Yes they're mostly easy puzzles 2-3 movers from step 2 and step 3 (steps method) and some other basic tactics books. I try to do 200 per day. I don't really use the reviews ( I set it to 0) I just restart the cycle when im done.
Thanks for sharing "11 things" with us. I hope to improve my game over the next decade or so. One of the things I enjoy most about Lichess is reading advice from better players. Granted, I don't remember everything, but I find a lot of it to be helpful. Thanks for giving something back. I wish you the best in your future chess games. :)
Warning long response incoming:
What a most excellent post. I had a similar experience going from the 1400s to the 1800s OTB, perhaps I will write up something that got me there. My comments #1 required, you must play serious classical chess to improve. #2 I would do this of course, its helps with quick thinking, pattern recognition, testing out opening lines, but blitz is like chess junk food, if I did too much #2 and not enough #1, I would play worse. #3 for me this was fixed getting more experience and lots of #1. #4 I wouldnt describe what I did like this, but I had a chess master review my games and he noticed when I was in the 1500s, I would always try to block up the position, lesson: play the open positions and work on your tactics. He was right, I strived for more tactical middlegame positions and improved #5 looks like an awesome suggestion, I used to just put these positions in my chess database, but this is probably better. #6 I did this of course daily when I was active, I cant quantify how much this helped, but it did I'm sure. #7 wow, that was way more memorization than what I did. I would suggest its more important to know the pawn structures and how to play them than straight memorization. What pawn break in your favorite opening should you be aiming for? What should you be aiming for playing black/white in the ruy lopez? As black how do you know when you have equalized(its usually a pawn break). If you know these things alot of times you will be able to figure out the right move with out memorization. #8 I have a good reference on this topic, which is more questions on top of yours. The search for chess perfection -Purdy, by the end of the book he has crystalized his list of criteria that would avoid all the mistakes he made in his games. The better you get the less questions you have to ask yourself, you know better where the pieces and pawns belong. #9,10,11 Excellent advice.
Thanks for sharing Dan. The only thing I would add is playing solitaire chess slowly over well annotated master games. So when you cant do #1 and need to do some additional training, this helps alot. I dont know if anyone would be like me, but I always found the great tactical players of the past difficult to follow. Say for example, Tal/young Kasparov, when reading their annotations they would say something like "the best practical chance" and spit out a bunch of variations or it was some complex straight prep. Look at Kasparov's my great predecessors for example, the first two books are unreadable. Reams of variations, with errors. Some I could recommend, the Paul Deres game collections, if you can get the Nunn version even better, Smyslovs 125 selected games, lots of the (great player, Capa, Rubenstein, Anand, etc...) move by move books are good , I also particularly like Karpov Strategic Wins by Karolyi, Fischer my 60 memorable games and more.
What a most excellent post. I had a similar experience going from the 1400s to the 1800s OTB, perhaps I will write up something that got me there. My comments #1 required, you must play serious classical chess to improve. #2 I would do this of course, its helps with quick thinking, pattern recognition, testing out opening lines, but blitz is like chess junk food, if I did too much #2 and not enough #1, I would play worse. #3 for me this was fixed getting more experience and lots of #1. #4 I wouldnt describe what I did like this, but I had a chess master review my games and he noticed when I was in the 1500s, I would always try to block up the position, lesson: play the open positions and work on your tactics. He was right, I strived for more tactical middlegame positions and improved #5 looks like an awesome suggestion, I used to just put these positions in my chess database, but this is probably better. #6 I did this of course daily when I was active, I cant quantify how much this helped, but it did I'm sure. #7 wow, that was way more memorization than what I did. I would suggest its more important to know the pawn structures and how to play them than straight memorization. What pawn break in your favorite opening should you be aiming for? What should you be aiming for playing black/white in the ruy lopez? As black how do you know when you have equalized(its usually a pawn break). If you know these things alot of times you will be able to figure out the right move with out memorization. #8 I have a good reference on this topic, which is more questions on top of yours. The search for chess perfection -Purdy, by the end of the book he has crystalized his list of criteria that would avoid all the mistakes he made in his games. The better you get the less questions you have to ask yourself, you know better where the pieces and pawns belong. #9,10,11 Excellent advice.
Thanks for sharing Dan. The only thing I would add is playing solitaire chess slowly over well annotated master games. So when you cant do #1 and need to do some additional training, this helps alot. I dont know if anyone would be like me, but I always found the great tactical players of the past difficult to follow. Say for example, Tal/young Kasparov, when reading their annotations they would say something like "the best practical chance" and spit out a bunch of variations or it was some complex straight prep. Look at Kasparov's my great predecessors for example, the first two books are unreadable. Reams of variations, with errors. Some I could recommend, the Paul Deres game collections, if you can get the Nunn version even better, Smyslovs 125 selected games, lots of the (great player, Capa, Rubenstein, Anand, etc...) move by move books are good , I also particularly like Karpov Strategic Wins by Karolyi, Fischer my 60 memorable games and more.
wow what a brilliant article and so well-written. maybe the best post I've read in lichess, and far and away the most meaningful to me personally. thank you :)
This is Hard Player too
> wow what a brilliant article and so well-written. maybe the best post I've read in lichess, and far and away the most meaningful to me personally. thank you :)
«Have a mental checklist on every move
1. Does my opponent’s move unblock any of their other pieces?»
How many queens I would've saved...
1. Does my opponent’s move unblock any of their other pieces?»
How many queens I would've saved...
This is a nicely written and informative article. Thank you.
Thank you for an extremely useful article with refreshing ideas that are off the beaten track. It might be a game changer for me, at least that is what I hope.
You mentioned somewhere above in the discussion that you do not treat endgames any other than middle game positions. If there is something to learn in a game, you make a flashcard. Apparently you did not study theoretical endgames at all. If so, what do you think an appropriate level of endgame knowledge should be? Is it sufficient to have worked through Jesus de la Villa's book? Or is that under or over the top?
You mentioned somewhere above in the discussion that you do not treat endgames any other than middle game positions. If there is something to learn in a game, you make a flashcard. Apparently you did not study theoretical endgames at all. If so, what do you think an appropriate level of endgame knowledge should be? Is it sufficient to have worked through Jesus de la Villa's book? Or is that under or over the top?