How long do you study ?

Wrting from the basement/cellar of the rating table (1000),
I must confess I find it very difficult to study the game, for any length of time.Mainly a result of having to fulfil the needs of
family life, with a 10 and 15yr. old, rather than sitting in the evening
poring over a board book in hand, a life beyond RHP !
On average I'll be lucky to do 20mins/day, though these are more often the not enlightning !!!

So how much time do you find to be an anorak ?

Got to admit that I don't study all that much but events in your life would certainly effect your play. Over the past month, I had a couple of life changing events (one of them almost ended it!) which took its toll and brought my rating from around 1400 to below 1200.

Anyway, from what I have noticed, there isn't any fixed rule about how much to study each day. It is more of the quality of study that counts. Some players range from a few mins each day to hours.

Work through some good chess books is the way to go. 🙂

I've found the series of books by Yasser Seirawan not only helpful but enjoyable to read. I hadn't played seriously for about 15 years and these books helped me greatly "get my game back." However, I'm still looking for my groove as I keep getting laughed off the dance floor. 😳

Please be aware that I'm a patent attorney so I'm sure my standard for "enjoyable reading" is significantly below that of the ordinary chess geek. 😀

I obviously try to play on here as much as possible, and I try to play at least one "live" game every night. I know I don't have the time or discipline to devote a large chunk of my time to chess every night. Instead, I take lessons every tuesday night. The lesson lasts about 4 hours and only costs about $50. They've helped me quite a bit, although lately, I'm in a bit of a slump. I also try to read a little on the weekends. Currently, I'm working on My System, by Nimzovitch. There's a site where you can download all the pgn files for some classic chess books. That way, you can read and follow the games on the computer (no board to set up). That saves quite a bit of time. Let me know if you'd like me to post the site.

Mostly I put it at least 2 hours into chess. On weekends and holiday this might be more like 4 hours. I go watch chess lectures online or from my chess program, do some tactic puzzles, read a chess book, play some chess etc... Yasser's Books were all very good and fun to read.

I get all the time I need .

I don't study at all, I only make the moves in my game, little else; isn't it slightly weird that rating is 1444.

Originally posted by rbmorris
I obviously try to play on here as much as possible, and I try to play at least one "live" game every night. I know I don't have the time or discipline to devote a large chunk of my time to chess every night. Instead, I take lessons every tuesday night. The lesson lasts about 4 hours and only costs about $50. They've helped me quite a bit, although ...[text shortened]... rd to set up). That saves quite a bit of time. Let me know if you'd like me to post the site.

Originally posted by gezza
Originally posted by rbmorris
[b]There's a site where you can download all the pgn files for some classic chess books. That way, you can read and follow the games on the computer (no board to set up). That saves quite a bit of time. Let me know if you'd like me to post the site.
Hi
Can you post the site?
Thanks.[/b]

Originally posted by Milou
http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/~gossimit/c/book.htm

Originally posted by Tinmart69
Wrting from the basement/cellar of the rating table (1000),
I must confess I find it very difficult to study the game, for any length of time.Mainly a result of having to fulfil the needs of
family life, with a 10 and 15yr. old, rather than sitting in the evening
poring over a board book in hand, a life beyond RHP !
On average I'll be lucky to do 20mins/day, though these are more often the not enlightning !!!

I have to admit that I am in the same boat--too many goings on means no chess study for me. That, and my daughter tends to grab all the pieces! But seriously, if I were to study, I would study in the same way you should study anything from chess to calculus to poetry. Pick you subject and stick too it--study dozens even hundreds of problems for that subject (ex: for chess pick fork problems, and then do nothing but fork problems). You do this for the purpose of pattern recognition. That is, doing this trains your intuition--after awhile, you no longer have to think about the subject because your brain (intuition) does it for you.

I would say that a limited amount of time doesn't hinder this form of study, though it may slow it down somewhat. The trick is not to waver. Don't flit from subject to subject (one night pointlessly studying openings while the next night quickly going over some vague descriptions of tactics). STICK TO YOUR SUBJECT and eventually you will inprove, just as I eventually figured out how to do calculus.

On a side note, if you get bored of studying the same thing all the time and need a break to keep from going insane, I would say look at classic games. There's something theraputic about watching a strong chess player smash all of his opponents in less than 30 moves. You really get to see the stratagies involved, too.

I used to do a lot of studying. There's a chessplayer at out club who is rated around 2000. He is constantly beating everyone with ease. One day I went over to his house. He showed me his collection of books. I think he had five. The biggest one being an older version of modern chess openings. He does no studying. he is a math teacher, which might have something to do with his precision at the chess board. He is extremely good in tactics, slightly weaker in openings, very strong in end games. If he falls into a bad variation, it might take him a few moves to climb out of it, but he invariably does. I don't know if "studying," like studying for a college course by reading books is the answer. The test is always changing. You might read Spinoza and the test might ask for Manchester United's manager in 1934.

Originally posted by buddy2
I used to do a lot of studying. There's a chessplayer at out club who is rated around 2000. He is constantly beating everyone with ease. One day I went over to his house. He showed me his collection of books. I think he had five. The biggest one being an older version of modern chess openings. He does no studying. he is a math teacher, which might ha ...[text shortened]... anging. You might read Spinoza and the test might ask for Manchester United's manager in 1934.