Great summary! I'm a decent player and am slowly improving simply by playing more but I'm still making fundamental mistakes (at least I assume I am). I use a variety of openings just to get the pieces moving then quickly turn into an opportunity hunter. I don't make a ton of stupid mistakes, but since I don't study I have a limited grasp on many of the basic theories which makes for sloppy play. This is a good outline to get some sort of structure for my learning process.
My limited ability really sinks in when I look at Dragon Fire's game. I'm with you up to move 14 but how black resonded and how the game went from there makes me think I'm playing checkers. I would have gotten mauled.
Originally posted by barch54Yah that's where looking at GM's games really help. Some of the moves or ideas that those guys orchestrate or amazing... and then suddenly you realize that 3 or your 30 games involve similar ideas.. suddenly your chess looks more like a master and it becomes more fun.. and all that without yawning through opening tutorials or tactics books. Before you know it your start inventing your own pretty combinations without immediate memory of a Kasparov game.
Great summary! I'm a decent player and am slowly improving simply by playing more but I'm still making fundamental mistakes (at least I assume I am). I use a variety of openings just to get the pieces moving then quickly turn into an opportunity hunter. I don't make a ton of stupid mistakes, but since I don't study I have a limited grasp on many of the ba ...[text shortened]... the game went from there makes me think I'm playing checkers. I would have gotten mauled.
Originally posted by ivan2908Getting your rating up OTB is a much slower process, simply because you tend to play less games but also putting into practice tactics that can be done at leisure here and getting the openings right when you don't have a book or database to refer to are not so easy.
Did you improve your OTB too that drastially?
So far in the league this year I have not lost any games (so am confident that my rating may finally be on its way back up) but I have also drawn a number of games that I could have won not quite having the confidence and that killer instinct but also having made some tactical errors under (time) pressure OTB.