Author: Lawrence S. Tamarkin
Date: 12:02:05 02/12/00
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Playing against your cmputer will help you a little, no doubt, but to actually make progress in chess I think you have to play humans at standard time controls. Then you have to study your own games to figure out what happened. (If you have some high rated friends to help it is even better). And this is where the programs really shine too, because they can show you the most often played book line(s) (without drudery of opening a paper book), and you can test yourself in any type of position. Still, the psychology of chess play is still missing... Figuring out how to think about chess is one thing. Books like, 'Secrets of Practical Chess', by John Nunn, 'Think Like A Grandmaster', by Alexander Kotov, 'Improve Your Chess Now', by Jon Tisdal, and especially the new book, 'The Road To Chess Improvement', by Alex Yermolinsky (A book of the year, IMO), will give you the right tools to use for self-study. But playing to test yourself against the real chess players 'out there', is the only way to know where you really stand in over-the-board strength. To New Yorkers I highly recommend the Friday Night rapids at the Marshall Chess Club at 23 W. 10th st., NY! E.F is $12, $5 to members, and all entrees are returned as prizes! Larry T. On February 12, 2000 at 06:35:05, Harpo wrote: >I get the impression that many people play against their computers using >standard time controls. I give Fritz or CM two minutes per move and take as >much time as I like. This is usually around five minutes but it can run well >over half an hour in complicated positions. In the event that a game is going >into a level endgame I save it and pick it up the next day (a cushy third shift >job greatly facilitates this approach). > >The pros of this "time control" are obvious. You get the best features of OTB >play and postal play in one! Those of us who are tactically challenged can >avoid being blindsided by attacks we would normally miss. You actually have >enough time to carefully analyse all of your candidate moves and the computer's >candidate responses to each move (which, in my painful experience, is the bare >minimum effort required to get an occasional draw!) > >It's one of the potential cons that I'm concerned about. I haven't played in a >tournament in ages but I would like to in the near future. Is this style of >play merely a decadent whim (one which I highly recommend, by the way) or am I >training myself to play like a sloth? I'm inclined to suspect that busting your >hump against a monster of an opponent strengthens your play _regardless_ of the >time control. What do others think? > >Harpo
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