new member (General)

by mihaela, Wednesday, October 11, 2006, 14:40 (6765 days ago) @ Don Lester

Hello Don,
I feel that what you are misssing is to play more games, get some practice, doubled by some coaching if possible.
I think you've already made your first step by playing a game and being very critical about it.
Strategy has many facets and that's why you'll find several columns on the site dealing with it, but in a different way.
Glenn's strategy, for instance, is specially designed for long term understanding and planning, the classical approach to strategy.
Tony's middlegame and endgame sections deal with thematic patterns. They help you develop a general feel for the position and help you quickly get rid of the bad choices. This way you can concentrate on the important issues.
I am amazed that you don't find HGIYC strategical. There is a lot of long term planning in those games (unless it's a very tactical game, which is quite rare), and the tactics only come at the end to finish the game.
Maybe, after finishing it, you should go over it once again, only to notice the way pieces maneouvre, and the way many strategical themes work together at the same time.
I will end here saying that a grandmaster knows tens of thousands of patterns which they learn throughout their lives. Some come from self learning, the rest comes from 'battlefield learning', when they're trying to apply their knowledge to new positions. And even they have problems sometimes in finding the right plan or the right move.
I hope what I have written here helped you in some way,
I wish you good luck in your next game!
Mihaela Sandu

PS: You shouldn't worry about the advanced tactics, they are meant to be very tough. If you don't solve them, understanding why you didn't is already a big step towards improvement.