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Books on Time Use

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no1marauder
Naturally Right

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I've come to the conclusion that my main problem OTB is the over-analyzing of positions leading to shortness of time. Just had a frustrating experience at the New York State Open where I thoroughly outplayed the player who wound up finishing tied for second (U1600) in the middlegame and was in an endgame 3 pawns up (R + B v. R + N) and should have won easily, but got very rattled with only a few minutes left on the clock and let him escape with a draw after blundering down to only a 2 v. 1 pawn advantage (had only 52 seconds left at the end).

I understand the basic process of selecting "candidate moves" and then paring them done but is their any book out there that concentrates on how to do this in an optimally efficient manner? If anyone knows of one, please share.

As an aside, is there anything in Silman's Assess Your Chess dealing with this issues? I saw it on sale at my local bookstore.

K
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Originally posted by no1marauder
I've come to the conclusion that my main problem OTB is the over-analyzing of positions leading to shortness of time. Just had a frustrating experience at the New York State Open where I thoroughly outplayed the player who wound up finishing tied for second (U1600) in the middlegame and was in an endgame 3 pawns up (R + B v. R + N) and should have won ea ...[text shortened]... Silman's Assess Your Chess dealing with this issues? I saw it on sale at my local bookstore.
How to Choose a Chess Move by Andrew Soltis is pretty good.

i

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This is something that Dan Heisman talks about a lot in his Novice Nook column.

e.g.:

http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman40.pdf

archive:

http://www.chesscafe.com/archives/archives.htm#Novice%20Nook

JoL
Curb Your Enthusiasm

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Originally posted by no1marauder
I understand the basic process of selecting "candidate moves" ....
You might want to have a look at John Nunn's Secrets of Practical Chess.

no1marauder
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I ordered the Soltis book. I recently brought Nunn's Understanding Chess Move by Move and am still working through that, so I think I'll wait before picking up another of his books.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Green Paladin

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Chess for Tigers by Simon Webb.

Good practical advice for OTB players. From the back cover:

* play on your opponent's weaknesses
* steer a game into a position that suits you and not your opponent
* get results against strong opposition
* cope with the clock
* avoid silly mistakes
* make sure luck is on your side

N

The sky

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Originally posted by no1marauder

As an aside, is there anything in Silman's Assess Your Chess dealing with this issues?
No (or I must have missed it completely).

Siskin

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Originally posted by Green Paladin
Chess for Tigers by Simon Webb.
This is a very good book, with lots of simple practical suggestions.
For time management he suggested marking your scorescheet before the game starts with the amount of time you'd like left at various stages of the game, so you can see if your getting behind the clock and adjust your rate of play accordingly.

T
Mr T

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think like a grandmaster by Kotov is where I learned everything about candidate move planning.
Although, from doing puzzles, I have also learned to give brief consideration to just about any random looking move just in case something unusual comes of it.

Under time pressure, I find the best moves to play are active looking ones, even if they are not totally sound it forces your opponent to have to stop and have a think about them - allowing you to think on his time.

greenpawn34

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Your clock is your 17th piece.

Blaming a loss on time trouble is a miserable excuse - Alekhine.

I've been playing in OTB tournaments since 1972.
I've never lost on time.
I've made some howlers, of course, but never in time trouble.

(some wag is bound to come on and say if I had thought about
my moves longer, I would not make howlers...Don't bother, I am
perfectly capable of thinking for 20 minutes and dropping a clanger).

A common mistake players make is thinking when faced with an only move.
Usually to get out of check.
I can never understand why they think for 5-10minutes before
playing their forced and only legal reply. I despair when I see it.

no1marauder
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Originally posted by greenpawn34
Your clock is your 17th piece.

Blaming a loss on time trouble is a miserable excuse - Alekhine.

I've been playing in OTB tournaments since 1972.
I've never lost on time.
I've made some howlers, of course, but never in time trouble.

(some wag is bound to come on and say if I had thought about
my moves longer, I would not make howlers...Don't b ...[text shortened]... for 5-10minutes before
playing their forced and only legal reply. I despair when I see it.
Thanks for the advice ................ no wait, there wasn't any.

If you don't have anything of relevance to add to the thread, why post in it? The request was for books dealing with a certain typical problem, not for someone to boast about not having the problem.

BTW, I've never burned 5-10 minutes on deciding to make the only legal move.

!~TONY~!
1...c5!

Your Kingside

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Originally posted by no1marauder
I've come to the conclusion that my main problem OTB is the over-analyzing of positions leading to shortness of time. Just had a frustrating experience at the New York State Open where I thoroughly outplayed the player who wound up finishing tied for second (U1600) in the middlegame and was in an endgame 3 pawns up (R + B v. R + N) and should have won ea Silman's Assess Your Chess dealing with this issues? I saw it on sale at my local bookstore.
Silman's book "Reassess your chess" focuses almost entirely on positional play, coming up with a plan, and the best way to execute it. It doesn't really focus on time trouble or any other psychological or practical issues. Of course, it could help, as any middlegame help will help this problem (probably). Nunns "Secrets of Practical Chess", or any book that focuses on the calculation part of chess will help also. There is one interesting book called "Inside the Chess Mind" by Aagaard. He basically took about 15 problems or something and posed them to players of varying strength, from club player to GM's as strong as Artur Yusupov and Peter Heine Nielsen. Anyway, he had them record all their thoughts on a tape recorder and printed a book of these thoughts, and making a point to distinguish what these players did differently, and how to help your chess calculation. Anyway, I think it would be interesting to compare your solutions and thoughts about the problem to everyone elses. That's a nice way to see what you're doing wrong compared to the worlds best.

greenpawn34

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Originally posted by no1marauder
[b]Thanks for the advice ................ no wait, there wasn't any.
er......'Don't waste time on forced moves.'

Also the clock being you 17th piece - (use it well).

no1marauder
Naturally Right

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Originally posted by greenpawn34
er......'Don't waste time on forced moves.'

Also the clock being you 17th piece - (use it well).
That's a platitude and/or cliche, not advice.

It's like saying "Make only good moves".

N
10. O-O

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Originally posted by !~TONY~!
Silman's book "Reassess your chess" focuses almost entirely on positional play, coming up with a plan, and the best way to execute it. It doesn't really focus on time trouble or any other psychological or practical issues. Of course, it could help, as any middlegame help will help this problem (probably). Nunns "Secrets of Practical Chess", or any book that elses. That's a nice way to see what you're doing wrong compared to the worlds best.
As Tony described, strategy books on the middle-game will help. However, there are some parts of the following books which directly reflect the issue of time at the board. These are some goodon's

Nimzowitsch - My System - Honestly, how can you get by without it?
Euwe - Judgement and planning in Chess - This actually confronts your issue
Fine - The middlegame in Chess - Not exactly to the point, but it covers planning.
Pertti Saariluoma - Chess and Content-Oriented Psychology - Covers all practical issues of OTB chess and is a great resource to further works on the subject.
ADD: Jose Capablanca - Chess Fundamentals - As the title states. Good resource

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