- Blind mode tutorial
lichess.org
Donate

Chess Improvement for old f***s

#11

Something needs to be corrected. Sicilian “not really about pawn breaks” is not really true. But it’s a different kind of pawn break. In the Sicilian Black often meets White’s center “head-on”, instead of from the wings. A glance at “Chess Structures” confirms this. Flores Rios is an interesting guy. Grandmaster at 18, he went on to obtain a PHd in Mathematics, and now works in the technology sector in California. Probably makes a gazillion dollars. The book is well organized and structured, probably the guy would be good at anything he put his mind to. There are a few like that. Max Euwe comes to mind.

The forward was very pleasing, written by GM Axel Bachman, they were teammates on the chess team at university. Bachman’s own style during that time was to study many games (about 100,000 over his career) for only a couple minutes, looking for REPEAT PATTERNS. The downside of that is that it’s very time consuming, plus it is not so easy for everyone to see those patterns. He then concludes that Flores Rios’ book is intended to deal with exactly those problems.

As for role models, well Korchnoi fits the bill in terms of his creative approach, but that shouldn’t mean I have to play like Korchnoi. At this time, if I had to pick one GM to emulate, it might be Tigran Petrosian. He has taken heat for too many draws, but he could certainly win when he wanted to, witness his record in Olympiad play of 78 wins, 50 draws, and 1 loss. In his book “Python Strategy”, Petrosian says it is all about the will to fight. His contention was that just about any position could be made interesting if one is in the mood for a fight, and conversely just about any position could quickly be made anemic if one is not in the mood. If you read between the lines of this, and also of others, it would appear that in the second match with Spassky he lost the will to fight.

Forward and up.

Something needs to be corrected. Sicilian “not really about pawn breaks” is not really true. But it’s a different kind of pawn break. In the Sicilian Black often meets White’s center “head-on”, instead of from the wings. A glance at “Chess Structures” confirms this. Flores Rios is an interesting guy. Grandmaster at 18, he went on to obtain a PHd in Mathematics, and now works in the technology sector in California. Probably makes a gazillion dollars. The book is well organized and structured, probably the guy would be good at anything he put his mind to. There are a few like that. Max Euwe comes to mind. The forward was very pleasing, written by GM Axel Bachman, they were teammates on the chess team at university. Bachman’s own style during that time was to study many games (about 100,000 over his career) for only a couple minutes, looking for REPEAT PATTERNS. The downside of that is that it’s very time consuming, plus it is not so easy for everyone to see those patterns. He then concludes that Flores Rios’ book is intended to deal with exactly those problems. As for role models, well Korchnoi fits the bill in terms of his creative approach, but that shouldn’t mean I have to play like Korchnoi. At this time, if I had to pick one GM to emulate, it might be Tigran Petrosian. He has taken heat for too many draws, but he could certainly win when he wanted to, witness his record in Olympiad play of 78 wins, 50 draws, and 1 loss. In his book “Python Strategy”, Petrosian says it is all about the will to fight. His contention was that just about any position could be made interesting if one is in the mood for a fight, and conversely just about any position could quickly be made anemic if one is not in the mood. If you read between the lines of this, and also of others, it would appear that in the second match with Spassky he lost the will to fight. Forward and up.
#13

As for some of that feedback, well guys, I just want to get better. Is that so hard to understand? Go play your bullet chess

As for some of that feedback, well guys, I just want to get better. Is that so hard to understand? Go play your bullet chess
#14

@Looongshot said in #8:

Well, that's the million dollar question: "How to Improve?" Everyone that you ask will give you a different answer. People are too fixated with the end result and not with the journey. There is a classic question in chess forums "I'm XX years old. Can I get to GM?".

I mean, why are you worried if you can get to GM? Just learn to enjoy the game, enjoy the journey, go down this road and see how far can you go. Laugh on your stupid blunders, brag about your brilliant winning combinations that you found. Chess is a fascinating game, and there is too much ego involved. Chess in the popular culture is a hobby for geniuses, rocket scientists and so on. That is far from the truth. Chess is just what it is, a game! Yes, a bit of art and culture, but ultimately it is a simple board game and people play games to have a good time.

I remember a tip Nakamura gave in a video for newcomers "Enjoy the game, just don't take it too seriously". That's a great advice!

Prime example of why I am not asking. I already said I was sticking to the plan. Go ahead and laugh at your stupid blunders. i have other plans.

