Greatest chess exercise evah!

want to improve your middle game, improve your visualisation, check out the
twenty minute exercise on youtube, inspired by Dan Heisman of the ICC and
presented by Mujnu (Mujnu was actually the ill fated adorer of the Persian Princess
Laila, but thats another story). Essentially you pick a master game from database,
pay no attention to the opening but go straight to middle game until there are no
forcing moves and try to evaluate the position and find a plan, using your full
twenty minutes to do so. After you have exhausted the possibilities, you look at how
the masters did it. Got to be one of the greatest chess exercises evah, if we spent
the same time on our correspondence moves, we would avoid senseless blunders
and planless moves. Try it out and discipline yourself to use the full twenty minutes,
can only be good!


http://www.youtube.com/user/Majnu2006#p/a/u/1/wkhgpumcerA

I have a variation on this for studying endings, using an opening book based on complete games.

In each game, skip to the last diagram, and study the game from that point. You will learn endgames that are relevant to your opening, and that you are more likely to see OTB when you play it.

This sounds an awful lot like Kotov's "think like a grandmaster" except I assume it is meant for strategy instead of calculation?

Either way the deliberate practice of analyzing positions can only help your chess.

Originally posted by nimzo5
This sounds an awful lot like Kotov's "think like a grandmaster" except I assume it is meant for strategy instead of calculation?

Either way the deliberate practice of analyzing positions can only help your chess.

actually i was thinking today, yes contrary to popular opinion i occasionally like to think,
anyhow, it appears to me that calculation arises when the pieces are in direct contact,
or are about to come into direct contact, however the beauty of the exercise starting
from when there are no forcing moves is that we are never inclined to simply calculate
as one would for a tactical problem, we must try to find a plan and only after
examining the dynamics of the position, utilise the elements to formulate the plan and
check it through calculation to make sure that it is sound. More than that, using twenty
minute to the full will of necessity make us look for a number of alternatives as well. All
of this can only be good for us, although it does tend to make ones mind hurt.