New answers tagged learning
3
Could someone please confirm that he became a stronger player by using that method of studying?
I can confirm, I was 2000-FIDE, struggling to beat players of the same rating. After a month of serious endgame study, I increased my rating to 2200 fairly quickly. Since then, I am continuously studying endgames.
A lot of players at that level have a gap in their ...
4
To be honest you are not as advanced as you think you are.
If you are talking about tactics then almost always there is a clear material advantage or mate resulting from doing the tactics. How is it you are advanced and cannot see such an advantage?
In some cases the advantage may be positional. Clearly your experience and positional understanding is ...
10
I think the most important thing to do right now is to clarify exactly what the problem you're having is. From the somewhat vague example you gave I have a suspicion, but I can't be sure. I think that your problem with the tactics is that the way you evaluate the resulting positions from the tactical sequences you calculate is too simplistic, in this case by ...
5
In your example the opponent was forced to exchange his queen for a knight.
That usually means that
They will win material on top of that to minimize material loss (2 pieces and 2 pawns for a queen is materially better than just being a piece down). Converting material advantages is mostly a matter of endgame technique and then trading down into endgames. ...
3
You're correct. The idea of 24...a6 is to allow the king to avoid a perpetual. This could be of relevance if Black's queen moves away to go after White's king (e.g., ...Qc5). It could also be useful for the king to hide on a7 if things go haywire and a dangerous attack happens, such as the h-pawn promoting or White's rook getting involved. Although, in the ...
1
While specialized training may be useful, you also need to be in a situation where that training can be used.
I'm mainly interested in chess compositions, and had much the same problem following solutions, or setting up problems from notation (i.e. not from diagrams, but from textual description such as "White: K at KR3, Q at KB2, ..." and so on. ...
0
There aren't any english resources for learning xiangqi other than the webpage mentioned above. There is a Malaysian titled player who produced xiangqi content in English. The link for his video resources on xiangqi can be found here: Link
There are a few xiangqi players on the pychess.org site's discord who are willing to help out in xiangqi studies and ...
1
Playing blindfold chess might also help with coordinates a lot, once we have a visual sense of where the squares should be, and how they are related spatially in the mind, we can get really comfortable using the chess algebraic notations.
If you just want to learn notation, its a-h horizontally, and 1-8 vertically on the 8x8 board.
2
Memorize not just squares, but ranks and files. a: Queen's Rook b: Queen's kNight, c: Queen's Bishop, d: Queen, e: King, f: King's Bishop, g: King's kNight, h: King's Rook. 1: White's back rank, 2: White's pawn rank, 3: White one pawn-move, 4: White's two pawn-move. For each square, you should become familiar what role that square in particular play, but ...
3
I see from your profile that you are familiar with programming concepts. As a programmer myself, familiar with hexadecimal and other number base notations, I have found it easier to convert the alphanumeric chess position to two numbers first before locating the position.
So when you see an a, b, c, d, e, f, h convert it to a number in your head first 1, 2, ...
1
As others have suggested for younger children using chess minigames which focusses on only one or two pieces is a great way to engage them. I used this approach with both of my boys when they were around 5 years old. I found the book 'Chess is Child's Play: Teaching Techniques That Work' by Sherman and Kilpatrick to be excellent for teaching from age 4 up. ...
5
Three options I can think of immediately:
https://chess-endgame-trainer.firebaseapp.com/home is a fantastic chess endgame trainer.
Chessable also lets you create your own courses (for free) which you can then do spaced repetition on.
Listudy is another option.
2
I would strongly suggest looking into chess.com as they have an extensive "Learning" module on end game and end game tactics. You are limited to the amount of modules you can complete per day unless you are willing to pay for a subscription. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as learning to much can result in concepts not necessarily taking hold.
...
3
Yes,challenge means to "just go b5 anyway" when considered tactically, but this misses the ideas.
Chess is a game of who has the better idea. When deciding on a move will you further your own idea or challenge your opponents idea?
The game is a benoni structure where Black may try to expand rapidly on the queenside with great effect, ..a6, ..b5 ...
3
GM Jonathan Rowson recently answered the question "how does anyone get good at chess?" on Twitter in fewer than 280 characters as follows:
Start young (5), fall in love with chess, get lucky with the characters in your particular chess world.
Keep going, be willing to lose a lot, admire someone, study, play, repeat. Befriend computers.
Lose some ...
3
In her TED talk Giving checkmate is always fun, Judit Polgar says (t=0:59):
My mother taught me the first moves when I was about five years old...
1
A nice book for beginners is How To Beat Your Dad At Chess. It lists 50 tactics - mostly checkmating attacks. Each tactic appears on two pages, with a brief explanation and a few diagrams showing examples of the tactic in use. Usually there are no more than two or three moves made between the diagrams, so it is reasonably easy to follow between the diagrams. ...
3
Is this a stamina issue? (as in I start to lose concentration as the
game goes on?)
No. If you are consistently reaching the endgame then it is a "lack of endgame knowledge" problem.
Do you know when KP v K is a win and when it is a draw? Do you know how to win the Capablanca pawn endgame as white? Do you know what you have to do as black to draw (...
3
Sure! Playing a highly tactical position that you aren't used to can help you train your tactics, but there are plenty of non-gambit alternatives that are also rich in tactics (think for instance of most lines in the Sicilian defense)
2
Yes. A direct open tactical style of play is the fastest route to chess mastery. Look at the games of Morphy. It allows to commit faster mistakes, therefore faster learning. Play dangerously
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i like lichess because of it study feature. Lichess has the strongest free chess computer online and has a large master opening database for free. You can make your own or look at other people's studies.
https://lichess.org/study
0
With great difficulty. There is no real connection between chess and the real world.
What you need to apply is game theory to both chess and the other situation.
Trying to infer game theory by using chess to help your socratic method would fall way short and be much harder than doing it with math.
1
Playing is counterproductive until you have some basic skill, but a little playing will keep you motivated and may show you things to be aware of unless the other player is also a beginner.
Do NOT do chess problems. They will not help at all and waste time.
Do not play blitz at all. Play 10-15 minute games but pace yourself to move in exactly ten seconds.
...
0
NO.
You should learn tactics before playing tactical openings as they are far more subtle and somewhat mixed with positional play.
You should study tactics separately and methodically not just solving random tactical problems.
You need to do at least ten similar tactics problems after seeing an example of how it works. This will implant the pattern into ...
1
Even despite previous claims it is true that chess before 2200-2400 is about 90% tactics. However the understanding is never below tactics as understanding is in tactics so understanding completley outranks tactics. This includes positional play, knowledge of positions and there structures as well as middle game and endgame play as you absolutley need ...
1
Here are some example areas I think can of (definitely not limited to just these):
Attacking your opponent at different parts of the board simultaneously. This can be translated to pressuring your real world opponent in different ways at the same time.
Identifying weaknesses.
A sense of danger. I don't know how well this would translate into the real world, ...
2
I play most (>95%) of my games online, and when I play with a real board, I find a bit difficult to translate positions I already played and the visual pattern matching of tactical situations takes longer. Not to look at the board then, helps a bit.
So, I think, when you prepare for a board tournament, or something like this, preparing on a real board ...
1
They're pretty much the same thing once you get used to both, specially for long games. In Blitz, you'll be able to move a bit faster or slower depending on how much you've practiced and the difference could be critical.
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