@Looongshot said in #8: > Well, that's the million dollar question: "How to Improve?" Everyone that you ask will give you a different answer. People are too fixated with the end result and not with the journey. There is a classic question in chess forums "I'm XX years old. Can I get to GM?". > > I mean, why are you worried if you can get to GM? Just learn to enjoy the game, enjoy the journey, go down this road and see how far can you go. Laugh on your stupid blunders, brag about your brilliant winning combinations that you found. Chess is a fascinating game, and there is too much ego involved. Chess in the popular culture is a hobby for geniuses, rocket scientists and so on. That is far from the truth. Chess is just what it is, a game! Yes, a bit of art and culture, but ultimately it is a simple board game and people play games to have a good time. > > I remember a tip Nakamura gave in a video for newcomers "Enjoy the game, just don't take it too seriously". That's a great advice! Prime example of why I am not asking. I already said I was sticking to the plan. Go ahead and laugh at your stupid blunders. i have other plans.
#16

@fh_chess_65 said in #6:

... The only instructional chess book in my plan is “Chess Structures: A Grandmaster Guide, by Mauricio Flores Rios. ... This will be my guide. ...
"... Chess structures: A Grandmaster Guide is not a primer of positional play; ... Instead, you might think of Chess Structures as positional chess 'finishing school.' ..." - John Hartmann
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/chess-structures-a-grandmaster-guide/
"... Just because a book contains lots of information that you don’t know, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be extremely helpful in making you better at this point in your chess development. ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2001)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140626180930/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman06.pdf

@fh_chess_65 said in #6: > ... The only instructional chess book in my plan is “Chess Structures: A Grandmaster Guide, by Mauricio Flores Rios. ... This will be my guide. ... "... Chess structures: A Grandmaster Guide is not a primer of positional play; ... Instead, you might think of Chess Structures as positional chess 'finishing school.' ..." - John Hartmann https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/chess-structures-a-grandmaster-guide/ "... Just because a book contains lots of information that you don’t know, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be extremely helpful in making you better at this point in your chess development. ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2001) https://web.archive.org/web/20140626180930/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman06.pdf
#17

Let me be clear on one thing. Why Korchnoi? Sure those other guys got it done. Top of that list might be Smyslov, who experienced quite a resurgence I think in his fifties or early sixties. Lasker would be a decent choice if I had more time. Probably then I would start with Steinitz. Interesting to note that John Nunn’s Middlegame Course, a book for mid level players (club players?) is based on Lasker. But I say again, Korchnoi remained a competitive grandmaster throughout his career, going so far as to win outright a cat 16 tournament (BIEL 2001) at age 70, finishing ahead of Svidler, Gelfand, Lautier, Grischuck, and Yannick Pelletier, who was from Switzerland. It must have been a 2700+ performance rating. https://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Biel_GM_2001/4232 Korchnoi also won the world seniors championship at age 75. Longevity AND consistency. Just look at his history in the Top 100. The man was in his late forties or early fifties when he went down to a 20 year old Garry Kasparov, I think in the final candidates match leading up to the first of the epic K-K series. Can any of the other guys mentioned claim that kind of a record? And I say that his unique and creative approach to the game “I don’t study, I create” is probably the reason for that longevity., AND THAT LENDS CREDENCE TO MY PLAN, which is all about trying new ideas.

My writing is intended to support this effort. On one level,you can call it my own personal “re-assessment of my chess”, Call it a “back to the basics” rebuilding. It will be heavy on the explanation, light on analysis and diagrams. That should help with visualization skills. I am hoping this might serve others of my ilk, in particular those who learned the game as a youth, picked up a hodgepodge of tricks and strategies throught their adult life, but never made a systematic study of the game, for one reason or another.

At first my blog will be limited to friends. I hope to get a few people who think I might be on to something to follow along, and measure any gains. If we get positive results, and I am feeling positive about that, it would be a good selling point if I turn it into a book, which I will probably do anyways. The Philosophy of Modern Chess” (tip of the hat to The Bard), possible subtitles “The never-ending journal” or “themysterytramp Chess Handbook” F*ck you, expectingrain.com. LOL.

P.s. I do have a bit of a professional background, having worked for many years for this man, http://wwwchessacademycanada.com , a man who had earned the title “Honoured Chess Coach of the Soviet Union”, a man whose coach in turn was Efim Geller, a man who in turn had plus records against Botvinnik, Smyslov, Petrosian and Fischer. When guys like Tal, Spassky, Karpov, and Kasparov came to Toronto, this guy would get the call. Probably they would have dinner. You get the drift? I could tell you some things. Here’s but one. All of the top Soviet GMs were required to pass a course about Bobby Fischer. OK, I digress. I did all of the ghost writing and desktop for my guy’s last four books, Others had done this, most notably Lev Alburt and Sam Palatnik, (The Comprehensive Chess Course), when my guy wanted to sell his work in stores, on Amazon, etc. At the end of his career he had been retained by the U.S.C.F. to develop a program for children in schools, and I was with him on that, but failing health prevented it from happening Yah shoulda seen the look on his face when I broke the news to him of Korchnoi’s victory at age 70 in Biel. “THIS IS CHESS KNOWLEDGE” he thundered with his deep Russian accent. He then told me that Korchnoi had always hated him since the sixties, when one of his students (GM Vladimir Tukmakov) defeated Korchnoi in an important game, while he was watching. Worth pointing out is that “my guy” was an FM, with a peak rating of around 2450. R.I.P.

