Instruction / GM Advice Sample From Chris’ Blog: The Plan
One thing that I think is very important to achieving my goal is to have a plan. After all, isn't the game itself about attempting to find and then execute a winning plan? Currently, much like in an actual game, I have both a short-term and a long-term plan ... My long-term plan is currently this:
Fine Tune My Opening Repertoire I know that this is something that many players probably spend far too much time on. In my case, I don’t think that I spend enough. Until the last month or so I almost never studied openings at all. I mean ever.
This doesn’t mean that I want to learn the latest topical lines of the Najdorf out to move 30. It just means that I want to gain a deeper understanding of openings in general and then put together a repertoire that will fit my strengths. (Correct.—L.A.)
Play Over Annotated Games This is my main focus right now and has been for the past three months or so. In that time I have played over 100-150 or so games. In addition to the move-by-move books that I have been using (see my earlier posts) the main book I have been using for this is Tartakower's excellent work 500 Master Games of Chess.
I agree. Chris told me he chooses about half of the games because they fit his opening repertoire; the rest can be in any other opening. (Thus, being a French player, Chris likes Korchnoi’s and Botvinnik’s books of annotated games).
One of the things I love about Tartakower's book is that it talks about strategic themes.
Yes, the best books (for non-grandmasters, at least) are books with many words and few variations.
Endgame Studies Right now I am not focusing on hard-core endgame work. Not too many of my games get to an even endgame.
Some basic—and later not-so-basic—endgame knowledge is required for a would-be expert. In fact, both Chris’s games in this issue were won and lost in the endgame. (In a game versus Mr. Cooper, a master, Chris missed several opportunities to draw. Don’t forget the strategy as well: be a well-rounded player!
Tactics Of course one of the most important aspects of improving is working on tactics. In addition to my favorite books, I use the tactics website
www.chesstempo.com since it offers free unlimited training.
players of all time, Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov played them, as does my current favorite Hikaru Nakamura, so why not me? Yes, it means that I have to work hard on my openings, but that’s OK. Isn’t hard work what this is all about anyhow? As a result of my blogging I have
formulated a long term plan that involves playing over hundreds of annotated games along with working on my endgames. In fact, see the sidebar “The Plan” for a sample post I wrote in my blog. I have found that by clearly and concisely laying out what I want to do I am then able to actually do it much more efficiently than I would be otherwise. It’s also much harder to fool myself and pretend like I’m doing something when
30 January 2014 | Chess Life
I’m actually not. For instance, a recurring theme for my first month or so of blogging was that I would list tactics as something I planned to work on and then I wouldn’t actually go do the work. Since I was forced to confront that on an almost daily basis I was finally able to break the cycle and actually correct the issue rather than continue the fallacy. Another lesson has been that since I
blog about the games I play I tend to tear down the games and really discover weaknesses and areas of my game which need serious work. As an example, I played a game in which I calculated a line which would potentially leave me with two bishops and a pawn against a knight for my opponent. I knew that eventually I
could force him to trade his knight for my pawn. I would then be forced to mate with two bishops. I wasn’t 100 percent sure I re mem bered how to do so. In fact, I was maybe 25 percent sure I could pull it off. So I went back to basics and worked on mating with two bishops and now have 100 percent confi dence that I can pull it off if needed. A good example how to expand our area of solid knowledge. One thing I have learned through all of
this is that there is not only one true path to improvement. Ask 10 masters how they got there and you’re just as likely to get 10 different answers as you are any other number. So what works for me might not work for you, etc. True. Listen to experts/writers, but do
it with a grain of skepticism. Try to find out what works best for you. Having said that there is exactly one
piece of advice that I would give because I think this is appropriate to everyone whether you’re rated 500 or 2500. The advice is to ask questions to players who are stronger than you. Also, learn to address the right questions to your Houdini/Fritz. So here I am now. In one manner of
looking at things I’ve made it no further, at least rating wise, than where I was 18 months ago. However, in the proper way of looking at things I’ve learned how to learn, which is a huge revelation. I feel poised to continue taking steps on the journey towards my goals. I know that along the way there will be some setbacks. Some will be avoidable, others will be inevitable, but all of them will contain teachable moments. I’m sure that many things (say, tactics,
or ideas from Tartakower’s book) are still present in Chris’ inner mind and the time spent to learn them isn’t wasted—far from it. I feel that as long as I embrace those moments and commit to learning from them I will eventually reach the top of the mountain and get my title.
English Opening, Four Knights Variation (A29) Chris Wainscott (1710) Dave Sagunsky (1686) Lover's Romantic Valentine Quad (2), G/100
1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 Bc5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. Bg2 The Exchange combination starting with
5. Nxe5 brought White an advantage in Botvinnik-Keres, 1966. Later, however, Black’s play was improved upon, leading to sharp but basically even positiions.
5. ... 0-0 (see diagram top of next column)
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76