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| Magnulus |
 Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:22 pm |
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"gneh" <a@b.com> wrote in message
news:Xns972EC9362E50afadfadsfsd@212.83.64.229...
Quote: It all depends on where you're at. Certain principles are simply very hard
to discover while playing.
I suppose. After all, it's the distilled heuristics of hundreds of years
of play, right?
Quote:
When I started playing chess as a kid, we learned to win several standard
endgames: king+rook vs. king, king + two bishops vs king, and king, bishop
and knight vs. king. Knowing these endgames is not only vital to be able
to
convert won positions into full points, but studying them also helps you
understand more about the pieces themselves.
Yes, endgame is my big weakness. Playing my dad he plays a good endgame
and that's where he usually beats me. Once I was in what I thought was a
losing position, so I resigned. He got a bit mad at me, and tells me "hey,
you were winning". He then shows me a series of about 10-12 moves that
would have won the game.
BTW, my dad learned chess sitting in a missile silo in Missouri. Nothing
else to do for hours when the crews went on alerts except maybe play chess,
eat bad food, and smoke cigars. He also gave me a bunch of old chess books
but they are in the older descriptive notation.
Quote: Patience is a virtue, too, as it takes
longer to learn new stuff once you have your teenage years behind you.
At 30 I seem to be about as sharp as ever, probably better. I understand
a bit more of the strategy, even without having read alot. As a teenager I
was just a woodpusher and I had a basic understandig of forks. Now I can
look a few moves ahead. Of course, I tend to be a casual player, and
sometimes I don't play for months. |
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| gneh |
| Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:30 am |
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"Magnulus" <Magnulus@bellsouth.net> wrote in
news:inqof.6$kw.2@bignews7.bellsouth.net:
Quote: It all depends on where you're at. Certain principles are simply very
hard to discover while playing.
I suppose. After all, it's the distilled heuristics of hundreds of
years
of play, right?
I'm not too familiar with the term "heuristics", but that's probably a
helpful way of looking at it. Another one is: If you don't know which
endgames are won and which are lost, how will you make strategical
decisions during the middlegame?
Quote:
Yes, endgame is my big weakness. Playing my dad he plays a good
endgame
and that's where he usually beats me. Once I was in what I thought
was a losing position, so I resigned. He got a bit mad at me, and
tells me "hey, you were winning". He then shows me a series of about
10-12 moves that would have won the game.
Well, since you have already identified endgames as your greatest weakness,
shouldn't it make perfect sense for you to study them?
I have noticed this about many lower rated players: Their opening and
middle game are often perfectly reasonable (it should be said, though, that
many tend to favour rather "flat" variations and positions that are
relatively low maintenance), but come the end game they simply don't know
what to do and collapse quickly. I'm not talking about highly complex
endgames either, just simple everyday ones. I'm not sure why this is, but
it still is.
Quote:
BTW, my dad learned chess sitting in a missile silo in Missouri.
Nothing
else to do for hours when the crews went on alerts except maybe play
chess, eat bad food, and smoke cigars. He also gave me a bunch of old
chess books but they are in the older descriptive notation.
Probably just as well. Opening theory and quite a few middle game
evaluations have changed dramatically since the days of the descriptive
notation. It might not make a world of difference at your current level
(which you estimated to around 1200, iirc), but why learn "old chess"? |
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| gneh |
| Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 4:30 pm |
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"Magnulus" <Magnulus@bellsouth.net> wrote in
news:2ODof.228$kw.48@bignews7.bellsouth.net:
Quote: I tried the king and pawn endgame in the Josh Waitzkin tutorial,
but I'm
still a little fuzzy on it.
Ok, I checked out that tutorial, and it seems decent - but maybe it goes
a bit too fast if you've never seen it before. If you find you need
another perspective on it, maybe you should try googling it. Setting up a
real board and examining the positions at your own pace could be good
too. (I for one like the feel of a solid, wooden chess set...)
Anywho, I'd encourage you to keep at it until you get the hang of it. In
chess you will very often have to decide whether to simplify to a
king+pawn vs king game, and it's of course important to know if this will
be to your advantage (regardless of whether you are a pawn down or a pawn
up).
Quote: Well, my strategy before was simply to get a crushing material
advantage.
It only really works against much weaker players though, or ones that
can be fooled into thinking you have won when you decimate their
material.
"Zerging" your opponent like that isn't a very realistic game, no, and
probably won't help you improve your game at all. I think I like my
initial recommendations more and more :)
I quite enjoy Waitzkin's commentary in his annotated games, btw, they
illustrate very well the essence of chess: fight. Fight for initiative,
fight for pieces, fight for survival. If you haven't already, check them
out - they're pretty inspiring (at least to me).
Quote:
I'm also pretty weak on king-queen endgames. I need to get that
zugzwang
thing down.
One thing I didn't realize until rather late in my chess life, is how
easy it is to think in the wrong terms. In "Think like a grandmaster",
the author gives a very handy tip: Don't start by calculating variations,
start by getting a view of the position and try to find moves that would
be useful. Often the right moves will present themselves, if you think in
terms of what you hope to achieve... I'm absolutely not telling you you
shouldn't get zugzwang down - but keep it in mind. |
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