Thanks very much if you have actually read all of this. I leave you with the game Korchnoi - Grischuk from Biel 2001, a game that I witnessed live on ICC (chessclub.com). The online chat for this was absolutely hilarious. I wonder if there is a transcript somewhere. Interesting to note that chessgames.com showed only ten games from this event. ??

https://www.365chess.com/game.php?gid=425644

Let me be clear on one thing. Why Korchnoi? Sure those other guys got it done. Top of that list might be Smyslov, who experienced quite a resurgence I think in his fifties or early sixties. Lasker would be a decent choice if I had more time. Probably then I would start with Steinitz. Interesting to note that John Nunn’s Middlegame Course, a book for mid level players (club players?) is based on Lasker. But I say again, Korchnoi remained a competitive grandmaster throughout his career, going so far as to win outright a cat 16 tournament (BIEL 2001) at age 70, finishing ahead of Svidler, Gelfand, Lautier, Grischuck, and Yannick Pelletier, who was from Switzerland. It must have been a 2700+ performance rating. https://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Biel_GM_2001/4232 Korchnoi also won the world seniors championship at age 75. Longevity AND consistency. Just look at his history in the Top 100. The man was in his late forties or early fifties when he went down to a 20 year old Garry Kasparov, I think in the final candidates match leading up to the first of the epic K-K series. Can any of the other guys mentioned claim that kind of a record? And I say that his unique and creative approach to the game “I don’t study, I create” is probably the reason for that longevity., AND THAT LENDS CREDENCE TO MY PLAN, which is all about trying new ideas. My writing is intended to support this effort. On one level,you can call it my own personal “re-assessment of my chess”, Call it a “back to the basics” rebuilding. It will be heavy on the explanation, light on analysis and diagrams. That should help with visualization skills. I am hoping this might serve others of my ilk, in particular those who learned the game as a youth, picked up a hodgepodge of tricks and strategies throught their adult life, but never made a systematic study of the game, for one reason or another. At first my blog will be limited to friends. I hope to get a few people who think I might be on to something to follow along, and measure any gains. If we get positive results, and I am feeling positive about that, it would be a good selling point if I turn it into a book, which I will probably do anyways. The Philosophy of Modern Chess” (tip of the hat to The Bard), possible subtitles “The never-ending journal” or “themysterytramp Chess Handbook” F*ck you, expectingrain.com. LOL. P.s. I do have a bit of a professional background, having worked for many years for this man, http://wwwchessacademycanada.com , a man who had earned the title “Honoured Chess Coach of the Soviet Union”, a man whose coach in turn was Efim Geller, a man who in turn had plus records against Botvinnik, Smyslov, Petrosian and Fischer. When guys like Tal, Spassky, Karpov, and Kasparov came to Toronto, this guy would get the call. Probably they would have dinner. You get the drift? I could tell you some things. Here’s but one. All of the top Soviet GMs were required to pass a course about Bobby Fischer. OK, I digress. I did all of the ghost writing and desktop for my guy’s last four books, Others had done this, most notably Lev Alburt and Sam Palatnik, (The Comprehensive Chess Course), when my guy wanted to sell his work in stores, on Amazon, etc. At the end of his career he had been retained by the U.S.C.F. to develop a program for children in schools, and I was with him on that, but failing health prevented it from happening Yah shoulda seen the look on his face when I broke the news to him of Korchnoi’s victory at age 70 in Biel. “THIS IS CHESS KNOWLEDGE” he thundered with his deep Russian accent. He then told me that Korchnoi had always hated him since the sixties, when one of his students (GM Vladimir Tukmakov) defeated Korchnoi in an important game, while he was watching. Worth pointing out is that “my guy” was an FM, with a peak rating of around 2450. R.I.P. Thanks very much if you have actually read all of this. I leave you with the game Korchnoi - Grischuk from Biel 2001, a game that I witnessed live on ICC (chessclub.com). The online chat for this was absolutely hilarious. I wonder if there is a transcript somewhere. Interesting to note that chessgames.com showed only ten games from this event. ?? https://www.365chess.com/game.php?gid=425644
#20

A few more words about the Flores Rios book. You might like this quote from the author’s preface: “... I became Grandmaster at age 18 knowing less than half of this book's contents.” He also quotes Capablanca’s Chess Fundamentals: “...every player should have a collection of games and ideas within his chess knowledge”. He makes some interesting decisions as to which openings fall under which pawn structure. Right off the top, Family one: 1.d4 d5 structures, he includes the QID, Scandinavian, Caro-Kann and Alapin. Family four: KID structures includes several variations of the Ruy. Most anti-sicilians are included under the French Family.

