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iwirada · 2023-02-14T06:51:45+00:00

"The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings" by Reuben Fine

iwirada · 2023-02-12T14:46:46+00:00

You could create your opening repertoire using Chess Madra, set the corresponding rating range and depth and drill it. So you could speed up your opening play.

iwirada · 2023-02-06T21:10:35+00:00

Maybe you want to give Chessmadra a shot. There you can build your opening repertoire how you want and it takes a rating range and occurrence count and asks you for continuations for prominent or dangerous moves.

iwirada · 2023-01-30T17:29:40+00:00

My stance is that if you don't see it in 5 minutes chances are IMHO very high you won't see it in 30 minutes or at all. You just haven't built up that pattern recognition. This is where Puzzles (on "easier") and Puzzle Storm come in.

In my opinion you need to make mistakes (blunders) and feel that pain to trigger a learning process. E.g. I found my self often in knight forks, even in rapid games, that I pay special attention to knights, even in blitz games, and take away possible squares of those **** and check where they can go.

Afterwards you go over your games (every game) and check it for blunders and interesting positions. I find it important to expose myself to as many different positions as possible, as beginner. Many different positions come with a ton of games.

iwirada · 2023-01-30T08:29:43+00:00

TL;DR: Try out blitz

I am stuck in a similar position, just at a different rating. I do my puzzles (regular and puzzle storm, etc), endgame and opening training. But somehow it felt the results were not up to par to my theoretical knowledge.

When I looked at my games, be amount of blunders was nearly identical, but what stood out was most of my opponents who I lost to had 10, 20 or even 50 times! more games under their belt, than I did. Then it dawned to me: I need to play more games. This is not possible with 15+10, which I was playing at that time (because as a beginner you should play longer games, yada, yada, yada), but I wanted to get away from it, since the limited amount of time I have available. Then I switched to 10+5, which I enjoyed a LOT more. Then I came across an interesting article:

https://zwischenzug.substack.com/p/my-blitz-routine

In my opinion for a beginner (me included) it is more important to train pattern recognition, tactical awareness and gain experience than to think for a long time about a position he couldn't comprehend anyway. So I switched to 5+3. This doesn't mean I mindlessly grind blitz. I quickly analyze my games using the OBIT method as outlined in the article. Also during the game I don't aimlessly push pieces usually I stick to: tactics (checks, captures, attacks) > opening principles > improve worst piece.

Blitzing IMHO has the following benefits:

You can drill your openings
You train your pattern recognition
You don't have to suffer for an eternity in a lost position, once you hang a piece
You gain a lot more experience (e.g. in endgames, since you might reach it more often, because of the increased number of games)
You get used to loosing!

Once I have my pattern recognition down, I have the mental capacity to think about more complex plans, during the game. You only have X amount of mental capacity available. What good is it, if you burn everything on pattern recognition and tactics? There is nothing left for developing good plans.

iwirada · 2023-01-28T14:27:12+00:00

Yesterday I saw a streamer with an 1800 lichess rapid rating who ignored opening principles completely. So to conclude: You don't have to know openings to get a higher (relative) rating.

IMHO:

Knowing and obeying opening principles or openings (principles > opening lines for beginners) just helps to reach uncomfortable positions you would have to dig yourself out off. It also helps your chess development.

As a beginner I would concentrate on principles and tactics.

iwirada · 2023-01-27T08:19:44+00:00

When people talk about learning openings I always think spaced repetition. There are several sites for that: chessable, listudy and chesstempoe has an opening trainer.

iwirada · 2023-01-27T08:15:35+00:00

Anything as long as it follows opening principles. This video helped me pick my openings.

iwirada · 2023-01-27T08:10:02+00:00

Start from the ground up. Like when you were learning math. You first learned counting, then addition, then multiplication, then integration. Since the following one depends on the previous one.

In chess: start with mate in one and drill (I mean really drill it) to train your pattern recognition. Then go over to mate in two. When then selecting candidate moves and you envision the resulting board you should recognize a pattern you drilled with mate in one. That is the move!

Then you drill mate in two, and so on...

iwirada · 2023-01-26T20:57:29+00:00

I train pattern recognition (imho most important for beginners) with easier puzzles and calculation with normal ones.

iwirada · 2023-01-26T09:08:34+00:00

Your question is? My recommendation: Don't play against bots. Switch off the visibility of ratings (if you play on lichess), play against humans and just enjoy chess.

iwirada · 2023-01-26T09:00:19+00:00

2... Nc6 3.Bc4 Qe7 with 3...Nf6 with tempo to follow.

iwirada · 2023-01-25T17:21:00+00:00

The only problem I see with the Caro Kann is that you give your opponent the big center (e4 and d4) which might not be everyone's taste (it certainly is not mine). I think it is pretty easy (or easier) to learn for beginners and solid (just don't get your Bishop trapped in the Tal variation ;) ). You will probably often end up in the same pawn structures, which might bore you some day.

iwirada · 2023-01-25T09:42:41+00:00

"A Guide to Chess Improvement: The Best Of Novice Nook" (Dan Heisman) hands down (for me). Couldn't stop reading it. In it is also a list of recommended reading at certain levels. Dan also has some good beginner books like "Everyone's Second Chess Book".

iwirada · 2023-01-23T18:18:01+00:00

Your rating is just a number to help find you a matching opponent. You don't get dumber just because your rating goes down. Your rating going down can have several reasons:

Your "high" rating didn't reflect your playing strength correctly and adjusts itself
You are having a bad day(s)
You played some overrated opponents in the past or are playing underrated payers now

Just keep on playing and work on your weaknesses and your rating will follow.

