Reading

How do you read chess books? Just reading through the games while using a board (on a computer screen) doesn't seem to accomplish much. Sure you can see some ideas, spot some combinations but you lose a lot of the fine points and after a while you forget. Thinking a lot on the other hand seems impractical because the book seems to drag on for months, especially if you try to think the moves in advance of reading them or go through a game multiple times so you can see the point of some "obscure" moves. So how do you do it?

Great question! I used to type the moves into Fritz back when I was playing real chess and not only I-net chess 😛

But now I prefer to sit down with a real chess set. I think this actually is the best way. If I was more serious with my game I probably would keep a block and a pen beside me and actually write down lines. And only afterwards *(!!!) play them out on the board to see if I missed something.

I have always done it with a tournament-sized board in front of me. I play out the actual game, and mentally play through the notes-although at times I will play through the notes on the board and then reset the pieces if I am especially intrigued.

I think there are times when this has helped me recall ideas at the board in tournaments.

First I play through the game a couple of times so that I can play through the whole without looking at the score. Then I go through the variations. A tournament set is best, but whether plastic or wood does not seem to matter.

So by now everybody seems to prefer the slow way and surprisingly to me using a board not a computer which is even slower. How many books can you read this way? I know that quantity isn't a very important thing but I'm still curious.
The reason I'm asking these questions is because I've been trying to read some books the slow way by I always get annoyed by the slow pace and seem to lose interest after a while. I mean it's hard to be motivated when you only read half a book or less in the last three months. Plus all my game phases need improvement so it's hard to concentrate on studying the endings when the game is lost long before that and equally hard to concentrate on the openings when I don't know if the ending I'm heading to favors me or not.

At the risk of being lynched, I'll break from the crowd. I plug the moves into a GUI. Am I committing a mortal sin? Is the other way better? I don't know, but you asked what we do, and that's what I do.

Originally posted by Mad Rook
At the risk of being lynched, I'll break from the crowd. I plug the moves into a GUI. Am I committing a mortal sin? Is the other way better? I don't know, but you asked what we do, and that's what I do.

I'll "hang" with you a bit- after I got chessbase and I have played through a book, I will "cherry pick" the lines I like best into a new database for easy printing and review.

In the case of books with complete games, I save lots of time by finding the games in my big database.

Originally posted by Mad Rook
At the risk of being lynched, I'll break from the crowd. I plug the moves into a GUI. Am I committing a mortal sin? Is the other way better? I don't know, but you asked what we do, and that's what I do.

I do that as well. Very often I find the game in a database so I can move through it without risk of mistakes. I do it that way because it is easy to add any variations and then get back to the root position without error. Don't turn on an engine though, I find that distracts me from the position.