Does studying chess really help much?

looking at openings and the basic principles of what to do with all those pieces is a good study, otherwise you'll flounder around for years before you figure it out by yourself.
how many times have you seen a n00b open pawn-a4 or h4 and try to bring his rooks out?

Originally posted by wormwood
out of 280 games here, I think I've had only one where opposition mattered. maybe two, but it's very rare (for me) in any case, like all theoretical endings.

I still don't see anyone having a good case for any book making a real impact on their rating. getting to 1500 in years is not very good when 2 months of intense tactical training does ...[text shortened]... seriously questioning what those people got out from their books, except entertainment.

Originally posted by chesskid001
Did you not see my previous post on page 3?

Originally posted by wormwood
it took me 2 months to get to 1500 by doing 200-400 tactical puzzles a day. 15 months reading books is awful waste of time compared to that.

and it's not too late to start doing tactics even now, you know.

Originally posted by davidgrayson
How many players can really say that studying chess books brought
them from, say, class c to master. It seems to me, that most players
will get close to their maximum ability by merely playing. Books may
increase ratings by perhaps a hundred points or so, but not much more. It seems we all have an innate chess ability which cannot be increased much ...[text shortened]... much out of chess books.
I hope I'm wrong, and would like to hear some real success stories.

Originally posted by Arctic Pulse
I study tactics, then i study openings, then off to analyse GMs games.

Originally posted by Sam The Sham
looking at openings and the basic principles of what to do with all those pieces is a good study, otherwise you'll flounder around for years before you figure it out by yourself.
how many times have you seen a n00b open pawn-a4 or h4 and try to bring his rooks out?

"The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin

Just received my copy this morning and read the first couple of pages...Tai Chi & Chess...inspiring! I chose it after reading this review by GM Nigel Davies:

"... to catch up on some reading which included
Josh Waitzkin's 'The Art of Learning'.

I found myself agreeing with many of the things he was
saying and strongly recommend getting a copy. It may
be of especial benefit to aspiring young players as I
believe they will relate to the pressures he had to
face. There are also some very deep insights into the
process of mastery, and I find myself being inspired
to resume chess studies."

Originally posted by vipiu
Actually I know a FM that does like this and he is preatty effective with this...a plus score against other strong FMs using this...There are also a couple of books about this strategy...
I am right now considering to employ it in a couple of games...

Originally posted by Sam The Sham
How does this FM prevent his rooks being taken by the bishops?

I was such a bad player until I built up a really powerful opening repertoire and practiced spotting basic mating and tactical ideas like knight forks and exploiting pins, so my advice to you is study like hell and then practice what you have learnt or what you think you have learnt and then keep referring to the books when you thin that you need them.

I didnt have the time to read all these threads but it seems to me it depends which books you read. I never got much out reading books that set out to teach, but virtually all my chess was learnt by playing thousands of games through with full annotation. Here you learn what are good moves and what are bad and WHY. If anyone is interested I would recommend playing through the fully annotated games of Capablanca over and over again. His positional sense is unsurpassed by anyone in my opinion, after playing through his games for years I found I just knew what to do in certain situations. This, is amazing. If anyone thinks they can up their rating by reading a few books for a week frankly they are kidding themselves.

Originally posted by wormwood
it took me 2 months to get to 1500 by doing 200-400 tactical puzzles a day. 15 months reading books is awful waste of time compared to that.

and it's not too late to start doing tactics even now, you know.

Originally posted by carpiste
I didnt have the time to read all these threads but it seems to me it depends which books you read. I never got much out reading books that set out to teach, but virtually all my chess was learnt by playing thousands of games through with full annotation. Here you learn what are good moves and what are bad and WHY. If anyone is interested I would recommend ...[text shortened]... they can up their rating by reading a few books for a week frankly they are kidding themselves.

well i bought the books. Dont know if you can get them on the net free these days