on 16-Sep-2018 (Sun)

In this book I try to explain the most important skills for success as a practical chess player, and how you can train and develop these skills. In a nutshell, these skills are: a) How to find new ideas in openings. b) How to adopt new openings confidently and quickly. c) The various ways of solving practical middlegame problems. d) How to think in the endgame

On the other hand, just playing a random opening without having any original thought about it is also a bit of a waste. I feel much more motivated and interested in a game if I have the feeling that I’m coming to the board with something new of my own

After a couple more evenings like that, I couldn’t take it anymore. My biggest problem seemed to be that I couldn’t generate any ideas. If I didn’t start up Rybka, I might stare at a position for hours without finding anything interesting. But ... I used to be really good at this. So what was I missing now?

The goal is to discover new truths, and those truths may well lie outside the boundaries of your prejudices. My solution had three components: a) To remind myself explicitly before I started that I was analysing, not playing. I was going for creativity and quality, not expediency. b) I drew up a list of six ‘mind-enlarging’ approaches that I hoped would stimulate me to leave my comfort zone when analysing and trigger my creativity. c) I set the rule that I would only use Rybka to check analysis, not to generate ideas. In practice this meant that I followed this routine:

1) I set an alarm clock for 15 minutes. 2) Analysed for 2 x 15-minute stretches. 3) Typed my analysis into ChessBase (with Rybka switched off). Somehow writing things down always activates the checking part of my brain (I wish I was allowed to do that during games). 4) Then I switched on Rybka and checked through my analysis. I awarded myself points for the number of ideas I had analysed correctly. And what do points mean ... ? Pints! So you can see that a good analysis session tended to last shorter than a bad session.

3) My goodness, you can play this for a win! 4) Crossover plans. 5) Acts of wanton aggression. 6) The spoilsport gambit (exchanging queens)

Theme 1: Disturbing the material balance This theme speaks for itself. Don’t automatically shy away from lines where you might have to give something up. Be constantly aware that you can unbalance the material equilibrium in order to generate activity or create compensating weaknesses in the opponent’s position. The following example is a wonderfully subtle exposition of this theme

When I read an opening book, I first play through the main line, reading what the author has to say about the moves and skipping all the variations. If I like the resulting positions, then I might spend a little more effort learning the opening. Otherwise, I stop reading. Since you've already bought the book, presumably you like the positions. But for other openings, looking at a database before buying a book can be invaluable.

Once I understand (at least some of) the ideas of the opening, then I go back and reread the main lines, this time looking at the short variations as well. These are typically tactical shots that one must be aware to avoid (or exploit), several of which may persist into the middlegame

As an example of what I mean, if you don't play the French as black, you don't need to book up on both the advance variation and the Tarrasch -- just pick one and always play that (at least until you have time / decide it is worthwhile to learn more). The one caveat is that you should probably make an effort to be aware of transpositions between lines that could take you from a variation that you are well prepared for into one that you know nothing about.

Only now does it make sense to start trying to memorize. I like to do this with by practicing with physical pieces, but there is now software to help as well.

The nice thing about this approach is that when I decide to switch to a different variation (e.g., because I'm not getting great results or my tastes change), I already have a lot of the work done, and I can go back through the opening book to look for something better with minimal effort.

And White's attack would likely have succeeded if Black played in the manner that served so well for much of the 20th century, with cautious moves such as ... ♘ f8 to protect h7 and to avert 2 e5? because of 2 ... ♗ xf3 3 gxf3 dxe5 and ... ♕ xd3.

Why? Because we realize now that White's space advantage, in this and similar positions, is vastly overrated. And we see Black has a powerful plan of 2 ... ♖ fc8 and 3 ... ♖ xc4! 4 ♗ xc4 ♖ xc4. That trumps anything White is doing on the kingside.

Yes, you can, we say today. Black would have one pawn for the Exchange and powerful pressure on the e4-pawn as compensation after 4 ... ♖ xc4.

In fact, White retreated 2 ♕ h3 (!) to anticipate threats along the a8-g2 diagonal. He was no longer acting as an attacker. He was beginning to think like a defender. Black continued to think like a counter-aggressor, with 2 ... ♖ ec8 .

