Thanks guys, this is very helpful. I'll follow-up on the suggestions. It's a lot but I'll pick someplace to start.

I've been trying to set aside about 30-60 minutes per day doing puzzles online. And playing games against the computer. I have some score of about 1000 (max for the free games). Not sure what scoring method it is - it certainly isn't based on move time / chess timer because I spend a lot of time thinking about my move sometimes (say, 2-3 minutes before I move).

I second the Yasser Seirawan books recommendation. Great for understanding the basics of tactics and strategies.

As for opening s, get comfortable with just two so that you can recognize the first 5-8 moves...just doing that will likely put you in solid positions for the middle game. My two are the French Defense and the Nimzo-Indian.

Unless you have ambitions to become a Master, trying to recognize the dozens of openings is a daunting task.

I like playing the Vienna with white and the Scandinavian with black.

Looking up the suggested openings. No desire to become a Master, just want to make my opponent think and put up decent resistance.

I have a chess app (free version) that I can beat frequently. But I get humbled when playing real people.

quote:

Originally posted by IndianaBoy:
I like playing the Vienna with white and the Scandinavian with black.

When I play White, there is no Scandinavian. 1. e4 d5 2. d4 Now you run into the BDG.

I'm gonna spend some time looking up the openings above so that I can use one tomorrow.

I won one, lost one today; opponent said it may be a draw but I think I was in a losing position so I consider it a loss (we couldn't finish the game). Opponent said that for a beginner that I show signs of good thinking. But also suggested maybe I should pick up bridge. Not sure how to take that (bridge seems popular at the senior center - lots of people play and more days).

Konata, I was not familiar with lichess until you mentioned it. I’m enjoying it a lot more than chess.com. Thanks!

Sure! I can’t take credit since it’s what the locals recommended to me. But it seems helpful. And accepted as a safe site although I sandbox it on a Linux computer.

I played chess a lot in junior and regular high school. A family friend would drive me to various tournaments. I bought a lot of books back then under the classic notation system and I still have them with the idea of going back and reading them in my old age.

You can think of chess as being similar to martial arts. The openings and variations reflect the “best” moves and counter moves reflecting the philosophy of the sensei for whom the opening is named after.

For example, the Ruy Lopez demonstrates pushing the pawns to the center to physically control it, along with the king’s knight and bishop as well as quickly clearing the way to castle the king for safety. For black, the Ruy Lopez tit for tat ends up mirroring white. In contrast, the Sicilian defense seeks to nullify white’s first move advantage by playing asymmetrical warfare by believing you don’t have to physically occupy the center square with pawns which end up being targets themselves. Instead, black fights for control of the center with its bishop from safety. Also, black focuses on developing its queen side to attack in anticipation of the white castling on the king’s side.

I assume the literature has advanced since I was studying the game as a young person but back then, you had books compiling various openings, books concentrating on single openings with its many variants through complete games, books that focused on the middle game, end game variations that teach you the goals of what pieces to have in the end and how to position them to win. A starting combination is a single pawn and a king versus a lone king and how to march the pawn to queen it. Then there are books of chess traps, pitfalls, and swindles.

But if you want the equivalent of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee, I recommend My System by Aron Nimzowitsch. It breaks down the theories incorporated into all the different openings and strategies. I came across that later in my playing life. The other books teach you memorizing moves like learning a kata in martial arts; My System tells you the essential strategy behind each movement in the various katas.

Today was a good day. I lost 2 times. But I won 1 game against an expert player! I think it was a combination of getting lucky (they lost concentration / made a mistake) and me being very focused on a singular objective / method of attack. I can't remember if I started w/ my usual opening (no name) or the vienna. I wish I took note.

Question: there was one player who usually plays on a timer - 3 minutes per player. They play very well (the game went until each player only had a pawn and rook left) and very quickly. Have they just been playing a long time so that they know many patterns and don't really need to think about what to move? Or is there something conceptual that guides their moves real time? Like move any piece as long as it threatens an opponents piece AND has protection.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
But if you want the equivalent of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee, I recommend My System by Aron Nimzowitsch. It breaks down the theories incorporated into all the different openings and strategies. I came across that later in my playing life. The other books teach you memorizing moves like learning a kata in martial arts; My System tells you the essential strategy behind each movement in the various katas.

