(first in a series of adult learning posts) “These things take time.” the grand master explained to his young pupil. Ten years and nearly one thousand rating points later, the student now finally realized the truth in the words of his teacher. One must realize that there is no quick fix to becoming an expert…
After repeating exercise 1 for the first 2-3 sessions you can then move on to exercise 2. Board Visualization Exercise #2 Same concept as in exercise #1 but this time you do not look at the board. – note where the four knights normally develop – note where the four bishops normally develop – note…
Best Chess Books by Rating Chess Rating: 1200-1400 1) Chess Tactics for Students by John Bain 2) Logical Chess Move by Move by Irving Chernev 3) Back to Basics: Tactics (ChessCafe Back to Basics Chess) by Dan Heisman 4) Winning Chess Tactics, revised (Winning Chess – Everyman Chess) by Seirawan 5) Silman’s Complete Endgame Course…
I haven’t had much time to devote to blogging, so I am trying a new method. I am posting my chess training notebook using Twitter. If the post requires more than the 140 character limit, then I will expand on the topic via the blog.
Chess board visualization training is necessary in order to not miss tactics, see more combinations and to become a better overall chess player. Chess board visualization does not come naturally to all chess players. Chess visualization is something that must be trained, and should be part of a regular chess training regimen. Chess board visualization…
This post marks a new beginning for this blog. After a long hiatus from blogging and chess, I return reinvigorated and refreshed. The new purpose of this blog is exploring how adults learn (chess). It has become obvious to me after four years of my chess journey, that the adult learning experience is clumsy, slow…
Other things have taken my attention away from chess, and I have neglected posting for several months now. One interesting observation, is that while I have not been training other than playing 1 G30 game a few times per week, my chess has not sufferred as much as I would have thought, and I think…
Here’s a fun exercise to determine your estimated chess rating taking into account your existing chess skill and knowledge. While this is just for fun, it can prove helpful in determining how you should focus your chess training. If your knowledge rating is much higher than your skills rating, then you you need to focus…
Frustration Over the last few months while my knowledge of the game has increased my chess skill has not improved. If anything I have suffered a decrease in performance over the last few months. The frustrating part is that I have invested time into my chess improvement plan, and while I feel that both my…
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…