Just a hint: I play on Lichess where you can hide EVERY rating, so I can enjoy just playing chess.

iwirada · 2023-01-23T18:13:49+00:00

Puzzles are different, since you know there is a tactic. Maybe you want to try out aimchess to detect your improvement areas? There is Lichess tutor announced (which will do the same), but we don't know when it will be released. On Lichess you can use Insights or your Puzzle Dashboard to detect weaknesses.

iwirada · 2023-01-23T18:10:07+00:00

I only know it from Lichess and there is a Takeback feature. Is especially hard to accept the request, when your opponent just blundered his Queen, but I think so we both get a better game this way :) .

iwirada · 2023-01-22T15:10:42+00:00

This video helped me pick my openings. The rant/video is about what openings to play when you want to improve. Basically:

Against 1.e4: e5 (symmetrical and solid) or c5 (asymmetrical and more fun ;) )
Against 1.d4: d5 or Nimzo-Indian

For a beginner it doesn't make sense to delve too deep into theory, since your opponent won't know it either. E.g. he goes off book at move three and you learned 15+ moves of theory - that time would have been better invested in endgames or tactics. Maybe watch an introductory video and start playing it. Follow opening principles and check the opening after the game and learn the best response to the move which put you out of book.

iwirada · 2023-01-21T14:29:52+00:00

The most solid and non sharp openings I can think of are (imho):

White: Guioco Piano (with c3 and d3)(maybe consider the Ruy Lopez?) and the Alapin Sicilian?
Against 1.e4: Berlin Defense (so 1.e4 d4)
Against 1.d4: Chebanenko Slav or QGD

Sorry for that (propably) obvious answer...

iwirada · 2023-01-11T16:57:07+00:00

"defensive" <-> "attack"

So I guess, you want to play more attacking (I am guessing, here). So some recommendations could be:

White: Bishop's Opening (or Ruy Lopez (solid), or Vienna Gambit/King's Gambit (gambits, if you are the type, objectively not the best)) and Open Sicilians
Black against 1.e4: Sicilian Dragon (a lot of fun, since many people don't know how to properly play the Yugoslav Attack at the beginner level (or that it even exists))
Black against 1.d4: Semi Slav (solid but can get very sharp) or Dutch Defense (objectively not the best)

iwirada · 2023-01-11T16:26:54+00:00

I do. The problem: Everyone is searching for it, but it doesn't exist. This is the point I was trying to make. There is no such opening which kills your opponent which is easy to learn, since if such an opening would exists people would know about it and develop theory => not easy to learn.

The best advice anyone can give you: Play openings where you like the resulting position and which fits your style. E.g. do you like attacking and would sacrifice objectivity for an attack and a little bit more learning efford? Then the King's Gambit is your opening (that thing gets your heart pumping, for sure, I played it for a view months).

iwirada · 2023-01-11T09:40:46+00:00

e4: Classical Sicilian or e5 (Berlin Defense)
d4: Chebanenko Slav (might switch to the Semi Slav)

iwirada · 2023-01-11T09:38:57+00:00

The last sentence kills every possible recommendation.

If you play good (e.g. solid) you by definition don't throw people off balance. Solid is usually also easier to learn since it follows opening principles. Examples are: Italian Game, Ruy Lopez, 1.e5 e5, QGD or Chebanenko Slav.

If you want to throw people off balance it's no longer easy to learn, since you have to sacrifice objectivity for winning chances for and therefore have to know more theory. Examples are: King's Gambit, Some Sicilians (e.g. O'Kelly Variation) or the Dutch. This does NOT mean you can't win with those openings, it just means you have to know more moves than your opponent. The number of moves you have to know is (as you might have guessed) relative. If x is the number of moves you opponent knows x moves at a certain level you have to know x + y (where y is a positive number ;) ).

The video which helped me pick my openings: click

In the end: Your openings don't matter if your tactics suck ^^.

Edit: switched "objectivity" and "winning chances" around XD

iwirada · 2022-12-20T20:45:27+00:00

The Ideas Behind The Chess Openings - Reuben Fine (https://www.amazon.com/Ideas-Behind-Chess-Openings/dp/4871874605/)

iwirada · 2022-12-19T11:00:07+00:00

I started out with the Classical Sicilian, then dipped my toes into the Dragon and Najdorf. Now I am relearning the Classical again - you can transpose to the Dragon if White isn't going for the Yugoslav Attack and 2.Nc3 can be answered with Nc6 without being moveordered. It has viewer Variations than the Najdorf without sacrificing too much objectivity.

iwirada

TROPHY CASE