The Three Things That Have Improved My Chess

1. Practising tactics – I cannot stress enough the importance of tactics at the sub 1800 level. If your time is limited, tactics training would be the one thing that would give you the greatest return on investment. 2. Playing and reviewing my games – This allows you to learn from your mistakes,...

Secrets of Zen Chess

Secrets of Zen Chess During my chess break, I ran into a friend of mine who loves chess and who had been in Japan doing a 4 week Seshin at a Japanese Zen Monestary.I asked him if he had time to practice his chess while at the monestary, and he told me that he had not, but that he had briefly spoken to a monk...

What's The Frequency Kenneth?

Chess is temporarily taking a backseat to new hobbies I am currently exploring…so my posting frequency will somewhat diminish. I am adjusting my chess training so that I will continue to spend 30 minutes per day doing chess tempo puzzles.  In the meantime, I have compiled the most popular posts for...

Chess Goals – Progress Report – Feb 2010

This is my first progress report on the chess goals and resolutions I made back on December 21st.  While I haven’t had the time or inclination to update my blog, I have been active in my training averaging  one hour per day of training. During the last two months, I have continously tweaked my...

Analyzing Your Games

According to Mark Dvoretsky the analysis of one’s own games is the main means of self-improvement.  In Secrets of Chess Training Dvoretsky offers the following guidelines: Find the turning points – Decide where mistakes were made, where the evaluation of the position changed or an opportunity...