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Simple Chess Training

November 27th, 2009

Making it Difficult

After several years of working on my chess improvement and from talking to both amateurs and masters it appears that adult amateurs tend to complicate their chess improvement by reading books and tackling concepts that are far too advanced for their level.

So, here is my attempt to simplify my chess training and bring it back to basics. This program is targeted for players under 1700 USCF.

Study, Play, Review

The study portion of the plan will consist of doing tactical puzzles at the Chess Tempo site every day for a minimum of 30 minutes. You will also spend a minimum of 1 hour studying any areas dictated by reviews of our standard games which we will label focused study.

Play will consist of a minimum of 2 standard games per week of either OTB play or on ICC / chess.com. The two take aways from this is that your rating will serve as a progress report, and that the games should be 15 minutes or longer (the longer the better). The content of these games will serve as the material for the focused study portion of the plan.

Every standard game has to be reviewed afterwards. Go over the game without the use of an engine, and annotate what you were thinking. After having reviewed it on your own, have the engine analyze the game and then compare your notes with the engines analysis. Take this opportunity to review the opening phase, and what you could have done to improve that phase of the game by consulting opening books if necessary. Take note of mistakes made and in which phase of the game they were made. You will then focus your next study day on reviewing any content that will help prevent the mistakes made.

Here’s an example of what a week would look like when following the plan:

Monday

Play G/15 or >
Study tactics 30m

Tuesday

Review Monday’s game (annotate and identify weaknesses in play)
Study tactics 30m

Wednesday

Focus Study 1h (Study is based on weaknesses from reviewed game, for example K&P endgame review if game lost in the endgame, or extra tactics study if game was lost due to a tactical oversight)

Thursday
Play G/15 or >
Study tactics 30m

Friday

Review Monday’s game (annotate and identify weaknesses in play)
Study tactics 30m

Saturday

Focus Study 1h (Study is based on weaknesses from reviewed game, for example K&P endgame review if game lost in the endgame, or extra tactics study if game was lost due to a tactical oversight)

Sunday

Rest day or you can use this day to catch up on your studying, do extra tactics or play blitz games, etc.

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Posted in Chess, Improvement, Studying, Training

Overcoming Chess Training Plateaus

November 17th, 2009

Plateaus and You

Chess Men The brain needs time to assimilate and integrate new information as knowledge and to resolve conflicts with previously learned concepts and plateaus equate to slower progress while we assimilate new ideas. Not until we internalize these new ideas as knowledge are we able to move on to the next phase in our learning. Plateaus are a normal phase of the learning process. The goal is to minimize the amount of time spent in a plateau, and to identify if our plateau is part of the normal learning curve or if it is a result of a deficiency in our learning process.

Sometimes we plateau for reasons that fall outside the normal learning curve. You might plateau if you are missing fundamental knowledge which would have served as a building block to move on to the next level. Or perhaps the information you are learning is too advanced for your level, and you cannot internalize the concept.

Another common cause for prolonged plateaus is overtraining. If you find that you do not look forward to practicing, or are finding less and less time to devote to chess, these are common symptoms of overtraining and a break from chess might be in order.

Less, Different, Harder

As we mentioned before plateaus are normal, and the slow and steady progress made during this phase is critical to a healthy learning process. The length of time spent in a plateau differs between people and even between learning curve phases. As a result, it is very difficult to diagnose if a plateau has overstayed its welcome. The only way around this, is to be proactive in your training program and to build it in such a way where you are constantly challenging yourself and feeding yourself the right amount of content at the right time in your development and you have the appropriate feedback mechanisms in place to detect weaknesses.

