@the-pickled-walrus saidI hope you get your wish 🙂
A few others did too.
It seems like the right time to go if you are a chess addict.
@the-pickled-walrus saidLooks like I can get it paperback for about 15 bucks. Every few years I pick up a couple of books. I should get it.
@Eladar
Read "Modern Chess Strategy"
By Ludek Pachman
He explains the "why" and the "what to do" in every position.
He makes it sound so simple and when you play over the games with a board it is simple.
A more modern book is "Chess Strategy" by Adam Hunt.
The key is remembering those ideas/methods.
It is the best books for people above 1200 who can't reach 1700
I would say the book I found most useful, well there are two..Simple Chess and Silman's endgame book.
- Joined
- 01 May 20
- Moves
- 4102
Pachman's book will set up a center in an opening and actually tell you what to do.
He will say..."bring your bishop to g4 and attack the knight and then push the pawn and then and then etc"
After that he shows you the game moves.
Or he will say "Blacks knight in the center is strong so do this and that"
And then he shows you the moves.
He also explains minor pieces and major pieces and endgames.
It is not a book like any other.
He tells you where to attack and why.
Then he gives examples.
In an endgame example you have no clue what to do right?
He tells you what you need to do and shows the play with a game example.
He explains why you need to make these moves.
Before any moves are given he talks about the position..."blacks rook pawn is weak so bring your rook to that file forcing white to do this and that and now do this and you will win that pawn and etc etc"
Pachman's book is incredible.
It is almost like a cheat sheet for chess strategy.
Other books should follow his example.
Adam Hunt's book gives you examples and then a game where he asks you questions about what to do next?
Obviously the game example is the previous lesson and what you learned so now use it in a game.
Forcing you to remember the lesson and use it in the game position teaches you to remember strategy and methods.
Both are great books on what to do after you develop your pieces.
If you study them both (again and again) you will see improvement.
I am 1900 in 10 min blitz at chess24 because of those books. 😉
@lemondrop saidWe are all wood-pushers compared to someone!
when I realized I was nothing more than a woodpusher.....
(Typically +200 above us)
Any club, any tournament, any congress be it online
or in real-life depends upon the weakest player.
@lemondrop
I remember how exciting chess was when I first learned the game.
I learned chess from my uncle in 1965 when I was 9, and loved the game. My parents and sister were not interested, so I had no opponent for years. The only chess book in our local library was The Chess Companion by Irving Chernev, which I read cover to cover multiple times.
Through the years, while many around me were getting stressed about world affairs, politics, and personal woes, I've spent many pleasant hours happily lost in the 64 squares. 🙂
I learned the rules as a kid but never learned the fundamentals of strategy and tactics and didn't play much. Then one day when I was 16 I found the booklet that came with an old chessmaster program (CM3000 maybe?) which had a brief history of chess starting from Staunton up through Kasparov which somehow made the game sound interesting. It had some annotated games which I played through without really understanding what was going on, I started playing online and tried to open every game as white with 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Bc4 because the Immortal Game was one of the annotated games so I figured it must be a good opening 🙂
I asked for some chess books for Christmas and got Seirawain's "Play Winning Chess", "Winning Chess Tactics", and "Winning Chess Strategies" which really got me hooked on the game. Like a lot of people once I got through the phase where the rapid improvement stops and I plateaued I became frustrated. I bought a bunch of chess books, many of which I still haven't read, and have given the game up a few times over the years.
I started back up this year and have tried to set more modest expectations for myself. I'll probably never be an expert but I like playing.
If anything it's better now. There were times I spent so much time on chess. Yea it helped keeping me sane, but it's so much easier to just not care and do random stuff. The variance is higher, sometimes I analyze a day, but mostly I just play random stuff. Also I used to not drink while playing when I was a beginner. Don't know if it's a pro or con. ^^
I think we're being wired to care too much, and forget about enjoying ourselves. We have this feeling of having to prove (something) engraved in our soul. And it's silly.
Same with games. Recently I started giving up cruel or too graphic games. I play sims, exploration, non-graphical strategy, and having an awesome time.
Yea I could play much better chess too. I could do a lot of things better. But I enjoy it more this way. It's just plain fun. I'll probably get bored again, but until then it's fun. Didn't even need to read Tao to be a hippy like this, ha!
Oh gosh, yes. I mean no. I mean... Without all the messing around, I still wouldn't know where I was at the moment. The shots don't help. And one big thing that has changed since the old times; I see an interesting move, I make it. Don't care if I know it's not good. My focus switched from wanting to be right to wanting to enjoy the games I play, chess or otherwise. Currently, I'm happier for it. When I sober up... We'll see. (Wanted to insert some emoji that suits, but they kinda suck for the occasion.)