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Thread: looking for a chess teacher

  1. #11

    Default Switching to "Technical Mode"

    What are some of the best ways to settle down for the ending after an exciting middlegame struggle? One book I read long time ago suggested players to wait for a few minutes and settle down before carrying on.

    In one of my recent tournament games I had winning endgame positions but played too quickly and lost. On two other occasions I only managed to draw some completely won positions, both with a pawn up. About a year or 2 ago such problems don't exist in my games. ~sigh~

  2. #12

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    Hi Berthold

    I remember playing you in one Vancouver tournament, it was a draw if I remember rightly ....

    I would recommend getting some good software. I use Fritz to analyze my games, Personal Chess Trainer for problems (has tactics, endgames and strategy) and play against Chessmaster 11 (GM edition). Some people like the convekta software but I personally hate the interface and don't like its 'forever blink' if you get the problem wrong .

    As for books I know how you feel, I have finally decided to read the books that were designed for my level of play I would recommend Logical chess move by move (chernev), any of the Winning chess books by Seirawan/Silman, Amature Mind (Silman) and Silmans Complete Endgame Course. One tip is pick out about 4-5 books and read them, then reread them several times. The material will sink in and it will keep your book costs down!

  3. #13

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    Sure. I'll consider purchasing Fritz if the CFC still has it.

    Our game was played in the spring of last year. It was a KID and you played...e6. Kinda unusual...

  4. #14
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    I find Chessmaster to be better for training at lower levels than Fritz, for the record, and you can find 10th Edition around for $20 or less.

  5. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by Christopher Mallon
    I find Chessmaster to be better for training at lower levels than Fritz, for the record, and you can find 10th Edition around for $20 or less.
    Chessmaster is great to play against, I like how it 'dumbs down' its play. But when it comes to analysis of games Fritz beats it hands down. I picked up Fritz 10 at futureshop for $20. I like to setup engine vs engine matches using my favorite openings, let it run overnight (3-4 games) and then run analysis on all of them the next day.

    yeah I still play the KID and I used to play e6 because I didn't want my dark square bishop hemmed in... I don't play that move anymore because of the cramped position it leads to... I remember I was up rook for bishop and there was No way to break through to utilize my material advantage so I offered a draw...

  6. #16
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    Oh yeah I agree about analysis and Fritz, that's what I do myself. But Fritz's method of dumbing down is... well, dumb. It will play a perfect game, make one massive blunder ("Here, have my queen!") then go back to playing perfectly.

  7. #17

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    I've alsways thought that the best reason for studyigng endings isn't because it helps you play better endings -- its because it helps you understand simple tactics without a lot of pieces cluttering the board.

    Learning to mate with B+N+K vs K will teach you a great deal about the strenghths and weaknesses of minor pieces. R + P vs R will also teach you how to anaylse concrete variations cleanly without cluttering up variations with too many variables.

    A book such as Keres' practical chess endings could be useful but any basic ending book. You can even practive these things before checking your analysis with a book.

    Good luck and I hope this helps

  8. #18
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    Andrew Soltis advised in his Grandmaster Secrets: Endings (Thinkers Press, 1997) that as soon as an endgame is reached, a player should get up and go for a walk (presumably if he's not in time trouble). That is indeed so that he can switch his thoughts to 'technical (or endgame) mode'.

    One thing about this book is, it lists the 'basic' ending of K+B+N vs. K as having a 1 in 3000 chance of happening for a given year, and so it's one ending not much worth worrying about. Most serious players would seem to disagree. I've had it come up in my career twice, although when I was on the superior side my opponent went to the wrong corner even before I'd won his last pawn, and resigned besides, having assumed I'd mastered it in the adjournment that had happened. The other time I was on the inferior side, albeit in a training game vs. an 'A' class player (Eric van Dusen), who somehow knew how to play it cold and won with seeming ease(!)

    Here's the wiki on chess endgames:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_endgame
    Last edited by Kevin Pacey; 09-29-2018 at 11:22 PM. Reason: Adding link
    There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
    Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.

  9. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Berthold Chiang View Post
    I've been playing in tournaments on and off for the last 9 years without much success and the study of various chess books have been a failure.

    The great Capablanca once said that the study of a book would not teach a student how to play, and that it merely acts as a guide. Wondering if there's a grain of truth in what he said.
    In Capablanca's day I don't think there were too many good chess books around, let alone taking into account the lack of computers back then. I recall at least Kevin Spraggett crediting the study of Euwe and Kramer's old thick 2 volume work on the middlegame phase as allowing hime to finally beat his rival Leo Williams back in the day.
    Last edited by Kevin Pacey; 08-01-2018 at 01:19 AM. Reason: Spelling
    There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
    Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.

  10. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Berthold Chiang View Post
    hey guys,

    I do have some books on tactics such as Alburt's "chess tactics for the tournament player". I learned quite a bit from it and scored okay when going through the exercises; however, while going through some tougher combinations online I usually lose the thread.

    Maybe I studied books that are too advanced for me. One of them, "attack and defense" by Dvoretsky and Yusupov, was quite tough. The general discussion is pretty straightforward, while the analysis...
    I think unless you're gifted, getting better at positions with a tactical solution available (noting that during any point of a game there is no loud warning that this is possible, of course) will require lots of practice solving them (or trying to, then looking up the solution, to at least learn a new pattern). It's like physical exercise - do more and it may get easier over time, until you may even do things you formerly thought were beyond you. It also helps to be steadily playing chess, too.

    Another approach besides looking at books strictly about tactics is to try to find wisdom in book(s) about how to calculate in general. Lasker's Manual of Chess, (though dated like the book by Capa) has some pointers here and there on calculating, I seem to recall. I'd advise having a dictionary handy for some of it though, and sometimes the book seemed murky to me when I was a young class player, regardless. One of Andrew Soltis' better books, I think, is The Inner Game of Chess (David McKay Company, 1994), a 359 page text which is about how to calculate, largely re: finding tactical solutions that arose in actual games. Another, really great, Soltis book is a 1975, 262 pages long one (same publisher) called The Art of Defense in Chess; it's about way more than pure tactical devices used in defending oneself. Of course, there is also the classic 422 pages book The Art of Attack in Chess (Pergammon Press, 1965) by V. Vukovic. These last two books had a lot of things I'd already figured out, usually by hard-won experience, plus way more. Eye opening stuff for sub-2300 players.

    I once wrote an article for the CFC print magazine (when it still existed) on how I became a 2300 level player over a number of years, starting from a low class player rating. For those interested, it's in 3 parts on my blog on this CFC Discussion Board (I recently added an epilogue part, about how I briefly became a 2400 CFC-rated player in 2010) - bear in mind this was before computer software, engines and the internet, but I imagine it could still prove useful these days, and give an idea of what level certain books may be just about right for, i.e. for learning from:

    http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...-(Part-1-of-3)
    Last edited by Kevin Pacey; 08-03-2018 at 09:23 PM. Reason: Grammar
    There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
    Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.

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