Understanding Chess

I think it is a combination of many things. playing people better than you will help if you learn why the moves were played. expierencing many games also helped. i've played around 4000 games in 2 years and my play skyrocketed, but i also read books to learn new concepts. not until i hit 1550 and learned how to use a successful minority attack did i learn its powerful nature until i used it in a game. different people excell in different ways. best of luck.

Originally posted by MoneyMaker7
... not everyone can do it 10 moves deep like masters can..

Unless every move is forced, probably very few masters can calculate ten moves deep.

what do you mean by a successful minority attack,can you say more?

Minority attack is in essence to most amateurs, an attack against a majority of pawns with a minority in the hope of creating weakness, holes and open files. ~ IM jeremy Silman

Thanks,well i am not too hot on that!!

just knowing how to use the minority attack or even how to advance pawns in the middle game can mean the difference in several hundred points in my opinion.

Originally posted by Shinidoki
it would seem we do not disagree, but both meant different things by the term "memory"

yep. but the reason why I keep insisting on the difference between having excellent memory and learning things, is that having a good memory is a trait we're born with, but learning chunks is something anybody can do. the GMs have seen & done it all so many times, that almost any normal position triggers a reaction along the lines of "oh that ol' thing once again."

of course, when they encounter something unfamiliar, they have vastly superior skills to process that situation. but it's not about being born with superior memory, but instead about the amount & quality of hours they've put into it since the time they learned how the horsey hops.

It takes a high IQ to play chess at master level plus, but having a high IQ does not mean you will be able to play chess well. Something else is involved.

i agree kmac27 can you recommend a book on this?

I know yasser seirwans book on strategy talks about it and weaknesses of pawns, in winning chess strategy. and also josh waitzkin has a book called attacking chess but I found seirwans book to be better on that one subject, with regards to learning not brilliancy. Another book I think eveyrone should overview "not read extensivley" is pawn structure in chess by andrew soltis. very boring but helps you understand hte middle game much more. Hans kmoch also has a book called pawn power in chess. I don't like all the words he uses in the book he tries to make it simple but does nothing of the sort. I'd recomend yasser seirwans book, then pawn structure in chess, then pawn power in chess in that order if you are to get them. the level of expierence to comprehend these books progresses with each one.

Thanks for that!