Re: Chess: want to get better fast
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I have been searching for someone good at chess to answer some of my questions, and I qould be very grateful if you answer some of mine.
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Hope you don't mind answers from me.
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1) You say you should analyze your games. Does that mean you yourself should do the analyzing, or that you should feed it to some computer program to analyze for you. If you are supposed to analyze it yourself, what I don't get is how you are supposed to be able to spot all the things you need to spot while analyzing. If you are good enough to see the hidden mating combination, when analyzing, why couldn't you do it in the game?
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Well, you have to *learn* how to see mating patterns and strategic improvements/weaknesses. As far as game vs. analysis -- game conditions are completely different (more pressure, possibly second game of the day, there is a unique texture and context to your oppoents' play up to this point). Plus, there is no clock and/or no worry about winning or losing. When doing analysis you can spend as long as you need to looking at a position and considering options -- writing ideas down is a great idea. Then, compare them to grand master annotations or the mating solution (perhaps you're close, or narrowed it down to two similar moves and the annotations help specify which is better and why). Now go back and look at the position again armed with the annotation/move of grand master, or mate solution. Also, as with anything, practice makes perfect and you more efficently practice away from the game (where you can set up random positions and such).
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2)You say that it is good if you put in time every day. Should I use that time to play games, analyze old games, do tactics puzzles? What did you do to become so good?
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Put your time in doing all three. Motivation is probably the most important. If you love doing the problems, then do more of those (but not only those) to get better. If you love playing, then play more (make sure to not just play fast games though or to never analyze your play after the fact). Also, you don't need to do all three every day. Maybe you can get some games in with friends every Saturday. Well, you could play on Saturday, go over your games on Sunday, work on tactics/puzzles Mon/Tues, analyze GM games Wed/Thur, and take Friday off completely for extra time to get your social swerve on.
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3) Where do I go to find out my rating? I honestly have no clue what my real rating is. I used a chess program once, but it told me I was a candidate master so I'm not gonna trust it.
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To get a rating you need to play games governed by a governing body that has a rating system. In the US this is the United States Chess Federation. You have to pay yearly dues and there are entry fees for tournaments. But, these tournaments are the best place to get solid experience. Those programs that try to calculate one's rating are completely bogus, IMHO.
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4) How should I go about learning openings? I like e4 for white and I tend to use sicilian with black. What I still have to learn is how to play against the sicilian, caro cann, scandinavian, and I need a defense to d4 and c4 when i'm playing black.
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Well, go look for some solid books that focus in on the openings you're intrested in. Do some research (jermeysilman.com has good book reviews) and then go to a bookstore and browse a few titles to see if the communication is straightforward.
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If you do answer these questions, thank you, and if you don't, I guess I'll have to keep on looking for someone who will.
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This should read: 'If you answer these questions, thank you, and if you don't, then I will hunt you down and Pz0wneded you.'
Yugoslav
PS Feel free to PM me if you want.
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