There are two other books of significance in my plan.

“Improve Your Chess" Now documents Jonathan Tisdall’s successful effort to reach GM in his forties. If you remember, Tisdall was co-writer with Jonathan Speelman for “The Moscow Marathon. Speelman handled the games, Tisdall the commentary. Anyways, Chapter one is an attention grabber: “The Fabled Tree of Analysis”. He describes Kotov’s famous intro that got all the laughs “... a nice bit of patter.” He then follows Kotov’s tree theory with the game Boleslavsky - Flohr, which was in TLAGM. At some point, after a schittload of analysis, Tisdall opines: Kotov’s solution does not come about so neatly. Then he rips into the aim towards a single critical variation, and offers an improvement. Tisdall also advocates blindfold chess, and there are a few tricks with solving combinations that are like that. In the last chapter: WISDOM AND ADVICE, he takes dead aim at the “false” (temporary) initiative, predictable blunders (I guess those would be the stupid ones, LOL), And alsooooo...... “When you are studying a game, always try to predict the next move”
Other book is “Cognitive Chess” by Konstantin Chernyshov, 2021. It is mostly a graduated set of exercises some with diagrams, some without, with the express purpose of “Improving Visualization and Calculation skills”. Following the program takes 150 days.

Hmmm... Me thinks the word “calculation” means something quite different than the word “analysis”. I remember asking my old (school) Sovietski chess coach to teach me how to analyze and he wouldn’t do it. He was most emphatic. “It is your positional understanding that will tell you WHAT to analyze”, which also kind of leads away from Kotov I would say. So I don’t plan to spend a lot of time studying the art of analysis.

Solve lots of tactics puzzles, from books. Another tip from my coach... “First solve the position normally, including all variations, then write down (pencil and paper) the solution, in proper algebraic notation, without referring back to the diagram, and then compare YOUR written solution to the one in the back of the book.

Anyways, that’s the plan, but you know what they say about plans. For whatever it is worth, my new material usually comes when I am high, quite high, following the lead of Neil Young.

A few more words about the Flores Rios book. You might like this quote from the author’s preface: “... I became Grandmaster at age 18 knowing less than half of this book's contents.” He also quotes Capablanca’s Chess Fundamentals: “...every player should have a collection of games and ideas within his chess knowledge”. He makes some interesting decisions as to which openings fall under which pawn structure. Right off the top, Family one: 1.d4 d5 structures, he includes the QID, Scandinavian, Caro-Kann and Alapin. Family four: KID structures includes several variations of the Ruy. Most anti-sicilians are included under the French Family. There are two other books of significance in my plan. “Improve Your Chess" Now documents Jonathan Tisdall’s successful effort to reach GM in his forties. If you remember, Tisdall was co-writer with Jonathan Speelman for “The Moscow Marathon. Speelman handled the games, Tisdall the commentary. Anyways, Chapter one is an attention grabber: “The Fabled Tree of Analysis”. He describes Kotov’s famous intro that got all the laughs “... a nice bit of patter.” He then follows Kotov’s tree theory with the game Boleslavsky - Flohr, which was in TLAGM. At some point, after a schittload of analysis, Tisdall opines: Kotov’s solution does not come about so neatly. Then he rips into the aim towards a single critical variation, and offers an improvement. Tisdall also advocates blindfold chess, and there are a few tricks with solving combinations that are like that. In the last chapter: WISDOM AND ADVICE, he takes dead aim at the “false” (temporary) initiative, predictable blunders (I guess those would be the stupid ones, LOL), And alsooooo...... “When you are studying a game, always try to predict the next move” Other book is “Cognitive Chess” by Konstantin Chernyshov, 2021. It is mostly a graduated set of exercises some with diagrams, some without, with the express purpose of “Improving Visualization and Calculation skills”. Following the program takes 150 days. Hmmm... Me thinks the word “calculation” means something quite different than the word “analysis”. I remember asking my old (school) Sovietski chess coach to teach me how to analyze and he wouldn’t do it. He was most emphatic. “It is your positional understanding that will tell you WHAT to analyze”, which also kind of leads away from Kotov I would say. So I don’t plan to spend a lot of time studying the art of analysis. Solve lots of tactics puzzles, from books. Another tip from my coach... “First solve the position normally, including all variations, then write down (pencil and paper) the solution, in proper algebraic notation, without referring back to the diagram, and then compare YOUR written solution to the one in the back of the book. Anyways, that’s the plan, but you know what they say about plans. For whatever it is worth, my new material usually comes when I am high, quite high, following the lead of Neil Young.

This topic has been archived and can no longer be replied to.