Hate to be the in the mess of "higher rated players" that disagree about something, but I don't really like Chess Tempo that much. And while I agree that tactics puzzles are necessary to a point, I don't believe they are needed as much as people believe they are. I study tactics the same way Tal claimed to. Which was he looked at raw PGN, and looked for the tactics within the game notes. I have worked out my own little system in this, but the point is, there is nothing saying that the only way to study chess is always the "conventional way". And there is such a thing as "Too much" of something. And in general most people, not saying all, but most people fall into the trap of doing too much of tactics puzzles.
I looked at your link Achja. And I am thinking it's possible that in the long run the study helped you, but its likely that the reason you failed easy puzzles isn't because you had something wrong with you. Maybe tired or something, but maybe you are potentially over doing it?
I counted my puzzles once not too long ago because I recently saw a chess community in chess.com claim they do thousands of puzzles in a month. And that their goal every month was to try to do more each month. That astounded me because I can't imagine that kind of dedication and only have a 1600 rating ANYWHERE. So I counted the amount. It appeared that I only did somewhere around 1500 puzzles in a matter of about 15 years. That is literally one months worth of some of the people in that community in a little under half my life! And with them being 1300-1700 and me going from 900 to 2000ish.
I agree.. puzzles are necessary. Something like 15-30 puzzles per day. Then simply study strategy. I have thought about recreating old lessons in my own words with these studies. My main problem is wording. I can't seem to construct the lessons "IN MY OWN WORDS". So that idea may have to come with personal lessons because I do better with one on one instruction. Maybe if I get a "proof-reader" I can release the material to lichess public. My problem is I don't want to infringe on copyrights. So I have to be picky on wording in explanation.
Point is: Chesstempo 15-30 puzzles per day - one way / Another way and you can mix them is PGN study. First you look for the tactics played, then you look for potential tactics. If you do it like Tal did with raw PGN's you can use a computer to double check. Write notes and compare to the engine analysis. Anything that can be explained in human terms is a playable move for a computer to human. If it's outrageous ignore it. If you have a "Fully annotated" book, you can look through the PGN similarly as the Tal way, and then write notes and compare to the book annotations.
As always, I don't know how willing people above me like 2300+ are willing to do this, but If someone wants an analysis of their games they can invite me and I will be happy to write notes offline or do some analysis live. Just add me as a moderator to their study. More than likely it will be offline. I work for free or donation.
I bet if we came together as a community similar to old Chess Palace where Tal came from we could pop out some potentially strong players just out of inertia. That in itself would be worth my time. We are a rather large chess community when it comes down to it. Can you imagine the potential if we worked together rather than always do sharp competitions and called each other cheaters at the drop of a hat? That last one is pointed at all the tournaments I have seen lately. There is always that one new guy 1700-1800 who blasts through the competition. Probably to shame people online which is bad. But then there is also always at least one to ten people who claim that person or another is a cheater. Silly really.. We could be producing next generation GM's and we are squabbling over who's using an engine.
Anyway sorry for the long drawn out post,
Cheers!
I looked at your link Achja. And I am thinking it's possible that in the long run the study helped you, but its likely that the reason you failed easy puzzles isn't because you had something wrong with you. Maybe tired or something, but maybe you are potentially over doing it?
I counted my puzzles once not too long ago because I recently saw a chess community in chess.com claim they do thousands of puzzles in a month. And that their goal every month was to try to do more each month. That astounded me because I can't imagine that kind of dedication and only have a 1600 rating ANYWHERE. So I counted the amount. It appeared that I only did somewhere around 1500 puzzles in a matter of about 15 years. That is literally one months worth of some of the people in that community in a little under half my life! And with them being 1300-1700 and me going from 900 to 2000ish.
I agree.. puzzles are necessary. Something like 15-30 puzzles per day. Then simply study strategy. I have thought about recreating old lessons in my own words with these studies. My main problem is wording. I can't seem to construct the lessons "IN MY OWN WORDS". So that idea may have to come with personal lessons because I do better with one on one instruction. Maybe if I get a "proof-reader" I can release the material to lichess public. My problem is I don't want to infringe on copyrights. So I have to be picky on wording in explanation.
Point is: Chesstempo 15-30 puzzles per day - one way / Another way and you can mix them is PGN study. First you look for the tactics played, then you look for potential tactics. If you do it like Tal did with raw PGN's you can use a computer to double check. Write notes and compare to the engine analysis. Anything that can be explained in human terms is a playable move for a computer to human. If it's outrageous ignore it. If you have a "Fully annotated" book, you can look through the PGN similarly as the Tal way, and then write notes and compare to the book annotations.
As always, I don't know how willing people above me like 2300+ are willing to do this, but If someone wants an analysis of their games they can invite me and I will be happy to write notes offline or do some analysis live. Just add me as a moderator to their study. More than likely it will be offline. I work for free or donation.
I bet if we came together as a community similar to old Chess Palace where Tal came from we could pop out some potentially strong players just out of inertia. That in itself would be worth my time. We are a rather large chess community when it comes down to it. Can you imagine the potential if we worked together rather than always do sharp competitions and called each other cheaters at the drop of a hat? That last one is pointed at all the tournaments I have seen lately. There is always that one new guy 1700-1800 who blasts through the competition. Probably to shame people online which is bad. But then there is also always at least one to ten people who claim that person or another is a cheater. Silly really.. We could be producing next generation GM's and we are squabbling over who's using an engine.
Anyway sorry for the long drawn out post,
Cheers!
When I wanted to improve my game I bought a thick old book of the worlds greatest matches and studied them like crazy. I would find ideas I liked and try to implement them in my own games. This really helped me recognize certain patterns and motifs along with opening theory and so on. I did what i enjoyed doing rather than seriously studying in depth theory etc because I wanted my experience to be fun not a chore. After a while I joined a local chess club to see if I was any good as I had only played online matches and I wasn't sure if I could play in the real world so to speak. I did fine and played in a squad for a while and learned a lot more about the game naturally and in a enjoyable manner. Good luck on your chess journey.
@MeWantCookie #12
You don't like chesstempo so much ? Why is that ?
I believe I wrote that chesstempo is the best tactics website.
I also don't like it so much for some reasons, but it is without doubt the best tactics server to work with.
The comments are often very useful, and the puzzles are almost always taken from GM games, and as a premium user you get valuable extras.
Other tactics website, like e.g. emrald, ideachess, chess.com, chesscademy, are worse than chesstempo in my opinion.
For beginning chess players tactics are very important to work on. Tactics can appear in opening, in middlegame and endgame, and it can also save you many points in worse positions.
Look at the tactics ratings of GMs (e.g. on chess.com) and you will see that there is no GM or IM with low tactics rating at all.
Of course it is important to work on all areas of chess, not just tactics, but esp. for beginning chess players tactics are very important to work on.
You don't like chesstempo so much ? Why is that ?
I believe I wrote that chesstempo is the best tactics website.
I also don't like it so much for some reasons, but it is without doubt the best tactics server to work with.
The comments are often very useful, and the puzzles are almost always taken from GM games, and as a premium user you get valuable extras.
Other tactics website, like e.g. emrald, ideachess, chess.com, chesscademy, are worse than chesstempo in my opinion.
For beginning chess players tactics are very important to work on. Tactics can appear in opening, in middlegame and endgame, and it can also save you many points in worse positions.
Look at the tactics ratings of GMs (e.g. on chess.com) and you will see that there is no GM or IM with low tactics rating at all.
Of course it is important to work on all areas of chess, not just tactics, but esp. for beginning chess players tactics are very important to work on.
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