In the next diagram, 3 ♘ g5 would try to take Black's attention away from ... ♖ xc4. It would offer good practical chances after 3 ... h6 4 ♘ xf7! ♔ xf7 5 e5, for example

What should Black do after 3 ♘ g5? Here's where the solid 3 ... ♘ f8! makes sense and would put the pressure back on White.

[imagelink] A Pomodoro kitchen timer, after which the method is named

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s.^[1] The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. These intervals are named pomodoros, the plural in English of the Italian word pomodoro (tomato), after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer that Cirillo used as a university student.^[2][3]

The stages of planning, tracking, recording, processing and visualizing are fundamental to the technique. In the planning phase, tasks are prioritized by recording them in a "To Do Today" list. This enables users to estimate the effort tasks require. As pomodoros are completed, they are recorded, adding to a sense of accomplishment and providing raw data for subsequent self-observation and improvement.^[1]

For the purposes of the technique, a pomodoro is the interval of time spent working.^[1] After task completion, any time remaining in the Pomodoro is devoted to overlearning. Regular breaks are taken, aiding assimilation. A short (3–5 minutes) rest separates consecutive pomodoros. Four pomodoros form a set. A longer (15–30 minute) rest is taken between sets.^[1][6]

A goal of the technique is to reduce the impact of internal and external interruptions on focus and flow. A pomodoro is indivisible; when interrupted during a pomodoro, either the other activity must be recorded and postponed (inform – negotiate – schedule – call back) or the pomodoro must be abandoned.^[1][6][7]

In 2006, when I switched from being a human to being a chess player, I worked through 26 chess books from cover to cover. But somehow I arrived at the conclusion that improving at chess requires more active learning than what is possible by simply reading.

The first question is whether rules of thumb and thinking techniques are useful at all. I found an extensive debate about this while I was finishing this book and got myself up to date on the latest chess literature of the last few years.

Willy Hendriks takes the most extreme position in Move First, Think Later (2012). He argues that there's nothing but concrete moves; Alexander Kotov's mechanical variation trees, from Think Like a Grandmaster (1971), and other thinking techniques are oversimplifying and of no use at the board.

I completely agree with Jonathan Rowson in Chess for Zebras (2005) that the main problem for many ambitious players is that they focus on knowledge.

A good chess player is not someone with well-defined knowledge, but rather one with great skills.

During a game, it's too time-consuming to always look for candidate moves and make blunder checks. Instead, I think those techniques should be used extensively in training during a limited period. I will explain what I mean with a short theoretical discussion.

There are also things we know that we can't do - inabilities. I guess one example is winning with two knights against a pawn. Other things we don't even know that we can't do - it's completely beyond our horizon. For understandable reasons, giving an example is impossible.

Making a blunder check is such a skill for some players. They do it, but not deliberately. Looking for pawn levers may be a less known example

It may not give the best short-term results to make a blunder check before every move; it takes time and disturbs the normal thought process. However, hopefully the blunder check will gradually be internalized. After some time, the subconscious intuition automatically makes a blunder check when needed, without a big effort.

The first chapter is about pawn levers, with the thesis that they are the essential part of planning. The next chapter moves on to the pieces, mainly discussing exchanges but also positions with material imbalances. I think they are a good foundation for understanding which factors make a piece good or bad. In the third chapter, the pawn levers and piece exchanges are linked together to form a list of auxiliary questions, where critical positions and general game theory are two of the added topics.

Calculation is the subject of the fourth chapter.

The four pillars of chess training described in this book, in decreasing order ofimportance, are: J.. The List of Mistakes -analysing your games and categorizing the mistakes J.. The Woodpecker Method - learning the tactical motifs and solving simple exercises to internalize them into your intuition J.. Openings -studying them in such a way that you also learn middlegame positions and standard moves J.. Theoretical Endgames - studying them only once

Learning from our mistakes One important characteristic for a chess player is self-knowledge; to understand that you don't lose by chance but because you still have things to learn. To show what I mean, I dive directly into action -a game.

The fate of a mating attack is usually decided by controlling a few key squares more than the opponent. For this reason it is not necessary to have a material advantage or even in some cases a general lead in development (it can be enough to have a lead in development in a small part of the board, though this is only rarely what happens). Local superiority is what it is all about

What makes it complicated is when we have to weigh this consideration against those of material, momentum and other strategic factors. As well as just remembering to include the last piece when all the other pieces are active and so many options exist (and they are almost working; only one special ingredient is needed -the last piece!).