Sharing Tips on How to Improve (General)

by mindcramp, Wednesday, July 18, 2007, 23:41 (6484 days ago) @ tapestry

I have found the following very helpful:
(1) Solving lots of problems, hard or easy, tactical or positional. There are lots of books with positions to solve. Pick ones that are right for your level, and keep at it on a steady pace, such as 30 minutes a day. The key is that they engage your mind actively.
(2) Going over game collections in an interactive way, such as Dan King's HGIYC feature. Excellent!
(3) Playing seriously slow tournament games, i.e., 40/2 + SD/1. Always an education for me.
(4) I have worked with several coaches in the past. Some have been excellent; a couple were an utter waste of time. Good coaches (and good students) know that it all depends on the student doing a lot of hard work, and the coach gets to know your game and points the right way. The bad ones just regurgitate canned lessons.
(5) Analyze your own games WITHOUT computer assistance. Swear to the Supreme Being that you will figure out the truth of your game, including the mistakes that you would like never to repeat.

The following were not so helpful:
(1) Going over game collections casually is enjoyable, but not so helpful. Listening to Sinatra has not improved my singing - same principle operating here.
(2) Too much speed chess on ICC really hurt my long game. I started to put too much confidence in my (poorly developed) intuition, and picked up horrendous habits. I quit cold turkey, and things are back on the upswing. Hate to say it, but even G/60 is too fast - I always find that my thinking is rushed, and often there is a blunderfest in the final minutes. You should play, but don't expect it to help all that much.
(3) Reading books (other than problems or whole games to solve). Like playing over master games, very little sticks unless you get your hands dirty and move some pieces around for yourself.
(4) Playing against a computer. The "undo move" feature will kill your thought process, if you use it too often. Also, humans at most levels do not play anything like computers -- we play flawed but purposeful moves that can still be dangerous even if not mathematically sound. Computer opponents do not train this factor very well.