lichess.org
Donate

Best Plan and time organisation to improve

Hi
Suppose you have 2 or 3 hours per day accorded to chess.
Suppose you accept to work the hardest possible.
Whats the best organisation of ur time in order to improve in chess?

In average, maybe this ? :
1 hour tactics
1 hour long game (>30 min)
15min study openings
30mins study endgames.
30 min read books


Whats the differents activities a player should do, what is the best objectives and plan ? ( i talk about pragmative activities).

Thank you a lot
@Roibabax The studying openings bit is not important, but the rest of what you said is good. I suppose I would do the 15mins studying pawn structures instead of openings, as the skills translate (e.g. knowing French Defense pawn structures will help you play the French Defense as well as the Dutch Defense and related openings).
Thank you soni777.

Whats the best option to study pawn structures ? Have you got a website to recommand ? Must read books ?

Are there very important to read some books ?
For the best answer to this you'll need to ask players stronger than me, as I am still improving and unfortunately don't have 2-3 hours per day for chess study :)
However, there are indeed books available on this subject - Quality Chess is selling a book called 'Chess Structures - A Grandmaster Guide' and searching on Amazon quite a few books come up on pawn structures. thechessworld.com have articles about pawn structure, as well as many other topics. Good luck :)
All your time to tactics until you reach 2500 on lichess trainer. Then openings. Then books. Then endgames. In that order. Don't mix things up.
@kenzaburo you are higher rated than me so obviously you are more qualified to give this opinion, but this seems wrong to me. First, the conventional wisdom is that studying endgames improves calculation skills, so why leave that last then, especially given that you regard tactics so highly? Also opening study does not improve playing skills. Can you give reasons for why you hold your opinion? It's all very well making bold statements like this but there should be a justification.
Okay so this goes this way. Unless you get good at tactics you won't win positions that you could have won. So you're expected score will be lower. You will also miss tactics against yourself and lose points. Second, strategical ideas, pawn structures and all the advantages you can have in chess all have a strong base of repeatable themes. And if you don't master theese you simply won't find them because they are not obvious. It's not the same thing say the RvsR + pawns endings (the most frequent and dull ones), than a middlegame will plenty of pieces. Openings are important so you get playable positions and not just dull positions you have to defend all the time, but yet games are lost and won on tactics so they're the most important part of it. Sometimes you won't get to the endgame or when you get there the material advantage on either side is decisive, I think it's better to invest on getting that advantage than to make the last moves accurately. Imagine you have to play an ending against a strong player with an extra minor piece, studying endings won't get you that extra minor or that extra pawn, tactics will and if you don't master them you're giving that material to your oponent.
There are tons of different endgames and if you try to study them all you won't have time to learn anything else.
Kenzaburo thanks.

Dont take bad my next words, but :

You have 2200 on lichess in elo.
But your ratings on tactics is close to 2100, like me.
( and i am more a 1700 elo player, even less in blitz/bullet), so this point is strange for me.

Also this 2500 rating that you advise seems very high for me, especially giving the fact that you are a solid player with 2100 rating in tactics.

All theses facts are not in contradiction with what you said ?

I am sure that you have more knowledges than me, but i am just asking questions and i stay curious and open to your advices, of course.

Kasparov said a player should study openings only after he becomes a grandmaster.
The best you can get out of opening study is a 1 pawn advantage, but it takes a lot of endgame skill to convert an 1 pawn advantage to a win.
I agree on the tactics part. All strategy and technique is worthless if you fall victim to tactics. However, if you build up a solid position strategically, then you are largely immune to tactics.
I would divide time into
A) play, preferably slow time control and against stronger players
B) analysis of your lost games so as not to repeat the same mistakes. Resist the temptation to analyse your won games
C) analysis of annotated grandmaster games so as to learn from the best
D) study of endgames, particularly rook endings
Thanks a lot tpr. Very nice.

Do you have references (internet links or books) for the analysis of annotated grand master games ?

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