Long Term Condensed Simplicity

A friend shared a nice little story:




"Thanks farbror, I appreciate the kind words. Yea I agree. Big difference between learning and having practical knowledge. I'm a martial artist and my master taught me a lesson. He stated now that your advanced what is the greatest lesson I've taught you. I stood there for about 3 minutes thinking (scared in front of a huge crowd) and then said a black belt knows that simplicity is best which comes from the mind. He stated exactly. The 4-5 th degree black belts used to beat me with the simplest of moves. Mastering the basics is so important. He said right, you can know a thousand moves and not know how to use one in a real life situation or have one technique that you can always use to great effect. Thats why we see in cage fighting usually same moves over and over because they are practical. In chess same applies. My trainer now finds small little things in my game and adjust them and it's like wow! I notice the improvement right away." (My Boldface)



This very clear example of the importance the basics and not rushing things is very much in tune with solid instructions posted at www.chessville.com "The Path to Improvement"

So, here is my New Single(!) Long Term Plan. No more Meta Pseudo Training wasting a lot of time and energy.

The (Re-)Reading Project
A list of books to read or re-read. I strongly consider to write short reviews of all the books along the road.

1. Everyone's Second Chess Book (Heisman)
2. Learn Chess Tactics (Nunn)
3. Silman's Complete Endgame Course (Silman)
4. Chess Openings (Basman)
5. Best Lessons of a Chess Coach (Weeramantry & Eusebi)
6. Lasker's Manual of Chess (Lasker)
7. New Ideas In Chess (Evans)
8. Logical Chess Move By Move (Chernev)

The "Guess-the-Move" Project

In parallell with the reading project I plan to replay all the games in the excellent collection "The Mammoth Book of The World's Greatest Chess Games" in chronologic order.


Daily Tactics -- Three Strikes and You're Out!

Solving problems at chess.com until I have failed three problems. Each failed problem should be carefully studied and understood.
(An idea suggested by IM Pruess massaged in to a post by yours truly )

The Openingphobia Remedy

Opening Worries or Openingphobia is another energy drainer. No more reconsidering opening choices for at least a ......long time. I think Dan Heisman has a solid point when he suggests that playing openings that suits your style might slow down your development. Playing stuff outside of my comfort zone will force me to work on my weak areas. I will use the recommendations from: 

"An Opening Repertoire for the Attacking Player" (Gufeld)

Midchesslife Crisis

My, in lack of better words, career has been ongoing for about four years. Early on I set a long term goal for my activities: Play at a 1750 level before the age of 50.

I am more than halfway there, the due date is a little more than three years away, and progress is slim to none.

What has gone wrong?

The time budget has always been infinitesimal and I have not been able to play enough slow games. That is no surprise and part of the equation from the very start. I honestly believed that my chess muscle would grow and a steady diet of tactics puzzles. The tactics muscle has improved (around 1850 at Chesstempo today) but I see no traces of improvement in my few games or in my rating.

Obviously, a lot of time have been wasted in illusionary fake training which comes in many shapes:

• Reading Chess news instead of something beneficial
• Planning, Documenting or changing your training instead of training
• Not spending enough time on a topic and not learning it properly
• Developing knowledge instead of skills

Sounds familiar?

Well, it is time to be more concrete, condensed and minimalistic. Will it help? We will see!

Goals for December 31, 2012

• 40+ slow games played and analyzed
• Three Books
• Daily Chesstempo problem(s)
• Monthly Chessmagnetschool rating tests (November 11, 2011: Rating Test. Score: 1487)

Do-it-yourself Chess Publishing

I have wild plans for a minor pamphlet on chess training. What would be the easiest tool for creating something  like that? ChessBase? Any tips and advice are appreciated!