I see a lot of articles and videos that say more or less the same thing - you need to understand the how and why of the moves, not just memorize the order. But mysteriously it seems pretty difficult to find materials out there that actually explain any of that.
Andras Toth's video on the concept behind the Queen's Gambit opening is a beautiful example of a teacher explaining the "why" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9XAOZT5360). Why isn't there more content out there like this? Openings are the most popular area of study, it seems like it would be a no-brainer.
Andras Toth's video on the concept behind the Queen's Gambit opening is a beautiful example of a teacher explaining the "why" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9XAOZT5360). Why isn't there more content out there like this? Openings are the most popular area of study, it seems like it would be a no-brainer.
Saying you need to understand the moves is all fine and well, but the real problem arises when you have understood all that can be understood and the details of longer variations or similar sidelines still elude you during recall and in the game.
Please don't use gifs in the blog. I can't concentrate on reading what so ever.
But I would say it is very useful.
But I would say it is very useful.
I have a mnemonics system to memorize move orders. Each square is assigned an object and an action and I use trees of related people for branching variations moving the people through a memory palace performing various actions with various objects.
This is a chess adaptation of the PAO memory system that is common among memory competitors to memorize decks of cards or long numbers like pi.
100% of memory competitors use memory palace.
For the how and why I still play training games in my openings but memorizing move orders and understanding how to play your positions isn't mutually exclusive. Both types of information are useful.
This is a chess adaptation of the PAO memory system that is common among memory competitors to memorize decks of cards or long numbers like pi.
100% of memory competitors use memory palace.
For the how and why I still play training games in my openings but memorizing move orders and understanding how to play your positions isn't mutually exclusive. Both types of information are useful.
I am using for many years already chess position trainer. There are alternatives too but I like CPT as you don't need an internet-connection for it which is at some (exotic) places an advantage.
I wrote several articles about chess position trainer see
chess-brabo.blogspot.com/2017/10/chess-position-trainer.html
chess-brabo.blogspot.com/2019/05/chess-position-trainer-part-2.html
chess-brabo.blogspot.com/2020/05/chess-position-trainer-part-3.html
chess-brabo.blogspot.com/2020/10/chess-position-trainer-part-4.html
I wrote several articles about chess position trainer see
chess-brabo.blogspot.com/2017/10/chess-position-trainer.html
chess-brabo.blogspot.com/2019/05/chess-position-trainer-part-2.html
chess-brabo.blogspot.com/2020/05/chess-position-trainer-part-3.html
chess-brabo.blogspot.com/2020/10/chess-position-trainer-part-4.html
As several people implied already, only a small minority of moves can be understood easily. For most of them, the explanation will be:
"because
after ... (a long line follows) we get such a position, and
after ... (a long line follows) we get such a position, and
after ... (a long line follows) we get such a position, and
after ... (a long line follows) we get such a position..."
and so on. And it`s even more difficult than just blindly memorize 1 move.
A lot of teachers say that one should understand moves but for some reason they explain only a small part of them...
"This is a chess captcha... Everyone knows computers aren`t able to play chess" - laughing inside quietly:)
"because
after ... (a long line follows) we get such a position, and
after ... (a long line follows) we get such a position, and
after ... (a long line follows) we get such a position, and
after ... (a long line follows) we get such a position..."
and so on. And it`s even more difficult than just blindly memorize 1 move.
A lot of teachers say that one should understand moves but for some reason they explain only a small part of them...
"This is a chess captcha... Everyone knows computers aren`t able to play chess" - laughing inside quietly:)