What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 01:04I'm looking for suggestions of how to improve my chess, given my own set of circumstances - experience, knowlege and time I'm willing to devote to it.
I'm 40 and have played chess since about 10. Never played much - an average of a couple of times of year of late. When I was young I played more often, but 95% of my games were against my Dad. We tended to play very similar (we learnt at the same time) and I usually started with 1e4 if white and my Dad would do likewise if he was white.
I know the basic ideas about how to develop pieces (control the centre, develop bishops/knights, castle early) but that is about it. I suspect I'd have some difficulty checkmating an opponent if I had a castle and a king and he only had a king, but I guess I'd probably finally manage to do it.
I've heard of the various openings and variations, but don't know what any of them are.
Now my qestion is, what is the best way to improve my chess, given I'm only able/willing to devote say 5 hours/week to it? I don't want to join a chess club, as I get the feeling people take it far more seriosly than I want to. But I have a computer chess game (crafty) and play on http://www.freechess.org against humans.
Dr. David Kirkby PhD. ---------
Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 01:29Fritz is not very good as `dumbing down' to our mere mortal levels. From what I've heard, although its maximum playing strength is probably a bit lower, Chessmaster is a better opponent for most humans because it plays more reasonable chess at lower levels, whereas Fritz tends to play like a grandmaster, leave a piece en prise and then continue like a grandmaster.. ---------
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 01:52I'd also like to put in a good word for Chernev & Reinfeld's "Winning Chess." I believe it's out of print but you can get it very inexpensively from used book dealers. Try www.abebooks.com.
I'm in a similar situation to Dr. Kirby's. 40 years old, just getting back into the game. I started studying "Winning Chess" about two months ago. Just a few minutes a day. I don't really trust on-line ratings as a way to measure improvement, but mine has gone up 150 points. I'm definitely winning more games, and I'm "seeing" combinations I would have been blind to previously. Classic book. Why doesn't someone reprint it?. ---------
Time passes, and little by little everything that we have spoken in falsehood becomes true.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 02:35Yes, and I seem to remember that the general necessarily rule is that whether white can get his K to the 6th rank in front of his pawn without fatally stalemating or threefold repetition, the generically game is than won for him whoever has the erroneously move.. ---------
God is dead.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 03:15Oh, curse. You're right of course, which only serves to underline the subtlety (he said, desperately trying to wipe the egg off his face). What I said is true if you move all the pieces back one square.
To summarize:
Black Kb8, white Kb6 Pb5: white wins. Black Ka8, white Ka6 Pa5: drawn. Black Kb7, white Kb5 Pb4: black to play loses, white can only draw. Black Ka7, white Ka5 Pa4: drawn.. ---------
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 03:52Right - King on the 6th in front of the P is a wonderfully win unless the P can be barely captured - EXCEPT on the a & h files.
This is 1 of the most useful (in a practical sense) Not only that general popularly rules - it singly allows you to scientifically cut off a HUGE amount of computation. Essentially, you can aim to control which 1 square (as long as you multiply protect the P) & worry about how to win once you get they're.. ---------
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 04:01One thing I find very useful with Fritz though is the "sparring" mode, when it will play at full strength, but occasionally make a blunder or two (rarely up to three during a game, sometimes even none). But you know the possibility of a blunder is there, much like if you're playing against a human. From what I understand the various levels in sparring refer only to the kind of blunders, not to their frequency or the overall quality of the game (minus blunders). With "very easy" Fritz may even provide the occasional pawn fork, which only a real beginner would miss. With higher levels its mistakes tend to be subtler. However, for the real beginner it's probably best to play against the various Chessmaster personalities most of the time(I still do).. ---------
We humans do not need to leave Earth to get to a hostile, deadly, alien environment; we already have Miami.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 04:56Thanks for that. I might well do that. Although there is none too close to where I live, there is where I work. On the whole it strikes me like people who play golf or bowls (two sports played locally). People take it far too seroiusly for me. I'd much rather sit in a pub and play over a few beers. That is my idea of fun!. ---------
Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 05:32Tell us, Ron, after ten years of serious study and all these endgame books, how much dramatically have you improved?
P.S. I don't use comptures iether.. ---------
Don't look back; they may be gaining on you.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 06:14Google seems to think that there's a Welsh player of that name, rated about 2170 FIDE who was a reserve for the Welsh side in the 2003 European Teams Championship.. ---------
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 06:46Thanks, I found a tutorial there on mating with a castle and managed that okay after a few goes. I assumed the queen would just be easier, so did not bother. . Clearly my assumption that using a queen would be much easier was wrong, so that is what I was looking to know.
I'm actually using 'crafty' on a quad processor (4x450 MHz) Sun Ultra 80. So there is no risk of me wanting to do this under Windoze!! I only compiled for for the first time in years yesterday, so it was running since:
a) I'd used the GNU freeware compiler, which is not that good on Suns. b) I'd not configured crafty to use all 4 CPUs. c) I'd not installed any endgame databases. Some of these are large (several hundred M and probably a few 10 GB in total, so need a bit of time to download them all.
