This content was buried in a post for Kotov’s Method for Chess Improvement, and since it is such an important chess improvement tool, I figured I would promote it to its own post. Stoyko Exercises from Dan Heisman’s Exercises page A summary of Stoyko exercise: 1) Find a fairly complicated position 2) Get out a…
It is very important that you have mastered exercises 1-5 before starting on this exercise. For exercises 1-5 visit the chess exercises page. Without looking at the board, tell all the squares controlled by: – a bishop on b2 – a bishop on b7 – a bishop on a5 – a bishop on h4 –…
The purpose of the following list of chess errors, is to assist us to diagnose our weaknesses when we annotate our games. Opening Weaknesses Falling victim to an opening trap Ignoring the development of your pieces Waiting too long to castle Opening inaccuracy Moving the same piece more than once in the opening Calculation Weaknesses…
For exercises 1-4 visit the chess exercises page. It is very important that you have mastered exercises 1-4 before starting on this exercise. Without looking at the board, tell all the squares controlled by: – a bishop on g2 – a bishop on g7 – a bishop on e5 – a bishop on b7 –…
Favorite Chess Blogs 1. Chessvibes : News, tournament reports and endgames studies. 2. Chess for all Ages : A little bit about everything about chess. 3. Chess Training : Not a well known blog, but worth checking out. It is not frequently updated, but when it is the content is exactly what I’m looking for…
I have been going over My System for the past few weeks as part of the study strategy portion of my study schedule. I think the best way to go over the content of the book is to go over The Elements section going over each example carefully. Luckily I have a Chessbase file with…
“If you want to get better at chess you need to place much less emphasis on ‘study’ whereby you increase your knowledge of positions, and place more emphasis on ‘training,’ whereby you try to solve problems, play practice games, or perhaps try to beat a strong computer program from an advantageous position.” (p.25). “Chess skill…
How A Chess Player Improves from a 1000 Beginner Rating to a 2000 Expert Rating Below are the knowledge and skills a beginning chess player must acquire to improve their chess rating to improve from a chess beginner to an expert level chess player. The idea is to show the estimated chess rating, the required knowledge…
Previous Exercises: – Exercise 1 – Exercise 2 – Exercise 3 For exercise 4, using the board look at all of the squares controlled by: – the f1-bishop developed to e2 (place only this bishop on the board) – the f1-bishop developed to d3, c4, b5 – the f8-bishop developed on e7, d6, c5, b4…
To help track the reasons why a mistake was made during the game. Health 1. Not enough sleep 2. Headache, cold, etc. 3. Food problem: hungry, ate too much, too much sugar, etc. Concentration 1. External distraction (noise, light, etc.) 2. Internal distraction (worried about prior mistake, other issues, etc.) Lack of familiarity with tactical…