18 Feb '10 18:25>1 edit
Originally posted by robbie carrobieWell Robbie, whatever works for you. Unfortunately i've tried a lot of the pigeon holing type study of master games myself and found a lot of it very nice but just not at all beneficial for my game. The problem is that particuar games are chosen by authors in order to fit whatever idea they have for a chapter and a lot of the time the relevance is only very loose. I actually started to think for myself and found that when i looked, a lot of the games chosen to represent a theme would have fitted far better under a different heading!
i dunno, i am studying master games which highlight some aspect of middle game strategy. i think it is good for one can recognise the basic conditions and plan accordingly. for example at the moment i am looking at direct attacks on the king and the different types of positions which may arise and the dynamics which made those attacks successful. fact i dont really like it when the game is decided by a tactical combination to be honest 🙂
Psychologically i also think it's bad to try and isolate such a beautiful creative game into positional themes. I found myself a lot of the time trying to classify just about every game i played into some sort of category. I was not able to see simlpe tactics at the board.
I know what you mean about the beauty of a slow positional crush such as exerted by Karpov or Botvinnik. However, to play like that you need extreme tactical vision. Those guys saw it all. two of the finest tacticians ever. They couldn't play that slow positional stuff without being. They refined their positional technique on the back of their extraordinary vision.
You have to be able to play like Anderssen before you can play like karpov. In reality almost all chess games at club level and a lot higher are decided by tactics of one form or another. I should know, i'm a keen OTB player and have spent quite a bit of time getting crushed by hackers at my club while i looked for some positional theme!
However these are just my opinions borne out of my own experiences. I wish you all the best with your studies.