Developing Chess Skill

According to Johnathan Rowson in his book Chess for Zebras we can develop chess skill through a combination of playing combined with chess training, where ‘training’ means working things out by ourselves. The main skill a chess player needs is skill in making decisions so making decisions is what you need to do over and over when training (learning by doing).

The best training is the kind that pushes you up against the edges of your comfort zone, where you force yourself to take responsibility for difficult decisions.

– Johnathan Rowson in Chess for Zebras

So here’s what you can do to put his advice into practice:

• Playing and then analyzing your games afterwards
• Solving complex chess problems
• Trying to win won positions against strong analysis engines
• Blitz games (comparing your first impression of positions with the way they actually developed)