Author: Andrei Fortuna
Date: 09:14:04 07/11/03
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Thank you ! This is the most helpful reply I got ! And you have opened my eyes : maybe it's time I should indeed follow your advice and prepare an opening repertoire. By playing specific plans in specific openings I can learn how to plan in general. I know it's hard work and that progress doesn't happen overnight, but it does happen eventually in the long run. I was prepared to order startegy & tactics books mostly, but now I'll review my stratagy and add opening books on my list. Many thanks, Andrei On July 11, 2003 at 12:01:19, P. Massie wrote: >With the caveat this is just my opinion, and may not match anyone else's very >well... > >My experience has been that books are of very limited usefulness one you reach a >playing strength of 16-1800. By that time you've generally read and understood >all the rules, and reading more rules never seems to help. I've known a lot of >players stuck at that level for a very long time (as I was myself) who keep on >reading more books and never seem to be able to get better. > >I would recommend a good endgame book, largely for reference. My favorite is >Mueller's Comprehensive Chess Endings, but there are others. > >You need an decent opening reference, whether that be a book like ECO/NCO or a >database. At the 1700 level I would suggest the NCO/ECO type books, rather than >the more detailed ones. > >Next you need to decide what your opening repertoire should be. Are you >primarily positional or tactical? Do you enjoy learning theory? Do you want to >minimize opening theory? Based around these decisions you can get 1-2 more >repertoire opening books that match your desired repertoire. > >And then you just need to spend a lot of time studying games, preferably games >in your selected repertoire, and preferably annotated games. You can get these >from various books of games, or through a subscription to ChessBase Magazine, or >things like that. > >Chess has some general rules, and a lot of exceptions. Being able to apply the >rules requires a high level of technical ability that you don't get from reading >books. Only by carefully studying a lot of games, preferably in your selected >opening family, do you really learn those things. > >You mention you can't form a plan. If you frequently play, for example, the >Closed Ruy Lopez, then after you've studied a large number of games in that >opening you'll suddenly be able to form plans in those openings. It's not >magic, but it is a lot of hard work. Unless you're a genius, there's no book >that will make you a master. It just takes a lot of focused, hard work. > >Paul
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