Study your own games so you don’t make the same mistakes over and over again.
Have a coachevaluate your weaknesses, and focus your work on your weakest areas .
Are you overtraining? If so, it might be a good idea to take a 1-2 week break from chess. You will find that you will return refreshed and invigorated.
Change your training program periodically. This allows you to be a better rounded chess player, and by keeping your training sessions new and exciting it doubles as a cure to overtraining.
Don’t be discouraged by plateaus, remember you are still improving at a slow pace and that this is part of the normal learning process.
Increase the intensity of your training. A good method of increasing your training intensity is to cycle intense training session that last 1-2 weeks to help jar yourself free of a plateau. You need to be careful that you do not over train yourself during these intense study cycles. An example of cycling intense training cycles might go something like this: 2 weeks of intense training followed by 4 weeks of normal training activity.
Enjoy the practice, these things take time.

By working hard and enjoying the practice improvement will come sooner or later (I hope so).

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Posted in Chess, Improvement, Studying, Training, learning

Tags: chess improvement Improvement knowledge learning Training

Chess Evolution

September 26th, 2009

I played in the U 1500 section of the Miami Open a few weeks ago, and it was not a good outing. I only won one of 5 games against a much lower rated opponent. While devastated, it has only made me work harder on my chess. The week following the Open, I immediately started taking face to face lessons with FM Charles Galofre. I have decided to stop trying to find my path on my own, and to work with a strong player that can guide me in the right direction. I have two lessons under my belt, and I have been very pleased with the direction my chess improvement process has been taking.

I will begin posting more frequently in the coming days, but I wanted to document some of the things I have been doing differently in the last couple of weeks.

1. Started taking chess lessons

2. Narrowed the focus of my chess study (50% of study time is on tactics)

3. Focusing on my thought process

4. FM Galofre recommended that I start playing open game as White

5. Taking every game as an opportunity to learn (annotating and reviewing afterwards)

Failure is not getting knocked down, it’s not getting up again

- Vince Lombardi

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Posted in Announcements, Improvement, Training

Tags: chess improvement Training

Anatomy of a Chess Player : From Beginner to Expert

August 2nd, 2009

These are my personal and very unprofessional thoughts on the knowledge and skill attributes that amateur chess players have as they climb up the ratings ladder. The idea is to show the estimated chess rating, as well as the time it would take to attaining that level as well as the knowledge and skill attributes that the rating level requires. The idea is to figure out where you fall and what knowledge and skills are needed to go to the next level.

I would love to get feedback from more knowledgeable players and coaches, since I think this might be helpful to chess players that are just starting out all the way to an approximate 1700 rating. The idea is for players to focus on those areas that they need to work on in order to reach the next level.

0-1000 (0-3 months of experience) Player has just learned the game, they constantly leaves pieces en prise, and make many blunders. Player has no tactical, endgame, or positional knowledge. Absolutely No evaluation or analytical skills.

1000-1100 (3-6 months of experience) Beginning player now has several games under their belt. Have a very basic tactical knowledge and they continue to make many blunders and to leave pieces en prise. Plays without plan.

1100-1200 (1-2 years of experience) Beginner player continues to make many blunders. Player has learned basic tactics. Occasionally leaves pieces en prise, but not a common occurrence. Sometimes plays with a plan, but the plan is usually incorrect. At this point the player sees many offensive tactics but they miss almost all defensive tactics.

1200-1300 (2-3 years of experience) Player begins to understand that chess is a two player game, and begins to ask what the opponent’s last move is threatening. On occasion makes serious blunders. Major reason for rating increase is that player stops leaving pieces en prise for the most part. Player has intermediate tactical skills but still misses many defensive tactical shots. Starts to build an opening repertoire, which gets him into the middlegame in a better position. Very limited endgame and positional skills. Starts making better plans due to limited endgame and positional knowledge.

1300-1400 (3-4 years of experience) Advanced beginner. Players at this level have reached an intermediate thought process. player Looks for Checks, Captures and threats after opponents moves. Does not leave pieces en prise. Very good with offensive tactics and improving on the defensive tactics side, but still misses some. Still building opening repertoire. Starts learning basic endgame and middlegame strategy, but knowledge is still very basic. This level is an important milestone for the beginning chess player because they are on the verge of being an intermediate player.

