Chess Training

Here is a list of chess tasks that should be performed each day if you seek to improve: 1) Review Master Games within your Opening Repertoire 2) Specialization Position Training out of Opening Repertoire 3) Tactics Drills 4) Endgame Studies - R+P(s) vs R+P(s); R+N/B vs. R+N/B; K+P vs. K+P 5) Daily Play - G5, G10, G15. Weekly - At least 1 Standard Time Control Game 6) Review Your Losses! This list covers all aspects of play: Openings, The Middlegame, Endings, Strategy, Tactics, Play and Review of Games. #1 will help you develop a sense of the strategical themes in your choice of openings, and what types of positions to expect from those openings. #2, critical positions taken from #1, will help you understand the strategic elements of the opening/middlegame and the transitions into the endgame. #3 will keep your tactical eye fresh - it can get stale. #4 will naturally improve your ability to finish your opponent off and not fear transitioning into a won endgame from an advantageous middl...

It's no secret here that I am a Chessbase user, and regularly, on a weekely basis, download new games from Mark Crowther's The Week In Chess, probably the best source of current games in the world. Each Monday I take a few minutes to get the new files and import them into Chessbase 8.0. I recently began reviewing games from the weekly TWIC files in my repertoire, but got tired of setting the filter mask to various ECO codes each time. Out of curiosity, I discovered a really easy method that is virtually instantaneous to gather the games in your customized repertoire for review that I want to share with you. Here is how it works. The first step you do is create a New...Text document in *any* database. Then, using the menu lists, create search masks for each opening that you have in your repertoire. For example, you might like to play the Ruy Lopez: C60 - C99. Create a search mask for ECO codes C60 to C99 and label it "Ruy Lopez - C60 - C99" or maybe something more spec...

Here is yet another useful position to play against a computer or another like-strength opponent for practice. It derives from the Grand Prix Attack in the Sicilian Defense: 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 e6 4.Nf3 d5 5.Bb5 Nf6 6.d3 Be7 7.0-0 Diagram Black to Move [r1bqk2r/pp2bppp/2n1pn2/1Bpp4/4PP2/2NP1N2/PPP3PP/R1BQ1RK1 b kq - 0 7]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Qc7 8.g3 e5 9.dxe5 Nxe5 10.Bf4 Nfd7 11.Bg2 Diagram Black has 2 moves here, and both should be investigated thoroughly for some excellent training: A) 11...f6 B)11...g5

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 Ne4 7.Qc2 Nc6 8.e3 e5 9.cxd5 Qxd5 Diagram r1b1k2r/ppp2ppp/2n5/3qp3/3Pn3/P3P3/1PQ2PPP/R1B1KBNR w KQkq - 0 10

D85 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 c5 8.Be3 Qa5 9.Qd2 Bg4 Diagram rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/3P4/8/PPP1PPPP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq d3 0 1 Specialize the above position for some excellent training. Post any games you played with it here!

Today I want to talk about something called Specialization. What is Specialization? Online dictionaries carry the definition as "to pursue some special line of study, work, etc.", and that is the definition we mean for the most part. In our chess-world, we want to 'specialize', or study, a fairly common position in chess. By study I mean deeply analyze and play from both sides for an extended number of times until all facets of the position have been revealed. Let's look at an example straight from the Lev Alburt's book "Building Up Your Chess": Position #1, Black to Move : [r1bq1rk1/p3bppp/1pn1pn2/4N3/3P4/P1NB4/1P3PPP/R1BQR1K1 b - - 0 12] This position can, unbelievably, be reached by a whole slew of different openings ranging from Queen's Gambit Declined to The Caro-Kann to The Scandanavian over to the Sicilian Defense and even the Smith-Morra Gambit! It is great practice on the Isolated Queens Pawn and the attack and defending of such a posit...