The 1600 blues

I've tried the "imbalance" technique; in fact, i've been studying from how to reassess your chess by silman. I understand everything so clearly in the book; the imbalances and the plans that go along with them make perfect sense; however, in OTB I just can't put it to use.

I've been primarily studying from Silman's book, and I know all the class B stuff pretty well in his book (in fact, I think endgame is one of my stronger points). I play the sicilian, and I seem to have trouble against the closed sicilian (even with Lev Alburts book). However, I think my main weakness is the middle game; strategy, which used to be my strong points, seems to be my weakness. I'll post a game soon to show what I mean, along with my seemingly faulty thought process

Originally posted by chesskid001
I've tried the "imbalance" technique; in fact, i've been studying from how to reassess your chess by silman. I understand everything so clearly in the book; the imbalances and the plans that go along with them make perfect sense; however, in OTB I just can't put it to use.

I've been primarily studying from Silman's book, and I know all the class B st ...[text shortened]... 'll post a game soon to show what I mean, along with my seemingly faulty thought process

Try Silman amateurs mind too. Is a little less complicated, in the preface Silman himself mentioned that is one thing to learn theory and 7 imbalances from Reasses your chess and quite another task to put it in practice. Also, as seen in Amateurs mind, often the player thinks that he grasped the imbalances knowledge but does completly opposite.

But, practice make perfect. Every system you take, it is not enough just to read and understand right away. Book like Reasses your chess need a lot time to grasp completly otherwise your middlegame would be at master level right away.

Did you try reasess your chess workbook ?

Also, to diskamyl and Chesskid, how much do you play in real life, 100% OTB? It's a great help to know other players and to play them, then right after the game go over it with them and share your thoughts. Other players look at positions differently than you do, and it's great to hear what another human thinks. I do this probably 2-3 times a week. Just hang out with friends and study some chess, look at some games, analyze some positions, play some blitz, etc...

Originally posted by !~TONY~!
Also, to diskamyl and Chesskid, how much do you play in real life, 100% OTB? It's a great help to know other players and to play them, then right after the game go over it with them and share your thoughts. Other players look at positions differently than you do, and it's great to hear what another human thinks. I do this probably 2-3 times a week. Just han ...[text shortened]... ends and study some chess, look at some games, analyze some positions, play some blitz, etc...

Thats what I said! 😛

Originally posted by tomtom232
Thats what I said! 😛

What happened to your rating since you got the star ?! Control yourself 😛

Originally posted by !~TONY~!
Also, to diskamyl and Chesskid, how much do you play in real life, 100% OTB? It's a great help to know other players and to play them, then right after the game go over it with them and share your thoughts. Other players look at positions differently than you do, and it's great to hear what another human thinks. I do this probably 2-3 times a week. Just han ...[text shortened]... ends and study some chess, look at some games, analyze some positions, play some blitz, etc...

actually, I haven't played a single real OTB game in my life. I don't have any chess friends.

Originally posted by diskamyl
actually, I haven't played a single real OTB game in my life. I don't have any chess friends.

How about chess club ?

Originally posted by ivan2908
How about chess club ?

I don't have the time and motivation, I don't think I will like it there, for a number of personal reasons.

Originally posted by ivan2908
What happened to your rating since you got the star ?! Control yourself 😛

Nah..just not putting in the time..would have lost my rating anyways, although maybe not as much since I wouldn't have as much games.

Actually kotov gives a good advice to try to avoid blunders (if you have enough time on the clock), did you read to this point? It's called "the beginner's eye" or blumenfeld rule : once you've finished analysing, and you're ready to play your move, don't play it! write it down first, then take a few seconds to clear your mind of all the analysis you've done, and have a very basic check of the position, just to check you didn't forget any obvious threat. Then make your move.
Or read Kotov, he explains it better!
It helped me a lot (i'm a big blunderer myself) until recently it was forbidden to write the move before playing it in France where i play! but maybe in the states it's still possible?

Originally posted by diskamyl
thinking process, that's exactly where I suck at. Since I started 30' 15'' games on FICS, my rating got down so bad (I lost my last 4 games), from mid 1600's to 1508, and I really thought about quitting chess. This wasn't what I had studied for, for the last year.

I just can't help it. I studied a lot of tactics during this year, and am pretty decent at mplete beginner.

Man, it's really so depressing. I was actually down this whole day.

Just as a little sidenote, "real OTB" cannot be on the internet because OTB means "Over the Board" and is face to face. This is chess normally played at time controls of 2 hours for 40 moves and is considered to be the most prestigious and also the best representation of pure chess strength.

BTW: I'm a lot like you in terms of time trouble. I'm just now beginning to get better at managing my time - both on and off-line. Although, a lot of it is just down to experience.

Originally posted by shorbock
Actually kotov gives a good advice to try to avoid blunders (if you have enough time on the clock), did you read to this point? It's called "the beginner's eye" or blumenfeld rule : once you've finished analysing, and you're ready to play your move, don't play it! write it down first, then take a few seconds to clear your mind of all the analysis you've don ...[text shortened]... efore playing it in France where i play! but maybe in the states it's still possible?

Simple and extremly effective. Did you find a way to FORCE yourself to do it before every move ?

Originally posted by exigentsky
Just as a little sidenote, "real OTB" cannot be on the internet because OTB means "Over the Board" and is face to face. This is chess normally played at time controls of 2 hours for 40 moves and is considered to be the most prestigious and also the best representation of pure chess strength.

BTW: I'm a lot like you in terms of time trouble. I'm just no ...[text shortened]... anaging my time - both on and off-line. Although, a lot of it is just down to experience.

you're right about the term, thanks.

Originally posted by diskamyl
I don't have the time and motivation, I don't think I will like it there, for a number of personal reasons.

well, anyway, I also suspect your problem is likely the lack of experience in your openings. you have your tactical hammer ready, which is all good & well, but now you'll have to learn when, where and why to hit with it. which is where knowing your openings and the resulting positions intimately comes in. CC is excellent training for that, but I've gotten a lot of help from blitz as well because of the sheer volume of the games.

the more you see/work on the relevant positions, the easier the moves will just 'pop' right into your head. it doesn't really matter if you do that in a club, internet, from a game collection book or dvd. the most important thing is to have a steady diet of those positions.

My opinion is that many players can show rapid improvement to about 1600 usually because they are ok players who have mastered several sound openings. After that you need a deep understanding of positional sense which is hard to gain. I recommend playing through the annotated best 100 games of Capablanca - the best positional player ever in my opinion. I played his games over and over again and marvelled at how the opponent was never really in the game for most of his games... and amazingly found I could eventually sense positions and instictively know what to do. This takes a lot of time and effort, another good reason why many players stop at 1600 ish. I am also very happy to help by playing and/or analysing your games. I expect I could tell you where you go wrong.