TIP #9
When you buy books, videos, software,
and other training materials, use them!
• Nobody ever improved at chess just by maxing out his credit card
purchasing chess books, programs, videos, etc.; otherwise many of
could buy our way to the grandmaster title. Don't laugh – I've known
many players (and had many customers) over the years who act like
they must own every new chess video or software training disk that
comes down the pike. They wind up with shelves of it, and guess
where the stuff mostly stays? On the shelf. If you spend good money on
chess instructional materials, use them. Don't leave them lying around
unused, or you've just wasted your money. As I've said in previous
articles when I've listed these tips, sleeping with a chess book or disk
under your pillow will not cause the material to seep into your head
through some kind of strange osmosis. If you buy a book, read it. If
you purchase a video, watch it. If you get a software training disk, use
it. Learn the lessons they contain and, most of all, learn to apply those
lessons in your own games.
Tip #10
Play over the chess games of other players
• You can learn a lot about chess by replaying the games of stronger
players, especially games which have annotations (comments and
variations which explain the game), as long as you understand what's
going on. I'm a huge fan of games played between the 1850's and
World War II, and it's for a very practical reason. One of my favorite
chess players and writers was a brainy mug named Richard Reti,
who wrote one of the greatest chess books of all time, Masters of the
Chessboard, in which he offers plenty of commented games by great
players. When Reti was trying to come up with a way to organize his
book, he came to a sudden epiphany, a real brainstorm: he realized
that most players learn about chess concepts in roughly the same
order as the way these concepts developed historically. In other words,
beginners can easily understand old Paul Morphy and Adolf Anderssen
games from the 1800's, while a game played last night between two
top players will baffle them. That's why I love older games – I get
them, I understand what's happening (and, when I don't understand
something, I can usually figure it out). On the other hand, a lot of postwar chess just shoots right over my head. So don't avoid older games
because “they don't have the latest opening theory”; that's just crazy
(and see Tip #3 anyway). You should absolutely study pre-war chess
games, because you'll find them a whole lot easier to understand.
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