1400-1500 (5-6 years of experience) Intermediate level player. Good thought process, does not leave pieces en prise. Advanced tactically, both on offense and defense (might occasionally miss a defensive tactic). Has an opening repertoire and plays pet openings. Has intermediate endgame, positional and analysis skills. One of the reasons for low rating is players poor positional evaluation abilities. Will probably need a chess coach to improve further.

1500-1700 (6-7 years of experience) Advanced intermediate player. Advanced tactical skills and thought process. Player has Intermediate endgame and positional skills at this stage. Intermediate positional evaluation and analysis skills. Should have a chess trainer, and play against strong opposition in order to improve as well as a strong focus on the endgame, positional and evaluation skills.

1700-1900 (7-8 years of experience) Near expert level player. Advanced tactical skills and thought process. Very strong endgame and positional skills. Intermediate evaluation skills. Very good analyst. Player needs to continue focusing on evaluation and analysis skills. Opening theory knowledge becomes an important component for further improvement. Player has a good database of structures that that can help them when they reach unfamiliar positions in OTB play. Player should reach expert level in approximately 2 more years, which falls in line with expert theory which claims that it takes 10 years to become an expert in any field.

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Posted in Improvement, Training

Tags: chess improvement

Kotov’s Method for Chess Improvement

July 26th, 2009

The Road to Chess Improvement

Ruke Vin Hansen in his amazing article Mind Games: Who is Doing the Playing? comes to the conclusion that the best way to improve chess skill is not through reading chess books or watching DVDs. He argues that reading more books only helps fill your short term memory whereas quality moves are a result of the subconscious processes which are not affected by the “conscious” short term memory.

thinklikgm

Hansen asserts that the best way to improve playing strength, improve judgement and to combat blunder tendencies is to follow a similar approach as that found in Kotov’s Think Like a Grandmaster.

Here is the process described by Hansen:

No matter what position you choose to analyse, opening, middle game or end game, complex or simple; find annotated games and play through them till you to come to the point with the greatest number of variations.

Cover up the annotations with a sheet of paper and, without moving the pieces, analyze the position from 30 minutes to an hour. If the variations are extremely complex, you might write down your analyzes while analyzing.

When time is out, stop analyzing and uncover the annotations in the book or magazine, and compare your notes with the annotator’s. (This is crucial since this trains and disciplines the brain’s ability to perceive positions correctly)

Strictly speaking, this, and not his highly criticized graphic presentation of tree-analyzes, is the Kotov-method. This was the method catapulting Kotov to super GM strength and even if Kotov was unable to, we can partly explain why it works, and in short, it can be put as TWT or “Targeted Wiring Training”. As long as thinking is subconscious, we have no idea what the mind looks like when pondering or producing chess moves or analysing positions. This method simultaneously teaches a whole array of different chess skills even if not targeted individually or specifically.

When starting out, there might be a great discrepancy between your analysis and the annotators’ but with time, you learn to delineate relevant moves and variations as this training and final comparison will exercise and target the mind’s ability to perceive chess positions and produce high quality moves. Initially, this system of training may appear time consuming and even monotonous, but patience and diligence will return generous rewards since you will:

* Achieve total mastery of a new and important position

* Broaden your opening repertoire and theoretical knowledge.

* Become better acquainted with positions of similar pawn structures or themes (note; not “pattern”)

* Absorb motifs which you can also apply to other positions.

* Dramatically improve combinative skill.

* Improve both long and short range planning.

* Analyze more deeply, accurately and efficiently.

* Increase concentration and attention span.

* Sharpen board visualization.

* Develop patience and perseverance

* control impulsive tendencies.

For the full article please go to: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5055

For those of you who follow Dan Heisman, this training technique is very similar to Stoyko Exercises.

