TIP #7
Review your games later
• Go back and replay as many of your games as you can, especially
your losses. And you should do this as soon as possible after the
game is played (not immediately, of course, but within a day or two).
When I was an active tournament player, I would copy my games into
a physical score book and input them to a computer database within a
couple of days after the event. I'd also add notes to my games, writing
down what I'd been thinking or what my plan was at various points
during the game. Today I can go back and review these games and,
now that I know more about chess than I did at the time, I can see
that some of my ideas were good, some were bad (and this connects
directly with a point made under Tip #6: the ability to see how your
chess has improved over time).
TIP #8
Get help and advice from stronger players
• This is another reason why you should record your games: you can
review them with a stronger player to get an opinion and some advice.
Most chess clubs I've belonged to had a strong player or three who
loved to help out club members who wanted their advice. When you
lose a tournament game to a stronger player, the post mortem (the
after the game discussion) is often very instructive and enlightening.
And you may not know this now (trust me, you will by the time you get
to the end of this book!), but the biggest advantage to owning a chess
playing program is the ability to have a strong chess engine analyze
your games, show where you made mistakes, and offer suggestions for
better moves.
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