PART 2 • Some classical chess questions and answers
Q: If I don't play “mini-matches” (as you suggest), how will I know when
to adjust the rating slider?
A: Experienced chess coaches differ on the exact ratio, but most coaches
will tell you that if you've found a setting in which you win about 20% to
30% of your games, that's a good spot for the rating slider, because
you're winning enough games to not become discouraged, but losing
enough to make you want to work on improving. When you start winning
more than about a third of your games, it's time to adjust the rating slider
upwards.
TIP: By the way, the experience of losing chess games is what you make
of it. Back when I first got serious about chess, I was losing all the time,
and to people who weren't particularly nice or polite about it. Wanting to
get a little payback from these guys was a powerful motivator which made
me want to study and improve. I won't categorize it as being consumed
by a need for revenge or anything – life isn't a “B” western – but I did want
to better my chess so that I could win a few once in a while. Since you're
using Chess King as an electronic sparring partner, and because Chess
King will never insult or judge you, there's no reason not to play as much
chess as you can with the software. Just remember to treat each loss as
a learning experience; always have Houdini 4 analyze your losses, and
then look for patterns in your losing play (as we learned way back in Part
One).
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