Stoyko Exercises
from Dan Heisman’s Exercises page

A summary of Stoyko exercise:

1) Find a fairly complicated position

2) Get out a pen/pencil and paper

3) You have unlimited time

4) Write down every (pertinent) line for as deep as you can see, making sure to include an evaluation at the end of the line. This will likely include dozens of lines and several first ply candidate moves. Evaluations can be any type you like:

a) Computer (in pawns, like +.3)
b) MCO/Informant (=, +/=, etc.)
c) English (”White is a little better”)

5) At the end state which move you would play and it’s “best play for both sides” line becomes the PV

6) When you are done, go over each line and its evaluation with a strong player and/or a computer. Look for:

a) Lines/moves you should have analyzed but missed
b) Any errors in visualization (retained images, etc.)
c) Any lines where you stopped analyzing too soon, thus causing a big error in evaluation (quiescence errors)
d) Any large errors in evaluation of any line
e) Whether the above caused you to chose the wrong move
etc.

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Posted in Chess, Exercises, Improvement, Thinking Process, Training, learning

Tags: chess improvement Improvement Kotov learning Stoyko Exercises Training

The Step Method in Chess

July 23rd, 2009

I stumbled upon a blog post that mentioned the Step Method in Chess, this piqued my interest and I began to research it further. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of information on the Internet, so I have tried to compile as much as I could find about this chess teaching program.

The step-by-step method has been developed by Rob Brunia and Cor van Wijgerden to teach children a Step-by-Step Chess Method to play chess. A large number of schools and chess clubs in the Netherlands and Belgium use this method for their chess lessons. The Step Method is intended to take students from the basics all the way to an approximate ELO rating of 1900 after the student has mastered step 5, and to an approximate rating of 2100 once they master the self-directed 6th step.

This method consists of six steps.

Step 1

Rules of the game and basic skills are covered in step 1.

15 lessons:

1: Board and pieces
2: Moves of the pieces
3: Attacking and capturing
4: The pawn
5: Defending
6: Check and + getting out of check
7: Mate
8: Mate
9: Castling
10: Profitable exchange
11: Twofold attack
12: Draw
13: Mating with the queen
14: Taking ‘en passant’
15: The notation
» Read more: The Step Method in Chess

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Posted in Chess, Exercises, Improvement, Lessons

Tags: chess improvement Steps Method Training

Chess Training Schedule

July 6th, 2009

Day 1
Study endings (1hr)
Solve tactics (30min)

Day 2
Study strategy (1hr)
Solve endings (30min)

Day 3
Play long game (1hr)
Solve tactics (30min)

Day 4
Solve strategy (1hr)
Solve tactics (30min)

Day 5
Study openings (1hr)
Solve endings (30min)

Day 6
Play long game (1hr)
Solve tactics (30min)

Day 7
Off day

6 comments »

Posted in Improvement, Lessons, Training

Tags: chess improvement Training

Chess Board Visualization Exercises

June 27th, 2009

While many claim that improved board visualization leading to the ability to play blindfold chess is the result of playing chess over a period of time, some people need to work on this ability through a board visualization exercise regimen.

Board visualization training will improve your ability to calculate long variations. Training should take place 3-4 times per week in 5-10 minute sessions.

Board Visualization Exercise #1

Arrange the pieces on a board and look at the normal developing move for all the pieces. The White knights develop to c3 and f3, while the Black knights develop to c6 and f6. The light squared bishop develops to e2,d3,c4,b5, etc. Once you have studied the knights, bishops (regular and fianchetto positions) the castled King and rook and the four central squares (e4,d4,e5,d5) you remove all of the pieces and point and name out loud all of the normal developing squares for the pieces.

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Posted in Board Visualization, Chess, Exercises, Improvement, Lessons, Training

Tags: calculation chess improvement Exercises Training Visualization

The New Begin(ning) Chess

May 5th, 2009

This post marks a new beginning for this blog. After a long hiatus from blogging and chess, I return reinvigorated and refreshed.

The new purpose of this blog is exploring how adults learn (chess). It has become obvious to me after four years of my chess journey, that the adult learning experience is clumsy, slow and inefficient. This flaw in the way adults learn is at the root of why it takes us so long to improve and why we reach frequent and lengthy plateaus.

While the blog will continue to focus on the “what” to learn, it will also address the “how” we learn aspects of learning chess. Perhaps by better understanding the learning process, we can better focus our time and energy and see true improvement as if we were eight years old again.