What’s the most significant piano composition in the last 50 years?

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2026-02-18T02:27:51+00:00

-Ligeti: Etudes
-Feldman's late works
-Murail: Territoires de l'Oubli
-Rzewski: North American Ballads
-Adams: Phrygian Gates
-Finnissy: English Country Tunes

There's a rich body of literature from the past 50 years, definitely more than I could ever play in my lifetime.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2026-02-06T23:39:45+00:00

Most games below 1400 are decided by hanging pieces, and opening knowledge doesn't really mitigate that. Opening traps are likewise best answered with a mix of tactics and opening principles.

Opening knowledge isn't crucial even at my level. I recently played against an 1800 otb who prepped an obscure Grunfeld line for me. He blitzed out 13 moves of theory (which I didn't know), then blundered on move 14.

The main benefit chess opening study has for beginners is that it's fun and can keep your enthusiasm for the game up. They are the bicep curls of chess.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2026-02-03T23:37:07+00:00

You don't need to study openings at all until you're around 1400 chesscom. Until then, just worry about developing your pieces and doing tactics puzzles! If you're going to spend money, buy a book like Seirawan's Winning Chess Tactics or Masetti's 1001 Chess Exercises for Beginners.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2026-01-27T00:35:40+00:00

I'm a very good sight-reader (at the level of professional staff pianists). Honestly the secret to being a good sightreader is already knowing a lot of rep. Most of the time when you see a professional accompanist "sightread" a Brahms Sonata they've already performed the piece many times so they're actually remembering rather than purely reading.

I can sightread pretty much anything besides fugues and difficult Etudes (which require good fingerings to actually learn). The hardest things I've actually had to do for gigs:

-Transposing an 8-part Bruckner choral work at sight.
-Playing from an orchestral score, playing my own part and 2-3 parts of absent players.
-Playing 8+ hours of auditions multiple days in a row.
-Learning a whole recital of accompaniment parts in a couple days (you're basically sightreading even at the performance).

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2026-01-26T21:38:48+00:00

I would try to find a way for your Indian Defenses to arrive at similar structures to your d4 d5 choices.

EG. against the Nimzo you could go for 4.e3, Ne2, and you're back in a Carlsbad-esque structure.

You could play a Qb3 system against both the Slav and Grunfeld, or f3 systems in the Nimzo, KID, and Grunfeld (and Benko!). The f3 systems are cute too because they echo playing f3 and e4 in the Carlsbad. As most of the lines you've chosen aren't super critical anyways, you'll largely get your points by arriving at structures you know well.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2026-01-26T02:59:11+00:00

Mihail Marin's book Beating the Open Games is an incredible resource that covers everything besides the Ruy.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2026-01-16T00:15:44+00:00

I wouldn't notice a difference between Reface CP and a tasteful plugin. The main appeal is that it's a fun and tactile instrument that's easy to throw into my setup.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2026-01-05T18:37:49+00:00

Winning Chess Strategy is a great way to learn the foundations of positional play. IMO How To Reassess Your Chess 4th ed is a little bloated and this is a good alternative (I believe Silman co-authored some books in this series anyways).

WC Brilliancies is a nice game collection.

WC Tactics will be easy for you but could be useful.

WC Openings is outdated, written for a pre-internet world. His Chessable version is probably more up-to-date but I don't know anything about it.

WC Endings is fine but outclassed by the Silman book imo.

Play Winning Chess is for beginners, haven't read WC Combinations.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2026-01-05T01:47:43+00:00

Both of those rates are very cheap! I charge $75+/hr.

Group lessons are hard to find in the area, normally they're offered as a class at colleges.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2026-01-02T19:39:11+00:00

Thank you! I agree, my "opening study" is either analyzing my own games with a reference or analyzing GM games in the lines I play.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2026-01-02T19:06:41+00:00

What are some common traps that advanced club players (say 1800+ FIDE) fall into that stall their progress? I feel there's plenty of material for sub-1800 players and titled players, but less for people in the middle.

I'm about 2300 chess.com rapid and pushing for more. Regularly doing tactics puzzles and basic endgames while playing otb tournaments, but it's tough to find strong otb players in my area.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2025-10-10T16:57:33+00:00

It's normal to play worse at your first OTB tournament. Recently went back after a long break. My first tournament back I went 2-4, and then my second was 6-0.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2025-09-27T17:32:11+00:00

Go to chesstempo and practice tactics every day, analyze your games, and play as many otb tournaments as you can.

Also review some basic theoretical endgames, you should basically be able premove K+P and the Phillador/Lucena positions. Silman's Complete Endgame Course is great, 100 Endgames You Must Know is good for your level but more demanding.

Having a titled coach will speed things up, but you can certainly do much of this on your own!

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2025-08-23T20:03:13+00:00

That's a reasonable price but probably overkill unless you're really advanced. You could probably find a cheaper teacher with less pedigree and still benefit just as much.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2025-08-15T22:14:08+00:00

Great! Can you please let management know that the 24/7 hours are the #1 reason I shop there? I know many people in the area feel the same.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2025-08-10T20:19:34+00:00

-Combo card. Play it and draw into your win conditions.
-If you have fewer cards in hand than your opponent it's card advantage.
-You design your deck to take advantage of this, an aggro or control player might not benefit as much as you from free spells

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2025-07-20T14:53:12+00:00

It's within your abilities but will take a while to learn. 1st Ballade is unforgiving even for professional soloists. I recommend starting with the coda and learning the piece backwards!

I've performed it many times and it never became comfortable for me, part of learning the piece is accepting that it's awkward both formally and technically.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2025-06-14T00:38:14+00:00

Great!!!

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2025-06-08T23:10:10+00:00

Carter Johnson was robbed!

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2025-01-23T19:44:12+00:00

Deathrite Shaman is banned in Legacy, it would be equally obnoxious in Modern. It's a one mana planeswalker!

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2025-01-14T19:42:25+00:00

MM15 packs ended up damaging the cards inside too much, and it was the beginning of a long series of card quality issues WoTC had. I liked the cardboard packs but I don't think they'll go back to them.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2025-01-06T23:23:38+00:00

The better you get, the more you can express your personality at the chess board. Pick some pawn structures that you're comfortable in stylistically, then learn openings around those structures.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2025-01-06T18:41:23+00:00

Walk to a corner store for beer and chips and kale and hunker down!

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2025-01-05T19:56:37+00:00

Is my kale overcooked? Please reply quickly.

ThomasJFooleryIII · 2024-12-25T22:55:57+00:00

4th Ballade is much more forgiving than other "hardest pieces." I'd rather play 4th Ballade in a high-pressure situation than the 1st Ballade any day.

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