Increasing chessplaying skill?

[IglooDame]

From provisional QueenAlice.com rating and a few games a year ago (Chessmaster 7000), I think I'm at about a 1400 USCF rating. As I said in the other thread, I've never played tournaments before and while I'm vaguely familiar with various piece values and strategic maxims (such as 'develop quickly', 'control the center', and 'get or keep the initiative'), that's about where my skill drops off.

Can anyone suggest ways to improve from here? I'd think that playing a lot of games would help, but that may be the long slow (albeit most fun) way, but I find winning and improving to be much more fun than losing and staying static.

 

[Blue Emu]

Read some good books. Some of my favorites:

Pawn Power in Chess by Hans Kmoch
My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer
The Art of the Middle Game by Keres and Kotov

Always write down your games, even casual ones, so you can look them over later to figure out why you lost (or won).

Learn how to do Space-Time-Force counts... Larry Evans explained how in one of his books... they can really put you on the proper track when appraising a position and selecting candidate-moves to examine.

 

[Taliesin]

I got better by reading books. They can give you a familiarity with tactical patterns that it would take years to learn by simply playing. I recall a slim text by J.R. Capablanca being very helpful, and I think some of Bruce Pandolfini's books should help you as well. Two other books I found particularly useful: Chess Traps-- Pitfalls and Swindles (I. Horowitz and Fred Reinfeld); and Winning Chess (I. Chernev and Reinfeld). Alexander Kotov wrote a useful book, too, but I remember it being somewhat more advanced than the others.

 

[col]

One of my favourite books in an oldie now

MySystem by Aron Nimzowitch
Until then I was pretty much a tactical player. From then on,I played much more positionally and really appreciated that pawn structures are the skeleton of a position.

Fischer's My 60 memorable games allowed me to appreciate his genius but didnt actually help me improve much.

Simple chess by Michael Stean Absolutely brilliant book for reasonable players who want to become good players. If you want to learn to play positional chess. This is for you.

And there is no substitute for knowing some opening theory - especially in the sharper lines.

 

[IglooDame]

It has been a while since "read books" has been a good solution for anything in my life. *does a little happydance*

I've also spooled up a couple PC chess games I've found (Chessmaster 9000 and Fritz 6.0) with a mind to getting familiar with a couple openings. I'd like to have a decent plan as white for the seemingly common e5...c4 start such as col gave me.

 

[col]

If you want to avoid the main lines of the Sicilian, look up the Closed Sicilian or the Grand Prix Attack. I play both of those and know them reasonably well.

 

[IglooDame]

If you want to avoid the main lines of the Sicilian, look up the Closed Sicilian or the Grand Prix Attack. I play both of those and know them reasonably well.

That woosh was what you said sailing over my head. I'm sorry, I don't think I'm trying to avoid anything (not being sure what the main lines of the Sicilian opening are in any case), I'm just trying to be reasonably prepared for a response that has always made me scratch my head. Now that I'm playing a little again, I recall the openings I've always faced involving the two middle pawns, the knights, and occasionally the bishops. Bishops' pawns in the first move or three kinda baffles me.

 

[col]

Some lines of the e4 ... c5 opening (the Sicilian Defence) have been analysed to move 25+. I've got at least 8 books just on that opening!

I played a game as white against the Sicilian Dragon variation v Loinburger recently where we were both following the book until beyond move 20....he played a line I used to play so I was curious to see what he'd found. He gor a good position .... then I won

 

[Narz]

Study tactics and do puzzles for an hour a day. When I do that my game improves. If (when) I do it consistantly my game will improve perminantly.

Positional concepts are important too and good tactics arise from good positions. However without strong tactics being able to develop good positions is just like being able to build houses of playing cards on a windy day.

CT-ART is a good program, it has a bunch of (over 1000) tactical problems/puzzles to solve and gives you a rating based on it.

Logical Chess Move by Move is also a good one.

I have a list here.

 

[nc-1701]

First study the first several moves of every opening. Choose your favorites learn them a bit deeper. Then start working on your tactics.

Any books by the American GM "Yasser Seirawan"

btw internet sites and chess computers always overrate by alot in my experiance.