Chess: How to Improve

[RedSoxFan]

I thought it might be beneficial to others to start a thread about ways to improve. I recalled a post I made with recommended books from last year in the Non-Actuarial Topics, and copied that over and added some stuff.

If you have advice, or alternate recommendations, feel free to post and share what was worked for you! What has worked for me (much of what is below) might not work for everyone. So, alternate viewpoints are very welcome.

So, for what it's worth, here are my recommendations by level of play. (By the way, I might come back and update this from time to time as things come to mind).

Beginner:
Pandolfini is a very good junior coach and I would probably recommend anything he writes for a beginner. I haven't looked at any of his work recently so I can't recommend something specific, but search on Amazon for his name and read the reviews to pick out something.

For the next step, I highly recommend the "Winning" series of books by Seirawan. Just search on Amazon for "Seirawan" and there are six that come up on the first page.

Intermediate
At this point, I would recommend what is widely agreed to be one of the best chess books ever written, and the one that was most beneficial to me in my development, which is How to Reassess Your Chess (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1890085006/qid=1070894963/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-9616958-7965515?v=glance&s=books) by Silman. The first reviewer was too harsh in his review. It touches on all areas of basic chess strategy, and introduces a very good analyzing technique. The accompanying Reassess Your Chess Workbook (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1890085057/qid=1089310584/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/104-3770169-7137503?v=glance&s=books) contains more examples along the same lines and is a great reinforcer.

In order to get good, you absolutely must study tactics. The positional understanding you get from Silman's books will fail in the end if you can't back your positions up with tactics - plus, recognizing tactical mistakes your opponent makes will generate a lot of wins from equal or worse positions and will finish off won positions easily. I recommend Combination Challenge! (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/188067386X/qid=1089309987/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-3770169-7137503?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). It has over 1100 problems. The first half to two-thirds is grouped by theme, so you can understand each of the tactical processes well. The last part is all kinds thrown together, so you don't have the hint from the title of the chapter helping you. Once you get those finished, John Emms' The Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/190198334X/qid=1089310489/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-3770169-7137503?v=glance&s=books) is also very good.

You should also have an understanding of basic endgames. There is an endgame book by Silman (he lists it in his Reassess Your Chess book. I couldn't find it on Amazon so I couldn't link it) that is good. There are a lot of other basic endings books out there.

Advanced:
At this point study of master level games is very beneficial. I recommend two books of the best players of the past, Alekhine's Best Games and Capablanca's Best Games. Make sure to get the editions edited by John Nunn. In his book Silman outlines a process of studying these games. Basically, you go through the game until the opening is about over. Then you cover up the next move of the "hero" (Capablanca, Alekhine, Tal, etc) and then write down your plan, and whatever other observations (including tactical) that you have. Then reveal the next move and read what comments the author has. Obviously, this can take a lot of time. If you have only limited time, you might just skip this step and go on to the next book.

Next is Understanding Chess Move by Move (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1901983412/qid=1070895297/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-9616958-7965515?v=glance&s=books) by John Nunn, and then his two books of his best games. Careful study of these books is very beneficial (If you haven't noticed, I'm a big Nunn fan - he is regarded as the best chess writer today).

At this level you should start to study openings. Nunn's Chess Openings is a good reference text, but you should spend most of your time with opening-specific texts. It is probably best to stick with somewhat mainstream opening lines because you will learn the most from playing them. Don't worry about studying openings too deeply, even if your opponent knows a couple more opening moves than you, it doesn't mean that they're going to play well the rest of the game.

Endings are important too. This book, Endgame Strategy by Shereshevsky (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1857440633/qid=1089311864/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-3770169-7137503?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) is outstanding. He gives countless examples of how to play different positions occuring after most of the pieces have been taken off. Just understanding how to play in these positions will also help your maneuvering ability in more complicated middlegames. You'll also have more confidence in the middle game that you can "trade into" endgames that you feel very comfortable playing.

In General
Here are some important things to keep in mind as you learn: first, play often. It can be in an in-person chess tournament or here at the Rebel Forum. A really good place to play online is ICC, the Internet Chess Club (www.chessclub.com). You can find a game at any time of day at virtually any time control at any level. There are also lots of other things, including broadcasts of live events, and lectures.

Don't forget to analyze your games. You don't necessarily need a computer for this, though they are very helpful for ideas, especially in noticing tactics you missed. ChessMaster will work (I know it also includes a lot of tutorials) as will Fritz (the difference in strength between CM and Fritz is negligible if the person using them is below master strength). You may also consider buying a chess database program (e.g. Chess Assistant or ChessBase) which will analyze your game and can also compare your game to over 2 million master-level games. Lessons from a better player can help a lot, if you can afford it (or if you have a really nice friend who's good at chess).

Other Topics
Know your authors. If you want to buy other books, stuff by Pandolfini is good for a beginner, Nunn good for the advanced player. Never (NEVER) buy anything by Schiller. His stuff has infected all kinds of bookstores and people who don't know any better think he's a good author. He churns out his books at an assembly line by using chess database dumps, and what analysis he does add is of low quality and is riddled with errors. He once bragged that he wrote a chess book in 24 hours. Not sure that's something to brag about - I certainly wouldn't want to buy a book that was written so fast.

[Bama Gambler]

Great post RSF!

