Strategies for improvement

Originally posted by Paul Leggett
I think I can answer this. He stopped "winging it" and decided to get more serious about the game, and aimed to (as much as possible) eliminate the simple one- and two-move blunders common to careless chess.

I have known him since childhood, and he has the intellect to be a GM if he weren't so busy flying around the country as a high-priced attorney P" method multiple times here in the forum, but not many people pay enough attention to it.

He looks like Hercule Poirot, never the less the turnaround has been quite remarkable. As far as i can discern GP has not provided a method, unless its simply to blunder check, which is sound advice indeed for chess is essentially a game of errors in my opinion, he or she who makes the most significant will suffer, if its discovered by ones opponent. I think its helpful, well, it is at least to me, to question everything.

My personal method is to subject everything to falsification, to try to prove why my
move is not sound, tactically or positionally and in turn one subjects ones opponents
moves and position to similar scrutiny.

Hi NoEarthlyReason.

No quick fix I’m afraid.
If you do not have the gift (Capablanca, Tal, Carlsen etc…etc&hellip😉

Then you have to put some hours in (notice I did not say work.)
You will only get out of the game what you put into it.

Look upon playing over games as you would listening to a favourite
piece of music. Enjoy it. Look forward to it.

Learn from your losses.

As I said in a recent blog, a bare score never tells the full story.

The same on here.

Pointing to one blunder in one game and claiming the player is a duffer
is wrong without knowing all the details.
People do use this site to play coaching games or two of them get together
to produce and show a whole load of opening traps in action.

But I can only work with what I see.

Let’s look at that list you produced in the opening thread.
Things you learned when you were a boy.

Aim for good development into the centre during the opening.
Castle early.
Keep the queen back until the board has opened up.
Bishops are better later, knights earlier.
Get rooks onto open files.
Piece values: pawn =1, knight/bishop=3, rook=5, Q=8
Look for knight forks (and other forks), discovered attacks, double checks,
smothered mates, back rank mates.
Force exchanges when you are ahead on material.
Avoid isolated pawns and doubled pawns, and try to get supported passed pawns.
Be aware of the en passant rule.
Do not drink and play (I worked this one out later).
Even when your opponent is clearly a novice or just a poor player, don't get
over confident and abandon caution.

The bits I’ve highlighted (bolded) need re-learning.

CrashMorriss - NoEarthlyReason RHP 2012



Forget all this Knight=3 Rook=5 crap. Forget it.
It stifles the imagination and has been responsible for more losses and more
missed brilliancies than any other piece of ‘good advice’ I can think of.

The games on here mean nothing.
You have not come here to win the exchange and trade off into a won ending.
Do that in your important OTB games. Here you have fun with no regrets.
Let every game be your canvas, paint me a masterpiece.



OK so he does not fall for the mate.

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Hi NoEarthlyReason.

No quick fix I’m afraid.
If you do not have the gift (Capablanca, Tal, Carlsen etc…etc&hellip😉

Then you have to put some hours in (notice I did not say work.)
You will only get out of the game what you put into it.

Look upon playing over games as you would listening to a favourite
piece of music. Enjoy it. Look forward to it.

earlier.
Get rooks onto open files.
Piece values: pawn =1, knight/bishop=3, rook=5, Q=8

The qeen is worth eight? I thought she was worth nine?

When I was a kid, the qeen was always worth ten points, according to the instructions that I would get with my chess set. Many years later, I found that her worth was lowered to nine points, because people decided she wasn't worth as much as two rooks. I can only assume that this decision was arrived at, after saccing two rooks for a queen was a disadvantage.

But when, and why, was the queen's worth lowered to eight?

Excellent Advice Greenpawn. I will add more to it..
Study Serious Endgames First. Then You will sure develop what we call "Photographic Memory".
because of that time spent on Endgames Calculations. Then use that calculation skill on your
next lesson.. which is Chess Tactics. There's plenty of information in the internet about it.
Last is your Opening, and defense. From there you will stumble to things and lots of headaches.
But if you are determined, You will grow. Lastly, Play Players higher than your strength.
That's how you learn. Learn to accept defeat gracefully. Drop your ego.
Your negative ego will only makes you a handycapped.
If you do all this, Then you walk tall. Do you understand?
I seldom give Free advice...

Originally posted by jcmessy
Excellent Advice Greenpawn. I will add more to it..
Study Serious Endgames First. Then You will sure develop what we call "Photographic Memory".
because of that time spent on Endgames Calculations. Then use that calculation skill on your
next lesson.. which is Chess Tactics. There plenty of information in the internet about it.
Last is your Opening, a ...[text shortened]... .
If you do all this, Then you walk tall. Do you understand?
I seldom give Free advice...

STFU

Thanks for the advice and taking the trouble to annotate my game, greenpawn.
I don't play OTB chess but I think it's a good idea for me to take on board what you said about missing out on exciting play by going for the dull wins (apologies if I paraphrased inaccurately—if so, it's purely because I frequently misunderstand some of the things I'm told). I've just come back to playing after a long break and that was a really silly error I made against CrashMorris—quite uncharacteristic of me. I used to have a rating of about 1750 on this site so I'm hoping to surpass that this time, if I keep my interest up and have enough spare time.

Originally posted by vivify
The qeen is worth eight? I thought she was worth nine?

When I was a kid, the qeen was always worth ten points, according to the instructions that I would get with my chess set. Many years later, I found that her worth was lowered to nine points, because people decided she wasn't worth as much as two rooks. I can only assume that this decision was arri ...[text shortened]... for a queen was a disadvantage.

But when, and why, was the queen's worth lowered to eight?

The value of the queen is subjective. Current: bid- 9.25, ask- 8.73