Thanks! I'll make a note. I've already started some of the books mentioned above. And trying to learn more details of the Vienna opening (and variations). It's more than I can handle for now. But will get to the suggestion as I improve.

I just learned the term gambit today.

"My System" is a good choice, it was one of the first chess books I ever purchased.

A more recent book that is very good is "Chess Strategy For Club Players" by Herman Grooten. He expands on the "elements" of Wilhelm Steinitz, the first World Chess Champion.

quote:

I just learned the term gambit today.

The BDG I referenced earlier in response to the opponent trying to play the Scandinavian stands for Blackmar-Deimer Gambit.

Thanks all.

Help me out a bit. I have the reading list from above suggestions. Can you help prioritize / order them for me, and maybe suggest ones that are a little redundant and perhaps can be dropped from the list.

Again, I'm a very much a beginner although I have won a game or three from pretty experienced players (perhaps they weren't paying attention). Goals: 1) be able to reasonably challenge experienced players (not expecting to win, but at least make them pay attention and think), 2) be able to play a rapid game w/o making stupid mistakes (10 timer?).

1. Chess strategy for club players; Grooten
2. My System; Nimzovich
3. My System 21st Century edition; Nimzowitsch (same author as #2?)
4. How to reassess your chess; Silman
5. Silman's Complete Endgame Course; Silman
6. The Amateur's Mind; Silman
7. My first chess opening repertoire; Sielecki
8. Winning chess openings; Seirawan
9. Winning chess tactics; Seirawan
10. Winning chess strategies; Seirawan

I think 1 and 2 will occupy you for quite a while. I doubt number 3 is by the same author as the original was published in 1927. I’d be interested who wrote number 3 and what they updated for the 21st century.

I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if chess has been considered a “solved” game with the advent of computers and, now, AI.

Speed chess is a completely different animal in the same way a 26 mile marathon is different from a 100 meter sprint; different strategies, training, and muscles are used. In speed chess, it’s quick memory, surprise moves from memorized openings to stall your opponent, and it’s about time management and pressure. Of course, you get an edge if you’re actually quick enough to analyze positions. Mistakes and oversights are to be expected; you just hope to make fewer mistakes than your opponent

Regular timed chess is to keep your opponent from stalling. You can spend time thinking so many moves ahead once you get past the opening moves; hence why people study openings.

I do remember an aspect of playing chess - knowing whether your opponent prefers to play open chess (early exchanges of pieces) and open squares or closed positioning (holding off exchanges even with pawns, hoping the multitude of pieces still on the board and in different places controlling different squares) will cause their opponent to overlook something. You figure out what they prefer and you work to keep the game opposite their preference so that they’re uncomfortable.

I want to thank you for this thread. It reminded me of my goal plus I’ll buy your #1 book.

I asked Grok and the difference between 2 and 3 is 2 is in classic notation (P-K4) which I learned and the alpha numeric notation (e4) for the same move. There’s only one piece that can go to e4 square, the pawn at King’s square 2.

Thanks. Speed chess looks cool but I'm not sure who would be considered the better player. If you take players A and B and A usually wins with just normal chess time and B usually wins with 5 min speed chess, who's considered better? I would say A. If that's generally accepted as true, I guess I'll continue to just focus on normal chess but perhaps someday try playing faster (ie - it's not a goal in itself, just something fun to do when I'm better).

Interesting concepts of open vs closed chess. I think perhaps I'm exhibiting closed chess in opening and more open mid/end game. I find myself attacking (and thereby making mistakes). I seem to last longer if I just play defensively until the end.

I find that some players take notes, even when playing a beginner like me. I wonder if/when I should start taking game notes. Is it really necessary in order to improve? Seems tedious.

Side question: for wooden table top chess or Go boards, is it better to store them vertically or horizontally? I don't have much horizontal space. But don't want the boards to warp or crack either. Not sure which is better. webz opinion is conflicting.

Wood boards are about 20" square.

Amateur !

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
Thanks all.

Help me out a bit. I have the reading list from above suggestions. Can you help prioritize / order them for me, and maybe suggest ones that are a little redundant and perhaps can be dropped from the list.

