Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Simple, Simpler & Doable!

It is a common trap to try to be efficient doing something and to try form a new habit of doing the very same thing at the same time. Simplification is the order of that day and quite often things must be much simpler than expected.

One minor success story of mine was to choose “Playing 50 slow games” as a goal. This is a clear and well defined goal which just might be possible to reach for a proud father. Another goal was to “Read 3+ chess books”. This goal will have to be clarified and maybe simplified. I have tried to read three books at once and that clearly isn’t efficient. I do not have time to read decent “chunks” of any book in a single session and jumping back and forth between several books makes it all to “chopped up”. So, the first change will be to read the books one at the time.

A nice strategy for forming a habit: The 6 Changes Method I will try "The 6 Changes Method" and keep you posted on the minor steps and ground covered.

PS. Yeah, Silman's Endgame Course is great but which is your favourite portable endgame book? DS.

4 comments:

  1. I like this 6 Changes Method. Maybe I am gonna try it.

    Another endgame book? Understanding Chess Endgames by John Nunn.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Portable: Bronsspringaren, Silverspringaren, Guldspringaren (Sveriges Schackförbund). http://www.schack.se/material/bestallningslista.doc

    ReplyDelete
  3. My favorite portable endgame book? Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual, 2nd edition. Exceptionally portable in the Kindle edition that I have on my iPad.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I need to get myself an iPad. I fear Dvoretsky is a wee bit too advanced for me right now. I have a pretty good time drilling king and pawn endgames using the chessimo app for iPhone. Pretty portable as well!!

    ReplyDelete