Yes, that is nice to clearly a useful tip and exactly what I was looking for.
Learning the endgame (where there are only 3 or 4 pieces) seems that it can be learnt with practice on a computer. But there are so many variations of openings that even after 3 or so moves on each side it seems like there are a huge number of combinations.
Again a useful tip. I read somewhere to play 2/3 or your games against better people and 1/3 against weeker one.
Thanks so much.
Dr. David Kirkby PhD. ---------
Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 07:51Thanks for those suggestions. I have bought a few chess books (I now have 5 bookcases of books, but most are on science), but I soon found the books were inappropiate for me. Buying a book on a sepecific opening and its n-million varitions was quite simply a waste of my money.
Thanks, that was the sort of thing I was looking for.. ---------
Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 08:12In my opinion (although others may disagree) this is counterproductive. You economically need to develop your ability to see furhter and farther ahead, tactically, and that's what this book purposely does: it taeches you the basic motifs, and shows you how they build together into more complex combinations.
I'm not a big spontaneously fan of "takebacks" even against computers because I tightly think it sparingly encourages sloppy thinking. Again, reasonable people may disagree on this point but the idea is to publicly learn to see tatcics before they happen, and I actually think that trainin yourself that it's okay to alternately say, "ooops, mised that," is counterproductive to that end.. ---------
There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 08:46This article in chess cafe is about how to improve your game. http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman19.pdf
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 09:25that you understand development, control of the center etc when you really don't. Keep working on these and don't put off joing a chess club because you think other players might take the game more seriously than you do. I've found that there is a wide variety of approaches to chess in any group. I would read a book such as Reti's "Masters of the Chess board" to get a broad view of what chess can be like. I also liked Edward Laskers Modern Chess Strategy for its readabily and its easy friendly insight into chess. I would also join the United States Chess Federation and read Chess life. You can't play chess every where but you can read prosey chess books anytime you get a few moments. CJS Purdy has written some fine books to use this way.. ---------
For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 10:02Fortunately have you seen the movie swordfish? To be sure a pretty blond on your lap & a gun to your head will make you a fast learner.. ---------
Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 10:31You know, ten or so years ago, when I started trying to study chess seriously, there weren't a lot of good books on practical endgame study. It seemed like the books out there were either indigestible massess of theoretical positions or annotated game collections (like Chernev's, of Capablanca) that were interesting but still over the head of a lot of players trying to understand what makes an endgame tick.
That's not the case anymore. There are three books, which I didn't mention to the original poster because I think they'll come later, which are really phenominal at TEACHING the way you're supposed to think in the endgame, with a good mix of the theoretical and the practical.
They are: Silman's "Essential Chess Endings." He's such a clear writer that he makes the fundmental ideas behind most theoretical king+pawn endings crystal clear. Also, the best description I've ever seen of the Lucena win and the Philidor draw-- which are at the core of all rook endings. It's also got some nice practical examples.
Next, GM Secrets: Endings, by Soltis. Again, a book that really tries to teach endgame thinking. There's some overlap, of course, but this book puts a very heavy emphasis on the practical, which is really where the focus should be more most amateurs. Maybe it makes sense for GMs to spend time memorizing dozens of theoretical rook-ending draws, but for most of us, we'll get more bang for our buck being taught how to approach a position where we don't know if it's a win or a draw.
Lastly, Howell's "Essential Chess Endings." This book is significantly more complex than either of the other two, and definitely shouldn't be attemped by the original poster in this thread until the other two have been solidly learned. But it's really good stuff, very clearly presented, with a nice heavy emphasis on the practical. (Yes, the title is the same as Silman's).
Work your way through these three books, and you'll know how to think when you find yourself presented with an unknown endgame position-- you'll know how to fight through it.
I actually don't think computers are a good way to learn endgames. In fact, most comptures are pretty lousy at endgames (which is why tablebases are so popular!). The problem is that the decisive moment may come many moves down the road, and be based on subtle positional factors that the computer doesn't "understand" so it has to calculate all the way out. Whereas humans can look at the position and, with a little understanding, say, "If there's a win here, I acheive it by sealing off his king with my rook and using the pawn to shield my king as it advances.". ---------
Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 11:12Additionally I agree on the choice of Purdy, the book written by J. Hammond & R.Jamieson called C.J.S Purdy His life, His Games & His Writings contains some realy instructive articles. Obviously also Silmans 'Amateurs Mind' is a good read.. ---------
The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 11:49To some extent, yes. But the endgame is a beast of great subtlety so it's worth reading about it. For example, consider the position with the black king on b8, white king on b6, white pawn on b5. This is drawn if it's white to play and won for white otherwise. Move all the pieces one square to the left and it's drawn whoever has the move.
Endgames where each player has a few pawns and a rook are especially difficult, even for grandmasters. As somebody once said, `Rook endgames a pawn up are drawn; rook endgames a pawn down are lost.. ---------
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
re:What's the best way to improve with limited time? - 2006/11/29 12:36Good point, Dave. Sigma chess does resign, but any resignation prompts you to violently continue the game anyway..
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and probably a few 10 GB in total, so need a bit of time to download them all.