the masters with great comments from the authors. That trend was completely changed with the Computer Age - the use of chess databases, playing programs like Fritz or Rybka and instruction videos. The poor chess student is really flooded with tons of information coming at a ridiculous rate that it is near impossible to find the time to rummage through, let alone study, the essence of the material. With time controls of 25 mins or less per player to complete the game, one wonders why is there the need to invest time and effort to learn chess when there is hardly enough time for the student to ponder about the plans and strategies one has learnt, hoping to find some use for it in ...