<snip>

1. Chess strategy for club players; Grooten
2. My System; Nimzovich
3. My System 21st Century edition; Nimzowitsch (same author as #2?)
4. How to reassess your chess; Silman
5. Silman's Complete Endgame Course; Silman
6. The Amateur's Mind; Silman
7. My first chess opening repertoire; Sielecki
8. Winning chess openings; Seirawan
9. Winning chess tactics; Seirawan
10. Winning chess strategies; Seirawan

I have all of the above books except #3, #6 and #8, but skimmed the first half and read about the last half of a borrowed copy of #6 since I've already deep into his HTRYC.

The order I would recommend:
[LIST]

***My System, Nimzovich; the authoritative book on hypermodern positional chess but buy the version with the new translation with the modern chess notation - Quality Chess ISBN 13:978-91-976005-3-8

Play Winning Chess, Y. Seirawan; short book introduces you to the concepts of Force, Time, Space and Pawn Structure in more structured presentation then the conversational method by The Am. Mind

The Am. Mind, Silman; focus on the common misconceptions of the lower rate player in preparation for HTRYC. You can skip this if you have alread read Play Winning Chess and plan to read HTRYC afterward.

***HTRYC, Silman

***W.C. Tactics, Seirawan,

***W.C. Strategies, Seirawan

W.C. Openings, Seirawan then My First Chess Opening Repertoire, Sielecki;

Silman's Complete Endgame Course; Silman, this book will give you an endgame study syllabus but you need to supplement it with either a puzzle books on endgames, or the best, IMO, are endgame training modules on lichess or chess.com. Endgame is part recognition then procedural executions. This need to be drilled in by repetition over and over....and over again. You got to be good at this and tactic puzzles if you want to be good at speed chess.

Chess Strategy For Club Players, Grooten; this book is target at club player (~ELO 1500+). IMO it might be too advance for your currently level. Read this only after understanding the principals in the four books I've denoted with ****. Think of this is the advance level of those books.

Attaching Chess for Club Player by H. Grooten is fantastic if you like his CSFCP.

One book I originally recommended that is not on your list but I highly recommend you put it at the top of your list - My First Book of Morphy by Frisco Del Rosario. Why? It would have save me a lot of time my first year. This book would have given me the basics of how to play the game as well as the foundational principals that will be expanded on by the other books on your list. It gives you Fine's Ten Opening Rules to develop your pieces and controlling the center. Then 10 more Middle Game Rules to manage your pawn structure, material balance, positional balance, and setting up coordination of your pieces for the attack. Lastly 10 more End Game Rules to manage your pawn resources and their end game positions, and how to win with the end game material you have on hand.

You are probably going through same things as a beginner as I did - where and what do I start with and then what order. There are so many aspect of chess and where to start is daunting. The prolific amount of chess books and the numerous, discombobulated videos on Youtube doesn't help. That is why I really wish I discovered the "Morphy" book when I started. It would have armed me enough to play effectively my first year as I learn. Smarter player than me, maybe 3 to 6 months. ;0)

Anyways, the learning part. If you do not have a plan already, start with the Morphy, then My System. You can choose to read that cover to cover before moving on to the next book on the list; or cross reference the subjects in HTRYC, W.C. Tactics, & W.C. Strategies as needed. At this stage, you want to reinforce those subjects by doing the relevant puzzles. I know on chess.com paid account, you can choose which puzzles and how they are present to you.

You should concurrently study endgames as laid out in Silman's Endgame book by ELO rating order and practice the relevant endgame puzzles as well.

As for Openings, those 2 books are great to start with. Learning opening in depth is daunting due to the volume and depth of each openings, its variations and then which ones can transpose to another opening. The ROI on your time spent on this at lower level is not good. Unless your opponent tactically blunder horrifically or took a gambit that left them at a major material or positional disadvantage, the game will be slight better, even or less after the first non-memorized move by either player.

In my opinion, openings of the 3 learning paths I mention so far should get the least priority. Reason being you need to know where you are going before you know where you need to start from. Play this game enough, you will begin to notice a pattern with your pawn structure leading into the middle game which then dictate the end game strategy. The next epiphany is the opening affects the pawn structure of the middle game. Ding! Ding! Now I can work backward with my preference with either a sharp game vs positional game; open vs. closed game; etc. to choose which "family" of openings to invest my time with.

Solid wood board should not warp stored vertically. Wood product or particle board core, I would stored on a flat surface in a cool and dry environment, definitely not in a hot and humid garage or car.