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suggestions about improving

When you do not know how to defend, then you cannot win.
A chess engine does not teach you to defend. It shows you their assumed perfect move to capture more material.
That's not the right way to learn to defend.
Subtle moves are difficult to analyze. So maybe we need to play subtle chess openings.

youtu.be/_56Nt9zAUMc
@azulagoinmad

I would be so happy to improve steadily to a point where I can play good, solid chess on a consistent basis and serve as a real-life example to older adults who don't believe it is possible to significantly improve at their age.

I have experienced many false-starts in the past two years but have good reason to believe that the key to my own recent improvement is the following method:

1- drilling low-level, basic tactics on a daily basis (absolute minimum: 100; pattern acquisition)

2- analyzing every game, if only for avoidable mistakes and blunders (blunder-checking, analytical skills)

3- going through illustrative master-games relevant to my repertoire, to understand ideas, plans and tactical motifs (theory and applied theory)

4- using bullet and blitz but only as an experimental laboratory to gain vast practical experience with my selected openings and associated tactics (pattern acquisition)

5- using slower formats to hone positional and analytical skills, as well as deeper calculation. (in-game analysis, visualization and calculation)
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@azulagoinmad

So, if you have any doubts about the value of drilling low-level basic tactics on a daily basis and religiously analyzing all games (if only for obvious mistakes and blunders) for a weaker player like myself, you may want to have a look at my Chess.com "daily" stats page: www.chess.com/games/archive/pixelatedparcel?show=echess&gameType=daily&rated=rated

I started this new training regimen about 8-10 weeks ago.

Notice the half-page for results August and before vs the half-page for results starting in September.

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