[Anonymous]

I agree! I read the Pandolfini's Ultimate Guide To Chess and enjoyed it very much. It's written (a la Plato's Republic) as a conversation between Master and Student and is very easy to understand and follow.

[DblDownTrent]

Glad you posted this RSF, I was wondering how to get better. I figured there's got to be a better way than what I've been doing - just randomly making moves early in the game, and then figuring out what's going on once some confrontation starts.

Now I just gotta get through all these poker books first.

[1695814]

Glad you posted this RSF, I was wondering how to get better. I figured there's got to be a better way than what I've been doing - just randomly making moves early in the game, and then figuring out what's going on once some confrontation starts.

Now I just gotta get through all these poker books first.not to mention all those Course 5 books.

[Jonas Grumby]

That was a fantastic summary, RSF. I want to add to it in a slightly different category scheme:

Read Books
For the intermediate player there is nothing better than RSF's recommendation of Silman's Reassess Your Chess. For decades every GM in the world has cited Nimzovitch's My System as the book to read, and it is a great book, but Silman's language is clearer and his use of examples incredible.

I also want to mention that anything by Dvoretsky is really good too. He's been teaching the Botvinnik school of chess in Russia for decades and has probably been involved in the training of every strong Soviet GM over that period. His language, like Silman's, is very clear.

RSF is right about Schiller and I'd add that you should avoid almost anything by Raymond Keene, who was once a good writer but who has declined incredibly (I think he and Schiller have actually written together!). [edit: and I'm not always sold on Pandolfini either]

Go Over Annotated Games
A guaranteed path to improvement is to try to go over annotated games at least a couple of times a week. This is where my game has fallen down the most (I haven't gotten out a chessboard in years) and where you can gain strength the quickest. While there are some authors (e.g. John Nunn) who annotate better than others, that's actually not so important - the point isn't so much the memorization of openings or positional rules as it is being forced to constantly evaluate why a certain move was made in a certain situation and the gaining of familiarity with how players convert to won (or drawn) positions. And yes, bad annotations can be frustrating, and it's best if you find good annotations, BUT anything annotated will get you thinking.

Great sources of annotated games are chess magazines, both paper and online...you certainly would benefit if, for example, you ordered some back issues of "Inside Chess" from eBay. There was also a fantastic book called 500 Master Games by DuMont and Tartakower that is probably 40 years old now, but it doesn't matter. The annotation is so clear that you will learn tons from it.

Internet Sources
There are so many sources on the internet that it's hard to find what's really helpful. With that in mind, I'd suggest that anyone listing a site explain clearly why it's useful and how to use it.

1. www.chesscafe.com. This site has free ongoing articles (and several years of archives) by a lot of authors, written at various levels. Dvoretsky contributes a regular column, as does Susan Polgar; both of these are worth reading (even if Polgar's can be pretty self-aggrandizing). I pretty much read everything those two write, and then browse topics on the others.

2. www.chessninja.com. This site, hosted by chess's answer to Dave Barry (Mike Greengard, aka "Mig") has two EXTREMELY cheap weekly mailings called (somewhat stupidly) "White Belt" and "Black Belt". These have great annotations from GMs who go over current games, often on a thematic basis, and usually a couple of puzzles.

3. Silman has a website (http://www.jeremysilman.com/), and it's dreadful, but it does have a few nuggets including his articles about rook-and-pawn endgames.

I'm sure I'm missing some other sites....

[Mel-o-rama]

The best way I find to improve my chess rating is to play my own kids, beat their sorry little butts all over the board, then do a victory dance around them. The spouse often disapproves, but I say, "Do you think you can beat me?" Then she says quietly, "No." Then I say, "Get inside the circle!" and I continue my victory dance. It does wonders for my chess skills.

You should try it.

[ramanujan]

Exellent Post, RSF.

I am sure that the best way to learn chess is to play GM games with anotations, think thru you move, the idea behind it and compare that with the actual move played. It is a great joy when the same move was actually played. My game improved the most when I used to do that, although now its been a long time since I saw a chess book.

Also helpful is to learn some openings, the idea behind it, usual moves/ideas played in the middle game with the opening and usual end game reached.

Some players also memorize the complete GM games, this is not as bad as it sounds for a really serious player.

For openings there is no other way but to memorize, for middle game one should learn usual tactics and strategy for the opening played and for end game, study the different situations like K+R vs K+B, especially important are the pawn endings.

[Hagbard Celine]

Great information!

I read the same Pandolfini book DeadActor did.

I've also started on Seirawan's Winning series and must say it's excellent. I read the first one (How to Play Winning Chess), but I'd say you could skip if if you've read any other beginning chess books (like the listed Pandolfini book). I've been reading the tactics book for a long time now and I'm only about 1/2 way through...it's extremely dense. :o I'm anxious to hit the Openings book and the Endings book, but I wanted to wait to finish the Tactics book. I like reading fiction too much to devote myself entirely to it, so it's been slow.

I just wanted to chime in to say I second the "Sierewan" suggestion for beginners. They seem very high quality and the "Tests" at the end of sections can be very difficult (but instructive).

This post is timely. When I was on vacation, we went to a large book store and I looked through the chess books. There were many beginner books, but they all seemed to say the same basic things. Then there were books that looked very much over my head. I didn't see anything that would be helpful to someone who knew the basics, but wasn't ready for the advanced topics yet, except the Sierewan books. I'll definitely refer to this post after I work through his books for more intermediate-type suggestions.